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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to ask what you all eat as a family?

150 replies

OhTheConfusion · 21/08/2012 20:10

We had friends over for dinner tonight and DH cooked as I was working till 5.30 and he is a lucky so and so who is still on his summer holidays!

DH made us all (4 adults and 5 children... aged, 10, 9, 7, 6 and 11mths) chickpea, roast pepper, tomato and cumin stew with sliced rump of beef. Our three tucked in (including baby as made with no salt... only adult beef seasoned) whilst the others kind of poked their food and looked at us Confused.

DH asked if they were ok and they replied 'we don't eat healthy food'. I was so flustered I didn't know what to say.

Please tell me not everyone eats pizza and chips seven nights a week?!? (this is what I dug out the freezer for them).

OP posts:
PatTheHammer · 21/08/2012 20:34

These are my fail-safe meals when families with kids are staying with us:

Cottage Pie
Lasagne
Roast chicken dinner
Make your own pizzas with bases, sauce, toppings and cheese provided
Sausage casserole
Chicken and Ham pie with mash
Macaroni and veggie cheese bake
Fish pie.......checking that they like fish first.

I would never waste decent rump of beef on guests fgs.....cheap and cheerful is the way forwardWink.

ThisIsMummyPig · 21/08/2012 20:35

With my kids it would depend how it was served - they both eat beef, but in a meat and 2 veg way. They both eat pasta and bol sauce, but like them served seperatly. They would eat the peppers, DD2 would eat the chickpeas, DD1 might or might not. If it was spicy neither of them would touch it.

As a rule we prob have spag bol, stew and potatos, meat or fish and 2 veg, risotto, sausage and chips in a typical week - some of them more than once depending on what veg we have in (my brother is a greengrocer so he sells me his gone off stock at vastly reduced prices)

Lunches are sandwiches, pitta, pasta, fishfingers or pizza - no more than twice a week for any of them or I get bored.

If you had a menu in mind, I would actually run it past your friend before you cooked it just to make sure.

Original poster
OhTheConfusion · 21/08/2012 20:36

Ismeyes... batch cooking and organisation is sooooo far from our house. More grab stuff in supermarket most days! Feel free to have the leftovers... there is plenty!!!

OP posts:
thestringcheesemassacre · 21/08/2012 20:37

Mine would eat the beef, but not the stew.
It was a fairly adventurous meal for children I think.

For a first time family meal like that I would of done a roast chicken and potatoes with salad or pasta or something a bit more straight forward.

IsabelleRinging · 21/08/2012 20:38

MMMM your dinner sounds lovely and would be something I might cook at the weekend or if we had dinner guests.

We eat a wide range of dishes, these spring to mind and I eat them in roation.

chicken breast with sauce veg and potatoes,
fish fingers, chips and peas,
pasta dishes, (various)
lasagne
stew or casserole
salad with ham/chicken/quiche
cottage pie and cabbage
pizza and salad
pork chops, veg and potatoes
curry
homemade burgers and chips
fishcakes, cous cous and salsa
salmon steak with veg and potatoes,
sweet and sour chicken and rice,
stirfry chicken and veg and noodles or rice
etc

gordyslovesheep · 21/08/2012 20:38

mine may have ate that - I wouldn;t as I don't eat red meat

thing is I wouldn;t be snotty about it - not everyone likes the same food. I have one who wont eat cheese another who can't bare fish and a third who will eat anything but eggs - it makes life difficult!

Ismeyes · 21/08/2012 20:39
Smile
PatTheHammer · 21/08/2012 20:45

Gordy- Mine won't eat eggs either, weirdos! Although as I found out at a picnic today they will both eat those disgusting egg mayonnaise ball thingys

What do you do with people that don't eat CHEESE, who are these mad people? Cheese is the best thing ever?

btw OP, my two would have devoured that meal as they do love a good chickpea stew, although DH would have picked out the peppers and let the side down I'm afraid.

WelshMaenad · 21/08/2012 20:47

It sounds gorgeous and the sort of thing o cook on a weeknight that my family would love, as well as my 'foody' friends, but experience has taught me that OPC often aren't used to my c

NovackNGood · 21/08/2012 20:47

They'd eat it if they were hungry and you didn't pander to their fussy hankering for nursery food when they are at the adults table.

Haberdashery · 21/08/2012 20:47

My daughter would have loved that meal. But on the other hand she won't eat perfectly normal things that most people love like mash or bananas so it's swings and roundabouts.

She also loves pizzas and quite likes chips but not together because she's only five and has no idea you could have them together, and I think having pizza and chips is all kinds of wrong as they don't even go together. Curry and chips is really nice, though.

I do think it's a bit of an optimistic choice for a meal with children. I would have played it safe with a pasta dish or roast chicken or something.

akaemmafrost · 21/08/2012 20:49

My ds had pepperoni pizza for his last two Christmas Dinners OP. That should give you some idea of what we like to chow down round these parts.

My kids would have fainted if you'd served that up to them. A bit Try Hard I think.

