To not be able to feed 3 extra adults unexpectedly for lunch?

[ImFree2doasiwant]

I'm single, with 2 small children. I do a weekly meal plan and shop once a week.

If 3 extra adults dropped in for lunch, I'd either be able to feed them but have to go shopping again, or not have enough food in to feed them at all.

Its not like I can't afford to, I just buy the food that we, as a family, will eat. I have a small freezer. I could probably manage dinner better.

Am I that unusual?

I’ve got a full chest freezer and massively overstocked cupboards.

My stress response to the pandemic was definitely buying a couple of extra tins each week until the sheer insanity of it hit me : I thought I had about 8 tins of tomatoes but I actually had 27. I’d added an extra one to the shop for months, unthinkingly. Ditto baked beans and chickpeas.

So yes, I could definitely feed an extra 3 for lunch. Or possibly move them in for a week.

(I was suitably embarrassed and my family have teased me about the stockpiling)

Buying extra to bulk out a meal for guests means something like a tin of tomatoes and crusty bread to make something like a goulash, ragu or curry go further.

Smartfreezecontainers I heard of them last week. Answer to the question of this thread is No you are not being unreasonable!

I love to cook and my family are full of foodies and so are DP’s family members.

I always make sure I have in my freezer: pizza bases, frozen strawberries, frozen raspberries, wedges/fries, ice, chicken, whole baby chicken, fish fingers, minced meat, hash browns, potato waffles/smiles, and frozen cuts of meat.

In my fridge, there’s always cucumber and tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, milk, bread, cheese, turkey ham, homemade hummus, light Mayo, sausages, seasonal fruit and veg, parsley, basil and coriander, whipping cream, whipped cream, dark chocolate and celery. Oh and eggs. I’m sure I’m forgetting lots of things.

I also keep cereal, condensed milk, sugar, brown sugar, stevia, extra pasta (including gluten free options), quinoa, couscous, dried herbs, spices, harissa paste, tomato paste, ketchup, jars of chickpeas, canned tomatoes, pine nuts, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, pistachios, tahini, peanut butter, jam, instant jelly, canned custard, different types of flour, various cans of beans, instant mash, pomegranate molasses, chia seeds, flaxseeds, psyllium husk, yeast, bicarbonate soda, and I’m sure there’s other stuff that I’m forgetting.

I also get a sack of rice, onions and potatoes which lasts me a very long time.

I don’t meal plan. The things I mentioned are not expensive. You can also shop around and I often shop in Asian or Arab grocery stores or buy in bulk when things are on offer in the supermarkets etc.

If I have unexpected guests, depending on how long they’re staying, I can make poutine, breakfast for dinner, chicken skewers etc. I can also make filo samosas, crudités with some sour cream or hummus. Finger sandwiches aren’t too tricky. Something with pasta, pasta bake, chickpea curry with couscous. I have a slow cooker so I can make chili con carne or meat part for shepherds pie.

It really isn’t that difficult. I often have guests coming to visit and ending up staying the night. Friends sometimes message beforehand because they want to come over to mine for dinner. Sometimes I do a potluck dinner/lunch so everyone brings a dish and I provide the starters and desserts. As long as everyone just helps themselves, I’m happy to provide a home cooked meal. My loved ones are also the same so what I do is not out of the norm, we just all enjoy eating and cooking food.

I’m not an extrovert and neither is DP and we often enjoy sitting at home reading a book. We got together in our early 20s, getting married soon and our families joke that we are like an old married couple because we really don’t like going out much. I just enjoy cooking even when I suffered from an eating disorder which was masked by just cooking extra food for others and eating very little myself, I couldn’t turn people away without any food or pretend I’m not home.

@MyInsidesLoveFrench

SmellsLikeWineIGuess if it was one extra person I'd just make what I was cooking stretch further.

Any more than than that and I'd just go to the local shops and buy extra to bulk out what I was cooking. We're not averse to emergency Charlie Bighams to in that situation either

I'm actually really surprised that a PP suspects I'm just winding everyone up! I do have many friends and family similar to me, which is why the cooking spontaneously from store cupboard staples is so unfamiliar.

But you’re saying you’re incapable of cooking off piste. That seems incredible to me.

I cook from recipes, but having done so for so many years, I now know how to cook.

Do you genuinely only know how to follow recipes?!

