to think fruit and vegetables are a bit of a con

[mariej2]

Me and the hubby have both never been a big fan of fruit and veg. We don't worry about having 5 a day and probably rarely do. We are both healthy late 30s, not overweight and hardly ever get ill.

Now dd is at school we are having her friends round for dinner. One was horrified that we fed her daughter fish fingers, baked beans with diet cola. To be fair we would usually have sweet corn with this meal simply because we like it but we had ran out.

It feels like kids are being punished by feeding them kale and broccoli and nothing nice.

Apparently a glass of orange juice has as much sugar as a Mars bar. If you give your child the orange juice that's not much of a treat and once they become a teenager they will gorge on all the forbidden foods!

I think this whole eat fruit and veg is a conspiracy to make the supermarkets more money and make people miserable.

The courgette adds nothing to those recipes other than possibly bulk;the risotto in particular.

Juniper berries only flavour Gin.It is made from distilled alcohol.

Healthy bulk, texture, colour it's all relevant!

Beans on toast is junky? Who would have thought it?

Tinned baked beans are loaded with sugar. As someone new to this country, I don't understand the british fascination with them. I find it odd that cafes sell these for a relatively large sum of money with the patron knowing it's just a slice of toast with tinned beans on it.

I made home made baked beans once what a colossal waste of time.

Perhaps a better recipe is needed.

OP the claim isn't that no one could be healthy without vegetables. it appears that you can be. the point is that most people cannot. also, being in your 30s and not overweight (which isn't the only measurement of health) isn't that big a feat. Poor eating may catch up with you when you are older.

What about fibre and vitamins, Phaedra?

link

I should say my kids love tinned beans.

*Tinned baked beans are loaded with sugar. As someone new to this country, I don't understand the british fascination with them. I find it odd that cafes sell these for a relatively large sum of money with the patron knowing it's just a slice of toast with tinned beans on it.
*

You could say that about a lot of cafe/restaurant food though.

Scallops are very expensive in restaurants - you'll pay about a fiver for three as a starter and yet they take about 2 minutes to cook with no special skill or equipment - you just fry them, preferably served with chorizo, fried in its own oil.

Same for things like steak or cooked breakfast stuff - bacon sandwich, egg on toast etc, very quick and easy, and probably using much better ingredients than the average greasy spoon.

You could say that about a lot of cafe/restaurant food though.

all the things you mention are much harder to cook than baked beans or the fact that they are easy to cook isn't common knowledge.

A fried egg is very easy to cook, but much harder than opening a can of beans and putting it in the microwave. You have to get the pan, add butter, add egg, stand there and flip it AND wash the pan. Far more steps.

I don't think I'm a snob, like I said - I wouldn't have minded. Also, being skint and uneducated isn't an insult, well it wasn't intended as one.

Is this a joke?

I like courgettes when they are fried in olive oil until they go a bit brown on the outside and then sprinkled with salt and lemon juice. Make lots and eat some hot and the rest cold.

I'd be fine with the fishfingers and beans if my kids were at your house, as it doesn't harm every now and again.
I wouldn't be impressed that they'd have had diet coke though even though that makes me the biggest hypocrite ever as I love the stuff
Actually, my eldest would have said no thanks to the coke and asked for water, so no doubt you'd have him down as a freak of nature,
As for this
It feels like kids are being punished by feeding them kale and broccoli and nothing nice.
What? So just because YOU don't like them nobody else does?!
My two go back for seconds, thirds and fourths of broccoli, they can't get enough of the stuff and would devour bowlfuls if you let them!
Not a stealth boast, just the truth. Some people DO like vegetables, you know!

Baked beans are only about as loaded with sugar as full fat milk.

Ie (Tesco Heinz BB) 10 grams of sugars in 207.5 grams of beans, compared to 4.5 grams of sugars in 100ml of my full fat milk.

Not that sugary at all.

ps: American baked beans are more sugary than british BBs, ime.

Missing the point entirely, but am I wrong to think baked beans count as one of your five a day?

Not that my kids particularly like them, but we do occasionally have beans!

dance i believe they are supposted to count as one of your 5 a day (it said so on the tin a while back) but i think you need the whole tin to yourself to get enough tomato from it to count as a portion.

Baked beans are only about as loaded with sugar as full fat milk.

i'll back off.

Per 200g, they also have 1/5 of your salt intake for the day.

I bloody love kale. Absolutely falls into the something nice category.

I make the most excellent kale crisps by splashing them with oil, laying them out on a baking tray, salt, pepper and chilli powder and bake until crispy!

I thought have a tin was considered one of your five a day. As I said, my kids are not that keen. Give them carrots, broccoli and runner beans and they are in heaven!

Half#

Is this a joke?

What, claims that cooking egg on toast is somehow so complicated that it's worth paying someone to do it for you? I know, ridiculous isn't it?

fried egg is very easy to cook, but much harder than opening a can of beans and putting it in the microwave. You have to get the pan, add butter, add egg, stand there and flip it AND wash the pan. Far more steps.

Bollocks - you have washing up to do after the beans as well and you have to be able to set the microwave.

It's attitudes like that that put people off preparing their own food and leaves them reliant on crappy processed food with the thoughts that we're all being conned by courgettes .

Fish fingers, beans, frying stuff like eggs or scallops for a couple of minutes with no chopping or recipes required doesn't even count as 'cooking' BTW.

dance it could be. I just thought it was a whole tin but i could easily be wrong. I just dont see how theres enough actual tomato in half a tin to count as 1 of your 5 a day hence me thinking it was a whole tin.

Stags you can count the beans as well .

I'm a bit of a snobby food snob well obviously, I mentioned scallops and I didn't mean the potato kind and I think beans and fish fingers are OK as a once a weekish easy meal. In fact, when I have it, I have a potato waffle as well.

Sometimes it's just nice to go out to eat and have someone else cook and wait on you Of course that's going to cost more because of staff wages and overheads. I don't begrudge that. Scallops and steak are expensive because the ingredients cost a lot (compared with baked beans or egg).

Juniper berries only flavour Gin.It is made from distilled alcohol.

Yes that's true. I'm still nominating them for the 'best things to be grown from the earth' award

the actual beans count as a vegetable or so i am lead to believe!!!

Yep, pulses are a vegetable, and hence baked brand count - loads of fibre.