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 usually cook enough for so that there are leftovers for the next day for both lunch and dinner, and sometimes to give to mum, so could usually feed 3 extra.

But that would mean there would be none for the next day, which means another 2 hours cooking the next day!

We always have loads of food in, because I shop for the storecupboard, not what we're going to eat within the next week.

Works for me. There's always meat in the freezer, frozen veg, bread, plus canned beans, soup, pasta etc, always cheese, eggs etc etc. And we waste almost nothing.

I'm always surprised how many people seem to keep hardly any food in and if there's a problem with the weather, a missed delivery, or all the shortages during the beginning of lockdown, they're in trouble straight away because they have no spare food.

And it's not due to having no spare money, apart from the very poorest, just about everyone could keep an extra bag of pasta, loaf of bread, can of beans, block of cheese, stock of eggs etc etc, even £20-30 of spare food would buy at least a couple of days breathing room if something went wrong.

If I suddenly had 3 surprise people for lunch I could offer them omelettes, beans, cheese or egg on toast, soup, pasta, cheese sandwiches, all sorts really. But what's the back story? How did 3 people turn up, expecting you to provide them with lunch with no prior agreement?

I live 5 miles from the nearest town - although there is a village shop for basics - but I tend to have lots of supplies in so I only have to shop once a week. My parents always had extra food in the house (they lived through ration books) and also shopped weekly. When Covid kicked off last year I reckon we could have eaten well for 14 days if we'd had to isolate (i put milk in the freezer as well as bread). So I could easily rustle a meal up for unexpected or over staying guests - but we are lucky enough to a) be able to afford to overstock and b) have plenty of storage space. Not everyone is in that position.

We meal plan and shop once a week but I always have enough basics in the cupboard that if I had to feed extra I could rustle up something “off plan” like a spag bol padded out with lentils & veg plus a quick homemade garlic pizza bread or dough balls or something like omelette and homemade wedges & salad.

I could. Full larder and freezer. Usually full fridge too.

I need to shop, However if you dropped in on e today I would give you

Red and white cabbage and carrot with horseradish slaw. Some cheeses and crackers, pickles and chutneys. Some salami, chorizo.
I have a bottle of rose chilled, some fizzy water and some cans of Diet Coke! I could do some sandwiches or such like for the kids.

I could feed them, but we tend to keep extra food on hand because we have space, a large freezer, and aren't able to shop as frequently as some, so it's necessary to have things "in stock". I wouldn't appreciate 3 unexpected lunch guests, though, even if feeding this wouldn't be a problem!

Is it not a risk having so little food in the house when you live alone with two small children in a rural area? I usually associate rural dwellers as having well-stocked store cupboards for contingencies.

Do you have a lot of support on hand if you became ill and couldn't get to the shop? What happens if there is snow or a storm and you cannot get food for a few days?

Zero food waste here. I plan.

When there was a DP he would eat whatever there was in the fridge, so would eat lunch ingredients for breakfast, ignoring the milk and cereal.

I always have at least two standby frozen pizzas for emergencies, so I could. I wouldn't go out of my way to make something special though unless they were planned guests.

I don't like unexpected visitors, I like to plan ahead. Mind you I once cooked a large three course meal for four people (same household0 who were "definitely" coming the day before but didn't turn up and didn't have a good excuse why not.
I couldn't even eat the food I cooked as I'm vegetarian and it was a roast.

Always have chicken/ mince/beef in the freezer & a stock cupboard full of food, so would always be able to feed visitors.

Beans on toast for everyone. Might have to send someone to the corner shop for drinks.

I try and keep at least half a loaf of bread in the freezer, as toast can fill most food related emergencies.

I can't understand how you could manage diner but not lunch?

Apart from that, I'd have enough food in the freezer and probably in the fridge, but as I am not rural, I could order some ready meal from a local restaurant or pub so wouldn't be too bothered either way.

Deliveries go wrong, I can get sick, booking delivery slots can suddenly become tricky, so I never have just the bare minimum. Simply for my own convenience.

One extra person - ok

Three unexpected lunch guests - tricky - statistically one will have particular dietary needs, another will be very moany, and the third will be a greedy bastard and pile the contents of communal platters (of nice tasty things) onto their plates, leaving little for anyone else (I’m thinking of someone who ate all my order of prawn crackers before I even got to eat a single one).

Naturally they will turn up after you haven’t had a chance to go to the shops for a while, or late after you’ve eaten and have got your feet up in front of the telly.

@ImFree2doasiwant, I just want to add to my previous post.

I don't think it is important to be able to rustle up three adult lunches in a hurry. If you have enough for an emergency such as above, all is fine.

Worst case I could whip up a frittata or a pasta dish but I tend to meal plan as I hate waste.

Bloody hell. So many replies!

I have PLENTY of food in. At the start of lockdown, I didn't shop for almost a month. But, we dobt eat much bread. The children like breadsticks and crackers. They dobt eat huge amounts. I could cook a decent meal from my freezer but don't gave quick lunch/sandwich stuff in much.

