you can't possibly call a meal junk food if it had all of your 5 a day!

[bonded]

So a few weeks ago we had a play date that went well. Friend just what's capped me asking for advice for a meal tonight. I said recently that this went down well and is super healthy:

Baked beans, one of your 5 a day
Fish fingers, good source of ohmega and protein
Frozen sweet corn and peas, frozen has more nutrients.

Pudding frozen bananas whipped up into ice cream with a little chcoclate sauce and chopped dates.

Said friend called meal a bit to junky. I thought it was really healthy...

Yes, I thought the rule was don't re freeze food

Interestingly, looking at the ingredients, a certain famous fish finger has only 58% fish.

Blu you seemed to have missed out done ingredients on your list

Anyway, back to recipes. My favourite way to eat fish is fish pie. We always do a lemony Jamie Oliver served with peas.

Fuck me, MN is a hotbed of sancti-twattery these days innit?

That meal is pretty well balanced, bean+peas+sweetcorn is a little odd but then seeing as there wasn't a potato offering it isn't exactly a big deal, surely?

Ignoring all the bun chucking....

OP, your friend is BU to call your perfectly adequate meal 'junk'. Equally though, I disagree that it's a 'super healthy' meal as you claim. It's a decent, suitable and healthy meal.

If it is processed why does it make it definitely worse for you?
Why is fish covered in breadcrumbs worse than fish and bread for example?

Because MN said so.
Someone upthread advised serving wholemeal toast with the meal to improve it
MN food threads are hilarious, bonkers, but also quite worrying, so many people with a terrible way of thinking about food, and/or disorded eating.

Wow. Just wow.

Low-carbing for children, confusion about sweetcorn (a NHS PDF available on this page says that three heaped tablespoons of canned sweetcorn is a portion for your five-a-day, acksherly)...

WTF is wrong with this country? Anyone want to complete my bingo card by announcing they don't let their children eat avocadoes because of the fat content*, too?

*Children are actually doing this hip new thing called growing. They use fat to grow up, as opposed to just growing wider.

Oh god 89.9% of posters totally out of touch with the real world.

Sweet corn doesn't count as 1 of your 5 a day? Yes it does.

It's not 'super healthy' but it is just fine and likely to be eaten (which is more healthy than a pile of spinach on the plate that doesn't get eaten...)

Protein, veg, there are carbs in the beans and veg so should be enough.

I do hope no one shirking about the salt content if beans and fish fingers ever eats out with their DCs. You do NOT want to see how much salt goes in your food in restaurants. And butter.

is my only comment. and quinoa is gross (and tbf I don't like sweetcorn but that doesnt make it unhealthy)

This thread is a load of overweight women with food ishoos pushing their faddy diets onto children. Pulses are good for you and yes they have calories but adults need those to survive and children need them to grow.

And one meal is neither healthy or unhealthy it is overall diet. I eat takeaway fish and chips about once a year, that isn't unhealthy either.

MN at its worst.

*Surely giving children the best food possible is most peoples goal?"

No, it isn't. Giving my children a generally balanced diet is my goal.

Food isn't something to be revered here. It's something that gets bought from the nearest discount supermarket once a week and is then eaten through the week with one or two treats thrown in.

Food is fuel, not wankery.

(I like wanky artisanal bread as much as the next person btw, but time, budget and can't be arsed-ness means it doesn't get a look in)

Food is fuel, not wankery

I shall be stealing that quote! It sums things up very nicely.

Stealth I think it's just meat you have to be worried about refreezing. Other things might not cope as well with it, but I think it's fine to do it.

pauline yep, you sure can. You can peel, slice and bag them if you prefer but I just throw them in the freezer as is, in their skins. Then remove, microwave for 30-60 seconds depending on size, and the skin slips right off.

Of course, the banana will then be very mushy - only really suitable for baking or mashing, but as I have a baby who loves mashed banana it works just fine for us!

3tablepoons of corn is an adult portion a 5 year olds portion would be smaller, just like a child's portion of fish, potatoes or anything else is smaller

Are you saying that your friend called to ask you what you would be feeding her child and then complained that the food wasn't healthy enough? If so, that's intolerable!

Oh holy Mother of God, I knew I should never have opened this thread. I think this one is a definite contender for Most Bonkers food thread in MN history, and God knows there's a lot of competition.
Peas are 'carb heavy'? I really have heard it all now.
Am just nipping off to the harbour as the boat is on it's way in. I do this 3 times a week so I don't have to freeze the fish because it would then metamorphosis into junk food.
I think 'leafy vegetables' are the only food I've never heard someone on MN claim are bad for you.

Those who think peas are carb-heavy for children - this is food neurosis.

Food is something that should be enjoyed - everything in moderation.

Yes we can all make healthier choices … but to overthink it to this degree doesn't seem like a healthy choice to me.

I don't think anything is too carb heavy. We eat everything here, but simply as least processed and as fresh as possible

I think only one person mentioned the veg being carb heavy didn't they? Most people think OP's meal is fine!!

Totally agree alice There is more to good health than just diet. DD eats a fair bit of chocolate but she does up to 20 hours per week of sport. I agree that some posters seem obsessed/neurotic about food in a way that's quite mentally unhealthy.

I didn't read the whole thread, but I have to say I am a bit scared. You don't want to hear that it isn't a super healthy meal. It is an OK meal. Not quite junk food. It is just a meal. But it not super healthy.

If throwing fish fingers, baked beans and frozen vegs (nothing wrong with them) on a plate then covering banana with dates and chocolate is your vision of cooking a super healthy meal, what do you give your kids as an OK meal or a treat meal?

It's an ok meal but you cant have all of your 5 a day in the same meal can you?