ideas please for a simple lunch to serve to friends plus their kids on saturday

[Tutter]

am great at saturday lunches in the summer - piss easy - nice salads

and great at sunday lunches

but am drawing a blank at autumnal saturday lunches

kids are 8yo, 4yo, 3yo and baby

the macaroni does sound delicious

i think ishall try it for me and dh

but do quite the look of the ocado recipe

and it sounds piss easy

fish or jamie olicver sausgae thing from jamie a home book

the fish pie sounds quite un faffage

let me findsausage one when i have eaten dinner

OMDB - true but some of my friends children can be fussy devils! And the cold platter is dead simple to serve anyway, and the adults can pinch bits as well.

10 chicken breast fillets (and goujons if you want)
1 heaped tbsp flour
1 tsp cinammon
oil
2 onions
garlic
tin chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 red peppers in 1" squares
a pint chicken stock
1/3 pint red wine
1lb button mushrooms sliced thinly
8 oz green queen olives chopped

Oven at 180
Mix tsp salt, about 20 grinds black pepper, cinammon and flour and coat chicken pieces
fry chicken briefly and put in casserole dish
add onion, garlic to frying pan then add peppers, tomatoes, brown sugar and simmer till thick and juicy (takes about 15 mins)
Add stock and wine and simmmer for another 3 mins
Pour over chicken (sauce should cover about half the chicken) add sliced mushrooms and olives
put in oven for an hour

it's very yummy

How about home made burgers (can spice hthem up a bit for adults and make smaller ones for children), salad and homemade wedges? The Jamie Olviver botham burger recipe is nice.

For the chill - the recipe in the igella Express book is good although have to admit that I don't use the pasta veg sauce. Instead I use passatta and add some mixed pulses. Makes it far richer and more tasty.

I am doing fish pie for a similar event on Saturday. Glad that you didn't all say 'how naff etc' when it was suggested below!

Jamie's roast chicken is very good too.

Basically just scrunch up some soft butter with lemon zest, chopped parma ham or smoked bacon, lemon juice, thyme and some seasoning and then smother it inside and out andunder the skin and then roast.

I did sausage and lentil casserole last time I had people on a Saturday - went down well. Followed by pavlova.

do suasge benas and wedges fro kids

then normal food for you after

oooh, charlee, i've been wanting that fish pie recipe, thank you

(i'm a big fan of macaroni cheese, but I have to say that J's version sounds horrible!!)

I'd probably do baked pots and chilli for the grown ups and have cheese/tuna/beans as options for the children.

Otherwise, soup, nice bread and lots of fillings.

If you're after pud, Nigella's choc pud with pears in Express is yum.

I'd never cater for kids separately

twig, that sounds great

i love one-pot dishes

god Tutter it's delish .. it really is

I think if you want easy, you can't get much easier than roast chicken. It is universally popular and feels special, while actually being really quick and simple to prepare. We did it last week for family with 3 kids.
I also think that soup and sandwiches is perfectly acceptable too. Soup more hit and miss for kids but sandwiches usually go down fine, and you can do nice salad and bread for the grown ups. Roast is easier though

I am a Jamie O Guru belive me tassisssss

I am sad enough to practically stalk that man i am a living breathing J encyclopedia!

also, how unfussy are their kids? I have a ds who isn't good with stews (hates onion) so would tend to steer clear of that kind of thing and do things where it is easier for the kids to pikc and choose what they like (which is why salad soup and sandwiches is a good bet imo).

ohg od please do
i hate eating wiht my kids
i pretend i do but i dont

it measn you can all relaz and talk ROOD stuff and the kids can piss off and push epansuts up their noses

I agree. I normally feed the children first and seperately - the normally sit at DD's table in the kitchen to eat too. Then the grown ups eat in the dining room (no room for us all in there). The childrn can then go off and play and leave us alone to enjoy food and wine.

When it is just me, DH and DD we enjoy family meals then -- but when others about, no.

I did this last weekend. Very informal so I made lentil soup, had breads and cheeses, veg sticks. And I made a huge cherry and almond cake.

Only thing is, we had to all squeeze round the table to eat the soup. Otherwise the kids could have sat on teh floor in the lviing room.

macaroni cheese and broccoli - excellent idea

I normally find the kids eat quicker so you get plenty of grown up time after they've disappeared to play. And now we have a kitchen big enough, we can have a kids table and an adults table. Anything to save having to cook two meals.

Get them to come at 11.30 and serve brunch - sausage, bacon, egg, mushrooms. Croissants. Smoked salmon. Muffins/pancakes. Coffee and juice.