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...

It's an ok meal, and defo one I would give my kids, but it would be their treat meal not a super healthy one.

That would be an average sort of evening meal in this house.

People who are suggesting making your own fish fingers are kind of missing the point about fish fingers imho....

Yes the food FBI are out in force tonight. They woukd be shocked about what dd eats. She loves beans on toast and fish fingers and beans. As I said she is Autistic, whatever I can get into her is fine. As long as she eats (obvs no sweets, chicolate, cake). Yes it is fine op now and again. fish is very good for you

yep an average meal here as well - fishfingers, mash and veg or chips and beans - 3 healthy slightly underweight, active kids here

Nothing wrong with the meal at all. Sort of stuff kids love, I would happily feed it to my DD and she would happily eat it.

Bit of a stretch to call it super healthy though

If you're being pedantic, all of the above foods are carb heavy:

beans, breadcrumbs/batter, peas, corn, banana & dates.

I think bonded is having a larf as a pp said & fish fingers rock by the way

Certainly not super healthy, all processed. Not the worst buy still not great

I seriously wouldnt ever ask what my dcs were going to be fed at a playdate (unless they had allergies) - they arent daily events and tbh Id just be happy she was going to a friends for a fun afternoon. If that included junk or processed food, cest la vie!

Id be a bit if a mum asked (allergies aside) what I was planning on feeding her dcs that night and even more if she then critiqued it.

I never meet people in RL who stress over what they, or they children, eat - it seems that Mumsnet is obsessed with diet.

I think that meal sounds perfectly fine, do people really eat 'super healthy, organic, fresh never frozen, cooked from scratch etc etc etc' food every day? .

And agree with Think - allergies aside I wouldn't dream on commenting on what to offer guests or what my DS ate at someone else's house.

Thank goodness DS is a teen now and if he has a mate over I usually give them cash to get fish and chips (or worse ).

I am in agreement with the majority .. not an super healthy meal. Fine for a play date though I would probably put chips with it . Seems somewhat lacking a carb portion to me.

Mosy play dates kids don't even want to eat far to busy playing to eat. So I do easy foods like fishfingers, nuggets ( not made from scratch) pizza.

I think you set yourself up by calling it super healthy.

Rag - 'do people really eat 'super healthy, organic, fresh never frozen, cooked from scratch etc etc etc' food every day? '

Erm yes we do. From scratch can be as quick or long as you want. We cook mon-fri in less than 20/30min as not home until 7pm earliest with kids. I don't see the need to feed fast food/ processed due to time/ effort. Fresh fish, some herbs/ dressing and veg takes 10-20mins, fajitas 15 mins/ homemade breaded chicken and veg 20mins.

Homemade breaded fish and chicken is ridiculously easy. Just dip pieces in flour/spices, egg and then breadcrumbs. Takes what, 5 mins max extra to cut/ dip and clear up.

Just made soup for lunch, took 5mins to fry onions/ spices and chop veg. 10 mins it cooked alone on heat. Eat.

For a play date it's reasonable. I had a couple of battles between a visiting mother and her child who to refused to eat something not obviously adventurous (like rice or cherry tomatoes). I don't mind if they eat everything or not but it seems that parents have a really hard time admitting that their kids have quite a restricted list of preferences. So to avoid arguments I cook what the majority of kids would like which includes fish fingers, chips, chicken fajitas, meatballs etc. We don't eat them normally but they are handy for a quick meal.

If you said "this was super-healthy" or went on about it having 5 a day then I might be tempted to say "er, no it's not".

If you said "this is what they had for dinner" I might ask you how you do your banana icecream and if it's easy.

It's not super-healthy, but nor is it evil, it's just a perfectly normal meal (apart from having beans AND peas which is a weird combination)

I'd never call beans one of "your" five a day. They've got sugar in them and are processed. We don't do 5 a day anyway. We eat more than 5 fruits or veg....I don't mean to sound up myself but we do. No frozen veg either.

But I would say thank you and mean it if you gave that meal to my DC. And they'd enjoy it too. I would never judge a parent who was kind enough to host my children.

Lol love how some people are saying its too high in carbs and others saying its too low.

OK let me rephrase that its very healthy for a play date meal. The beans were the healthy ones and the fish fingers were the healthy ones on with natural ingredients. There is probably more sugar and salt in a jelly babie and a handful of crisps than in my meal. The rest was nutrients . nothing fried .

Why is frozen veg so bad?

Yes and there is quite a lot of salt in everything tbh. I'd worry more about bread and cheese.

Fence I buy my vegetables at a local Food Assembly where all veg and fruit is local and seasonal....so hasn't spent days in transit. It's very fresh and I'm sure it's much nicer than frozen. Whenever I have tried frozen in the past, it just tastes bland and tend to be soggy even when cooked only for a short time.

It is a more than acceptable meal, but in no way can it be described as very healthy. That's fine not every meal has to be very healthy but there is no need to try to pretend it is either

Claw I agree with the taste of frozen veg being nowhere near as nice as fresh. I can always tell when veg being served is frozen - peas being the only exception

No I agree Sirzy it's not "very healthy". It's a quick, ok for kids, easy light meal. Moderately healthy....very healthy would be steamed fish...with no batter...and a broader selection of fresh, seasonal veg. But who the arse serves THAT on a playdate!?

Obviously it's not McDonald's but it's still processed and also sugar heavy pudding wise.

It's the sort of meal I'd serve an extremely picky visiting child after I'd quizzed their parents about safe food options. But then our kids eat what ever we eat. Always have done.