To ask what you feed the hoards of visiting teenagers when your DC are older?

[AjasLipstick]

DD1 is now 14 and over the past year she's gathered a lovely gang of mates around herself. Many live locally to us and some in neighbouring towns.

Our house is quite ramshackle and we're chilled in general. As a result of our scruffy relaxed house, I think they all feel comfy here and so it's becoming common to find up to 6 enormous teens in my house at weekends plus DD ...all playing guitars and eating all the bread.

I don't mind that at all but sometimes think what I could get in the cupboards to always have something in the house that they can eat quickly.

I don't buy biscuits and stuff like that...well, rarely. So they seem to survive on endless toast and tea when here.

Is there something else I could get in that's cheap and cheerful but not too crappy?

Last night I planned to not bother making dinner...I thought we'd have cheese toasties. Then I came home at about 4 to discover DD and two friends here, planning to spend the night. I had to make a vegetarian curry then and bloody flat breads as I'd not been shopping and had to fill them up!

I made heaps of pasta for meals, and kept the freezer stocked with bread for ‘snacks’. And bought massive lumps of cheddar cheese.

We have 5DC and we've had the same for years,lots of DC that aren't ours needing feeding.

We've bought really large pizzas(the kind you get made in store)and stuck those in the oven and then whilst they're eating those I'd have chicken nuggets and potatoe wedges in the ovem for them.

Hot dogs and burgers were always popular and quick to cook,sausage sandwiches also go down well.

If it was just a couple of extra DC and they were here at dinner time then I'd make them dinner as well.

We always have fresh fruit,yogurts,crisps,ice cream,ice lollies,biscuits,cakes,biscuit bars,salsa and tortilla chips they can help themselves to as well.

Pasta and a plain Tom/basil/garlic sauce topped with cheese and a ton of garlic bread (value stick ones in the freezer at all times)

Instant noodles (topped with cheese and grilled)

Endless toasted sandwiches

Lots of fish fingers/nuggets and oven chips and peas being made.

I have an endless stream of teenage boys in and out my house.

I should have added that we're pretty much vegetarian and so are a lot of DD's friends. So burgers and nuggets are out but I could definitely do some big frozen pizzas and extra bread in the freezer. Maybe I should do some tubs of frozen pasta meals too....if I buy lollies and yogurts and crisps they're gone in about a day and that pisses me off as they're not cheap here...we're in Australia.

Frozen fruit is expensive too. I think I could get some instant noodles though....

DD"s quite small and so has never had a massive appetite so these gigantic Australian kids have shocked me with the sheer amount they can eat!

Some of the buggers are 6 feet already!

Cheese toasties of course, frozen pizza, snacky type food. Or just something from the freezer. I wouldn't cook to order like that late notice nah. bad mummy

I have this with my son(16). I normally buy a few pizzas and some garlic bread (the long stick ones) and cut them up into slices, and some potato wedges. Hot dog sandwiches /cheese on toast, variety of different crisps. . (Some dont eat much and others can eat for England) Sausages/nuggetts/burgers with peas/sweetcorn and chips. (all pretty quick and easy to put together. Some of them just prefer bacon sandwiches. Followed by cakes, choc ices/lollies/donuts etc.

I tend to need a notepad, because I dont expect them all to like the same food, so I end up doing a few different meals. (but I actually really enjoy doing it).

Sorry, just noticed your vegetarian post!

So most of what I mentioned is a no-go.

I live in Australia and am vego, finally a thread where I might be of use :). Coles cheese and plenty of peanut butter in the house so that what they are getting has some protein in it to fill them up. Coles plain tortilla chips at $2 a bag with tinned black beans (the edgell ones are cheap) and jars of salsa for making nachos (with the cheese). You could even have some nacho mix made up for themwe just chuck it together in a pan and simmer it down a bityou can also add vege mince, but that IS expensive. I'm assuming the bread is wholegrain or something too--you want something that sticks to their bellies.

I also have this feeling that they should make their own food! I used to when I was that age....I remember cooking bacon and eggs for five one morning when I was about 14.

I think I've done this all wrong!

