How many hot meals do your DC have per day?

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Not including the height of summer or during a heatwave obviously when they’re lucky if they get 3 hot meals per week, mine generally have 3 per day

My Mum has made comments before about how only one is ‘necessary’ but she has a lot of weird food things so I never really gave it any mind however another family member was in our house yesterday as I was tidying up from a hot lunch and she said ‘oh amazing you’ll only have to do a sandwich for tea now’ the Dc told her we were making pizzas for tea and she said ‘oh I wouldn’t bother again after hot food at dinner time’ blew her mind when I said they’d also had a hot breakfast

So now I’m wondering - is it really that strange?

I’m not talking three course meals for breakfast lunch and dinner here just food that happens to be warm for three meals per day - porridge/eggs/pancakes for breakfast, toasties/soups/pasta/jacket potatoes/beans on toast for lunch (school dinners during the week) and normal dinner stuff at dinner

Is this really that unusual?

Each to their own but I'm surprised when someone on MN says, as the DC had a hot lunch at nursery/school they only needed a sandwich and a yoghurt for tea. I've read it many times.

Nothing wrong with a sandwich and yoghurt but just strikes me as odd as to the reason.

@watcherintherye yes i agree with you, but that’s all I was cleaning up when the family member commented yesterday that I wouldn’t have to cook again, I personally don’t really think toasties in the toastie maker and warming beans in the microwave for example is really cooking either, not a cooked meal just food that happens to be warm I guess 🤷🏻‍♀️
My 13 year old would argue that he is absolutely cooking and ‘fending for himself’ if he manages to make himself beans on toast though 🙄😁

I am totally with you, but my mum is the same. if we went out and had a hot lunch eg pasta she would then say "oh we won't need anything for tea now". She would then just make a piece of toast or have a banana or something. I don't get it all all! Because five hours later I will be ready for more food regardless of the temperature of lunch! Particularly so with children! My mum has a lot of food issues I think though and as a teenager I found I wasn't 'allowed' to feel hungry at certain times or that treats had to be 'earned' so I think her relationship with food is off in general and I take no notice now!

Two or three. This climate is too cold for cold food for my liking 🙂. Nutritionally though it makes no difference.

I brought my children up having 3 hot meals per day and I now do the same with my grandchildren when they’re with me. My children also give their children 3 hot meals per day. I think you can provide nicer/more enjoyable meals with plenty of variety when they’re cooked meals.

I find my appetite shrinking now I’m older, I wonder if your mum has just forgotten that younger people and children need more food

I’m in Ireland where it’s not the norm for schools to have kitchens and hot school dinners so they have a packed lunch. We always have a hot cooked evening meal. Breakfast can be either hot or cold.

I think if it’s a hearty soup it’s easy to eat as it can just be mushed up. Cawl/kale for eg

any other kind I’d assume the baby was being fed the soup or maybe having it with bread soaked in it to make it a heavier meal or easier to eat.

I think it's a hangover from being poor and being mindful of the cost of heating things that I was glad when DC's took school dinners as I saw that as their main meal so they only needed a toastie/ eggs/ beans/ baked potato etc for dinner. I suppose these are still hot but not what I'd think of as a cooked dinner.

My DC's have never liked bacon or porridge so no hot breakfasts unless I suppose toast is hot!?

Maybe pancakes for breakfast (but really brunch) a few times a year.

If the main meal is dinner then lunch will be sandwich/ toastie or beans or eggs.

I think we are quite a simple eating family!

I don’t have DC but my mum has the same view as yours - if I had a school dinner instead of my usual packed lunch I would just have a light dinner that day like a sandwich. Swapping which time the main meal was, effectively. But that’s more because it’s a more substantial meal than because it’s hot. Which does make sense to me - no need for two main meals during the day just because you had it earlier. If I have a roast dinner at lunchtime I don’t usually have an evening meal for example.

One or two even when they were home full time - breakfast only cooked at the weekend, sandwich (packed lunch no free school dinners for infants then and they hated school dinners anyway) for lunch, hit dinner in the evening around 6.30pm

Grown now, both ideal weight and healthy so it definitely works

This. If I have my children porridge for breakfast, pizza for lunch and a full meat and two veg dinner I would still only really view that as one “hot meal” in the traditional sense even though porridge and pizza/toast is actually hot.

