Late notice! 20 here for dinner...

[lchats]

What can I make? 6 kids between 2 and 14 the rest adults.....

Needs to be informal and easy to eat! Any ideas?

Vat of chilli, pile of nachos and a lot of jacket potatoes in the oven! All done by the afternoon to enjoy having company

I second the chilli and sides.

Although when my dad bought 10 American business visitors home for dinner at no notice, DM went and got them fish and chips. Went down brilliantly!

Lasagne or pasta bake, if you have a couple of trays big enough. Or slow cooked lemon chicken with roasted new potatoes and salad.

I rarely make lasagne any more, instead I make a pasta al forno with meat sauce. Basically you make the meat sauce and the white sauce, cook some big pasta shapes and then mix the three together, put it in a big ovenproof dish, cover with some cheese and bake for 20 minutes.

Lamb Tagine in large slow cooker(or two) which can be taken to table in the slow cooker pots, chicken and lemon kebabs, roast veg couscous, pitta breads, salad (when I have children coming salad includes a plate carrot, red pepper and cucumber sticks, cherry toms and apple slices here)

Do enough so everyone can have both the meat dishes (they won't but good to be able to offer the choice to everyone) then your dinners for the rest of the week are sorted from the left overs

Fab ideas... Can I add I have 2 dds under 2 and the guests arrive at 4.

The idea of fitting too much cooking and a trip to the supermarket in fills me with dread!

Backstory - we thought they were coming for afternoon tea, but have now asked to come late afternoon/evening ... Meaning dinner