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?

^ I agree with this. I’m Indian origin and think the 1 hot meal a day thing is a very weird British cultural quirk 😁

I have more hot food when it’s cold, cold food when it’s boiling out .., can be 3 hot or 3 cold depending on the weather

I do understand only wanting to make 1 more involved ‘from scratch’ meal a day, but lots of hot lunches are quite simple/quick (eg eggs, meals on toast, soups etc)

I’ve never thought about it… I don’t think it would be that unusual in winter.

We average about 2 hot meals a day.
3 of us quite often have eggs or rice for breakfast.
2 of us usually have hot soup or noodles or dahl for lunch.
Everyone has a cooked meal in the evening.

One hot meal a day here for us.

Breakfast is usually cereal
Lunch is packed lunches/sandwiches
Tea/Dinner is the hot meal.

I wonder if this is a generation thing. My Mum is like this. If we end up eating something hot out for lunch, for example, she will assume we'll have sandwiches for dinner - even if DH has been in the office all day! It's like anything hot is a "main meal" and anything cold is more snacky. Even thought lots of hot meals are much more nutritious (and low calorie) than cold things like sandwiches/cheese and crackers etc.

I don’t get the need to have one hot meal a day either!
A sandwich might have more calories/more unhealthy than a hot meal, or you might have 2 cold ones. As long as healthy and fed I don’t understand the need to have to have a minimum of 1 hot meal to be healthy.

I always think that some posters must be really sad reading a thread like this when they can't afford to cook one hot meal never mind three.

At least one hot meal, normally two and on the weekends three - I’m skint too but I cook from scratch because it’s healthier - in cold weather, warm food cheers you up too

Depending on weather, two during the week as Dc always want a packed lunch. Although eldest may have 3 hot meals depending on what’s available. Both will have 3 at the weekend tho.

Just 1 a day. They have sandwiches for dinner whether they're at school or not and get hot food at tea time. Today it was plain pasta with oil.

Completely depends on the culture. In much of Asia they find it weird that our breakfasts and lunches aren't always hot.

However in the Netherlands and Germany they're big fans of bread with cheese or meat (cold) for breakfast and lunch.

Personally I like hot meals for at least two meals of the day and often have three. But I'm sometimes fine with a picnic style cold lunch.

It's up to you basically.

Two, occasionally three. Usually cereal for breakfast, school lunch, cooked tea (pasta, noodles, curry, veggie sausages with mash and veg).

Very occasionally have a hot breakfast at weekends (DS loves scrambled egg on toast, or pancakes). No way am I getting up 30mins earlier to cook eggs on a school day though.

We are vegetarian and I prefer cooking hot food because it is much easier to get nutrition into DS that way. Cheese sandwiches don’t seem as nutritious to me as a veggie sausage with mash and 3 types of veg, tofu and vegetable noodles, or vegetable biryani, even though the calorie content probably isn’t that different for a child’s portion.

Some people are a bit weird about hot food. I feel the dc need hot food more at this time of year. Possibly there isn’t much difference nutritionally but porridge for breakfast seems so warming. Hot chocolate coming in from the cold type stuff. I aim for three hot meals but tricky when you have stuff after school also they sometimes choose a sandwich for school lunch.

How do you do your eggs if they take 30 mins to cook?

Extra prep time, extra washing up. Cereal takes under 30sec to make.

On weekdays 1.

Unless they have porridge for breakfast. Then 2.

Kids have 3, I usually have 1. My husband barely eats so god knows what he has.

Anywhere between zero and 3 depending on what they choose at school and what happens to be for dinner.

I really don’t give it a second thought

Is the family member roughly 20 years older than you by chance? I've had several female family members act like this when they hit their fifties - their metabolism slows down, they're suddenly not so hungry so many times a day and so anyone who wants food more often than "one big meal then snacky meals" per day is unreasonable. Suddenly it's all "okay, we'll meet at 11am for brunch, don't eat before then".

(I have to eat little and often or I feel crap. They get short shrift from me)

Fairly normal in winter I think.

Ds has warm croissant or hot toast with melty butter and marmite for breakfast. Does that count?

When he's not at school, he usually has soup and a sandwich or hot sausage rolls or pizza etc for lunch with salad. And a hot supper