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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not understand the unwritten rule of not having 2 hot meals a day?

213 replies

Justanothernamechange2 · 29/09/2018 18:38

Seeing it more and more that people cant have hot food twice a day.. cant possibly have spag bol for dinner because they had soup for lunch etc. It was a recent debate in my workplace so wondered how the jury of MN feel.

Surely its more about portions than temperature?

Id happily eat hot food for every meal - lunch is just typically smaller than my evening meal or vice versa sometimes at weekends...

OP posts:
TheCag · 29/09/2018 21:07

My mum has a thing about this - I still find her rules confusing though.

Porridge, soup and cooked dinner in a day is fine so it’s not about hot food exactly. If she ate lunch out (even quite a light lunch) it means a meagre cold dinner, to balance it out somehow.

Holdingonbarely · 29/09/2018 21:10

My mum does the whole... oh we are out for lunch tgudcour main meal.
She’s obsessed with a main meal.
Go out for lunch. Have a soup. And that’s you’re main meal!!??
Though I am greedy

Holdingonbarely · 29/09/2018 21:11

That’s our!

XingMing · 29/09/2018 21:11

If I ate lunch out, it would imply that I ate more than normal, so I would eat less at dinner to balance that. But I would still offer DH/DS a full meal, because they were not at lunch.

36degrees · 29/09/2018 21:16

My flatmate at university thought this. She also thought that hairdryers use less electricity than lightbulbs.

GreenTulips · 29/09/2018 21:28

I wouldn't eat 3 hot meals a day either - but I'm not that fussed about cooking.

Vestal for breakfast sandwiches at lunch and hot dinner

If kids have a hot meal at school they get a lighter tea.

Mum2jenny · 29/09/2018 21:33

I'm happy to eat 2 or 3 meals a day, however they will all include cooked hot components even if one is only a bacon roll. Cold meals leave me unsatisfied i.e. Couldn't be arsed to eat them!

AnoukSpirit · 29/09/2018 21:37

I grew up with this.

I don't think it had anything to do with banning excessive hot food, just a reflection of the fact that it took a lot of work to prepare the cooked main meal, so it you had that at lunch then you had a simpler cold tea. Whereas if you had sandwiches at lunch you should expect your main meal in the evening.

It wasn't about the temperature of the food, but the substance of the meals.

Pretty sure it was just a colloquial way of expressing that you would have one main meal a day - from times where that meal would be a cooked meal, hours long in the making, and therefore expectations needed managing!

It only gets weird where people lose that understanding and start banning themselves from having a cooked dinner because they already had cupa soup at lunch time, etc. It was never a rule to be enforced, just a meal and time planning device and shorthand way to let you know what to expect when in terms of your main meal - we used to sometimes have our main meal at lunch and sometimes in the evening. It was easier for us couched in these terms. That's all. Cooked breakfast was still welcomed!

AnnabelTheAntelope · 29/09/2018 21:39

Just realised that I had hot lunch out today and just had a bowl of cereal, so maybe I DO subscribe to this without even realising it Shock!

HollowTalk · 29/09/2018 21:43

It's nothing to do with the temperature of the food. Of course people can eat something hot for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's two dinners a day that some people eat and others won't.

MrsFezziwig · 29/09/2018 21:58

I’m sure that I fall into the category of “old weirdo” (though am pleased not to be grandparent to that rude SneakyGremlins), but this never has been a thing in my experience. When I was a child back in the Dark Ages we would often have a hot school lunch and then my mum would cook us egg and chips a hot meal for tea (yes I’m from Yorkshire). Nowadays, if it’s hot weather I might have three cold meals, if it’s winter I might have three hot - it’s the quantity of food, not the temperature that needs to be taken into account (at least I’m a logical old weirdo).

MardAsSnails · 29/09/2018 22:03

I also dislike the hot meals and stodgy food aren’t acceptable in summer

So many people wouldn’t eat sausage and mash (or equivalent) in summer.

I live in the desert. It’s as warm as British summertime in winter. If that was an actual rule, I’d never get to eat nice food.

Eat what food you want, when you want. In my opinion.

Tunnocks34 · 29/09/2018 22:09

I sort of get what you mean. If I go out for lunch I won’t order a hot evening meal, I’ll order a sandwich e.

I sometimes will let my son have a sandwich for tea as he had a hot meal for lunch at school too.

Although I do have school dinners Monday to Friday and tea when I get home.

