OP here - thanks for the ideas. I dream of having a second fridge!!! So far I haven’t achieved that goal yet

My 12 y/o slept over his friend’s house last night and he said whenever they sleepover that house - the step mom takes them to the grocery store to pick out whatever they want and they enjoy doing that - so I may try that sometime too.

I keep a fridge/freezer in the basement stocked with soda, gatorade, protein drinks, popsicles, ice cream sandwiches. Also frozen breakfast stuff like pancakes/waffles for when they sleep over. And I have a cabinet with individual chips, pretzels, cookies, etc. Like lunchbox snacks. Plus a ton of protein bars. Fruit roll ups also a hit. I always have something on hand that doesn't contain the major allergens. And I order pizza for dinner. These aren't things I normally have in the main pantry area for snacking, but they get devoured when kids are here and I'm convinced my willingness to stock junk food is the reason we are the hang out house.

I do basically the same as all here, but two other frozen items I keep on hand and no one in our family makes/eats unless they have friends over are a giant bag of Totinos pizza rolls and a giant box of mini chicken tacos. Lots of gatorade on hand, too, which generally my kids don’t drink without friends (althought they often grab one after sports on weekends, but it barely dents our supply).