To do beans on toast once a week?

@Halfemptyhalfling

why? Salad doesn’t go with beans on toast

Never mind children, I still like beans on toast, or tinned spaghetti or tinned macaroni cheese.

Depends if they'd eat it- baked potato (in microwave).

In a hurry we sometimes have precooked chicken heated in gravy (from granules) with smash and tinned peas.

I do have cucumber and celery sticks with a lot of things, but would draw the line at baked beans.

Controversial view here - all the posts recommending having egg with beans on toast - no, just no. Whether poached, fried, scrambled or microwaved, eggs do not go with beans. On the red letter days when I have a fried breakfast, I make a barrier between the beans and the egg with the sausage and treat them as two separate courses. Then it's fine.

Plus a home cooked meal isn't necessarily healthy. Mine are laden with oil and butter if I don't rein myself in a bit. Also even kids can end up having massive portions and piling the weight on.

Omg having this tonight with an egg on. Perfect dinner

I imagine it is the flavourings, but we're talking about a fraction of a teaspoonful in a half-tin of beans. I really can't get worked up about it.

I know, literally the amount of.posts where people told to add some cucumber to random meals.

If you are asking seriously, it will be the extracts and flavourings. What exactly is in them? Flavourings are often chemically created in a lab.

I am trying to limit UPF after reading some pretty worrying research about its link to disease. But it's completely impractical to eliminate all of it as it is everywhere and there will be a sliding scale. Your M&S beans are probably completely fine, and a lot better than many ready meals. I would not be worrying about them.

For me and for my family, we have chosen to limit UPF by working on our biggest culprits. So swapping bread for brands that don't contain emulsifiers, yoghurts that are milk, fruit and sugar rather than gums and sweeteners and limiting processed meats like cheap ham. We still eat the odd takeaway and quick freezer food but have less UPF than we used to. It works for us and I feel better for it. Many people think it's a load of old shite and are free to eat what they want.

In fairness, the OP mentioned UPF hence some of our replies trying to help her out.

We had beans on toast in the past.

We had convenience food in the week, salad for Saturday tea and a roast dinner on Sunday. My parents both worked in the 1980s but if I went to a mates house and their mum didn't work we still had something like sausages, chips and beans.

I cook from scratch a lot more than my parents did, and DDs have had a better and more varied diet than I had growing up. But it certainly involves things like beans on toast!

Though (this is peak Mumsnet) if you are really worried about how processed baked beans are, you can make your own.

I swear some people on this thread talking about a quick meal of 40 minutes or the horrors of upf and everything has to be cooked from scratch are just sat behind a screen with a big mac laughing. Normal people don't act like this. Normal people finish work at 5/6 pm then have less then 2 hours to feed, bath, do homework and bedtims with multiple children. Cooking healthy homecooked meals from scratch every night was fine years ago when a parent stayed at home all day but that's not the reality anymore.

Baked beans with salad

I mean really!!!

Normal people don't no. People that know nothing about nutrition and think that adding random salad to things that it doesn't go with do. I think it is because they are unable to look at the big picture and take the overall diet eaten over a period of time.

Why though? It doesn't go with beans on toast. What is the point of randomly dumping bits of lettuce or Cucumber on meals it doesn't go with. Have that with something else. Not every meal has to be completely balanced.

I work a late shift and when I get home I have to walk the dog so I often don't get to start cooking until 10.30 at night. Yes, sometimes I slow cook something and sometimes I shove a ping meal in the microwave, but other times I LOVE a toast dinner! Scrambled egg, beans, tinned fish, grated cheese - all delicious. Made even more delicious (in my opinion) with a veeeeery thin layer of Marmite on top of the butter before you add the topping.

And I agree that there should be more of these threads on 'how to make a dinner in less than ten minutes.'

This is such a great idea! We have some sort of weekly beans based meal and I'd never thought of this.

With beans on toast? Seriously? People don't do that do they?

Can you get a bag of salad leaves and have a few on the side and or chopped cucumber,red pepper, carrots or celery

I pretty much agree with you although I feel like you’re comparing beans on toast to something incredibly unhealthy like a plate or dry chicken nuggets or something. Or when you say ‘fed is best’ it kinds of sound like you don’t think beans on toast is a legitimate meal. IDK lol…

Well you’ve heard it here too! It’s no big deal because there literally isn’t anything wrong with beans on toast, it’s better than nothing, hence, if it’s easier for you and they’re fed, it will do along with whatever else people choose to feed their kids.

It’s quick tea options for when you’ve not got much time after school, a couple of other options when you may not fancy beans on toast.

I still don’t get the point you’re trying to make. Yes, fed is best tends to be a term used when feeling babies but fed really is best regardless of what you choose to feed a child of any age.

My version of this is tinned sardines, egg & baked beans/salad with toast. Very quick to do & my DSes love it. Also relatively healthy & cheap.

Oh god and fuck off with the sourdough shit.

It is nutritious meal, beans are nutrient dense and count towards your 5 a day. Good carbs, protein and other nutrients. Bread is fine, butter is even better, cheese is good protein and calcium, chuck an egg on it for more protein and more nutrients.

People are talking on here (some people) as if 'it will do', it will more than do, its a healthy balanced meal.

Exactly exactly this.

UPF beans? I buy M&S beans from Ocado - 50p for a 400g tin. These are the ingredients:
Haricot Beans (49%), Tomatoes (33%), Water, Sugar, Cornflour, Salt, Vinegar, Dried Onions, Paprika, Paprika Extract, Flavouring, Onion Oil, Garlic Extract

Please point to the ingredients or processes that make this humble tin of beans into ultra-processed food.