Guests at the weekend, need simple recipes

[VladimirVsVolodymyr]

I have a friend coming over from the states with his family and they are staying with us for two nights. Family of 5, I need easy recipes for lunch/dinner. Parents, two teenage girls and an eight year old boy.
I need a few recipes and feel a bit under pressure as his wife is a good cook 🤣. I am a good cook but with ft work and 3 kids including a 2 year old, I'm a bit time poor. I cannot get ready made meals delivered, that will be too embarrassing. So I'm thinking:
1.) Marinated salmon in herbs with potatoes/steamed veggies
2.) Rice with steak/side of salad
3.)Veggie pasta (DH does a nice one) but with what?
4.) Might have dinner in a restaurant one night but the logistics will be a nightmare as mine are 10 and under.
Any recipes and ideas about logistic for dinner will be welcomed.

I know it is only two nights but I like having options 😂

Our local Butcher sells Mrs Darlington brand jars of sauce and has recipe cards with recipes using these sauces. I usually cook from scrratch, but the Smoky Hunter's Chicken using the Mrs Darlington's Barbecue Relish is the best hunter's chicken I have ever tasted.

I wouldn't say steak is an easy meal to cook for numerous people, especially if they all like it cooked differently. Chicken would be more forgiving. I like the bbc food chicken souvlaki, you can marinate it over night and do it on skewers or just cook the thighs as they are (with rice/Greek salad, tsatziki and some bought flatbreads, tesco do Greek ones)

If you get a fish and chips takeaway one night they will be in HEAVEN. I live in the States and everyone here who has had proper British fish and chips talks about it for years afterwards.

Day 2 .. another traditional british meal, can you do shepherds pie and peas? Or buy some really good steak and ale pies and serve with minted new potatoes and nice veg

Oh and def dont do BBQ anything. It just cant measure up to American Bbq and will just disappoint as the names mean v different things in the two countries

Thanks for the suggestions. @RampantIvy I'm salivating looking at those. I doubt I'll find them at my local butchers. I'll try Tesco.
@itsapalaver that's amazing, I'll look it up. Forgot about the palaver (excuse the pun) with steak!

@SeaToSki you're right about the BBQ and I'm staying away from burgers as well 😂
Although they will have an (almost) full Irish breakfast. If I find Mrs Darlington I'll use it for the family.
Will do the fish and chips, it will be irish 😂
I can do a shepherd pie trial on Friday and see how I get on. What about lasagna?
I love this board already, not sure why it took me so long to find it. Thanks

Definitely fish and chips option!

I would make at least one of the dinners a casserole that you can make in advance - flavours will improve over a day or two and then you only need to heat it up and prepare a carb and a side veg/salad.

You could bake a side of salmon with some Mediterranean veg in advance (or the night before and have that cold with potatoes and salad for lunch.

Another lunch would be picnic style/ploughmans ham, cheeses, pickles, nice bread, etc.

Thai curry? I often make a variant on the nigella yellow pumpkin seafood one - it’s really really easy. Could adapt for chicken if preferred?
I like the Greek souvlaki idea. It’s an easy thing to cook for people who might be fussy as they can all pick the bits they like (I mean if you don’t know their preferences). Or a curry. Or a big sausage casserole or beef stew - something you can make very much in bulk rather than having lots of individual servings.

Agree fish and chips
and spag bol

Yes - good idea. And I agree with including fish and chips.

Lemon Herb Roasted Chicken Thighs

• IngredientsFor The Marinade1 shallot roughly chopped
• 4 garlic cloves roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh basil roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of 2 lemons
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• For the Chicken8 bone in, skin on chicken thighs
• Salt and pepper to taste to lightly season the chicken
• InstructionsTo prepare the marinade, in a food processor or blender combine the shallots, garlic cloves, basil, cilantro, olive oil, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper, cumin and cayenne pepper. Puree until smooth.
• Pat dry the chicken thighs with paper towels to remove any excess moisture and season the chicken with salt and black pepper.
• Place the chicken in a large resealable bag or non-reactive container and pour the marinade over the chicken. Mix to combine making sure the chicken is coated evenly. Marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes or refrigerated up to 8 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
• Remove the chicken thighs from the marinade and place them skin side up on a rimmed baking sheet with or without a wire rack, or in a a baking dish.
• Place in the oven and bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit. To crisp up the skin, broil the chicken for about 2 minutes making sure the chicken is about 6 inches from the heating source.
• Remove chicken from the oven and allow it to rest, tented with aluminum foil for about 10 minutes. Serve.

