What is your default tea when your little ones have friends round?

[franch]

I'm talking preschoolers here, and the occasional 8yo cousin - so far the most popular have been spag bol; shepherd's pie; mini pizzas; marinated chicken drumsticks. None of these are universally popular though.

Oh and I always have Pizza Express marguerita pizzas in the freezer just in case.

Veg are so tricky, I usually do raw - carrot sticks, cucumber, cherry tomatoes.

Followed by fruit and I usually manage some kind of home made cake or biscuits.

Just wondered if anyone had any magic foolproof formula that works time after time - I keep thinking I've hit it, then the next kid hates it ...

Shepards Pie, I put sweetcorn in mine and I puree the carrots before they go in. I also put cheese in the mash.

Baked potaoes and bowls of various fillings so they can choose followed by pancakes, banana, choc sauce etc.

Hmm, what fillings spud? (Neighbour's kids not keen on potatoes though )

pasta with red sauce.

oh good idea, spudmasher (so good you named yourself after it I see).

I made gnocchi and cauliflower cheese today. not the biggest hit ever.

spag bol & garlic bread

or

fishfingers , chips, peas and beans

fruit and a plain biscuit

Ham -chopped, tuna, cheese, cubed cucumber , chopped tomatoes. The usual sort of stuff.....

Fishfingers (sorry)

• Birds' Eye though not cheap minced ones!

nowt wrong with fishfingers.

I love fishfingers, dd hates them disappointingly!
Anything they can make up at the table always seems to go down well. Wraps etc. with bowls of stuff for them to take, think they like being in control of what they can have to eat.

I agree. Jamie Oliver's fave nack is fishfinger sandwiches.....

Spag bol and garlic bread, and I put a plate of sliced carrots, cucumber, radishes and tomatoes on the table too.
For pud a plate containing apple segments, grapes, orange segments, sliced banana, as well as pots of petit filous and teaspoons. Then everyone helps themselves.

Easy, and can mostly be prepared in advance so instead of rushing around the house stressing I can sit down with a cuppa and MN!

Oooh, wraps is a great idea - will do that next time!!

Suggetions for fillings please!!

How about getting some small pizza bases and putting out ham, sweetocrn, etc etc in bowls snd letting them make their own.

I've never actually done this by the way....I am boring and stick to sausages or good ole fish fingers

Grated cheese, cucumber sticks, grated carrot on the table, ham, mayonnaise, sliced red pepper, chicken, anything I have in the house usually goes in. Chicken always goes down well for some reason.

non spicy chicken fajitas, just plain chicken breast and then cheese, and salady bits that everyone can help themselves to,

A cheese sandwich always goes down well in our house. They soon learn not to expect much

at clueless, hte only time we have wraps is when we have spicy chicken fahitas or spicy minced beef burritos, so will have to rethink that for our little guests.

My default tea is either macaroni cheese, sausages and carrots (most children will go for either pasta or sausages if not both and carrots are the most eaten veg I think) or spaghetti bolognese with raw carrots on the side.

macaroni cheese is a v popular one though. homemade, obviously

mind you some children will only eat crap - and frankly that isn't my problem. missing one meal because they hate the food chez peahead won't kill them

Spag bol, beef stew, macaronni cheese, but my absolute never fails is stir fry & noodles - not met a kid yet who doesnt eat noddles
I do a big plate of chopped up fruit to help selves too - again, even non-fruit lovers seem to eat well with that

funnypeculiar - what do you put in your stirfrys? I agree about noodles but most of my stirfry recipes are far too healthy and veggie-based to appeal to most kids - ?

I like the help-yourself fruit idea very much.

I play it safe with sausages or breaded chicken fillets with peas, carrots, broccoli and oven chips. All children generally manage to find something they like. I do check first if there are any real hates.

pasta & homemade pesto. with cucumber, tomato & carrot. fruit for pud.

I do try and have a selection of veg in & tailor to the kids tastes, but usually onion (looks like a noodle), carrot strips (safe veg), brocoli (safe veg), bean sprouts (looks like a noddle) do you see a theme here - plus chicken, or prawns sometimes.