Similar situation here (except we live in continental Europe) in a scruffy ramshackle old house with an only child so I've kind of said friends always welcome. Vegetarianism isn't as common here but as the whole country is obsessed with food, the dc are quite discerning about food quality and taste (argh no pressure!) Anyway, fwiw, here are our current "go to" dishes:

• pesto pasta with various combinations of bacon lardons, broccoli florets, peas thrown in (or all three... it tastes a lot better than it sounds) with lashings of grated parmesan served by itself or with roasted or breaded chicken

*pizza base made in bread machine - have home made bags loads of basic tomato sauce in freezer - to which they add their own toppings

*spag bol and chilli (you could do red lentil versions maybe?)

*big potato layer dishes (dauphinoise or boulangere) with bacon or ham hock (but time consuming)

*falafels and bean burgers

*hot dogs

*linguine or papardelle with a veggie sauce made from a tray of roasted then blitzed veg

*endless croque monsieu's and croque madames

*sausages and stoemp (the latter is mash with various veggies thrown in and sometimes bacon lardons too)

*meat balls, tomato sauce, linguine

*lasagne

Oh yes, left off

*baked spuds with various fillings

*chana masala

*big cous cous salads with roasted chicken or roasted root veg

*tray bakes with sausages are also good with various combos of onions, sweet potato veg, squash, red peppers, roasted cauliflower etc etc

*cauliflower cheese

Meant to say, maybe you could encourage your DD to help you batch cook for freezer at weekends so you are always one or two meals ahead and avoid last minute panics?

DD certainly does a lot of the actual cooking and serving when her friends are here; I just do base prep

thought of some more

*pasta bake

*Chinese fried rice/stir fry

• frittata

• quesilladas

Thanks for all the ideas! We'll definitely have to do a day cooking I think. Lentil spag bol is great....I will get noodles in plus something like frozen veggie sausages or falafels or something.

Cheese toasties sounds perfect for filling them up. Why not?
Or cheap pizzas ready made from supermarket (we sometimes add more cheese or some pepperoni slices).

There's always Bread (plain or crumpets/muffins) and butter.
Milk, OJ, bananas.

Cake is astonishingly cheap to make yourself. Omellettes if you're trying 2 get veg into them. Home made pancakes are another cheap one.

Porridge for breakfast (cornflakes are about as cheap, though).

DD is only 7 but our small house is always full of everyone's friends anyway. Suspect it'll just get fuller as DD gets older.
Anyway, DH makes great vats of erwetensoep, and great plates of hagelslag.
I tend to do pasta bake, cob loaf, scrambled eggs, soup (leek and potato or roasted pumpkin), and potato hash. Sometimes fried rice or scones, depending on what needs to be used.

I supplied pot noodles, in bulk. If they were really hungry they went out and bought themselves pizza.
They never complained.

They'll eat anything if they're hungry enough. You don't need to fuss. They don't like fussing at that age

Fajitas? You could use beans instead of meat.

Oh yes, forgot to say, endless varieties of pancakes made here

Plus big batches of home made baked beans

If it’s the same friends regularly I would get your daughter to ask them to bring some snacks to share. Food is so expensive in Australia I can understand that it would become an issue feeding so many extras.

I would get a couple of loaves of helgas or similar bread as it’s more filling and keep them in the freezer, a big jar of peanut butter when half price and maybe keep a block of cheese on hand. Nothing wrong with toast/toasted sandwiches for them. Don’t feel like you have to have anything fancy, and definitely don’t cook for them when you wernt planning to cook.

Baked potatoes are amazing and cheap. You can also freeze them.

One of my Best Buy's was a pie machine. It works a bit like a toastie machine, but with pastry. I have the hairy bikers one. You can make batches of filling with leftovers and freeze them, then when they want something, just defrost the filling, cut the pastry with the cutter and assemble in the machine. Job done! Plus, it's easy for them to make their own.

Risotto, so filling and cheap.

Curries... do you own a slow cooker??

Toast.
With beans or eggs occasionally.

Nachos?

Anyway, doesn’t she ask your permission before inviting her friends?