WelshMaenad · 21/08/2012 20:51

Crapsticks! Aren't used to my cooking. Not in a 'they eat nothing but crap' way, but I many aren't used to richly spiced, 'adult' food with stuff like olives and chorizo in. It's just not what they're used to.

My failsafe OPC meal is mini tortilla wraps with a selection if fillings like shredded chicken, ham, cheese, pizza style sauce, peppers, sweetcorn etc. and let them make their own, in winter I'll bake them like enchiladas.

Northernlurkerisonholiday · 21/08/2012 20:52

No not everyone eats pizza and chips. Not everyone eats chickpeas and cumin either though. I think you could have cooked more broadly tbh as you had guests. But that wouldn't have given you such a thrill would it?

fivegomadindorset · 21/08/2012 20:54

DS will eat pretty much what we eat, DD age 6 has massive food issues and no wouldn't have touched tried or anything. As a host I try to check whether the poeple coming, especially children will eat it.

NovackNGood · 21/08/2012 20:54

Guests should eat what they are given.

fivegomadindorset · 21/08/2012 20:54

Oh and DD hates pizza, not keen on chips, doesn't eat mince or potatoes.

NettOlympicSuperstar · 21/08/2012 20:57

We eat really adventurous food, I blog it here, but I'd never have served what you did.
I'd have gone for something far more pedestrian, a selection of cold meats/cheeses/olives/breads etc probably, or a roast chicken dinner, or a lasagne.

SoleSource · 21/08/2012 20:58

Maccy D's, Burger King, Greggs, chips, ready meals none of that vegetable shyte.

janey68 · 21/08/2012 20:58

Sounds like a bit of a heavy meal for an August evening.
I would chuck together something like home made pizza and salad, or pasta and home made sauce, or maybe chicken breasts - but definitely salad for humid August evening.

Also I hate chickpeas... Other than that I might cook the beef stew for a winter evening dinner.

I don't think just because they didn't like it, you can assume they eat pizza 7 days a week. Maybe your dh's cooking isn't that special? (dons hard hat!)

downbythewater · 21/08/2012 20:59

Tbh I think "we don't eat healthy food" was a jokey slightly embarrassed response to the fact they didn't like it- I don't think you should take it seriously! The sort of thing some of our friends who are more meat and 2 veg types would say if I cooked something like that.

I love chickpeas and am a veggie so I would cook that without the meat for me and DH quite happily. But my DC wouldn't eat it- they would possibly eat chickpeas in a mild chilli with rice but would moan about it

For guests my failsafe type options are things like pasta bake, meatballs with home made sauce, stir fry, sausage mash and veg etc.

You sound a teeny tiny bit smug!

marriedinwhite · 21/08/2012 20:59

hmmmm. Good for your DH. Mine have been raised on scratch cooked food (on the whole). DS and I would have tucked in with bravado. DH would have struggled with the chick peas (pulses aren't man food are they Shock and dd doesn't touch cooked tomato and can spot, sniff it from at least 40 paces.

I'd have chosen a "safer" option.

janey68 · 21/08/2012 21:00

Nett- I love your blog!

nokidshere · 21/08/2012 21:06

Well none of us 4 here would have eaten it either although it sounds delicious! DH is veggie so wouldn;t have had the meat, DS1 wouldn;t have even looked at it and maybe would have eaten pizza (depending on which make it was lol) but wont eat chips, DS2 Would have picked the peppers out but liked the rest and I wouldn;t have touched it as it's "mixed together" lol

But we are not "fussy eaters" per se - we all eat mainly veggie food and the boys mainly raw vegetables and cold stuff (crudites, dips, olives etc). We tend to eat food that can be prepared in less than 10 mins!

I would only make such food for guests that i know well and would have gone for something much more mainstream for new friends.

Tallalime · 21/08/2012 21:06

I am not keen on chickpeas (or beans/pulses - it's a texture thing) but I would have eaten it because I would feel rude if I didn't, I'd just have a small portion. DD (4) would have eaten everything but the beef and OH would have eaten nothing but the beef - they could have a portion between them!

We eat a mix in our house because DD and I like 'real' food and OH likes 'crap'.

So things like spag bol, cottage pie, basic soups, roasts we'll all eat.

Things like quiche, risotto, anything veggie or 'fancy' DD and I eat and OH cooks himself southern fried chicken and chips the total weirdo

Tomorrow I am doing french onion soup and he'll eat the soup but leave the onions cest la vie.

TBH I tend to cook more basic foods when people with DC come over, but I wouldn't cook pizza or 'junk' style food for a meal with people over, the most basic we go is a BBQ on that score. When people come over I use that as an excuse to cook more adventurous stuff as it's a joy to feed people who, unlike OH, will eat vegetables without gagging or moaning.

I only have one friend with a child who is a fussy eater, and that child eats fine if the parents aren't around so, knowing that, I wouldn't cook anything different and if she doesn't eat, then she doesn't eat.