Help! We're looking for your after-school and playdate recipes...

[CatherineHMumsnet]

Do you have a quick children's meal that is your failsafe standby for when your child has a playdate, or for when you need to get something on the table quickly when they come home from school utterly ravenous?

We're looking for recipes for our Mumsnet Cookbook so tell us what it is and you may end up seeing your recipe in print...

Pizza muffins - great as the kids can help you too.

Cut english muffin in half, lightly toast, put on tomato paste and toppings of your choice (kids help with that bit) and grate cheese on top - grill and serve up.

Takes 10 minutes tops and never anything left on the plate.

Any more?

toasted pitta pockets. you just fill a pitta pocket with whatever filling they want and put it in the toaster.

baked eggs. crack eggs into a muffin tin (buttered), and put in the oven till the eggs are set. you can have them on their own with toast soldiers or serve with beans. cheap and easy.

Absolute top favourite in our house with both DC - Salmon and spaghetti.

• Put 1 salmon fillet plus lemon juice and butter in oven to cook, covered to keep in juices
• Put on required amount of spaghetti
• Put carrots or frozen veg in microwave
• Salmon should be done when spaghetti is - mash it a bit and stir it and all the butterey/lemony juices into spaghetti
• Serve with veg and stand back as DC devour it :)

Not always as popular with visiting DC but mine would eat it daily!

Feetheart - we do a similar salmon and broccoli pasta.

Salmon in oven or microwave with dash of lemon juice and butter to cook
boil pasta, boil broccoli
drain pasta, put in a spoon or two of philadelphia, mash broccoli and flake salmon and stir in and voila

Our DC devour it

Flowery eggs - cut the crusts off a couple of slices of bread, then roll it out so it's a bit thinner. Butter a couple of muffin moulds, and the bread and press the bread in so it makes a cup. Bake at 200 for about ten minutes until crimping up, then crack a small egg into each cup and return to the oven until the egg whites are just cooked (about 10mins, tops). Serve with some salary bits. Kids love breaking off the bread cup and dipping it into the egg.

Daal and rice is also a favourite. Soften a small onion in a splash of oil in a saucepan, then add some peeled and diced butternut squash and a cup of red lentils or chana daal. Add half a teaspoon salt, half a teaspoon hot chilli powder, one crushed garlic clove, a little bit of grated ginger, and a pinch of roasted cumin. Stir well, then add four cups of hot water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer with the lid on until the lentils are cooked (about 15-20 minutes). Blend, check the flavour, then add a few drops of lemon juice and serve with steamed rice and popadoms.

Egg fried rice is also a winner. In a hot wok, stir fry cold cooked rice, some defrosted peas and sweetcorn, a coarsely grated carrot and some chopped ham. Stir for a couple of minutes, then crack in an egg and stir like crazy. When it is all heated through and the egg is cooked, shake in some sesame oil, mirin and soy sauce and a grind of black pepper. Stir well and serve.

'pot noodles'

put the kettle on
soak some egg or rice noodles
make up some bouillon (you can get the just add hot water kind from waitrose or health food shops)
slice a red pepper
peel a carrot and slice thinly or use peeler for thin slices.
add the veg to the bouillon and cover
when noodles done add as well

takes 5-10 mins from inception to table!

fajitas are also v quick, just need to have the supporting bits available

Does no one else just shove a pizza and garlic bread in the oven? Goes down a treat in my house, clean plates all round and happy children - simples!

Tuna, pasta and sweetcorn is what DD would eat daily given the option - and has yet to be turned down by a visitor shame DS won't eat it : Boil pasta, and while it is cooking drain a tin of tuna and one of sweetcorn (or chuck handful of frozen sweetcorn in with pasta for last couple of minutes), mix with mayonnaise and (optionally) a bit of tabasco. When the pasta is cooked, drain and return to pan with tuna mix just to warm it through - and serve.

I make pasta with tomato sauce, wins them over every time. Sausage and mash with peas. Pizza wheels - puff pastry, sun dried tomato paste and mozzarella all rolled up and sliced into spirals, baked. They all seem to love baked potatoes with beans too.