Three. I am Asian - and although spouse is white british - we tend to have more hot meals.

kids breakfast - poached egg, porridge

school/nursery meal : always hot
our lunches - leftover or ready meals - always hot

dinner - proper dinners curries roasts etc

Between 0 and 3. In the winter usually 3 as they will have porridge for breakfast, school dinners and then a cooked dinner too.

But in answer to your question mine generally have two since they have school meals.

Three if you count porridge/beans on toast/toastie (all of which we have for breakfast). But if generally only say three if I was doing a full English

My 3yo won't eat cold lunches like sandwiches etc so I tend to do a hot meal reheat of some kind. He's underweight so it's not an issue in terms of food quantity. I suppose he does have toast in the morning too which would be hot if we had a better toaster!

Between 1 and 3. Yesterday it was 3. They have pancakes ir porridge on Saturdays. Ham and cheese toasie for lunch with soup. Sausages, mash, veg for dinner.

Weds is was 1 - cereal for breakfast, roast at school, sandwiches for dinner. (They love tge school cooks roast, and often have seconds, abd then cant manage a fulll meal later)

I don't t think it really matters.

How do you define a hot meal?
Is toast hot?
What about toasting your sandwich?
Or cooking some pasta with tomato sauce, then having it cold in a lunch box? (My kids love this...)
Or I make some spicy rice to go with salad and leftover ham or chicken... is that hot or cold?

Generally though...
Breakfast could be eggs, cereal, toast, fruit&yoghurt, croissants etc... can be hot or cold
Lunch is something like sausage roll, beans on toast, sandwich, toastie, wraps, salad.. a lighter meal. Again hot or fold
Dinner is a protein/veg/carb sort of thing. Usually has one hot element minimum.

One or two on weekdays, two or three at the weekend.

DD has packed lunches for school, which are usually cold, but in winter she sometimes takes hot food in a flask. We have a cooked dinner every night. Breakfast is usually cold.

Weekends porridge/pancakes for breakfast, sandwiches or "on toast" for lunch, cooked dinner.

When I was a child it was usually cooked lunch OR cooked dinner - never both.

I only cook one "proper" meal a day, but the other meal will probably also technically be "hot" (beans on toast, tinned soup + part baked bread, warmed up quiche, cheese toasties etc). But that's just because I'm lazy and cheap! I wouldn't think it at all odd that other people cook proper sit-down meals twice a day.

I wouldn't refer to a toasted sandwich as a 'hot meal'. It's just a warmed sandwich, to me a 'hot meal' is a more substantial cooked meal. A toasted sandwich isn't a 'meal' as such. I think what your mum means is children don't need 3 large meals a day. I don't think of porridge as a 'hot meal' it's just warm cereal. I think it's probably just how you are describing things to you mum that's confusing her, telling her you've given the kids a 'hot meal' at lunchtime when you've given them a toasted sandwich is making her think you've given them a roast dinner, or spaghetti Bolognese, or a curry or something.

Usually 3 in the colder months.
Breakfast is usually porridge or toast based. Is toast classed as hot food?

Lunch can be cold as in sandwich but often hot food in flask or something egg based, soup or leftovers at home.
The kids might use the air fryer.

Dinner is always a cooked meal.
I don't know anyone who thinks hot meals should be limited. It's a bizarre conceit to me.

At least one always

It varies. Sometimes they might have eggs for breakfast, soup or a toastie for lunch and a main meal in the evening.
Another day they might have cereal and a sandwich. They usually have a hot meal at school but might take a packed lunch.

If your dc were having a full English and two main meals a day I would think it odd, but the food you describe is fairly standard. What does the temperature of the food actually matter anyway? They have breakfast, lunch and dinner!

Some days 2 some days 3, depends on my work schedule and if I’m there to cook for them in the morning. They have packed lunch for school and don’t eat lunch at the weekend. Then it’s just dinner.