To think that we don't actually need to eat "a hot meal" every day?

[Machli]

Dd and I both prefer cold food, salads, fruit, sandwiches. Most days dd eats 8 plus portions of fruit and veg a day. I am not so well nourished .

It seems that many don't feel it's a proper meal unless its a big cooked, hot one. I quite often see "kids need a hot meal" or "I always make sure there's one hot meal a day, cooked from scratch" on here.

A lot of food that needs to be cooked, pasta, rice etc hold minimal nutrients and usually cooking processes destroy or diminish nutrients also. Understand that meat and fish need to be cooked to make it safe and palatable to eat, but I just don't understand why it's so necessary to provide a hot meal daily.

What is the reasoning behind The Hot Meal?

'Try menu planning with that list'

I'd have dumped him long before we were married.

Let's face it, if you never eat a hot meal that you have cooked yourself then you just can't be arsed. I don't know why people are trying to dress it up otherwise.

There are hot meals take less time to cook than assembling the ingredients of cold ones.

God, is it a new trend MI? How tedious.

I believe you need a cooked meal but it doesn't have to be hot.

I know some people survive on raw foods only but I think that fish and meat need cooked (cured meats aren't too healthy) and protein sources such as legumes and pulses do too. The only source of protein I can think of that doesn't need cooked is cheese and other dairy which is quite limiting.

A lot of food that needs to be cooked, pasta, rice etc hold minimal nutrients and usually cooking processes destroy or diminish nutrients also.

Do you think the bread in your sandwiches is raw and unprocessed?
Bread is the main bulk of whatever sandwich you have. It's mostly bread, with stuff in it.
Stew with rice for example, can be mostly stew .
Pasta can be more easily bulked up with veggies and protein than bread.
But bread can't be moved. It's just there. And it's not particularly healthy. Sot hats the sanwiches. Fruit and salads are not that filling and lack complex carbs kids need for energy. What do you mean by cold foods?

It's interesting how it works with dc though I have two, dd and I prefer salads, sandwiches etc. Ds likes everything cooked, he would never eat a raw veg by choice and he never has, even as a toddler. I always did the hot meal thing for them when they were smaller but dd repeatedly asked for picnic teas and I read a thread on here where someone said "pic nic meals are fine as long as they get a hot meal that day" and I just couldn't see why the hot meal was necessary.

Dd had a cheese sandwich on granary for tea with a mixed salad of green pepper, cucumber, celery and carrots. Apple slices and grapes before the kit kat that was the real pudding and apple juice to drink. A perfectly balanced meal IMO, not necessitating a hot lunch to even things out.

I have at no point said that cold food is preferable to hot by the way I just don't think it's inherently more worthy that a hot cooked meal. That's the point I was making not that there isn't a place for both.

I just love food!

But I do have an ex neighbour who eats the following, every day (and I mean every day)

Breakfast: Cornflakes with fruit
Lunch: A turkey and salad (has to include beetroot apparently) sandwich plus a banana
Dinner: Two or three turkey or prawn cocktail plus salad sandwiches (spread over the evening) plus a piece of cake (preferably chocolate) or some biscuits and another piece of fruit.

Two glasses of white wine a day and tea. Apart from the cereal and tea she doesn't take milk and never drank it as a child (father was a GP and just told her mum to stop worrying when she asked about it). She brought up two kids alone as she lost her hubby in the war and lost her house in a fire about a year before that - so she's had to work hard to survive.

The reason she only eats like this? She lives alone and has poor eyesight so cooking has been out of the question for about the past seven years - she doesn't feel safe using the cooker. She doesn't want meals on wheels and, although she has a home help, she won't let her cook for her. Her daughter lives 400 miles away but comes down every two weeks when she does a big shop for her and cooks her hot meals whilst she's there for the week. But she's so used to her diet that she gets tummy ache now if she deviates from it too much. Doctor has checked her over and she's absolutely fine - perfect blood pressure etc.

Oh, forgot to mention. She'll be 100 years old in 8 weeks time. So it's not doing her any harm.

Rice is a staple food for millions of people; it's full of vitamins if not too processed.

It can be eaten hot or cold.

Does that apply to the refined white rice that is generally on sale here?

Sorry just read your post properly .

I love food more than most. You don't get to be 16 and a half stone by "feeling full" after half an apple, trust me. I just don't buy into this "meat and two veg" mentality. Tonight we're having pasta and pesto. That to me is as much of a "proper" dinner as a stew and potatoes - I don't actually see what the difference it (apart from one is edible when I make it and the other inedible :o)
I don't see why ham sandwich and vegetable sticks is anything less than a perfect meal for my children (we have seedy bread too and DD has houmous) - seriously, what would be lacking?

me too :o
I once went to MIL's for what she described as a "light lunch". There was chilli and rice, jacket potato, bread and salad. When I asked why it was a "light lunch" she said well it's not beef and Yorkshire pudding

I know people who live on a raw vegan diet and are amazingly fit and healthy for it. I envy them! I don't think I'd cope well eating cold, raw food all day long. It's not nutritionally vital, of course not. But nothing beats a nice hot bowl of stew, or .

Expat.

I would have as well,if the list had been given to me or even alluded to before I married him.

Where does a raw vegan get protein from?

Vegetables, badguider.

I thought high-protein veg was mainly stuff that needs cooked?

I'm not a big eater, but in a cold winter in the Highlands I couldn't do salad and sandwiches. Casseroles, soups, stews and soup is the way to go when it gets dark at 4.30 and the wind is howling outside.
In the summer I'm quite happy with salad and nice bread, but I still grill things like salmon or barbecue meat.
No, it's not necessary, but the choices are greater when you cook something, surely?

And seeds and fruit! Can't think of any vegetable apart from a plantain that would need to be cooked, and even then if you grin and bear it

Personally I wouldn't give up a runny egg sandwich for anything, but there you go.

Referring only to the op, stuff cab be cooked but cold

I love salads, and sandwiches etc, but most hot meals are delicious, why going without?