A few things we like, depending on what we have in the freezer:

Some variation of pasta and sauce with some protein:

Homemade lentil bolognese I often have in the freezer
Marinara sauce and frozen meatballs
Cheese ravioli and marinara
Marinara sauce,
ricotta and small shells,

I will either do this as an entire meal, or as a way to stretch a meal. So, if I'm planning on 2-3 pieces of chicken per person, and the number of people doubled, then 1-2 pieces plus a generous side of pasta works.

Cheese quesadillas, and taco soup, or black bean soup from the freezer.

Grilled cheese, and soup from the freezer

Smitten Kitchen's pizza beans, with sausage and peppers if I have that.

Breakfast for dinner. Scrambled eggs, maybe with stuff mixed in, and pancakes or freezer waffles.

Homemade pizza made on whole wheat naan.

Anonymous wrote:I keep pitas on hand for these times, and let them make dinner for themselves with pita, hummus, cucumber, feta, lettuce, Kalamata, tomatoes, peppers.
It’s horribly rude for them to impose, but I figure they don’t want to go home for whatever reason so our house is their safe place.
I expect them to clean up afterwards.

It's horribly rude for kids that your kid invited to stay, to stay at a place they were invited?

I keep pitas on hand for these times, and let them make dinner for themselves with pita, hummus, cucumber, feta, lettuce, Kalamata, tomatoes, peppers.
It’s horribly rude for them to impose, but I figure they don’t want to go home for whatever reason so our house is their safe place.
I expect them to clean up afterwards.

Anonymous wrote:If it was on once in awhile I’d just order pizza. Otherwise I always have pasta and jarred sauce around, plus keep frozen meatballs and garlic bread in the freezer.

This is what I do.

I’ve found it’s too hard to keep a lot of extra fresh veggies/fruit around (bc they go bad if not eaten and in my house it’s not reliable there always will be extra teens around at dinnertime) so I just make spaghetti and frozen meatballs with garlic bread and they are happy.

We had a lot of food in the house so I could always add more pasta, rice, salad, bread, whatever. Usually could add more meat.

Last night I made chicken, pasta, and roasted veggies. If my kid had had friends over I would have pivoted to mac and cheese, bbq chicken, and salad.

Could have made regular pasta, tacos, frozen pizza.

You can always order pizza.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We generally have various kinds of burgers and buns in our freezer. Also ground meat or Costco shredded rotisserie chicken that we can turn into quesadillas or nachos. Frozen ravioli and sauce, insta pot bbq quicken sliders (we usually have chicken thighs in the freezer and bbq sauce + buns), spaghetti and frozen meatballs or meatball sliders. Rice bowls are always popular with grilled salmon or another protein but are more labor intensive. We have a chest freezer and order from Butcher Box and stock up from Costco. Now that I’ve mastered quick defrosting methods there’s a lot I can pull together from stuff on hand. Rice and beans and egg-based stuff (huevos is rancheros, breakfast burritos, omelettes) too

NP. Are you prepping these things in addition to the meal you already planned for your family, or are you scrapping the original plan and making this for everyone?

Totally depends on the situation but usually if I end up with a gang of teenagers at my house I’m pivoting on the original dinner plan in some way. It’s rare we’d have multiple kids for dinner on a weekday though. If it’s one of two I make family out of something that will feed us all. We usually somewhat improvise dinner day of anyhow so it’s just adjusting for who is there. If it’s a crowd I might make them all something teen friendly and modify for me and DH.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly usually I just put on a pot of spaghetti. It’s easy and you can keep it on hand.

Just plain noodles and sauce???

Can’t you throw in some frozen meatballs?

Or just butter, salt and garlic.

Teens wolf down that combo.

Anonymous wrote:I keep boxes of the Costco taquitos in the freezer for nights when it’s not a dinner I can stretch. They love them.

Yes.

Costco taquitos are our go to filler in our house full of teen boys.

*99 cent pasta from Trader Joe's with their $1.99 marina sauce
( that ranked #2 in a WP blind taste taste) with their $2.99 parmesan cheese; or

*Instant rice with boiled shrimp ( you can get a 2 lb. frozen bag at Safeway for $10.99); or

*noodles with peanut sauce ( made with Trader Joe's peanut butter diluted with boiling water + flavored with soy sauce or hoison sauce); or

* homemade pizza ( make your own dough with a yeast packet); or

*sloppy joes; or

*baked chicken

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly usually I just put on a pot of spaghetti. It’s easy and you can keep it on hand.

Just plain noodles and sauce???

Can’t you throw in some frozen meatballs?

Top ramen, no flavor packet included, packets of old dark red ketchup only. No salt.

They won't mooch food again off you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly usually I just put on a pot of spaghetti. It’s easy and you can keep it on hand.

Just plain noodles and sauce???

It’s one meal. They’ll be fine

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly usually I just put on a pot of spaghetti. It’s easy and you can keep it on hand.

Just plain noodles and sauce???

Yes.

Anonymous wrote:We generally have various kinds of burgers and buns in our freezer. Also ground meat or Costco shredded rotisserie chicken that we can turn into quesadillas or nachos. Frozen ravioli and sauce, insta pot bbq quicken sliders (we usually have chicken thighs in the freezer and bbq sauce + buns), spaghetti and frozen meatballs or meatball sliders. Rice bowls are always popular with grilled salmon or another protein but are more labor intensive. We have a chest freezer and order from Butcher Box and stock up from Costco. Now that I’ve mastered quick defrosting methods there’s a lot I can pull together from stuff on hand. Rice and beans and egg-based stuff (huevos is rancheros, breakfast burritos, omelettes) too

NP. Are you prepping these things in addition to the meal you already planned for your family, or are you scrapping the original plan and making this for everyone?

Anonymous wrote:Honestly usually I just put on a pot of spaghetti. It’s easy and you can keep it on hand.

Just plain noodles and sauce???