-

The marinade takes about ten minutes.

I serve it with roasted new potatoes and green veg.

If they are only with you for 2 nights, you don't need a lot of big meals.
If they are there over a weekend, are you a roast dinner family? So F&C one night, then a roast or curry with sides/shawarma/sausage and mash/pasta etc. Sandwiches/aforementioned ploughman's etc for lunch. Or light breakfast, late big lunch and then cheeseboard type stuff for supper.

don't do lasagna .. belfast girl..lived in canada for years now live in punta cana DR. If I was to come home to Ireland (which I will be in January) I want...fish and chips.. pasties .. ulster fry.. scampi. NO to bbq. No to lasagna..No to anything that north americans eat all the time. A gorgeous stew with soda bread? a nice curry? the ones in the states and canada suck.

@HighEndGrifters that sounds amazing and I am going to make it tomorrow! I am going to try it in my airfryer as it is 33 degrees here every day right now and I do not want to heat the oven. Have you ever tried it in airfryer?

The American kids I work with have all been very impressed by 99's if you are looking for easy deserts.

I agree with something traditional with soda bread for one meal.

@momager Sorry no, we are air fryer refuseniks. 😂

@VladimirVsVolodymyr if you can't find the Mrs Darlington's barbecue relish, you will easily find barbecue sauce for Hunter's chicken in any supermarket. It's such an easy dish to do. I would do jacket potatoes and some green veg with it.

I lived in America for a while . Agree to the fish & chips!

If they are from the West they may be used to wild Alaskan salmon which is more flavourful than ours. But we have other great fish such as John Dory my American friends don’t get. If you want two fish meals.

I love the idea of Indian food but don’t know how American children and teens will react. Similarly I prefer our more authentic lasagne to their cheese burdened version, but have the same question. A Great British Roast Dinner, shepherd’s/cottage/fish pies, wonderful British cheeses and puddings sound popular with all ages.

Yes to soda bread as PP have said, also various scones.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/roast-chicken-spiced-rice

This is really easy and tasty. Easy to prepare, chuck it in the oven and it cooks, voila. I tend to improvise a bit and put in a tin of sweetcorn, etc and leave out other stuff if I don’t have it. Sometimes I serve it with salad.

Oh, that looks fabulous @Riverlee

I'm American by birth and grew up there. I would keep it simple but also think about meals that are suitable for a family - mine would love a nice steak, but not all kids do. Same with salmon. By and large, American families eat much more processed food than we do on average, so they may be quite adventurous but they may not be. Fish and chips is good - you could make it yourself though if cost is an issue as feeding 10 from the chippy is likely to cost about a much as a week's worth of shopping for us!

I would definitely do a cold salady lunch - green salad with lots of different salad veg and then things like pork pies, scotch eggs, quiche. Or a ploughman's. That will be quite interesting and different, and it's basically just something you need to set out on the table rather than prepare.

Rolls or sliced bread with nice sandwich fillings and crisps for the other lunch. Whenever I go back to America, the thing I miss most oddly is sandwiches. We don't really have sandwiches there like we do here. There are big massive stuffed sandwiches that are bigger than my head, but we don't have things like coronation chicken or cheese and pickle or ham and coleslaw or whatever just in shops or at a cafe.

I'd do a roast one night - this is also really novel, beef with all the sides, yorkshire puds, definitely cauliflower cheese. Or pork, stuffing and apple sauce on a roll. Sounds really boring but I'd never had anything like it until I moved here.

Definitely roast chicken or beef with different sides. The beauty with toast chicken is that you can buy it at M&S and then just focus on sides. The same with puddings.

Sorry meant “ roast chicken” never tried it toasted 😀