SmellsLikeWineIGuess no that's not what I mean at all.

Many years ago I started to learn recipes for restaurant meals I love. Most I know off by heart now as they are relatively simple, but some I'll refer to the recipe on my phone at points.

The most simple example is carbonara. I spent literally years trying to find a recipe that actually tasted like the ones I'd eaten in decent Italians. It's not just pasta, bacon, eggs, cream and cheese thrown together, there's loads of little extras and done in a particular order to make it taste amazing.

I would struggle too. Pasta, simple tomato based sauce and grated cheese on top alongside frozen vegetables is all I could manage.

@MyInsidesLoveFrench

SmellsLikeWineIGuess no that's not what I mean at all.

Many years ago I started to learn recipes for restaurant meals I love. Most I know off by heart now as they are relatively simple, but some I'll refer to the recipe on my phone at points.

The most simple example is carbonara. I spent literally years trying to find a recipe that actually tasted like the ones I'd eaten in decent Italians. It's not just pasta, bacon, eggs, cream and cheese thrown together, there's loads of little extras and done in a particular order to make it taste amazing.

So what do you put in your amazing carbonara then?

I don't do dinner parties, or anything posh. I haven't eaten in enough fancy restaurants to know what a carbonara 'should' taste like. I grew up in a house where my working mother fed a whole family, with assorted extra teenagers, every day and now I have a similar situation where I get home from work at 6pm and look in the fridge and pantry and decide there and then what everyone is having for tea and everyone gets what they are given.

SmellsLikeWineIGuess I work too, but from home (family of four).

This was the carbonara recipe that did it for me:

thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/nigella-lawsons-spaghetti-carbonara

IMO it's the only recipe I've found that tastes just like the carbonara they serve in authentic (not necessarily fancy) Italian restaurants.

@MyInsidesLoveFrench

Buying extra to bulk out a meal for guests means something like a tin of tomatoes and crusty bread to make something like a goulash, ragu or curry go further.

If you can quickly cook goulash for surprise guests you are doing it wrong

@Reachersloveinterest you could go to 300 best restaurants or even the best Italian home cooks homes and you would never know how is proper carbonara supposed to taste because everyone does it little bit differently.
As with every food actually. You will probably never taste exactly same sheperds pie either.

I will never get over an image of extra tinned tomatoes (extra? There should be no tinned tomatoes in gulash I know anyway so...) Into gulash😂

For lunch I could do a simple pasta dish, soup, cheese on toast - that sort of thing

Dinners are generally more planned so feeing 3 extra the same meal as I had planned no. Pulling something together so nobody is hungry probably.

Yes, I could feed 3 extra people. I'd think households that couldn't a bit strange ... unless it was a financial restraint.

Usually I would have a loaf in the freezer so they could have a tin of soup or baked beans between them with toast.

There are only two of us so we buy food fresh, once a week. If anyone 'drops in' then we usually have enough canned or dried food (pasta, tuna etc) to rustle up a lunch. Always keep eggs cheese and milk in so at least an omelette is available.

"This is toddler food! I wouldn't dream of serving it as a meal for ourselves, let alone guests"

Because as we all know, every meal you consume must be an epic Michel-star worthy Tour De Force that would make Gordon Ramsay fall to his knees and weep over how inadequate he is, otherwise it's just not worth eating.

Yeah I could always throw something together, the more the merrier in our house.

I certainly don’t cook Michelin food but I would baulk at tomato tuna sauce from tins - it’s student food.

And what's wrong with "student food"? It's just food?

And students are just people. Who eat food, just like everyone else.

God, some people have some strange ideas about life.

@TatianaBis

I certainly don’t cook Michelin food but I would baulk at tomato tuna sauce from tins - it’s student food.

Student food is what you eat when you’re broke, lazy and writing an essay. It fine for what it is. I don’t want to eat it now, nor would I serve it to anyone.

It's not just students who are "broke" unfortunately.

Tbh it sounds unbelievably snobbish and superior to 'baulk at student food'. Dh and I are good cooks, are not poor and definitelynot writing essays. That doesn't mean we don't quite happily eat dinners that might be considered student food sometimes. Nothing wrong with tuna pasta. Well, there's certainly nothing wrong with my tuna pasta anyway. Simple food does not equate to inferior food.

You are right there. Simple food is often the best, most tasty and nutritious.