To think this is a perfectly fine evening meal?

This reminds me of the thread where a poster said she had cereal for breakfast yet a friend/relative/fellow guest had nice cheeses, good quality meats and she couldn't understand how she was so slim eating that when cereal eater was not.

It's not the quantity of food. It's the right kind of food.

You could eat 200* calories of chocolate versus 200 calories of slow release food and mange until next meal but not if eating the chocolate etc.

Obviously for ease *

Eat what you want, when you want and tell her to mind her own business

@VestibuleVirgin my grand parents used to say overfaced for a situation where a meal was just too big for the person being served. My DS used to be easily overfaced and people used to do it to him regularly at things like parties where they piled the plates high. He'd then leave it all as he was overwhelmed whereas if he'd been allowed to have a couple of items at a time he would have eaten more. He' a teenager now and has hollow legs so it didn't last!

It looks fine to me. Solidarity from one coeliac to another! The M&S tiger bread might go with it?

It's fine. Yes, it's quite a lot of food but it's your lunch and dinner combined!

Yes - the bits you would pick at while you are making the dinner. (Roast heron, 53 different vegetables with Yorkshire puddings and at Chateau Viper tonight, then after that starter . . . )

EDIT: Spelling

I love those types of meals with leftovers, it looks delicious!. As you didn’t have lunch and were working all day it’s definitely not too much. Greedy is a horrible word to use in the context of food, it’s weirdly judgemental. Your aunty doesn’t sound very nice.

Looks like a snack to me.

@IroningThrone here goes. Each individual item (in theory) is fine although the quality of that ham looks horrible.
I’m a fan of each of those items but; cheese and cottage cheese is redundant, same with coleslaw and salad, and coleslaw dressing and salad dressing.
looks to me like most of these items are packaged preserved.
I’d start by combining and presenting it differently. I’d have added (much much nicer) ham into the pan fries, which could use some yellow or red pepper. Then combined the slaw and salad adjusting it with cider vinegar if too dry. I’d grate the cheese and either grill it on top of the pan fries or garnish it on top of the salad. The cottage cheese I’d serve on the side, with pineapple or have as a later snack.
It’s not the quantity but quality and farm to table (preservative) aspect.
its a deconstructed meal similar to how I’d present to a toddler or a clean out the fridge situation.

Probably your time of the month.

Don't beat yourself up about it - just learn from the experience.

Not only that - people's calorific needs depend on:

1. their activity levels. Someone who is shovelling gravel all day is likely to need more calories than someone who is in a sedentary job at a desk

2. their metabolic rate. High metabolism burns off calories quicker than low. This can be related to ethnicity. Some body types, because of the conditions in which they have evolved, tend to convert calories to fat more effectively than others

3. hormone levels. Endocrinology is very complex and the interplay of such hormones as thyroid /ATCH/ etc is not straightforward.

I'm sure there will be more.

I agree, you sound lovely @Lianna077
My MIL is like that, happily eats beans on toast herself, but would always fill the fridge to the brim and make cakes for visitors 😊

I think it looks reasonable. I would eat similar to this and a similar quantity. I'd actually probably eat more after too if I'd missed lunch, especially if I'd been active that day.

It doesn't matter whether he was joking or not, that is a horrendously crass and rude thing to say. I hope he has genuinely learned his lesson and understands why it is never appropriate to make "light hearted jokes" like that.

I'm sure your husband meant it lightheartedly, but I think she was within her rights to be pissed off. Good on him for taking it on the chin and knowing not to make comments going forward.

All I can say OP , is she normally a rude dismissive person ? because if not she may have meant it as a 'light hearted joke' - my H once said to someone we know - 'blimey , you will be a right fat pig having that' (to a very tiny someone ordering a small side salad as a main meal) thing was though this lady had a real issue around eating which he didn't know and then told me he was being a bully when even I could see he was joking. He's never commented on anyone's food since though!

I cannot stand people commenting on other peopole's food. Fuck all the way off.

FWIW that looks absolutely delicious, a perfectly acceptable amount of food, and very balanced.

But my opinion is actually irrelevant, as it's your dinner and not mine.

@soupfiend just a mention that Poundland sell it! Yep I was shocked but there you are . I buy 3 tubs a time as it's got a fairly long life.

You're all talking monthly food intake here of course?
I must admit when I really want to treat myself I just have a MASSIVE salad.

I’m a greedy cow and would eat more

Looks completely fine to me!
You need a quite large portion when a lot of it is fairly low-calorie stuff, like the salad, cottage cheese etc. It's about the same as what I'd serve myself.

Your aunt is being obnoxious. But my mum would probably have said something a bit similar, but more like "I'll never eat all this!" if I'd served it to her.
It's a bit of a generational thing perhaps? A throw-back to that horrible diet-era of the 70s and 80s.

I know....I'm so ashamed of myself.

I was actually not hungry after my huge cucumber slice last night.....don't know why I did it, I just lost all control.

A whole grape?

Greedy mare. This morning I had the peel from half a grape, but only because I'm doing an ultra marathon.

I just had a single grape for breakfast and I am STUFFED. Honestly, it's truly uncomfortable. You greedy mares having a whole slice of bread at one time deserve to be at LEAST 5 stones overweight.