Food budget and extra people to feed!

chardonnay_2

i love what you are trying to do - my mum and friends mums often did this as it meant they knew where we were. just serve what you planned to and bulk out if necessary. most kids will think being asked to dinner as a treat and will eat whats offered and if they don't like they can go home. i remember when asked to stay for dinner it usually being an adventure as their mum would serve something diff to my mum and vice versa.

BrokeBrunette

elona I don't think I will ever be an "expert" lol but it's a lovely thought. I can't believe the good ideas that people have on this site for all sorts of things.

chardonnay I will definitely stick to bulking out what I already have. I think my problem is that I try to please people too much so I tend to try and fit in with them, rather than saying "eat this or go hungry". This is the start of a new me

thanks again everyone

moggins

LOL, I got this last week when DS had a friend round for tea, I got lots of I don't eat this and I don't eat that. I just plonked things on plates and told them to help themselves to what they wanted. Before the meal was over DS's friend had tried two new things and thoroughly enjoyed himself

recovering_spendaholic

DD2 has loads of other teenagers round at our house all the time and they eat ALOT!! I tend to buy cheap french sticks and then make homemade french bread pizza for them. It is really easy - just reduce a tin of tomatoes with some ketchup and mixed herbs and then spread it thinnly on the cut up bread and top with value mozzarella cheese from Tesco (VERY cheap and kids all love it). It costs about 80p for about 6 - 8 FB pizza sticks and always goes down a treat!! I also keep loads of value tortilla chips (25p for a big bag) in the cupboard and make nachos with the same value mozarella - they all love this too!! I know its not the healthiest but its not that bad - the pizza is quite healthy even!!

hardpressed

Reading this reminds me of when I was a child I had a friend who was Polish, I was very excited when her mum invited me to tea. My friend said mum was making a Polish speciality especially for me! It turned out to be cabbage soup, my friend and her sister lapped it up, to me it just seemed like boiled cabbage floating in green water. I'm sure it wasn't typical Polish cooking, I guess her mum was just a bad cook. Soon after they moved away which saved me having to find excuses for not eating there again. My friend had mentioned something about loving boiled pork :eek: I couldn't face that!

frosty

I always make large evening meals,I have a very large square oven dish its serves about 8 people.The dishes I make in it are,shepherds pie,I bulk it out with onions,carrots and any other veg that needs using up,I always serve meals with at least two other veg.
I feed 5 adults every evening so if any extra turn up there is always plenty to go round,I have also purchased smaller dinner plates, no one has said anything so I dont think anyone is going hungry.I also make pasta dishes,my family love pasta stirred into a cheese sauce,if I have any left over chicken I add this to the pasta and sauce.Pour it into the oven dish and sprinkle with grated cheese,brown under a hot grill,I serve this with a salad any left overs I freeze to use another day.
I make home made pizza which is easy and cheap if friends turn up,a slice of pizza and a large salad always goes down well .

emr_2

smaller dinner plates

That's a good idea!