Is this an adequate meal?

[Zarabell]

I'm talking in relation to portion size. I know it's technically not a healthy meal but I'm literally thinking size.

Family of 4, an 18 month old, 8 year old, dh and me.

Fish fingers, 3 for dh and 2 each for the rest of us.

Cheese and potato pie made with 5 medium to large potatoes.

1 tin of beans between us.

Of course the toddler had slightly less mash and beans than everyone else.

Fruit and yoghurt for pudding.

What do you think?

I think it sounds fine. Other portions people are suggesting sound huge to me

I think it is low on protein for your DH and heavy on carbs so he may well not feel full for long. I would add another fish finger for him, some veg and less mash.

Those are very carb-heavy meals (and not just the one you describe in your OP, but also in terms of your breakfast and lunch). I'd be lowering simple carbs, i.e. "beige food" and upping veg, legume, grain intake.

If I make this again I think I'll skip the fish fingers and do homemade fish as I agree fish fingers aren't very substantial.

Msstricty those were my meals though, I don't know what dh ate at work.

I'm kind of happy with what I eat and I've never had a weight problem.

I think it's fine too. I would have added salad of some kind, less to fill people up than to make it more healthy. it is easy to forget, but recommended portion sizes for protein like fishfingers and meat are actually quite small.

Sounds fine to me as well.

Might have added a bit of salad.

Would never occur to me to use more than one tin of baked beans for for people as a "side".

Thanks everyone.

I do think thinking about it, fish fingers are a bit rubbish really. We do all like them but there isn't really much fish in there.

3 fish fingers for an adult is nowhere near enough. Its a childs portion. Aim for a 6 - 8oz portion of protein, a carbohydrate such as potato or pasta, and green vegetables.

Come on though, not everyone wants to eat greens every night, do they?

We are all slim, 3 of us including teenage DS. We would eat more beans & more fish than that with a similar amount of potato.

FWIW I don;t think cheese & potato pie goes in pastry either, but it needs fried onion & preferably bacon in it which would be weird with fish fingers

Er we eat greens every night, or at least "reds" - tomato & pepper - baked beans count as a veg

There is also protein in the beans and the cheese, remember.

Come on though, not everyone wants to eat greens every night, do they?

Not every single night, but most. It would be every night if you count things like peppers in spaghetti bolognese etc. etc.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with beans - like I said above, I love them. My suggestion was just a way to make the meal more filling/feel more substantial for DH.

When I think of greens I think of broccoli or green beans.

We do have some type of veg each night, baked beans is probably about as bad as it gets for us.

In Summer we tend to have salad with everything, I never really fancy salad this time of year.

We have peas, carrots, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes most nights. Sundays we ha e 5-6 types of veg on our roast.

It wouldn't be enough for me, never mind dh who eats small portions.

I would want 4 fish fingers for adults, 2 for a toddler, 2/3 for older children.

Perhaps slightly more mash. I regurlaly split a gun of beans between 4 of us (2 adults, 1 15 year old & 1 12 year old)

Cross post Santas I think we do have 'proper' veg 5 nights a week.

Even if that's just some peppers and fresh tomatoes in a sauce.

Even if I give ds1 waffles or something once a week I chop a load of carrot and cucumber or do mixed veg.

A lot of people on MN always think anything with mash and beans is a sh*t meal regardless of portion size anyway (I don't, we have it weekly). We eat green/coloured veg 5/7 nights only and very little fresh fruit (we eat more tinned fruit than fresh, bananas aside).
Tonight is chicken curry too, a 600 gram pack of boneless thighs, a very large onion, a jar of paste, tin of coconut milk and ten minutes before the end I stir in 4 pieces of frozen spinach and some left over cauliflower from last Sunday I found in the veg draw. We'll have that with two pouches of microwave rice (one plain, one pilau). I'll feed us three and get a portion for DD's tea one night.

I had a bet when this started how long the carb police would take to get here.

Just an idea OP - does DH ever cook?

If he is the one complaining about the meal, could he maybe start coming up with 'suitable' dinners for everyone (if he doesn't already)?

P.S. It sounds like you're eating plenty of veg . To me, greens just means vegetables - well, they all have green bits on them somewhere don't they .

No, not enough I don't think. Dh is slim and would need at least 4 fishfingers. The potato is difficult to tell without seeing but we would share a tin of beans between me dh and baby.

The thing with vegetables is you need to be eating the rainbow. Not just greens, or reds or whatever - you need the variety of colour.

We'd probably have leftovers. That's a lot of food for us.

It is a bit daunting putting your meals to the mumsnet jury.

I think I'm quite laid back about healthy eating. I'll admit I'm not an adventurous cook and I'm trying to please 4 people often in a hurry around work and after school activities.

The dc munch on a lot of fruit, I say 3 types a day at least. Veg is probably better but they prefer fruit. I try to do 2 types of veg with our evening meal. Some nights we have way more than 2 but I don't worry if we just have beans one night.

I do take on board that protein and veg are more filling I appreciate all the opinions.

I wasn't judging you - you said yourself it was not a typical meal and you'd had an unwell baby. I was showing that we'd eat more (but I did also say we do a lot of exercise).