Having friends with fussy kids over for dinner

MidLifeCrisis_3

Hi, we've got some friends coming over for dinner, but their kids are really fussy. I don't really want to cook separate junk food as mine will eat anything and would prefer to join in with what we are eating.

I suggested to their mother that I could make Moroccan chicken/lamb or a Moussaka, but she pulled a face and said although she had cooked these for themselves the kids had never tried either. As both dishes contain some spices and chickpeas or aubergine I think I'd better shelve these ideas. My main problem is I know she blends veg up to go in dishes and I'm not sure exactly what veg they will or won't eat even if it is blended in. I don't want to do lasagne as she made that when we went there and blended the veg up before it went in so the little tikes didn't know what was in it, but neither did I! They don't do fish or spicy food either and if they have fajitas all they will eat is the chicken and wrap, with no spice, no pepper, no onion, etc. They even scrape the middles out of new potatoes to avoid the skins and the filling out of pies to just eat the pastry and the bits they like.

I want to cook something nice and a little bit special away from the usual chilli, shepherds pie, toad in the hole, etc and am now considering Beef Bourginuon, Coq au Vin, Chicken Chasseur, Chicken stuffed with tomato & cheddar wrapped in bacon or Steak & ale/mushroom pie, but am just not sure if they will eat any of this? I've ruled out things like Basque chicken due to the chorizo and olives, etc. I'm not the most confident cook and the last time I cooked stuffed chicken just for us I overcooked it so it was really dry and then when I made steak pie for other friends his was full of gristle and I was so embarrassed.

Is roast pork/chicken with lemon & herby roasted new pots (or just plain roasters) and veg to help themselves too boring? Shame it's so wet or a BBQ would be perfect!

I'm sorted for puds, but still not sure whether to bother with an informal starter, eg bruschetta or any similar ideas?

Help!

MLC

lostinrates

The children miht be encouraged by your kids eating well.

Personally, while i try and accomodate i often feel if bread ( andd butter ) is available, and fruit, then even if moany they won't go hungry if all else fails.

If you cook a main you know yours will like, plus a starter like the bruchetta or whatever, the visiting kids may have more of one or other and satisfy themselves.

Cheapskate

What dreadfully bad-mannered children! From a cost and effort point of view, I'd stick with roast meat of some sort, as you suggest, lemon chicken is NOT boring! Besides (or instead of) "normal" veg, why not do a tray of roasted veg? Doesn't have to be expensive stuff, even onions, mushrooms, peppers and courgettes are lovely chopped up and mixed in a bowl with oil, salt and pepper and a few herbs, roast for about 20-30 minutes. Tell the friends what you're making, and suggest she brings something for her kids if they're so fussy.

Parents do their children no favours when they make separate meals - we've always just made one meal - eat it or go hungry! (I do make allowances for real dislikes though )

Hope this helps x

A xo

oldtractor

Its your invite and your house. Cook whatever you want and what you and your children like. if your friends kids dont eat then thats their [and her] problem. They sound ill brought up and bad mannered to me. Dont pander to them.

ragz_2

I would do a roast dinner, that way if they only really eat the meat, potatoes and yorkshire puds then at least they have had something.

Though I agree with the bread and butter thing too and also if you are doing several courses they are bound to eat something. Though if it were me I would hate to serve food I knew would be wasted.

Alternative is tapas style/buffet with fancy things but the odd easy/boring child friendly staple. Then you may be surprised by what they volunteer to try if it hasn't been put on their plates...

pigpen

I'd ignore what their spoiled brat children don't like and cook a meal you like!.. if they don't eat they go hungry you are not a cafe!

(I would only eat the chicken as I don't like wraps either )

They will either eat nothing or wolf it all.. and who cares really? Is it the children or the parents you are friends with and invited for dinner?

I never ate a thing as a child (tinned new potatoes, tinned baby carrots/garden peas and those cocktail hotdogs).. and am rather restricted now as an adult and I've been very careful not to allow my children to rule.. they eat or starve.. which is really hard when 1 has diabetes and has to eat!

THIRZAH

The roast chicken sounds lovely-most kids like chicken and you can easily use up any lefovers.I'm not sure if I'd bother with a starter-they might either refuse to eat or fill themslves up before the main course

My DDs weren't particulary fussy but we were once invited to lunch by one of DHs colleagues. We didn't know them very well and I was a bit concerned that they might serve something that DDs wouldn't like. On the way to lunch I gave DDs a lecture on how bad mannered it is to refuse to eat food when you are a guest etc. I told them that they had to eat everything on their plates but that I would try to serve them and make sure that they only had a small portion of anything they didn't like.The first course was parsnip and orange soup. DDs ate it without a problem but I had to force it down and could taste it for days afterwards!

snowleopard61

Cheapskate wrote: »

Parents do their children no favours when they make separate meals - we've always just made one meal - eat it or go hungry!

I do agree - but many families prefer to eat in two sittings, not something I've ever gone in for even when we had the full complement of adults, and this does lend itself to feeding the children differently, so it's what many of them are used to.

As a family we ate a vegetarian diet when my children were young, and I found that when I had other people's children to visit they were completely unused to the sort of food we normally had. It made sense to feed them something plain and simple that wouldn't scare them! With my own children, as they got older they were quite good at taking on board that it was polite to eat whatever you were given in someone else's house, but it's impossible to get that through to a toddler - as I found to my cost when they didn't like my mother-in-law's cooking (they didn't make a fuss but they wouldn't eat it).

I think the plain roast which the OP felt was boring would go down very well.

snowleopard61

PS It's not only children who are fussy - I once had adult guests one of whom wouldn't eat the main course as she didn't eat cheese and the other the pudding as she didn't eat almonds (she wasn't allergic and this was long before nut allergies became common and well-publicised, otherwise I'd have checked).

adelight

Any of those chicken dishes could work, you could just serve them up a bit of the chicken with minimal sauce and some mash, then everyone help themselves to veg and maybe still some gravy on the table. Then you lots get a nice dinner and they get something uber boring that they will eat.

pink68

What I used to do when the children were younger was cook what I wanted to have and just do there meat seperately.

So i'd make a coq-au-vin but just roast their portion of chicken in a seperate dish without the sauce. Usually they'd then want to try a little of the sauce so they didnt feel left out but I'd not waste that portion of meat if they didnt like the sauce.

I agree children should largely eat what you cook but it's horrible when people feel they have to leave early because they're too polite to say their fussy children are hungry.