Share your never-fail playdate food tips with Lidl - chance to win vouchers NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

We've all been there - trying to find something to cook for your child’s fussy friend during a playdate. Lidl are after your tips and recipes for the kind of food that always goes down a treat when you're having kids over for playdates. Do you play it safe with fish fingers and chips? Or do you have some other less conservative recipes and meal suggestions that are guaranteed to please? Maybe you have a pasta and sauce combo that no child has yet turned their noses up at.

Share your ideas, tips and recipes below and you will be entered into a prize draw where you could win one of five £50 Lidl vouchers.

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply.

I do a mixture of turkey, fish finger and cheese sandwiches. And then buffet/tapas style I do cucumber, olives, carrot batons, grapes, strawberries, edamame beans and sometimes I get some cucumber maki. And then if they eat well they get a kinder egg!!

Another one here with the homemade pizza. And while they're cooking and eating I knock up some fairy cakes and they decorate those after and have one for dessert and take the rest home. Never fails.

Homemade fish fingers & chips go down well

Favourites here are Meatballs and tagliatelle from Nigella Bites // Jamie Oliver's bake in the oven version of spag Bol or Coq au vin with French bread. Sometimes homemade pizza.

I don't go for special child meals but find these recipes are generally a hit.

Make them eat at the table and do a buffet style. Small sandwiches, carrot sticks and chopped fruit.

Plain boiled pasta, spread on a grill tray, chopped up tinned Lidl hot dog with melted grated cheese

Not one single kid didn't like at least 1 out of the 3 'ingredients'

Good old spag bol is a pretty save bet, yet to have a play date with a child who wouldn't eat it.

Also home made pizzas, give them a base ( or some dough if I'm feeling like effort), knock up a load of tomato sauce and put cheese, peppers, ham, onions, sweet corn and anything else I can find out on plates, get them to decorate their own. Keeps them entertained then at least you know they'll eat the toppings they've picked.

I always check if the child has any allergies or particular loves or hates and take those into account. Favourites have been fish fingers, oven chips and peas; pitta bread with a variety of salad, meat, etc. to fill it with; and pasta carbonara.

Wraps with a choice of filling, lots of crudités to pick st and yoghurt or ice cream for pud. Quick, simple and fairly balanced.

I always ask the parents what their child will eat and mostly we end up with pizza.

I'm amazed by how fussy some children are. I think my DD is fussy, but some of her friends seem even more so. Or perhaps their tastes don't overlap.

Definitely fruit kebabs. Wraps also seem to go down well in my experience.

I always make lunch boxes. It all seems to get eaten that way as everyone has the same.
I alway check with parent for sandwich filling and allergies. Add mini pot of anything children love mini pots humous, sliced vegetables and crisps and a bottled drink and you're done.
Plus points is it can be done in advance
Also I usually make cupcakes before they arrive and get the children to ice and decorate them meaning pudding is sorted.

lots of humous and strips of pitta bread, carrot sticks for dipping, a tuna pasta , pizza and chicken legs

I always do a serve yourself type meal, separate pasta and sauce and toppings go down well. As the owner of a fussy 5 year old I make sure a child doesn't end up with a plate full of something they really don't like.

Cheese wheels! Puff pastry rolled flat topped with grated cheese, rolled up, cut into wheels and cooked for 18 mins. I've not yet had a child or adult who won't eat them.

Spaghetti bolognese or macaroni cheese always go down well but making pizza dough and letting them add their own toppings is probably the favourite.

Make your own pizza is always a winner here. I use HFWs magic bread recipe, make sure I have in an assortment of topping possibilities, and they usually just go for ketchup as their sauce, or with bbq sauce

I buy pizza bases, pizza sauce and grated mozzarella, then let them make their own pizzas and put on whatever toppings they want, usually ham, pineapple, chicken, pepparami, sweetcorn etc. They have fun doing it and usually eat it all.

If I don't have that around, then they usually get a picnic type lunch that they can sit in the garden and eat.

Make your own pizzas, then the children choose toppings... They enjoy the activity and then ( hopefully) eat it up!!

Bolognese. I've never known a child refuse it, even the girl who didn't like strawberries ate it and wanted more.

I do HFW's recipe, more or less.

DO NOT DO TOM KERRIDGE'S! Thread here (though it's lasagne here, it comes to the same thing) www.mumsnet.com/Talk/food_and_recipes/2472681-Bloody-Tom-Bloody-Kerridge

I usually buy pizza bases and let the kids create their own pizzas. All kids love pizza, and even if a child has dietary requirements or things they won't eat, they can still join in with making the pizza to suit their tastes.

Favourite topping in this house appears to be cocktail sausages and sweetcorn.

Sausage, mash and peas
Margarita pizza or make it ourselves
Roast chicken dinner

I make finger food for the kids and sometime they come and help out with making the food to get them involved.

Check for allergies/special requirements before they come. I make a batch of wholemeal dough and tomato sauce and get the children to chop bits such as peppers, pineapple, courgette etc and they make their own mini pizzas with faces or patterns. Hunks of watermelon or baked banans for pudding

Usually we have something fail safe like fish fingers and then allow the children to either make their own fruit salads or decorate biscuits!