Tend not to cook adventurous food for play dates because I assume most kids are fussy buggers and it annoys me when they waste my food.

Cous cous made up with a stock cube and some veg mixed through.

Whizz up a can of chick peas, a spoon of tahini, a clove of garlic and olive oil to achieve a hummus consistency. Serve with breadsticks, cucumber sticks and carrot sticks.

Pancakes made with self raising flour to give them puffiness but mix in grated carrot and apple to make it a wholesome tea.

Thanks for these - keep them coming.

Pasta boiled with chopped carrots add frozen operas and weetcorn for last few mins, drain the lot and stir in a spoon of pesto and a spoon of dairy lea. Whole thing ten mins

Flumpyflumps

Gotta be peas. But I prefer operas!

Similar to dinky' I make pizza with tortilla wraps as a base. You can use them straight from the freezer, add tomato sauce and cheese, and perhaps sweetcorn, or shredded ham or cold chicken, sausage etc. Cut up with with a pizza wheel into proper pizza slices and serve with cucumber and carrot sticks. Visiting children have all loved this and you can keep cooking them 1 or 2 at a time and sharing out the slices until everyone has had enough.

For tomato sauce I whizz up a tin of tomatoes with some tomato puree, herbs and black pepper, or use fresh tomatoes when I have a glut. The rest of it can be frozen in portions and defrosted when needed to make the next set of pizzas super quick. You can also use up a few spoonfuls of tomato pasta sauce or even bolognaise instead.

sausage casserole or meatballs

Tuna pasta bake goes down well with even the fussy kids here:

Fry half an onion, half a courgette, half a red pepper and a clove of garlic. Add tin of chopped tomatoes and season. Once it has reduced add in 2 big dollops of mascarpone. Cook your choice of pasta, usually fusilli or penne here. Put the pasta in an ovenproof dish, add the sauce and 1 chopped up mozzarella and then grate some parmesan over the top. Pop in the oven until browned - 20-30 mins.

Mine both love a mixed bean & sausage bake. Fry chopped onion, add tin chopped tomatoes, tins of beans (any will do...I use mixed salad beans, mixed chili beans, baked beans...) slice hotdog sausages (or slice up cooked sausage, can use cocktail sausages) add to beans, bit of chili powder or whatever herbs you like. If want super quick meal you can either serve as it is with cous cous or I put it into ovenproof dish & put grated veg (parsnip, carrot) on top & grated cheese & put under grill. Yummy & healthy & if you omit sausage it's good for vegetarians too!

Macaroni cheese with bacon and onion. Fry bacon bits ("lardons" if you prefer) and onions in small amount of oil. Put to one side. Put macaroni on to cook, make cheese sauce (ready made or packet is fine). Cook macaroni well - if it's still "al dente" it will absorb the cheese sauce and be less nice. Cover thickly with grated cheddar and put in a hot oven (200 degrees) for about 15 minutes, or until top is nice and melty and going brown in parts. Can be made in advance and bunged into oven as needed.

Builders Breakfast pizza. Buy pizza bases. Cover with passata, and bake for about 5 minutes. Remove from oven, add bacon bits, sausage balls, made from bits of chipolata squeezed out of the skin. cover with mozzarella, stick in oven for about 10 minutes. Remove, crack egg on top and return to oven until egg is set.

If you feel the need for veg, serve the top one with a salad, or offer a starter of cucumber batons and carrot sticks with hummous.

These are all great - keep them coming!

Am i the only one who serves up fish fingers and chips for playdates? Never knowingly refused by any child who has crossed my threshold.

For an after school snack before tea though, microwaveable popcorn is a winner.

Spinach, sweetcorn and cheese rice - both my kids love it and nutritious too. Fry chopped onion in a little butter and then add rice - fry for about 1 minute then cover with water (about an half inch above level of rice) and add sweetcorn. Cover and simmer. When rice has nearly cooked (and water all absorbed), stir in spinach. Then just before serving stir in mild cheddar cheese.

Either serve on its own or with a white fish (e.g. plaice) poached in milk and onion until cooked.

For playdates, have always found that filled pasta with homemade pesto goes down well (whizz up basil leaves, parmesan and pine nuts)