I suppose the issue is, the visitors in question and what they deem an acceptable lunch . I could do salad, chicken, tuna eggs, omelette, pasta. But nit sandwiches.

So yes,my mistake, I should have put sandwiches instead of lunch .

Sure. A bag of pasta is £0.60 and add a tomato sauce or tin of tuna.

Oh and one of the three of you is vegan or vegetarian then the meal will be vegan or vegetarian I’m not cooking different options in different pans.

It would depend which end of the week as to what I had but i could always feed them but it may or may not be bread based. That said, i usually keep a pack of part baked baguettes and I usually have a along life milk somewhere.

But I could generally run up omelettes, some pasta type dish, soup, sausages from the freezer with beans etc etc.

So i guess it would depend on what they wanted to eat but I may not be able to make sandwiches depending on the day - i don't really keep frozen bread as the freezer isn't big enough. Always plenty fillings plus tinned tuna etc. I could make some chapatis quite quickly as they don't need to prove.

Most of the time, I could do cheese or scrambled eggs on toast, or macaroni cheese ,but that's it.
I live alone and just don't have multiples of foods kicking about.
My lovely neighbours have about weekly offered me a meal during lockdown (handed over on the doorstep) - they are four adults and reckon it is very easy to stretch 4 to 5 portions. I just can't reciprocate without preplanning and booking in, not to mention that two of them have severe allergies to different things - both of which are staple foods for me.

Its snowed enough that I chose not to drive for 2 days, once in 12years.

I'm not sure which 'type' I fall into but even though I can and do batch-cook, for some reason, whilst everybody raved about the first meal, they don't want it as a left-over or defrosted. So annoying!

I eat differently from the rest of the family, husband and kids tend to eat the same things (more veg for the kids, he's a dodger) - I eat salmon fillets which tend to be singles.

I don't really have people dropping in as I'm usually never home but if they did, I'd offer omelettes (which are my forte!) or sausage sandwiches - or cakes (not my own), we have plenty of bread/cakes as my husband eats them en masse.

I think people should be very, very careful about judging what other pepole do or don't do with their food because there are always reasons for that.

I was thinking, reading this thread, that it would be great to see some of the recipes of the 'Tad-dah! Look what I spirited up' thing, I would take note of them all.

My dd is an only child and just approaching the teenage years, the kids now have adult appetites. Our house is an open kitchen. Her friends can drop by and be guaranteed to have food provided. We have way more food than we require with plenty of storage and I specifically buy extra (lockdown once again permitting) during the holidays as I know I will have hungry children descending on me as I did yesterday. I get I am possibly in the minority and that’s ok. We do us and you do you and I honestly won’t get offended. Your circumstances and home are not mine.

The only thing that really, really pisses me off is when an open invitation is never, ever reciprocated and dd can be around a couple of people’s houses and the parent will never, ever make enough food for my child or invite dd to eat even if they have enough. This is families with no set meal times so not as if we can agree a 5.30 pick up or something before dinner.

Dd has ended the friendship with one child, whose parents were like this as the girl and family were horrible to her - that’s the friend plus mother and adult sibling in other ways besides getting takeaways and eating them in front of dd or once even inviting dd and pretending the food had gone off before bunging it in the fridge (I imagine the food cooked was less than anticipated). I fed the girl countless meals, gave her lifts home so she didn’t have to walk, got the girl out of scrapes, helped her even when she had said awful things about me as I knew she was unhappy and so forth.

I am trying hard not to get into the same situation again with another family but it is heading that way if I don’t stop it. Dd is older and we are both wiser and I’ve had to warn dd that I’m putting the brakes on. When permitted to have people in our houses, the child has had dominos at mine twice, a sleepover, with dinner, breakfast and lunch, eaten at other times besides and the mum has the audacity to not feed my child, ever. Dd was even refused a pack of crisps there a couple of days ago after she’d walked miles to pick her up. And after school or at the weekend, the mother will happily pick her child up from the park near their house to go to McDonalds or to get Dominos without warning the other children when the park is a few miles away from the mutual friend’s houses... when dd or other friends systematically walk this girl home so she isn’t alone and we parents pick our children up from outside their house. DD’s friend got caught out the other day at 5.45 and found herself alone when she’d organised her mum to come at 6... children get scared when they’re the last ones. They’re 12 btw.

So as I say, you do you. But please consider that your child won’t be little forever and life is made a lot easier if reciprocation is made one way or another. I would never expect people to get takeaways as everyone has different means and values but I do want them to have the scruples to invite my dd to eat on occasion and ensure it is something she likes and have the minimum of consideration for the safety of other children. But all this stuff with this family is beyond rude and totally uncaring and there is no way of objecting as the mother is loud and uncouth, will shout other people’s kids and blames any misunderstandings on the fact her dd has learning difficulties.

I've always got eggs, cheese, sausages and bacon in - with that and store cupboard stuff there's always a meal even if unexpected guests.