beans mash and sausages is a healthy meal

[madhurjazz]

Mother in law thinks its junk food. But the beans contain 1 of your 5 a day, mashed potatoes are just veg and a good source of carbs and the sausages are full of essential protein.

We often have ketchup, this has been shown to reduce many cancers like prostate, and a glass of juice.

Seems healthy to me and not junky.

I was going to say I don't eat green vegetables for breakfast, but that's not true as I often have a superfood smoothie with cucumber or spinach. I'm aware that's not normal though.

But even if I had starch for breakfast - porridge etc, I'd still have green/root vegetables at both other meals, yes.

Whilst I wouldn't eat it all the time, it sounds fine to me. It's the sort of meal that people ate regularly a generation or two ago, and we're always being reminded that people were generally much thinner and healthier then...

Yes but that's not normal Gloria. That's the sort of diet someone has for a few months/years, gets all
virtuous about it, tells everyone else their diets are shit and you just LOVE kale, then eventually cracks and falls face first into a pile of chips. Give it time

For me this would be a junky lazy meal, for those days where I can't be bothered to cook. I don't think it's particularly healthy, but that's ok every now and then.

On a better day I may well still have the sausages and mash, but with onion gravy and veg instead.

Are you still there OP?

I wouldn't say it was healthy, but I would say it's delicious and satisfying.

I've never had a smoothie. The idea of drinking a smoothie (even one that is just something non controversial like banana) is one of the very few food related things that turns my stomach. I'm always reading about them being a healthy start to the day but I can't bring myself to try one.

Gloria, you really should rethink.

Different coloured vegetables have different nutrients in them, you need to get a rainbow of colours, not just green.

We love sausage , mash and baked beans in our home - nothing wrong with that dinner at all.
Some people need to chill!

A smoothie is just fruit soup really

I was pondering earlier whether I'm allowed to say I get 3 of my 5 from soups and smoothies as smoothies are only allowed to count for 2 maximum as the first part of breaking it down has been done. Blended soups are the same thing really.

A good friend of mine worked in a sausage factory whilst a student.

She's never touched a sausage since

Seriously, unless you make them yourself you have no idea what is in them, and cheap ones are full of a lot of the nasty bits of the animal, all mashed up by machines and then forced though fine mesh to form a slurry then "reshaped" by adding fillers/preservatives/colourings and injected with water too.

And, according to my friend, lots of bits of "meat" that fall off the conveyor belt onto the floor and are scraped up and put back on

Having said that, I will eat the occasional good quality sausage. I just have to keep myself in firm denial about what's in it

"Superfood" -fails to stifle giggle and snort-

Meh.

I worked harvesting a particular vegetable for a while, in a hot country. Sometimes you went to grab one and it was hot and your hand just sunk in as it was rotten. They stank.

I couldn't eat that vegetable for a long time after that.

Unless you make anything yourself you have no idea what is in it, really. Can't get too worked up about it. And it's a good thing there is a way to use up the edible parts of an animal that aren't the cuts of meat that people want to buy - less wastage that way.

I can't bear to read the whole thread.

It's a good meal, and well worth having. Beans are protein which works paticularly well with bread. I'm sure lots of folk have been sniffy about sausages, but they are protein, despite the salt content and grimness of the ingredients.

My eldest is allergic to beans, as well as a zillion other things. He is so allergic to beans that we can't have them in the house.

Ignore your mil and everyone else who says you can't eat beans on toast. I am a single mother on benefits, and I would love to be able to feed my boys beans on toast!

There's no such thing as 'junk' food. Just food. All in moderation.

Don't kid yourself about the ketchup - it's very high in sugar as is the bean sauce.

Sausages - well you get what you pay for.

But sausages can be easily bettered by lots of other healthier, less processed proteins, like a plain roasted chicken breast/piece of salmon or other fish (panned into a fish finger if more easily accepted)/lean minute steak

This might depend on your definition of 'easily bettered'.

Gruffalo I was trying to work out the same thing. I'm guessing while most of the vitamin/mineral content is the same, the fibre content is tricky. I'd assume you can count the smoothie and soup as a max of 2 between them even though you could easily have got 2 portions in each.

I had forgotten the baked beans counted and I don't tend to snack or drink smoothies so that might make a difference to how easy it is to fit in 4/5 portions between two meals.

Completely agree twitzywoo we're are either obsese or qourn obsessed.

Honestly I feel like I'm in a parallel universe on mumsnet.

Sounds delish and you have just decided tomorrows dinner for me, so thank you!

I have peas and gravy along with DC's 2 and 6, the rest have beans.

It never ceases to amaze me how fucking anal some people can get about food. Its sausage and mash occasionally, not McDonalds for every meal!

But sausages can be easily bettered by lots of other healthier, less processed proteins, like a plain roasted chicken breast/piece of salmon or other fish (panned into a fish finger if more easily accepted)/lean minute steak How on earth is any of that better than a good sausage?! A grilled chicken breast is the single most joyless thing to eat in the universe. FACT.

bogeyface Pan fried chicken fillet with salt and pepper and gravy is delicious!
I do love a good sausage though

There's no such thing as 'junk' food. Just food. All in moderation.

Of course there is such a thing as junk food. The very fact that you feel the need to moderate your intake of it means that you recognise the fact. Some foods are more healthy than others. That really is just how it is.

I think it depends what you're eating the rest of the week. I think the potato is fine, children need carbs, and good quality sausages once a week or so is fine. I don't feed my children baked beans as I prefer them to have fresh veg and I'm not wild about the sugar/salt content but to be honest who cares what other people think. Your family, your food. There's way worse meals out there!

My mantra is everything in moderation so Yanbu in my opinion. Plus it is tasty. Did someone already do a link on Lycopene in ketchup? It is true - although probably health wise better with tomato puree it doesn't taste as nice with a sausage. www.pcrm.org/health/cancer-resources/diet-cancer/nutrition/how-lycopene-helps-protect-against-cancer

Ketchup has lycopene-particularly good for boys.

Good quality sausages, grilled - protein.

Mash - potatoes do actually count as s vegetable. It was recently revealed that the reason the govt didn't include them on the 5 a day list was to discourage people from scoffing chips every day.

Spuds are an excellent source of Vitamin C, and if you add butter and milk, there's some calcium going on too.

Beans - protein and fibre.

The Kale Brigade need to unclench, otherwise once their kids leave home, they'll fall face-first into a vat of Haribo and kebab meat and never come round for tea

The preachiness some people have on here about food is amazing. It's only bloody dinner!

There's dinner and then there's mumsnet dinner