Never hot breakfast though except for a Sunday fry up.

AnotherPidgey · 29/09/2018 22:15

Generally I prefer hot food and find it more satisfying. I will be more sated from a ham and cheese toasty than its nutritionally identical ham and cheese sandwich. If I'm cold, hot food is the most effective way for me to warm up.

I've had years of school dinners and continue to make a light hot lunch for myself or reheated food. The other myth that amuses me is the MN horror of a daily school pudding. With over 25 years of eating school dinners, I don't eat pudding on a regular basis and am a very healthy build Grin

I'm a fan of something warm for breakfast, porridge or eggs/ beans with toast (toast taking the longest to make). Most cereal is empty short term carbs, and there's not much in toast on its own.

Batteriesallgone · 29/09/2018 22:35

I grew up with this rule.

It was based on two things, the cost of cooking hot food, and the fact we had very little cooking equipment so hot food for lunch and dinner would mean two lots of pan-washing in a day too. Pots and pans are dirtier than plates (that have been licked clean, ha) so I guess there was also the element of the money required not just in cooking the food but also the cost of hot water for washing up. Cold water was used for plates that had only had a sandwich on.

I do have hot for lunch and dinner some days, but it always reminds me of the fact that I am now what as a child I would consider ‘loaded’ - fridge/cupboards well stocked, I can use as much hot water / electricity as I like, I own many pots and pans and a dishwasher.

I don’t like it when it comes up in conversation and people loudly say oh how ridiculous, etc etc, it feels like they are basically saying oh of course I’ve never been POOR, what a ridiculous concept... but I freely accept I have ishoos and that’s not what they mean. Still grates though.

Princess1066 · 29/09/2018 22:42

I was brought up this way in the South of England & so was everyone I knew (born in 1962).
I still follow those "rules" Grin
I ate lunch out today (a hot meal) & so only had a cheese roll for supper.
Tbh can't often face 2 cooked meals in a day (let alone 3) no matter who is cooking Confused
Very rarely will have cooked breakfast but if I do I would have no lunch & then a meal without meat for supper Hmm

goforkyourself · 29/09/2018 23:14

My mum and dad panic if I don't have a hot meal every day. If I go to the airport with a salad wrap in my bag they fret Smile

Bekstar · 30/09/2018 17:40

I only do one hot meal a day, but by hot meal I mean meat and two veg, or spa bowl etc. For the other meal it's usually sandwiches, or soup and a roll (No I don't class soup as a hot meal) I suppose I should really say large meal rather than hot. As for. My son. Who is at school. I normally cook base Don what he has at achool, if he was down as sandwiches or something light I'd make a hit meal for last meal but if he had a hot meal I make sandwiches or soup or similar.

SoyDora · 30/09/2018 17:42

I’m surprised at the DC who only need a light meal after having school lunches. DD1 is 4, tiny (9th centile for height and weight) and is ravenous when she gets home from school! She says the school dinners are really small. She has been having larger evening meals since starting school!

Chocolatecoffeeaddict · 30/09/2018 17:47

Who cares? I typically only eat one meal a day, because I don't have time to cook for myself during the day. I usually just have a sandwich or snacks. But I wasn't aware there was a rule around it and I'm not bothered if others' eat two hot meals a day.

forthelifeofpomme · 30/09/2018 17:54

I had soup for breakfast. And then again for lunch and once more for dinner. To be fair I made a big pot.
I think, like others have said, it's a way of minimising kitchen slavery for those preparing meals for a household.

Lweji · 30/09/2018 17:59

I'm from Portugal and people who don't eat two hot meals a day (unless travelling) are considered mad.

A sandwich for lunch is for crazy Brits who don't eat properly.

Lweji · 30/09/2018 18:01

Also, soup is NOT a hot meal. In the same way that hot milk is NOT a hot meal either.
Soup alone is what old people have for dinner.
Soup tends to be part of a meal, like a starter. At least once a day.

Aeroflotgirl · 30/09/2018 18:04

I would not have 2 big hot meals a day, such as say: curry and lasagna. But will sometimes have beans on toast for lunch, and a spaghetti bolognaise for dinner.

frumpyheron · 30/09/2018 18:12

I was raised on one hot meal a day as a thing. I couldn’t understand it when my husband would eat two. I still sort of don’t to be honest. I always do a sandwich for tea if I have a cooked lunch!