Are my dinners rubbish?

Lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes etc have nutrients, antioxidants and fibre. I have lots of other things in my salads (chickpeas, beetroot, carrot, pepper etc) but any salad vegetables are good for you. Obviously variety is the key.

What bit is batshit though?

A meal of pesto pasta won’t do any harm. But five or six fruit or veg a day isn’t batshit: that’s only two at most per meal. The problem is we’ve only seen one meal of ops list which often has one veg tops. But if they had a banana and an orange juice when they came home from school ( which is hardly batshit), that changes things. Juice isn’t ideal but does count as fruit.

This thread is the height of MN batshittery around food.

3 of those 7 are proper meals (Thursday, Friday and Sunday if the lasagne has lots of vege in it/with it). If that’s average every week yeah the rest isn’t great. Especially a weekly takeaway. I’ve never met anyone who has a weekly takeaway but I’ve heard of it here on mumsnet!

Every so often there is a post that is beautiful in its candid straightforwardness! 😂

@Sharptonguedwoman iceburg lettuce, snippets of green onion with a slice of tomato is hardly a vitamin powerhouse. If “salad” is to be the vegetable aspect of the meal it needs to be full of a variety of veggies and herbs.

I wouldn’t like them. But that’s probably why I’m fat.

I agree op that many Dc wouldn’t eat that well. I just think you need to increase the veg - though I don’t know what they have at lunch and breakfast.

What are people on, looks good to me@ surely this is healthier than your average kid's diet. Takeaway once a week is frequent but it if they're actually eating the mix of salad and a healthy weight I think that's fine

Oh yeah and mushrooms. I think you’d be surprised if you take notice.

We do a Tuesday and a Friday shop and that probably helps.

I get very confused by 'pan frying' - you mean shallow fry, presumably?

Actually I’m just thinking about this.

I did another shop yesterday morning and instead of apples and satsumas I got cherries and apricots. I did repeat broccoli and cherry tomatoes as veg but didn’t get cauliflower or park Choi and instead got aubergine. Blackberries instead of raspberries. So we’d actually have been even closer than 15 ( more like 20) this week, and that’s without having read this to know it “ should” be 30 . But I accept it’s much harder when there isn’t so much fruit and variety available as in the summer.

In any case, I think it’s more about mixing it up than 30 being a magic number.

Only 31? Shocking. Personally I eat every single plant, every single day. Anything else is the equivalent of McDonald's and coke.

OH had four this week and he's a nine stone skinny bean.

What is sad about this thread is the closed mindsets of some posters who won't even begin to consider 30 different plants a week.

Or maybe, being grown adults, they know more about their own budgets, tastes and lifestyle than a total stranger, and that it's not something they want to aim for or care about.

It sounds fine.

Maybe you could make a pasta sauce and use some for the Tuesday meal and the rest for the lasagne or another dish? That way you could get more veg in, rather than just plain pesto.

But I don't see why anyone should be slagging it off? If you and your kids and husband like it then what's the issue?

Excellent! Thank you for the education I am taking notes about the KFC spices. I prefer to consume 31 different plants because I'm simply better than the rest of you. Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to smear plain yoghurt and seeds over my children's faces. That will teach them to prefer sugar. ( if it wasn't obvious I forage for the seeds myself and produce my own yoghurt using my own breast milk)

Just to add- to achieve the variation we have frozen veg, tins of green lentils and various beans, frozen fruit for porridge. So pretty easy to increase your variation without everything going off.

chat gpt is good for taking the mind off meal planning. Also using gusto for a bit or hello fresh and adding extra frozen veg on the side or add extra veg in the curries etc- good for getting out of a rut.

Could you add some chopped cherry tomatoes?

They sound nice but I think I would struggle to stay alive on them. And rice and potatoes with salad? That's two lots of carbs. Where is your protein?

What is sad about this thread is the closed mindsets of some posters who won't even begin to consider 30 different plants a week.

Or who come over a 'proud' of eating less than healthily and feeding their kids the same. And getting angry when anyone challenges what they're feeding their kids.

Spices and herbs count for a half a 'point each.
Tea, coffee, chocolate and red wine count.

You don't need a huge amount of space. or a lot of money. If you're spending £30 on a take away for a family you could get loads of better food for that.

Are you vegetarian? I think some of the salad nights are missing some protein x

i think about how we’re supposed to have a variation of >30 fruit, veg, legumes and pulses each week.
so I would bulk out meals with extra things like lentils and beans to add variation. I also rotate the carbs so pasta, gnocchi , buckwheat, sweet potatoes- so it’s not always the same carb source too.

children need good fats and omega for brain development so I’d add more dairy and protein to the meals. Think where you can add in nuts and avocados. We use peanut butter on toast as a snack or guacamole with eggs. I think omelette or eggs and beans on toast once a week is fine for an easy meal.

if you’re family are happy it’s ok but look up The Daily Dozen and it might be you want to vary things a little more. Most of us probably have the same sort of meal we cook every week though!

OP- your meals are fine. The only things I would suggest to add to your list are jacket potatoes with various fillings, stir fry or fried rice using up bits of veg , chunky soup with buttered rolls, chicken tray bake.