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

[Justanothernamechange2]

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...

Doesn't bother me but my parents gave always been advocates of at least one hot meal a day. I think it's the idea of having something warm in your belly and perhaps something 'cold' at dinnertime is not as filling or nutritious as a hot evening meal.

I’ve heard this loads, in England and Scotland. But not in the context of can’t, more simply don’t need two hot meals a day. To be honest I do think to myself if my daughter has had a hot lunch at school that I then don’t need to give her another hot meal for supper and can give her a sandwich or similar. My mum says the same. But I don’t think it’s a rule!!
I don’t think it’s worth being bothered about either way though!

New one on me.
Doesn't sit with the "full english breakfast and then meat and 2 veg for dinner" tradition.

I like breaking / ignoring rules anyway, especially the ones that have no rhyme or reason to them.

I think the idea of restricting how many hot meals a person has per day is based in the amount of work for the cook (and as PP said, probably stems from issues of time, labour and fuel costs). So a person who demanded two or three cooked meals per day but wasn't prepared to do any of the preparation or clearing away would be unreasonable (unless they were having these meals in cafes or restaurants or whatever). I grew up with the idea of one 'main' meal a day, but it seemed to be less of a thing when we were on holiday - lunch could be two substantial courses and the evening meal would be equally hefty. I think it was entirely down to it not being my mother's job to cook it all.

But I've seen threads on a similar topic, usually where it's either a meddling MIL or a controlling H trying to insist that the rest of the family have less food than they want because they 'have already had a hot meal today' - particularly tiresome when applied to growing, hungry DC.

Come across it - but often find it may not mean cooked breakfast/porridge or soup and may even not mean beans on toast.

Also in summer when it's really hot often last thing wanted in this house is a hot meal at all.

I don't so much think it's can't as in the past it wasn't normal to. My granny - who lived through two wars - would certainly have thought it decadent to have a hot lunch and then another hot meal at dinner time. Not the way she was brought up. Crumpets toasted in front of the open fire perhaps, full cooked meal definitely not.

There was certainly the school of thought that if you'd had a cooked lunch, then the appropriate thing to have early evening would be something cold, or toast.

Why does a meal like a roast, curry or lasagne have to be 'big'.

As most of my lunches are warmed up leftovers, I often have these types of meals for both lunch and dinner and because they are typically sensibly sized portions of home made meals with plenty of vegetables, they probably have fewer calories than a typical 'light lunch' of a sandwich and crisps or a slice of cake.

In the summer I can go days without a hot meal, although I often serve lukewarm new potatoes with salad.

In the winter, I switch my packed lunch from sandwiches plus fruit to soup & bread plus fruit, & then have a hot meal in the evening as well

Now I live alone, my dinner is often what I might have considered "lunch"
while living with DH - something on toast for example.

Rules are for breaking ha ha. It's the overall balance of food/nutrients/calories that is important.

I’ve heard the ‘one hot meal a day’ but never thought that it extended to soup.

I do understand where people are coming from on this - hot food usually but not always takes a bit more time and effort but that doesn’t have to mean that it is a bigger meal.

Depends what the two hot meals are.

I could have soup for a lunch and still have a heavier tea easily, but I couldn't eat 2 heavy meals a day.

There are rules about this? Are there dinner police who snatch your macaroni cheese away if you had an omelette for lunch? I have never heard this before!

I’ve never heard this. I eat what I fancy/have in the fridge and the temperature of the meal doesn’t enter into the decision making process. The only exception would be if I was entertaining - then I might opt for a cold meal in the summer and a hot one in colder weather.

It's just because we are creatures of habit! When you grow up with things being one way for years, it becomes ingrained!

Never heard anyone ever say it.

Never heard of this!

Quite the opposite. I find it odd how some people believe they’ve not eaten ‘properly’ if they don’t have a hot meal at some point during the day! Temperature is irrelevant but to some people it’s everything 😂

My kids think I'm weird for insisting on one hot meal a day! They're quite happy with sandwiches / salads. I think there's some deep-seated psychological reason behind wanting them to have at least one hot meal a day, something like I feel I'm not providing for them properly.

I've never heard it but I do tend to have one bigger hot meal a day and usually a smaller cool one- but can & will change it up. It just suits me to do that but I would never stop or judge anyone else doing it!

Haha! RachaelGeller your post wasn't there when I started writing mine, I'm definitely one of your odd ones

Never heard this. Depends on what is on the menu whether I have two hot meals. What is constantly said in the media is some people not being able to afford 1 hot meal a day particularly in relation to children

Never heard of it. Surely soup or porridge wouldn't count?!

I grew up generally having one 'hot meal' a day although I think it is about size of meal rather than temperature as I often remember having e.g. beans on toast or cheese on toast for lunch then a 'hot dinner' and may have had porridge for breakfast. Now I would have soup or eggs on toast for lunch and a 'hot meal' later but I wouldn't have e.g. a roast for lunch then spag bol for dinner. DH often takes our leftovers to work for lunch and heats them up but they will be smaller than a 'full dinner' portion.

However my in-laws, ig they have a cooked breakfast, don't particularly see the need to eat lunch, which I can't cope with. I need something between breakfast and dinner (am up half the night with DS atm and am often ravenous by 7am).

I'm shocked about the kids who had a school meal only having a sandwich. My kids only have a sandwich and fruit at school and come home ravenous but with regards to the hot meals. The portions are absolutely tiny and they can leave the veg and not choose it. So for instance last month when I was in a little girl got macaroni and wedges and had two mouthfuls of the macaroni and one wedge. I'd seriously hope her parents didn't just think oh she'd had a hot meal and bunged her a sandwich for dinner. It's madness when you dont know exactly how much your child has eaten of that meal.

Goodness. I mean some days I have 3 hotmeals

Scrambled egg on toast for breakfast, jacket potato & a hot filling for lunch & chicken & veg for tea.

I wouldn’t think of soup or beans as a full on meal, but I wouldn’t eat two hot meals a day like roast beef for dinner and fish and chips for tea.

When I was farming we would have fry up for breakfast, roast for dinner and soup for tea but then I was working 12 hour days minimum.

I also don’t subscribe to kids needing a hot meal every day. Food is food whether it’s hot or cold.