to think a sandwich lunch is a "proper meal"

[SelfconfessedSpoonyFucker]

Teenagers are arguing that it isn't and they should have two hot meals a day.

We have bread and sandwich fixings (lettuce, tomatoes, meat, cheese, peanut butter etc) and fruit. Also beans and eggs that they can have on toast instead if they want. They can have as much sandwich stuff as they want so long as it is fairly balanced... i.e. no just eating five eggs and no veggies or half the fruit in the bowl.

They say it isn't a 'proper meal'.

My argument is that

1. please save the other food for family dinners
2. too expensive to eat two big hot meals a day. Two teen boys at home all summer can get very expensive.
3. it has the same nutrition... carbs, protein, vitamins, calories etc as a full meal.

But it's not what they want, and it's not great training for kids who dont learn to cook be wise they're....eh...not allowed to.

last night I couldn't be bothered to cook, so I did the easiest thing I could think of .....can of tuna, can of chopped tomatoes, lobbed in a few olives, let broccoli to steam on top of the pasta.....added black pepper and Italian herbs ... et voila a hot meal that took two pans, ten mins and was far better than sandwiches.....

Sandhiches are fine but surely not every sodding day?

Many shop bought sandwiches are soggy and limp. However, there are loads of tasty, good quality sandwiches available in the shops.

We don't eat sandwiches. or much bread really.
I rarely finish a loaf before it goes stale and there are 5 or us in the house.
No-one really likes bread, except things like hm chapati or puri, but that's only twice a month or so.

I don't know why the low-carbers are so convinced that no-one can possibly feel differently to them about carbs. I don't feel full without carbs, I love bread and the idea of living without it horrifies me. Is it nutritious? Well, it's not perhaps the most nutritious food you could be eating but it's not horrible and I think everyone eats some food which isn't optimally nutritious just because it's nice! E.g. chocolate bars which are apparently much nicer than pearl clutch bread.

Who are the low carbers?

I love bread and the idea of living without it horrifies me

There are many countries that rarely eat wheat.
Unsuprisingly they survive.

I am one of the non sandwich eaters. Currently I am doing Slimming World, where effectively, I am allowed one slice of wholemeal bread a day, so sandwiches aren't really an option. I find it a bit odd that some people don't believe that some people don't like or don't want to eat cold sandwiches.

When I am at work in the office, or at home, I usually have leftovers for lunch. I batch cook a couple of meals at a time so almost always have leftovers available (usual stuff - soup, risotto, lasagne, cottage pie, bolognese, curry etc etc). Or easy stuff like omelettes, egg on toast etc if at home.

If eating lunch out, I will take a home made tuna pasta salad perhaps, but not in this heat.

If I need to buy something, my first choice would be something like Toby Carvery, or the occasional McDonalds or Greggs (pasty and soup - not a sandwich), or a cafe - a toasted sandwich and chips is far nicer than a cold sandwich and crisps IMO.

Only if I no other choice will I buy a sandwich, and then ideally I won't eat it until it has been out of the fridge for an hour or two because I hate fridge cold food - no taste and gives me stomach ache.

I do like some shop bought sandwiches, such as the M&S pastrami cheese and sauerkraut one, but at £4.50 a time, it's not an everyday purchase. Pret do a very nice halloumi and falafel one, but that's served hot, not cold.

the only sandwich i make an exception for is pastrami/gherkin/mustard on rye
mmmmmmmm that is proper tasty

you could try that op? my teens love it

Work - that's fine if you have facilities to heat food at work - unless you eat your 'left overs' cold? I would also not be very amused at someone re-heating curry or any strong smelling food in a work environment.

I don't have that opportunity so I have to have to have cold food at work - so a sandwich or salad and a roll is absolutely OK.

Most foods are pretty unpleasant straight from the fridge - not just sandwiches.

All the anti sandwich brigade seem to think that the Op is just giving her teens a couple of slabs of bread and some mediocre filling, she has explained that there is lots of choice of fillings, salad, fruit, eggs, beans etc.

Ragwort - the type of thing I take to work would be:

Tuna, mixed beans, variety of salads
Any cold meat or fish with salad basically, and maybe some carbs like beans/ rice/ potatoes

Today I have cold marinated chicken breast ( just cooked extra with dinner last night), cold new potatoes ( leftover also), with a beetroot, carrot and red cabbage salad. Chicken and potatoes in one side of box, salad in the other side. I can put in office fridge today, but if out would just add in cold packs to keep chilled

Ragwort - surely most offices or other 'building' workplaces have a microwave oven - it's not exactly an expensive or hard to come by facility, but a very cheap way to make employees a little bit happier. It would be a very short sighted employer that didn't provide such facilities if staff wanted them.

And even if you don't, there's always food flasks. And sorry if my delicious leftover curry offends you - most people look on with envy as they eat their boring sandwiches.

Imagine pasta for lunch every day.
Every single day.

One day as a carbonara, the next with pesto, the next with chicken, the next with roasted veg, the next with... (you get my drift).

