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?

I think IceFall scarfs down a whole tin of beans on 4 slices of white toast and thinks the rest of us do the same, which is why she is so concerned about obesity and diabetes.
Moderation is all you need, not hysteria.

Broccoli is particularly good to mop up the tomato sauce.

Heave. The only veg i have with beans is the fried mushrooms or bubble and squeak with breakfast.

My kids usually have a school meal every day and we have a lot of after school activities where it is only suitable to have a snacky tea and then supper (cereal/toast) before bed.

I generally do 2 cooked 'proper' meals during the week for the kids as they are starving when they get home and then a couple of crackers/soup/beans on toast and some veg sticks on the other three. Saturday we have a takeaway inspired tea and Sunday we have a roast.

Life is too short to spend EVERY SINGLE DAY cooking an elaborate meal - unless you actually really enjoy cooking.

How about replacing the toast with raw kale and replacing the beans with raw kale? They won't notice OP and there's much less enjoyment.

It's fine. My DC loved beans on taost or tinned spaghetti with grated cheese and some steamed veg on the side with fruit and yoghurt for pudding. Not because we were skint but because it was the dinner I knew they'd eat if they were tired/grumpy/off colour. Or I was. They had it about three times a week for a few years. And they are now feckless oafs with skin diseases and low IQs. Oh hang on, no they're not.

It is a proper dinner.

OMG beans on toast with Marmite on the toast too?

That's lunch sorted.

My three kids share 1/2 tin of beans and then 2 have one slice of toast and the eldest has 2. So they do not have much of this 'awful' sugar.

To be honest it is empty food and drink like sweets, crisps, fizzy drinks and alcohol that need to be controlled. I think a bit of bread is nothing to worry about!

And grated cheese Lonny.

How about replacing the toast with raw kale and replacing the beans with raw kale? They won't notice OP and there's much less enjoyment

^^

My kids' fav dinner once when I ran out of food was popcorn. Your dinner is fine once a week or even twice. And if they have school dinners, they really don't need more than a sandwich and a smoothie in the evening.

One tin of beans divided between 3 in our house (or 4 if we are having egg as well. That's one slice of toast for Ds, two for dd & 3 each for me & dh

On sunday my kids had a drive thru cheeseburger, then popcorn, coctail sausages and chocolate at their grans house and then cheerios in the evening when they came home.
Beans on toast would be several steps up. '

(I do normally feed them actual food)

I'm with you @Eltonjohnssyrup. And I often put some green veg on a meal that it doesn't really go with, to make sure they've had their greens!

I cook balanced meals every night, but once a week we will have a "quick tea" which would either be crappy frozen stuff or something like a corned beef and baked bean hash.

It's only once a week. It's not going to kill anyone. You're not going to end up on that programme where they get people who don't even know how to peel a potato and just heat stuff up from the freezer (Eat Well for Less?)

I put egg, grated veg and cheese in muffin tin (cook it) and serve with toast or potatoes when skint. It’s basically the same as you are serving but looks more fancy as it’s ‘mini-quiche’

Eggs are full of goodness - all the vitamins apart from C, plus protein.

The green veg will give you the vitamin C.

Toast is better if wholemeal bread but even without it has nutrients.

If he thinks they should have something else then he should buy it and cook it.

This. Otherwise he can shut up.

I think it's fine, even if you didn't do veg with it!

This thread is completely nuts.

OP, I was busy one night last week so after the kids were in bed my dinner was beans on toast with a poached egg on top. It was absolutely fabulous.

DD1 would think she'd died and gone to heaven if she had beans on toast with cheese for tea. In fact, that is what she's having for tea

Ok. So would he accept vegetable Omelet with beans and garlic bread as a dinner?

Same ingredients.

My OH is like this. My 2 get a school lunch and a hot dinner at home which we all eat. I don't see the problem with an 'on toast' tea. (I don't see the problem with soup, cereal, jacket spud - which is apparently not real food - or anything like that, provided the day/week intake is balanced).

We have something like this once or twice a week. You can get no-sugar Heinz baked beans (sweetened with stevia) very easily in the main supermarkets if sugar is a concern.

Eggs on toast is fantastic food with veg on the side! We often do 'finger food' veg like cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, cucumber bits. Or you could do grilled tomatoes, yum.

For both types of meal, I'd probably just be making sure I was using wholewheat bread and the healthiest kind I could afford (I am weird about bread and only really like the freshly made stuff, but I've also looked on the shelves at the supermarket and found some wholewheat Cranks bread with no added sugar that DD likes).

Nothing wrong with it whatsoever.

Yanbu

Thanks to this thread I've just had half a tin of beans on seeded brown toast with 2 poached eggs - it was delicious!

Eggs on toast, beans on toast are perfectly good light meals.
To make it more substantial for your DH, fry off sliced onion, sliced tinned potatoes, add in cooked peas, broccoli, green beans, beaten eggs, and he's got a substantial frittata, with the same ingredients as your egg on toast with veg.

Having seen what teens and students can live on

For maximum amusement, go and hang round the nearest supermarket to a secondary school before school or at lunchtime to see lines of teens all buying a few quid's worth of absolute junk.

I'm sure their 'all hail the kale' parents did not intend for them to have a bag of haribo, bag of doritos and large bottle of fizzy pop for their lunch but that seems about standard.

Those that spend their money in the chip shop instead are certainly taking the comparitively healthy option.

Sounds fine to Me! Except I hate baked beans. They're the only food I don't think I could eat out if politeness! It's the texture of them!

Also I don't agree with posters saying you should do anything else for your husband! He's an adult. If he can't cook his own tea a couple of nights a week that's pretty disgraceful.

My little ones have this sometimes, I always give them a bowl of broccoli to go with it to up the veg for the day.

Mine have 1 slice of wholemeal hovis (1.9g of sugar) a 1/2 tin of Heinz no added sugar beans ( 3.7g of sugar) then the broccoli ( 1.8g sugar per 100g) so it’s hardly an outrageous meal imo.

Me and dh do both enjoy cooking and most nights we do cook but sometimes when you can’t be bothered beans on toast is a perfect handy meal