To think £3.25 isn't cheap for a dinner every night?

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DD (18) has a Caesar salad every night for dinner, I batch cook but she doesn't like any of the stuff so I buy her the stuff for Caesar salad. It works out at £3.25 (she likes this certain fresh hot and spicy chicken that goes on it.) She thinks this is quite cheap, I did mention that she is expensive with the food shopping and she got defensive saying that she eats cheap foods and that it isn't fair to say she is expensive! AIBU to the £3.25 every night is quite a lot for dinner?

She basically loves lean meat and fresh vegetables - what the hell is wrong with that?! It's way healthier than any of those batch cooked-frozen-defrosted, or processed or tinned endevours you read about here ... And if you;ve seen those silly last pages of any magazine, it is exactly what these healthy, wrinkle-free and smiling women advocate for lunch: turkey and some leaves.

if I were you I'd wonder how she feels full after a salad, but apparently some people manage. If cost is bothering you, then maybe buying chicken fillets and cooking them is a better option rather than ready cooked small pack. Maybe she can cook it herself if she isn't knackered from studies and some part time job.

“She basically loves lean meat and fresh vegetables ”

She actually appears to love bought croutons, processed chicken and salad dressing!

Bertrand, all the horrors you listed still don't measure up to crack heroin or self-harming, for example, so I don't share your indignation. I don't think it is a crime and a reprehensible thing to do to eat bought croutons and not be arsed to make them. Processed chicken is not the best, but nothing wrong with salad dressing. Still, this is much better than, for example, some ready made cottage pie full of salt and preservatives ...

“Bertrand, all the horrors you listed still don't measure up to crack heroin or self-harming, for example”

Eh?

Processed chicken is not the best, but nothing wrong with salad dressing

If it's bought ready made dressing, it is likely to be full of salt and preservatives. Same for the croutons and probably the chicken.

No way would my mum have bought me that. There is one family meal if you don't want that then you sort yourself out. 🤷🏽‍♀️

@BloodyDisgrace I think a Caesar salad is very low in terms of nutritional benefit. The dressing is very rich, lots of salt salt and high in calories, plus cheese, croutons and cos lettuce isn't particularly full of vitamins. She would be much better with a cottage pie!

Lean meat and vegetables? Ha ha ha ha ha!

Yeah, if you have it without the cheese, croutons and dressing. That's 'salad and chicken', not 'Ceasar salad'.

Ceasar salad is very high in fat and salt. It commonly comes out as higher in calories and fat than a hamburger and fries, when takeaway versions are compared. It's high calorie, high fat, low fibre treat food, not a healthy everyday dinner.

Nobody in my house would have processed food every night. I don’t object to separate dinners if they don’t involve much extra work or expense. If this was my dd, I would buy the ingredients (including a chicken) and have a discussion about who was going to cook them and when. And I would also want to know what else she was eating- I can’t imagine a Caesar salad being enough dinner for an active 18 year old.

It's way healthier than any of those batch cooked-frozen-defrosted, or processed or tinned endevours you read about here

Pardon ?

That's one hell of a thread de-rail.

Good god, I didn't know Ceasar Salad is such a death trap. It definitely tastes nicer than cottage pie or jacket potato, or some self-righteous and proud batch of chilli con carne a family should eat gratefully all week ... although tastes are subjective, but I'm with the daughter here, firmly. I sometimes add cheese to my salad and always have it with mayonnaise, and if someone thinks I'm slowly killing myself, well it's the beauty of social media I guess. But if this daughter is healthy and not overweight, and the rest of her diet is varied, I think all the fuss is a bit premature. I would see the point in such an alarm if it were KFS and chips daily.
She could be encouraged to expand on the salad theme, maybe replace some ingredients and cook more of it rather than buy ready made. Surely this, rather than outright criticism, would do her more good in the long term when she lives independently and decides what she eats.

I'm fat and I eat salad 3 to 4 meals over a week.

I don't like dressings well have never tried any as I don't like oily things. But I have different leaves with different Cheeses, carrots, Quorn pieces or nuggets chopped ul. Sometimes Quorn ham or sausages finely chopped for flavour. Sometimes spinach if I want to feel a little virtuous.

I'm still fat even though I love salad and only have it without salt and dressings as I love chocolate and Fudge also.

Salad does keep me full though.

Can't see the problem with eating something you love constantly but can see the problem with the dressing and pre prepared chicken ie preservatives etc

. I would see the point in such an alarm if it were KFS and chips daily.

Kentucky Fried Salad?

Ha - she has not learned the value of money or had to manage a family on a budget yet!

It's expensive for one person yes - especially someone not yet earning their own money.

It's not a ridiculous amount but it would normally be balanced in most less well off families by dhal and rice, vegetable soup etc on other nights

It's cheap.

I have an 18 year old and he eats what we eat, or he sorts himself out. Personally I wouldn't pay £3.25 per day just for his meal because we are on a budget. I think my sons diet is pretty rubbish health wise, and I do comment on it sometimes, but it's his choice and when he goes to Uni later this year I am sure it will be even worse!

For only 1 person that is expensive!! That’s £22.75 a week for 1 persons dinner! Not even the rest of the food.

In the scheme of things....

I really have to ask....

Does it matter?

I usually spend about £40 a week to feed my and my DS who's 7 and a very picky eater.
£23 for 1 person would be over half my weekly food shop spend 😮
Personally I'd tell her to buy it herself if she's old enough to work and pay for it

I don’t think it’s expensive but it’s not cheap either. I wouldn’t be too fussed by this and would likely go along with it, thinking it’s a phase that will pass.

I think it’s fine - we pay £4 each child for school lunches so why would an evening meal be less?
We have steak night most Fridays, 6 of us, I just added up our ingredients £37.00 for tonight so £6.15 ish per person.

My Ds - 14 has just had 5 Birds Eye Chicken Burgers for lunch with two slices of bread and a river of ketchup. Your dd’s meal seems cheap in comparison. I think it sounds relatively healthy and the cost is reasonable. But if she was my daughter I’d show her how to cook it from scratch. Using a free range chicken from Aldi/Lidl, home made croutons made with olive oil and fried/baked in the oven. Dressing & Parmesan, Romaine Aldi/Lidl.

Give her a budget, give her the recipe, off she pops.

That’s expensive.
If everyone in the house was eating a meal at that price twice a day (aka a salad with chicken again at lunch time), I would nearly double what we spend each week on food.
And I don’t think we spend very little. We have meat at each meal etc ....

It IS looking cheap if you compare it to a meal you buy at a cafe etc... but you can’t compare the two. I think that’s where the mistake is.

FWIW the biggest issue for me (assuming you can afford for her to to spend that sort of money) is the fact she is so picky and refusing to eat the same than everyone else.

Well a duck breast is £3, baked potatoe 50p, green veg probably another 50p....so for us that’s posh dinner money.