For my children to not have two cooked dinners?

[mrsnw]

So from next week my two, dd 4 and ds6, will be school dinners everyday. Am I being unreasonable to not cook them a dinner in the evening and just give them a sandwich or beans on toast?? What do others serve up?

Smoked salmon, eggs (hard boiled/omelette), cold new potatoes, nuts, humus, full-fat yoghurt, berries is probably healthier than a lot of cooked meals for children (shepherd's pie, pasta, sausages and mash with peas) -more micronutrients and fats for growth. Healthy food doesn't have to be hot, doesn't even need to be cooked. Also, good fats and protein will fill them up.

I love two hot meals a day myself, but this summer we have had loads of picnics (ie sandwiches...)

I could not inflict one more ham sandwich on my children!

I think it depends on their appetite rather than the length of time or even whether a meal is hot or not.

My child has skinny hollow legs. He buys something at school and I find it's a great time/money saver to make a full loaf of sandwiches on Sunday, stick them in the fridge, then he can help himself if he wants right after school and he has a hot dinner and supper

I now see why parents just bought a goat (for milk) and had a chest freezer (bought a cow/pig at a time & filled it) when they had four ravenous zombies children

Sandwiches for tea is terrible. Make them some proper food ffs.

You wouldn't have a butty at tea time, why on earth should they?

the children need food in a well balanced diet. it does not necessarily have to be hot.

Sandwiches for tea is terrible. Make them some proper food ffs.

Of course it's not terrible. Surely making kids with smaller appetites all bloated out on more hot food is worse? Sandwich with home made bread, carrot/cucumber sticks, tomatoes home made cole slaw etc is a perfectly adequate tea. Especially on top of the heave stodge that is the school dinner.

Those asking why don't people eat with their kids as a family, well if you are lucky enough to have a DP/DH who is home early, great, but that doesn't apply to everyone

This. One or either of us is usually out at work until at least 7pm. DS goes to bed at 7pm. So which is better, I keep DS late so he's tired but has had a family meal, or I let him eat earlier - I vote the latter personally.

And actually what I tend to is have a freezer full of leftovers from the meal that DH and I eat at about 8pm as we deliberately cook too much. So I get DS home and whack something in the microwave to reheat it - proper hot food and ready in 3 minutes. Do I get a gold star for that one? decides not to mention the fact that tea yesterday was cold cocktail sausages and tomatoes because he wouldn't eat anything else

So no one ever has sandwiches just about every day for lunch

At least in UK you can get quite a selection of bread and things like crumpets for a change.

My DC have (pretty good) cooked lunches at school, and logistics often make cooking proper meal for all of us in the evening impractical. That being so, they often have pasta (sauce precooked for the week), soup and toast, beans on toast or something similar, followed by fruit /yoghurt, but that is more about time than anything else. If DD has "tea" (cooked meal) at school and gets home at 7:30pm, he still wants a snack .

I'm always puzzled at 'beans on toast'. Surely that's just carbs on carbs? Like having a sandwich with toast as filling in the middle?

Eggs on toast, avocado on toast, cheese and tomatoe on toast

But not beans on toast

In regards to question, I think it's fine as long as balanced, but ours don't like sandwiches so wouldn't do here. We usually make soup for lunch often and lasts a couple of days ( or you can make a large batch and freeze). All healthy and generally cheap.

Soup, bread and some cheese/ fruit would work well

forever I agree with the carb on carb thing; but this is the country where you get served lasagna with chips

Poppy - and cottage pie and chips! And pie and chips. I mean pie is pastry over the top and underneath usually, how do people eat more carbs by adding mash/ chips etc.

Would just have pie and veg here. Surely chicken and mushroom pie, with carrots, asparagus and broccoli fills plate anyway.

I think it depends on;

age of child (got away with this when they were 3&5 , 4&6 and 5&7 now 6 yo might accept it 9 yo no way)

level of activity (always starving after riding, less so after flute!)

outside temperature (less than 10c and I would never serve a cold evening meal)

School dinners are regulated by law

Nutrient based Standards

YANBU OP.

