Anonymous wrote:What's wrong with you OP? Heat up a frozen pizza and call it a day. Serve some fruit on the side.

Anonymous wrote:Stop trying to feed kids weird shi7. Give them cheese pizza, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, turkey & cheese (sandwiches or served separately with crackers, pancakes with whipped cream or maple syrup, ….. My kids aren’t even picky, but they wouldn’t eat yogurt on pancakes.

Anonymous wrote:Play dates are not the time to push healthy eating on friends, so I would throw that out the window. Plain cheese pizza (not whole wheat, no veggies), boxed Kraft or Annie’s mac and cheese, and frozen regular chicken nuggets are my go to options that almost all kids like. With fruit and veggies on the side - like slices apples and cucumbers, strawberries or sugar snap peas. Dips are also popular - mashed avocado with chips, hummus and veggies etc. on the side, but not all kids like them so I would serve them along side a meal.

I generally feed my kids more like you do on a regular basis, but playdates are special occasions where I want both kids to have fun and eat so they aren’t cranky. Occasional ‘junk’ food isn’t going to ruin your kids eating habits. If I am eating lunch too, I’ll always offer the kids what I’m having in case they want to try something else. If I have the same kids over repeatedly, I’ll learn what kind of things they like and how open they are to trying new things.

Anonymous wrote:What's wrong with you OP? Heat up a frozen pizza and call it a day. Serve some fruit on the side.

Anonymous wrote:I do chicken nuggets, cheese quesadillas, or mini meatballs (Trader Joes frozen) with pasta and choice of butter or jarred red sauce. Sometimes corn dogs.

Cut fruit and veg on the side - usually apple slices, grapes or strawberries and carrot sticks or sliced cucumber.

Anonymous wrote:Play dates are not the time to push healthy eating on friends, so I would throw that out the window. Plain cheese pizza (not whole wheat, no veggies), boxed Kraft or Annie’s mac and cheese, and frozen regular chicken nuggets are my go to options that almost all kids like. With fruit and veggies on the side - like slices apples and cucumbers, strawberries or sugar snap peas. Dips are also popular - mashed avocado with chips, hummus and veggies etc. on the side, but not all kids like them so I would serve them along side a meal.

I generally feed my kids more like you do on a regular basis, but playdates are special occasions where I want both kids to have fun and eat so they aren’t cranky. Occasional ‘junk’ food isn’t going to ruin your kids eating habits. If I am eating lunch too, I’ll always offer the kids what I’m having in case they want to try something else. If I have the same kids over repeatedly, I’ll learn what kind of things they like and how open they are to trying new things.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nanny here- I make a tapas type of deal for each kid, so they can pick and choose what they like. I make a plate that looks eye catching with little bits of chopped carrots, cucumbers, red peppers, hummus, cheese, turkey or chicken, plus hummus and ranch. I add a few cashews, raisins, dried mango, crackers, fresh apples, grapes, and strawberries. I then make a hummus sandwich and call it a day. It’s literally little bits of each thing on a plate. Whatever they don’t eat (shhhhh) gets recycled and arranged in a cute eye appealing way for their snack plate. I add some more fresh fruit plus whatever they actually ate for lunch on the snack plate and call it a day.

In the pantry and fridge I have a bin labelled ‘playdates’ and all the dried fruit/crackers and then fruit/veg/cheese etc is kept in those bins, so when we have a play date I grab the bins and just put things on plates. It seems time consuming but it’s not. Parents always rave about my play date spreads, but honestly it just makes my life easier serving little bits of this and that, so kids can choose what they want to eat.

You're not seriously reserving food that was out and touched by kids hours later. Please tell me you aren't actually doing something that germy.

Otherwise putting things out sounds fine, but once something is actually on a plate, it doesn't get re-served.

I think she's saying that the kids have their own spread and if they don't eat something on it, it reappears on the same kids plate later. I do that with my kids all the time.