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...

Frozen sweetcorn is a vegetable in the same way that it is when it's still on the cob--there's no nutritional difference, is there, apart from the fact that it's been stripped off?

They not you...

Btw I would be happy for you to serve that at a play date. And I would probably go for something similar (if not even more unhealthy).
But then I also know children are unlikely to eat whatever normally have for our meals so I go for what is the most likely to keep everyone happy.

Sorry let me just clarify, the ice cream was 100% frozen bananas! Not out of a tub

I'm really asking because I, very pregnant with my first, and am not completely sure how different my child's diet should be from my own, and what is standard among many families (e.g., how often to have dessert, snacks, processed food etc). We always ate meals cooked from scratch with very little processed stuff and very few snacks or desserts, but a large part of that was due to poverty... Now me and my partner eat in a similar way, but I have no idea what the norm is.

You will get responses that say 'make from scratch' ... ' too much sugar / salt'....this depends on the variety of processed food you bought. As for making fish fingers from scratch
I feel this isn't a bad meal; of course it could be healthier but this is for a playdate and I feel it is likely to be eaten by the majority of children so a good compromise.
My healthiest playdate meal is spag bol - homemade and with loads of 'hidden' veg - but I then puree it and get looks as this is 'babying' my DCs. Don't care as long as they eat it.

We also always have fresh veg rather than frozen... Are frozen really better?Presumably because they've had less time for the starch to turn to sugar?

God I feel stupid.

Just checked out a weight loss page and my ignorance on the carb value in veg has astounded me! And I'm someone who lost 3st last year

Starling from memory on frozen peas are better. Everything else better fresh. (Please correct me mntters if im wrong)

It's better than what my children will eat. But I am under no illusions that they eat healthily, no matter how hard I might try ;) I wouldn't call it junk food but I wouldn't call it super healthy either - if someone told me they were cooking a super healthy dinner for my kids my heart would sink as it would mean they wouldn't eat it. Then I would be relieved it was fish fingers and beans ;)

Caboodle -- what is wrong with making fish fingers from scratch? I do and it is so simple. DS won't eat shop fish fingers but will eat homemade ones which take only a few minutes to prepare.

To clarify, there's nothing wrong with it as playdate food, a pretty good effort and at least it will be eaten. I agree, I would have probably added some toast or chips. I generally rely on fish fingers or sausages for playdates. I don't think it can be described as "super healthy" though. Plenty healthy enough for the situation but not "super healthy"

It is a minefield. DS2 is all pleased with himself because he's made a super healthy breakfast this morning - a bowl of dried cranberries, banana and apple sprinkled with cinnamon. It's not bad and it has lots of healthy stuff in it, but probably also has too much sugar ( the cranberries) and is in no way a balanced meal without any protein.

I also get very agitated about the low fat/low calorie is healthy message. That may be true for an overweight 40yo, but for most children the exact opposite is true. My chips are fine

Doesn't the fact I got all of their 5 a day make it super healthy?

There is more to healthy than fruit and veg!

So, bonded. If you eat 5 chocolate bars and 10 portions of fruit and veg in a day, have you had a super healthy diet?

Hmm, that's a wierd combo IMO. Beans, corn and peas?

If I serve fish fingers I don't add any extra carbs either though as they are covered in breadcrumbs! I would do something like fish fingers with broccoli, cauliflower and peas with butter and mint sauce.

Homemade baked beans are very easy to make btw, it's just a basic tomato sauce like you would make for pasta with anything else you fancy, and haricot beans thrown in near end. We make with chorizo and paprika sometimes

No but there wasn't any trans fats and the beans were low sugar and salt.

Used these toowww.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/frozen-fish-seafood/birds-eye-omega-3-fish-fingers-x12-336g

Of course corn off the cob is counted as a vegetable portion, why would it not count as a vegetable just because it has ben removed from the cob? I wouldn't serve beans with peas/sweet corn and would have probably done chips/mash instead of one of them

Camolips if you lost 3 stone without knowing about the carb value in veg, it's clearly not that much of an issue for your body! Well done, that's a fantastic achievement.

londonrach I think you're right about the frozen peas. Besides, most frozen veg (apart from peas) taste awful anyway, and I'm not a fussy eater at all.

bonded I wouldn't class this as a particularly healthy meal. I cook it for us sometimes as it's quick and easy, not because I think it's good for us. In what context did your friend mention this?

Bond - isn't that max 4 portions? Beans/ corn/ peas/ banana? Tbh I would count the peas and corn as one portion as I doubt they had 3 heaped spoons of each. It's an ok meal, but just that, nothing marvellous. I wouldn't add chocolate sauce to an banana unless it was a party or similar

I don't think most people get their 5 a day from one meal because the 5 a day are based on portion size and I've been surprised sometimes how big some of those portions have to be. So just having 5 different fruit and veg doesn't cut it I know because I've tried to pass off a portion of carrot cake as one of mine...

Sorry, just reread your OP, ignore my last question!

I'm not sure it does contain all your five a day. Aren't both peas and beans pulses? You can only count one serve of pulses a day towards the five, no matter how much you eat.

It's not a bad meal, especially for a play date, but I wouldn't consider it to be particularly healthy either.

The dates were a portion too! Three dried dates is a portion

I think you need about 80g of each fruit/veg to count as a full portion so I very much doubt they had 5 full portions in that 1 meal. I wouldn't count it a super healthy meal as some of it is pre-packaged processed foods (beans, fish fingers) but it's not a bad meal