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?

Yanbu I know exactly what you mean I get it from my family but they mean meat and veg.

At lunch-time I had chicken with blackbean sauce, rice , courgettes and sweet peppers.
Now, I'm about to eat a spaghetti bolognaise < which was a toss-up between piri piri chicken and roast potatoes with bacon pieces>.

Us "cold meal" people are not all on a diet or health kick (wel I am but that's incidental). I've pointed out many times that a sandwich may involve protein, carbs and vegetables and be as calorific as a "proper dinner" and yet somehow it doesn't count.

lots of people seem very rigid about meals. I have food I like and food I don't like (much more than the food I like ). But the time of day or month of year does not really affect whether I can eat it or not. I suspect that is why I've spent my whole life overweight - I suspect the rigid fried breakfast/snack/sandwich lunch/fruit snack/proper dinner people are all lean and healthy.

I'm also not pretending to like cold food. I genuinely like a nice unhealthy salad more than I like a "meat and two veg" type dinner.

No i don't think the Italians cook every night. In the Med we usually have cooked meal at lunch and then we have left overs or cheese and salami and olives and fruit, unless eating out. I used to find it bizzare having a cooked hot meal in the evening wheni first came here.

Try telling that to my nearly 4 year old! His rules are: there must be one hot and one cold meal per day. The hot meal is called tea and the cold meal is called lunch, regardless of when they are eaten. So, for example, if we go out for lunch, he's had his 'tea' so must have 'lunch' for tea or he won't have had any lunch. Also, breakfast must consist of cereal. Once, when we ran out of milk, he had banana and yoghurt for breakfast (didn't want toast) and told nursery that he hadn't had any breakfast. He meant he hadn't had any cereal, but made us look like terrible parents!

I am italian, we tend to have a hot meal in the evenings (and the children also have it at lunch, as we don't do packet lunches here).
We have cold meals usually during the weekend, and more often in the summer, when it's hot.