to think this IS an acceptable lunch for an 8 year old?

[Helenagrace]

I'm helping a friend out today as she has twin 8 year old boys and she's moving house house tomorrow. I've had them since 8.30am and in my text last night I said I'd "drop them back before dinner - about 5.30?"

I've just given them lunch. They were offered: toast (with peanut butter, egg, pate (homemade mackerel) or cheese), oatcakes (with the same options), half a packet of crisps, tomato, cucumber and pepper, fruit and a piece of home-made chocolate and cherry brownie.

Both have had oatcakes with cheese (6 each) plus salad, a hard boiled egg, an orange, crisps and a piece of cake.

My friend rang to see if they were ok and she spoke to one of the boys. Then I get a text from her saying she's coming to pick them up as she "hadn't realised they wouldn't be getting a proper lunch". I sent a text back saying that we were eating our main meal in the evening and I thought they were too and I've just had the reply back "yes but that's not really much of a lunch is it?"

It's a perfectly acceptable lunch in my house. Does anyone want to ring social services and dob me in for starving my children?

[teacherwith2kids]

[My PIL complained vociferously, and not very discreetly, that my mother, from whom have inherited my lunchtime menus 'missed out the main course...she just gave us the soup and the cheese course.....']

[Goldmandra]

Hot, cold, two hot meals a day, two cold meals in one day, what difference does it really make as long as it's filling, appetising and well balanced?

It's all the same temperature once it hits your stomach anyway.

I really don't get this idea that you should have a certain number of meals a day that arrive on the plate above, rather that below room temperature.

[Janethegirl]

Teacher, that would be fine as a lunch for me and dcs. I think there are some individuals taking the piss , but if it makes them feel superior......

[Gurnie]

I don't get that either Goldmandra. I never understood the thing about if kids have a "hot dinner" at school then they don't need a proper dinner in the evening. I don't think "hot" necessarily means more filling at all. I have had lots of very filling cold dinners and some not very filling hot dinners!

[slithytove]

Love cold meals. Sandwiches made with homemade bread, homemade mayo, cooked cold roast chicken. More than just assembly hey jane? Just want to broaden your ideas on cold food even though I know it won't change your tastes.

It's not lazy either to do the above.
Some of my favourite meals are cold. Various salads, ploughmans, bread selections, cereal (for supper :)) leftover BBQ. It's a lot more than slapping a piece of ham between 2 bits of kingsmill.

[BamBam21]

This is silly. I totally get Jane about wanting hot food, because a lot of the time I feel the same. Hot food makes me feel fuller and more satisfied. Why the need to ridicule her? FWIW I think the OP Fed a perfectly good lunch, but not a main meal, because for me a main meal would be hot.

[Janethegirl]

Cold starters ok, cold mains no, simple as. I know some of you just don't get it, but it's my choice and my life. No I will not change, I just don't see the attraction of cold food by itself. As part of a meal, I don't have an issue with it. I'm not going to be be baited into any further responses.
If you like ploughmans etc fine, it's not my preference. However if a friend served it up to me, I would eat it. I just prefer NOT to eat such stuff and I would not serve it.

[slithytove]

I don't give a shit what someone else wants to eat, but it would be nice to perhaps acknowledge that cold food isn't just lazy assembly only.

[ImSoOverIt]

I always make an effort and offer "homemade" spaghetti hoops and "homemade" toast (well I heat the hoops and toast the bread myself at "home") with an "array" of pombears...

Only a lazy fecker would dare offer something COLD! (Dirty bastards)

[weatherall]

Well considering the op's last comment about knowing they were getting a takeaway pizza later then I'd change and say that was a fine lunch.

The great fish finger debate has already been done on MN. There are people who consider them junk food and people who don't. It's not an odd opinion to express.

[BamBam21]

No, cold food is not just lazy assembling of component parts. However, the OP's friend maybe expected lunch to be a hot meal. Her manners are certainly lacking, and she ought to be grateful, but I don't think she is terribly unusual in that respect. Bread with every meal seems a bit odd, but each to their own. She still should have shown a wee bit of gratitude.

[ElkTheory]

The lunch you served was fine, Helena. Sounds lovely to me. You were very kind and considerate to your friend as well (I'm afraid I would have had to bite my tongue not to say something rather sharp, especially when she showed up with the sandwiches!), though it's nice that at least her DH had the good grace to apologise.

People have odd ideas about food sometimes.

