AIBU - Egg or beans on toast + veg is sometimes okay for dinner

[Eltonjohnssyrup]

I'm having an argument with DH. We are really skint at the moment and a couple of times recently I have given the children (and me) beans & sausages from a tin on toast or scrambled egg on toast with a side of green beans or brocolli. They have fruit and yogurt to follow. This is normally at the end of the week before payday. And the children like it.

He's really against this and says it's not a proper dinner and doesn't like me doing it. He won't eat it himself and always makes himself something different, which is fine as he does a very physical job, but for me and the children I think it's okay occasionally. AIBU?

It’s the dinner of champions. (We never have a side of veg with ours)

Get him to whip up an alternative culinary delight if he’s so horrified.

How odd??
My kids regularly have beans on toast or scrambled eggs or sometimes both!!
It’s food, if you look at what they have over the week you’ll see that they probably have a very balanced diet, as a society we all eat more than we need so a couple of nights having a light supper is good for all of us, as long as none of you are hungry it’s fine, your husband is a fusspot

EATING SUGAR DOES NOT CAUSE DIABETES

@JellyBabiesSaveLives yeah it basically does. Sugar is a super easy way to get 'free' calories. Eartng too many calories makes you fat. Obesity is the biggest risk factor for Type II.

I fucking love a tin of beans on toast - but you are all deluded if you think chowing down 20g of sugar in one meal is a 'healthy' option.

Also the low sugar beans just don't taste as good as the tasty tasty sugar filled heinze beans

It is a healthy option.
And it isn't 20 g of sugar.

ravingRoo "It’s cheaper to make pasta - get a 500g bag for 50p, use tinned tomatoes, frozen veg, and minced meat for the sauce, and you have a meal for all of you plus leftovers for the same cost as the beans on toast. "

How do you work that out?
(using Tesco value ingredients here)

PASTA DISH
1 x 500g bag of pasta = 30p
2 x Tinned tomatoes = 60p
1 x bag of frozen mixed veg = 95p
1 x bag of value minced meat = £2.75

Total: £4.60

BEANS ON TOAST
1 x value loaf = 45p
2 x tins beans = 50p
1 x pack of butter becasue we're feeling fancy = £1.60

Total: £2.55

you claim to have leftover ont he pasta dish, so we'll assume that the dish does the family four people for 2 meals.

So each pasta meal would cost £2.60

I'm having to buy 2 extra tins of beans and another loaf of bread to stretch beans on toast out to two meals, so I'll add 95p to the above total and divide it by two.

Each beans on toast 'meal' costs: £1.75

So HOW do you reckon it is cheaper to eat the pasta meal you suggested?

And for the pasta dish it doesn't include costs for garlic, onions, herbs, worcestershire sauce, parmesan etc.

Or the wine to go with it!

i feed my DDs toast for dinner a couple of times a week - sometimes avocado, sometimes eggs with it, and when I'm feeling virtuous, cucumber or red pepper to go with or broccoli.

They have a hot meal at lunchtime, so they're already full up and rarely eat lots.

Yes, get ye to the shops and buy you some lentils so that your kids can look at you as though you're trying to poison them and eat nothing! :)

It's fine as a meal. Most people would happily eat a french dinnerwith beans and with a bun on the side. It really is no different if the bread is toast withthe rest ofthe meal on top. Beans are fine (dried beans welled the day before are a bit cheaper and healthier if you'd like that option). Sausages are processed meat that you shouldn't eat every day, which you don't. Yoghurt is fine. Fruit is fine. I struggle to see the problem. They get a variation of things that they need.

If you ever have cheese left a nice meal could also be an omelette filled with cooked quinoa/couscous/rice (whichever is in your pantry) and spinach and cheese.

icefall where do you arrive at the figure of 20g of sugar?

2 x slices medium brown bread from a 800g loaf
Value: 2.4g
Tesco: 2.8g
Hovis: 3.2g

1/2 tin of beans (210g portion)
Value: 9.5g
Tesco: 11.6g
Heinz: 9.8g

The highest total is: 14.8g sugar.
The lowest total is: 11.9g (interestingly the value foods have lower levels of sugar!)

neither of which is 20 grams

^ all figures from my supermarket nutritional info

Perfectly decent meal. And if you also put Marmite on the toast, the kids get extra B vitamins that way.

What does he make for himself on these days, by the way?

Of course it's fine every so often and I would far rather feed my child baked beans on toast than cheap mince any day. Don't growing children need a few carbs?

Incidentally, we live abroad, and when she was younger , dd ate haricots avec sauce tomates. When she went to the UK and was served baked beans by her aunt, she spat them out in disgust. I told her off for being so rude but then I tasted them, and they did indeed taste horribly sweet like a pudding (to our palates anyway).
This was ten years ago though and although I am sure things have changed for the better in the UK since then, there definitely was an issue with over sweetening at that time.

dd3 does triathlons and would eat beans and egg (no toast or veg!!) at every meal if I let her. Your dh is an arse.

Fucking hell. Another batshit food thread. I'd be chuffed if my kids ate that. I wouldn't serve it with veg tho because that's just weird. Beans are the only veg ds2 eats so he has them everyday. Neither of my boys would eat eggs and DS1 wouldn't even eat the beans. I have beans or egg on toast at least every other day.

Inspired by this thread i'm having fried eggs and beans on toast covered in brown sauce for lunch and giving it to DD (1yo) too. MMMMmmmm

Scrambled egg and broccoli - no!
Omlette and broccoli - a big yes!

Someone mentioned value mince. I absolutely wouldn't buy value mince. I'd rather substitute that in a dish with something like a tin of chickpeas. A chilli made with chickpeas is fab.

1 tin of beans has 19.6g of sugar... That is virtually all your daily allowance so it is entirely accurate to say they are full of sugar.

Er who can eat a full tin of beans? I only have half and I can eat a lot.

1/2 tin of my reduced sugar ones is 4.9g (i actually prefer the taste too)

Absolutely nothing wrong with that.

He is being selfish. While you are struggling to make ends meet and have made a low cost perfectly nutritious meal he insists on making himself something 'better'. If anyone should be having beans it's him - not his children.

Not that I have anything against beans, beans on toast are actually my favourite food. I would be quite happy to live on beans on toast. Your kids like them too which is great.

its fine! Not every day maybe, but once a week? Grand! And the beans do count as a vegetable - I give my kids tomatoes with theirs to up the veg count. And fruit pudding - all good!

I still have egg on toast plus fruit for tea sometimes if I've had a proper lunch. My favourite is tinned pilchards In tomato sauce on toast though, hope the rules haven't changed and that still counts as nutritious

What's wrong with green veg with baked beans? Broccoli is particularly good to mop up the tomato sauce.

Ooh tinned sardines in tomato sauce on toast. Lovely.