Are my dinners rubbish?

Oh I didn’t know that. I know juice is only one count as much of the fibre doesn’t make it in. But I thought so long as the whole veg/fruit went into the food item it still counted. My understanding was that fibre is slightly more molecular than we think of it; ie; it doesn’t need to be in a bulky form as if we have swallowed a scrubbing brush ( even though we tend to think of something scratchy and bulky being what “ cleans us out.”

The reason I thought this was that I had a cousin who when aged about two or three declined to open their bowels. There used to be ( memorable) chases round the house get them to eat their prune bar, which was made more entertaining by the fact we all thought my aunt was shouting “poo bar.” But there was also a sprinkly bran which was like a powder but apparently contained all the fibre needed to start the action.

Yes. An omelette for dinner is not enough unless I have had a substantial lunch, for example. I wouldn't consider that enough. Pasta and pesto is nice, but needs protein of some sort or I will be hungry later and tempted to snack on something (hopefully fruit but possibly cheese). The menu given is not a balanced diet, despite the description given by OP of very nice salads.
So if I had an omelette it would be a Spanish omelette (so lots of carbs) with a substantial salad probably containing cheese - but/and I would put cheese in the omellette) and a pudding afterwards. I'd have a baked potato with it as well, filled with baked beans.
If I wanted not to do all that I would have perhaps poached salmon, new potatoes (several, no butter) or home-made chips (from one large potato if only serving me), and two or three vegetables (peas/broccolli/spinach etc) along with mushrooms and an egg (fried or poached) and very likely tomatoes (raw).

@Sowhatbigdeal Go to the website Zoe and look at their website under 'Library' - get meal ideas.

There is no definite list. It's any fruit , veg, spices, herbs, nuts, certain beverages, etc but you can't count the same ones twice in the week.

You're not the OP.

She said she didn't live in the UK.

I asked where she lives.

Well it isnt of course. Dont feed the nonsense by even asking!

Well luckily I found out that my fit watch thing, records steps when Im sweeping up and blow drying my hair, so bring it on!!

And honestly for me, 40 minutes is too long to spend cooking every day. I have so many other things I'd rather be doing.

Honestly OP I think your meals are fine. In the real world most some children regularly refuse salad (when I serve salad for DS’s friends (13) most of them don’t eat any of it / pick out the one veg they like.
they also all would just like to eat burgers and pizza and no-one wants my lentil bolognaise / bean chilli.

and for those who whizz up a 13 veg pasta sauce in the blender- it doesn’t really have the same impact on your gut health as the fibre has been broken down and is basically a sugary sauce (just with veg instead of refined sugar). For this reason one of the recipe books I have (eat your way to ten a day) says soup and smoothies only ever count as one of your five a day.

But costs a lot more money than cooking your own food.

We have salmon with sweet potato and broccoli. Mainly because my three year old wouldn't eat salad. They have salad at nursery a couple of times a week but she doesn't eat it (unless it's cucumber salad, which is literally just cucumber slices in a salad dressing, or carrot salad - grated carrots, grated apple and lemon juice). New potatoes are fine but I get to count sweet potato as a vegetable 😂.

Sorry but I wouldn’t be excited to eat those meals. Is it the same every week? We get gousto delivered every week and always have something different each week. I get 5 meals delivered a week and nothing takes more than 40 mins to make and cook.

I agree - but MN is (as I said upthread) incredibly odd when it comes to food and what constitutes a normal, healthy meal.

Op had salad with it 🤷🏻‍♀️

It sounds a lovely mid-week family meal to me.

Because on MN, every single meal has to contain multiple vegetables, herbs and spices

Why is salmon and new potatoes a boring meal?

Well, obviously I don't know every single detail, but I do talk to my friends and know roughly what kind of food they eat, how often they go out and how often they order takeaway etc. I think that's fairly normal.

DH and I get takeaway once a week on average, most people I know are similar - and I know that because they tell me, or share it on social media, or I see them queuing at the chippy up the road, lol.

So every single person you know has announced how many takeaways they have? I can only think of 2 people who I know how many they have.

Because people talk to each other?

I always raise an eyebrow when people confidently post on here that 'I don't know anyone who does or doesn’t do X Y or Z' because how could they possibly know?

Shes wrong anyway. She 100% has met someone who has a takeaway every week. Probably every day too. Its just they haven't announced it and shes taken it as verbatim that they dont.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are pretty rubbish tbh. Salmon and new potatoes is ok but boring.

I feel so disappointed in myself 😔

I get 20k steps in before breakfast just by doing the housework - don't you?!

I do 30k in my sleep before I wake up, you need to stop slacking.

It's only carb-heavy if you are eating a low carb diet for some reason. Also it's only dinners.

I get 20k steps in before breakfast just by doing the housework - don't you?!