[doziedoozie]

Friends eat hot at lunch and tea, maybe pasta and sauce. Upshot is thy eat too little fruit and veg.

Really, how do you fit in the other 7 veg if you have a bacon butty for lunch, a huge varied salad for tea perhaps?, .......oh, no it has to be hot, ...again.

(Friend is overweight, her hubby not as he runs)

I love homemade soup and have it regularly but really fresh veg is best.

[slithytove]

Surely if it was hot food she wanted them to have, then showing up with sandwiches doesn't make sense? I'm guessing she just assumed the quantity was dinky.

At least she has kind of apologised and you can probably laugh about it when moving stress has worn off.

[slithytove]

I just love fresh salad. One of my greatest pleasures is sliced tomatoes, mozzarella, drizzle of olive oil and basil. Admittedly that one doesn't take much prep but it's so delicious. I grow the basil if that redeems me at all!

[BigBoobiedBertha]

I'm with you Slithylove. I don't care what anybody else eats it is the fact that somehow hot food is superior and what the OP gave was a snack that gets me. Assembling a salad can require more effort than warming up a pan of soup for example, or cooking a pizza, it isn't a lazy option at all and anything more for lunch than the OP gave strikes me as a bit greedy too if you are having another big meal later.

Personally I think having 2 hot meals a days would be a recipe for disaster - I'd end up eating too much, that's if I could physically eat 2 such meals in the first place. I'd happily eat 2 cold meals a day, especially if it is hot weather. I love a nice salad with a bit of dressing, crusty bread and some cold chicken.

[Quinteszilla]

Op your friend is a bloody attention seeking martyr in the " woe is me I am so busy and my friend can't even mind my kids properly while I move, I have to make lunch and drive over, as if I hadnt enough to do" sense of it.

[Goldmandra]

Personally I think having 2 hot meals a days would be a recipe for disaster - I'd end up eating too much, that's if I could physically eat 2 such meals in the first place.

You seriously eat more of a meal if it is warm?

[Martorana]

Why is a hot meal a bigger meal? I am always baffled by this. People to on and on about wanting their children to have something hot at lunchtime- it's bizarre! What is the difference between a bowl of pasta with tomato sauce and cheese on it and a cheese and tomato sandwich?

[BigBoobiedBertha]

Yes, I do eat more if it is hot because to my mind a hot meal is your one main meal of the day. I would end up eating my lunch like it was my main meal and then eating another main meal in the evening - not that I could manage that in reality, it would be too much. Much better to have something cold and lighter for lunch.

Most hot food is main meal stuff. I can't think of anything that you would eat hot that won't be something you ate as your big meal of the day except maybe toast.

[Martorana]

"Most hot food is main meal stuff."

Soup? Bacon sandwich? Bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese? Pasty?

[OnIlkleyMoorBahTwat]

The lunch sounds fine for 8 YOs, or anyone else. You do not need bread, or meat or whatever to make it a meal.

However, as some have pointed out, is likely to be about 700 calories, which is quite a lot for just one meal, and also demonstrates that cold food is not necessarily 'lighter' or less.

There are any number of hot, cooked meals that can be loads less than 700 calories, and certainly if you are on something like a Slimming World type diet, apart from salads, it is quite hard to eat cold food, because things like sandwiches are heavily restricted. Hot meals can be things like meat and veg in sauce, roast dinners with lots of veg, or chilli with lots of beans and veg, so not unhealthy and lacking in vegetables.

I much prefer hot food and eat 2 or 3 hot meals each day. Some of these are simple light meals like soup, or eggs or beans on toast, or omelettes and a lot are leftovers, or reincarnations of leftovers (eg chilli and rice, and then burritos using leftover chilli), so its not faffy, or hard work.

I am not overweight and don't eat more because I mostly eat hot food. I just very much prefer to have, for example, a cheese toastie or a slice of pizza, rather than a cheese sandwich.

My ideal 'lunch on the run' is a carvery, which if you stick to mostly meat and veg, and don't go mad on stuffing/roasties/yorkshire puddings is much healthier than sandwiches or similar.

I accept that others prefer different, and that's just it, preferences. Ironically, one of my siblings hasn't eaten a vegetable or cooked meal in at least 10 years, eating only sandwiches, biscuits, cakes and chocolate.

[Quinteszilla]

Well, the friend did not bring a hot meal she brought sandwiches do clearly it was not the temperature she objected to...