It is not necessarily lacking in nutrition, but it is SOOO bloody boring and repetitive.

It would be perfectly reasonable to want to alternate that with a sandwich, a wrap, a jacket potato, perhaps some grilled meat and salad et...

Are there people that really eat the same thing for lunch day in and day out?

Her son's arent' being unreasonabe for wanting more variety (and the odd hot meal) rather than the same thing every day

This is not difficult to grasp.

It sounds as if it's very much a - tough, this is how it is and like it or lump it. And clearly the younger one as to lump it, but really... not the kindest parenting is it. That and deliberately buying bread he doesn't like. Who does this? (other than the OP)

sons not son's

Work - certainly where I work there aren't any facilities, it is a very small workplace and it is a sad fact that there are many employers and organisations out there who don't think of their employees comfort.

Personally, I am more than happy to take sandwiches - just interested in what the rest of you do !

It sounds fine to me - assuming adequate balanced calories are available (ie loads for teen boys!) including some snack options doesn't need to be hot.

If complaining about lack of hotness or variation:They could have vast plates of pasta with homemade tomato sauce and cheese some lunches - cheap, filling and they could easily make it themselves. Or huge jacket potatoes. Add a muller corner/rice afterwards? Or some dried fruit/ nuts.

My aunt had to keep up with four very hungry teenage boys for some years - she was also on a tight budget at times and used to do lot of baking of savoury and sweet things with wholemeal flours, added seeds and dried fruit etc to make a bit more healthy. Much cheaper than buying things if an individual scoffs loads! She also encouraged cereal as snacks...

Good luck!

Damn and others,

1. yes I did want to know if I was being unreasonable. I posted a AIBU one time and was thoroughly told that I was being U. I didn't agree, but have taken the advice under consideration and not done that thing since. This time it is much less clear. I have not counted but there are plenty of people who think I am being reasonable.

2. again he doesn't dislike the bread, it is just not the one he prefers. He prefers food that isn't as nutritious. We get that bread sometimes and twice this week already he has baked bread he likes. Not sure why the rest of us should all eat a less healthy bread that is more expensive and that we don't like as much. Again, he has money and is on school hols and free from 8am to 4pm every day and can walk or bike to one of two very close supermarkets and several take outs and buy something different if he chooses.

There is plenty of variety. They could have left overs on Monday, Eggs with beans on toast on tuesday, curried chicken sarnie on Wednesday, Cheese toasty on thursday with a side salad, rosemary ham and tomatoes (from our neighbours garden) on Friday and then at the weekend we don't have sandwich meals. Not really the same as cheese sandwich five days a week.

Twoandtwo, this is the recipe that my son uses for Rosemary Lemon bread. He does a few tweaks including doubling the batch but it is where he starts from.
www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/rosemary-lemon-no-knead-bread.html

Again, he has money and is on school hols and free from 8am to 4pm every day and can walk or bike to one of two very close supermarkets and several take outs and buy something different if he chooses

Of course he can! But you could say that about anything couldn't you. If he eats it, then why not with your weekly buy a loaf for him? I just don't get it. Why would any parent want their child to spend their own money on food?

So now they can have leftovers? Well that's not what you said is it! I still think YABVU and can't quite work out why you're being so stubborn and controlling!

But anyway. You don't think you're unreasonable anyway, so another pointless thread for the archives in MN

The OP states they can have either sandwiches or beans/eggs on toast, so there is a choice.
I guess I must be controlling as well, because in my house you get one main meal (dinner) and 2 lighter meals which are breakfast and lunch, which usually involves bread. It's the way I was brought up, and I've done very well on it. No way would we ever have been allowed to eat 'whatever we liked' as one poster suggested. A whole weeks shopping would have disappeared in one day, most likely.

Nobody said there wasn't a choice.
It's about a bit more variety.
Bread every day for lunch would be flaming awful!

Appreciate some people don't mind this. No problem and good for them.

But some do and her teenagers are clearly in this camp.

Not sure about other people but I generally try to feed my children stuff that they like and that they will eat, whilst keeping it fairly balanced and providing decent variety.

WHAT IS IT WITH THE SANDWICH HATRED?

Sorry for shouting, but I am sitting here all perplexed, having just polished off a lovely wholemeal bread, ham and coleslaw sandwich. It was delicious.

I don't understand.

It was homemade too, with very superior bread.

Sure, but there's approx 196 countries in the world. Saying people in 2 or 3 or 4 countries eat them does not mean 'everyone', it means 'minority'.

But if you're living in one of those countries that has sandwiches for lunch then surely they do class as lunch?? duh It's not relevant what they eat in Moscow when you're in London.....

Totally agree with the poster who said Only this place demands all meals be hot, made from scratch, and to every whim of a hungry teen....

its still sounding grim to me, sorry

I'm willing to bet that most countries have a variation on the sandwich - meat/veg/cheese etc between something involving carbs.

Out of all the possible threads on here, it's one about sandwiches which has made me despair of the parallel universe that is mn. This is a seriously weird place.

Bamboo, I said they can have leftovers on Monday.