Help me better stock the house for teen/tween boys?

[Anonymous]

What do you keep on hand in the house for teen / tween boys that come over? I feel like I need to keep the house better stocked for impromptu kids coming over. And do I keep a certain area of food that for is for when guests come over only so we don’t eat it regularly and then not have it available for guests? I can’t really grocery shop more than once a week?? Thanks for advice.

[Anonymous]

It’s really whatever you are comfortable with and what your kids will eat. For a while, it was easier for me to order a bunch of cheap pizza than worry about having enough always on hand for if a group would show up. I never had a guest only section of my house. My teen son can and still does eat a lot.

Or if you don’t want to order and want food available, go to the frozen section of Costco and buy all of the stuff you normally wouldn’t. They will eat it. Frozen pizzas, cheese sticks, hot pockets, egg rolls, taquitos…

[Anonymous]

They eat what I have in the house, I may order a pizza or they go home and eat. I don’t cater to other peoples kids.

[Anonymous]

We like to keep a bunch of stuff in the cupboard for them to snack on. If they're going for an actual meal, we order pizza or I cook a larger portion of our regular dinner plan.

Snacks our teens and their friends like:
Chips
Granola bars
Kraft Mac & cheese boxes
Ramen
Beef jerky or sausage sticks
Cookies
Sprite & coke

[Anonymous]

If I have things like chips my kids would just eat them and we wouldn’t have them for when kids come over, unless I hid them.
We usually have frozen bean burritos and those frozen Jamaican meat patties. Lorelei yogurt. Popcorn kernels that they can make in the air popper with lots of flavoring seasoning (old bay, cheddar etc). Ramen. Usually tortilla and cheese for quick quesadillas. If I know kids are coming I will stop and buy taquis or something like that.

[Anonymous]

I usually just order Dominos - honestly.

[Anonymous]

If it falls near a mealtime I will often just order cheap chain pizza (Dominos etc). If DH is home he will grill them some burgers which always goes over well (we keep frozen patties in the freezer).

For snacks, frozen stuff like pizza rolls or chicken tenders go over well- air fryer type stuff. Also ice cream bars.

For drinks, usually sports drinks like Gatorade or Powerade etc. or they often prefer water.

Lots of junk food for sure…

[Anonymous]

Ok! We order pizza too. I just felt like I wanted to try to have stuff in the house to be prepared in advance but I guess everyone else seems to be doing basically what I am doing too. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

My experience is that boys this age love processed unhealthy food and don’t appreciate it when you put a lot of effort into making things, so I do some combination of the following:

Gatorade
Domino’s
Ice cream/froyo
Loft house cookies (can get at giant; kids love these!)
Doritos or other chips
tortilla chips with cheese dip or salsa or guacamole
Chick fil A




If I put out bowls of sliced apples and cucumbers, the kids eat these too.

[Anonymous]

We have a chest freezer that I stock with stuff from Costco for my two voracious teen boys. Usually there’s enough if there to share. Sometimes I’ll get a box of pizza bagels or taquitos or something and write “guests only!” on it. As long as there’s other stuff for them to eat, they’ll leave it alone. We also get the big bags of chips from Costco and my kids won’t open those without permission (other bags/boxes get devoured in a sitting or two) but are great to have when there’s a crowd.

[Anonymous]

I buy frozen pizza, frozen ravioli, chicken strips or nuggets and refrigerator cookie dough for when I have to feed my kids friends or if I want my kids to have a quick meal and I don't feel like cooking.

I keep Slim Jim, cheese sticks, icecream bars, microwave popcorn and some type of "healthy" gummy (think fruit leather).

I always have fresh fruit and rarely mind when the kids eat it. Except one time this kid came over on Sunday and ate a whole costco sized blueberry container.

[Anonymous]

Protein bars
Fruit
Water bottles
Gatorade
My teens always have their friends over, I usually order them pizza.

[Anonymous]

Im so glad I’m not the only one just ordering pizza for them! My kid’s friends seem to like candy. I’m stocking up on some of their favorites now.

[Anonymous]

Pita chips and hummus
Guacamole packs and tortillas
Protein bars
They like to make protein shakes so we have Orgain pea protein powder, almond milk, peanut and almond butter and bananas usually on hand for that
We don’t drink sodas and I just don’t want it in the house but we have a lot of flavored seltzer waters
Frozen pizzas /Trader Joe’s flatbreads

[Anonymous]

My son and his friends would usually order from Door Dash. Most of his friends (and my son) have money from summer jobs so they pay. I don’t have any more money to feed extra kids.