I rarely have a sandwich for lunch, tbh. I'm not an enormous sandwich fan really.

I give my children a meal every evening (in a portion size suitable for them). Sometimes that will be hot, sometimes it will be cold, but it will just be whatever DH and I are eating. At school they can choose a hot or a cold lunch. What matters is that it is a meal, not the temperature it's served at. In the summer we've been known to have 'cold' meals for both lunch and dinner because a no one fancies a hot meal.

I guess I just don't understand the MN obsession with whether or not children should have cooked meals after school. It makes no sense to me, and certainly wasn't something I was in any way aware of before MN. When I was at school everyone seemed to go home and have a cooked dinner after school, whether they'd had a school dinner or a packed lunch. Even the kids who had a cooked meal when they went home for lunch would go home to eat a cooked dinner in the evening. There was none of this one meal has to be cold, the other hot weirdness.

Incidentally, if you decide to have a cooked breakfast (rather than cereal) does that mean you can only eat sandwiches for the rest of the day? Does some bacon and eggs occupy the 'hot' portion of the MN daily meal temperature chart?

DS1 is 5. His current packed lunch is larger than DH's and he is always ravenous if he has school dinners.

Since one of the things the OP wants to achieve is a reduction in cost, I think it's worth mentioning that I find a good cold meal costs more than an equivalently filling hot meal. Eg naice ham, bread, cheese and salad costs definitely more than a stew. The stew also takes minutes to prepare (though hours to cook the first time) and is quickly served, as opposed to faffing about with lots of different bits.

This is a constant argument between myself and EX. He insists on cooking them a full meal each night and I don't.

On Wed they had a roast at school. I made them cheese and ham omelette, baked beans and a slice of inch thick homemade bread for tea. Then they went to exs and I got a text asking why the kids hademt been fed properly (ie meat and two veg)

Was going to post a jokey comment along the lines of toasting the sandwiches to make sure there were two hot meals a day and see that it's been given as a serious suggestion!

Meals need to be tasty and nutritionally balanced, and that's all that matters for me. I feel very sorry for the posters on this thread saying they used to go to bed hungry though - how awful to not be able to tell your parents you are hungry/ be refused food.

Incidentally, beans are pulses to me, not carbs. Therefore am fine with brans on toast. Spaghetti hoops on toast though...never understood that one!

YABU because a school meal is NOT a proper cooked meal.
Yes it's warm (ish). Yes it's food that has been cooked but it's no where near a cooked meal.
Unless you have been happy to feed your dc chicken nuggets and lasagne out of a very cheap frozen meal until now, the food they will be eating will very poor quality on all account: nutritionally, quantity wise (even though at that age they might still be happy with that) and taste wise.

Whether its hot or cold is irrelevant.

Ds has a cooked school lunch but the portions are small and they often run out of certain items on the menu. Taking this into account I ensure that ds has an adequate meal in the evening, it might be a hot meal or it might be sandwiches or pasta salad.

I find it strange that people feel sorry for children receiving nutritious food. Save the sympathy for the hungry children.

Incidentally, if you decide to have a cooked breakfast (rather than cereal) does that mean you can only eat sandwiches for the rest of the day? Does some bacon and eggs occupy the 'hot' portion of the MN daily meal temperature chart?

lol now that is a question. What will I do with dc1 who loves a cooked breakfast?

Used to be a mid day supervisor - most of the hot dinners seemed to end up on the floor or in the slops bucket.... no one is going to stand over them to make sure they eat it....

So even if you think they have eaten a hot meal, even if they TELL you they have eaten a hot meal, I would say around 60% of kids do not eat more than half of their dinner... and I do not blame them

Lady very few schools still provide junk food. The meals at my sons school include roast dinners, casseroles and risottos. I'm not concerned about the quality it's more the quantity that I have an issue with. For infant school children its fine but not enough for a strapping 10/11 year old.

I still think its fine to give sandwiches as a meal in the evenings. Bread, cheese, butter, ham and houmous contain quite a few calories.