To feed my kids fruit and veg 5 days a week

[Justus3girls]

In a nutshell my kids eat really well. 2 sometimes 3 pieces of fruit in lunchbox every day. Then veg with dinner most nights (exc Friday & Saturday)
Recently they're been moaning that they eat a lot of veg and why do they have to have it every night.
Its just always been my thought that they have to have it as it's healthy.
Unless we have curry its generally veg or salad with every meal.
Sounds boring when I write it down.
I was going to cook a roast but they asked me not to as we had one Thursday.
I feel bad chucking frozen food in the oven as doesn't feel like cooking but then I'm starting to feel mean dishing them veg every night.
Am I a mean mum & need to chill out with the veg?

I try to eat fruit and veg every day, completely normal.

Beige oven food is not normal!

I'd mix up the vegetables and salad that you are giving them. When you've got a bit of time with them try doing things like making coleslaw together, or searching for and making new side dish recipes with them

OP when you say '3/4 with dinner' do you really mean portions or types? Are they actually having 4 big handfuls of veg with dinner?

They should be having five a day minimum every day. Why would it be 'boring' to have veg or salad with a meal every day? Surely you would just dish it up on the side of what you're eating.

Lots of fruit is a great start but fruit is not a substitute for salad or veg.

Isn't it quite hard to produce meals that don't include veg ?
E.g. in our house:
Spag bol (carrot celery onion tomato)
Curry (spinach onion tomato peas)
Fajitas (peppers onion tomato cucumber)
Roast (broccoli parsnip carrot peas)

I don’t get it, sorry. Of course it’s not mean, it’s utterly normal. The thought of a vegetable free meal makes me sad.

I'm really surprised that you're having this argument with teenagers, tbh. I appreciate that it can be hard with very young children, but surely, by that age, they should be able to eat plenty of fruit and veg without a fuss?

I wonder if it's the way that you're cooking them that makes them so unappealing?

Just teenagers moaning then & I need to think of mixing up the dinners a bit.
Thanks.

Surely it’s quite hard to produce a full day of meals without incorporating fruit and veg? Even quick, easy meals tend to have some form of veg.
Today we had pancakes for breakfast, with strawberries, banana and blueberries. Homemade burgers for lunch, cooked with garlic/onions and with lettuce and tomatoes. Roast pork for dinner with roast potatoes, broccoli, carrots and kale (which was a bit random but it needed eating). I can’t think of a single meal we eat that doesn’t have veg in.
Having said that, meat and 2 veg every night sounds pretty dull.

Are they boring because you’re giving them the same veg every night?

I might only give mine cooked veg 2/3 nights, on other days they’ll have raw carrot, pepper, cherry toms, celery and cucumber.

Children complain about stuff: standard practice. Just tell them food doesn’t always have to be mega exciting, it’s just a meal.

Bored

Op are you possibly doing meat and 2 veg everyday? I grew up like this and ended up hating veg because the meals varied of, gammon & peas, chicken, carrots & peas etc. It gets really boring!! I love veg now however.

3 pieces of fruit in their lunchbox is hugely excessive. You know they don't have much time at lunch, do you eat 3 pieces of fruit at lunch too?

Evening meal is up to you, can't you put more of it in the actual dish rather than a side? A roast dinner can be boring every three days etc but other cuisines, Mexican, Spanish etc you can pack loads into the meal itself

Maybe don't serve veg as a salad but rather in the meal. I tend to put veg in a lot of curries and always in my tomato sauce with pasta. I will add peppers with pasta or spinach. My two are toddlers and don't eat much fruit so I add it to cereal and just encourage them.

Yanbu but maybe look at other meal recipes just so you are rotating the veg you use.

Ah sorry, didn't read that they were teenagers. 3 pieces of fruit for lunch isn't excessive then.

What meals do they want? Teach them they can't complain unless they have a solution to suggest

Op, were you expecting people to tell you YABU?

And they can cook their solution meal one night each. You don't have to "serve" them

Just tell them food doesn’t always have to be mega exciting, it’s just a meal.

I disagree. Growing up, meals were a time for my parents and I to catch up with each other —so much laughter, so many tears shed over fantastic food that we all enjoyed eating. Even as a teen, I still looked forward to our evening meals because the food my dad cooked was that good. Serve up boring food and meals become a chore that you want to just get over and out of the way.

Rubbish stealth boast. It's normal to eat fruit and veg every day - what's the deal with 'except Fri and Sat'?!

cheese on (lots of) bread.
And ...wait for it because it's amazing...pasta is boiled pastry! Same ingredients.

No its not

I think it just sounds like you need to make the meals a bit more interesting and change things around. I’m sure lots of us are guilty of ending up doing the same things that isn’t always that interesting but it’s easy and quick to do.

Ahem most parents think it’s normal to give fruit and veg and every day. Stealth boast 🤐🥱

no one i went to school with was over weight. Not a singe person

Crikey that's made me think. Late 70's, only one fat kid in our year. The only take away we had was the chippy twice a week. As you say, it was meat and two veg and no snacking inbetween meals.

Of course we got more exercise back then, less tv channels, no social media and no games consoles led to a more physically active lifestyle.

It's weird to me to have a meal without veg. As weird as not having a carb or protein. That's what a meal is! Carb, veg, protein. If you're missing one of those, it's more of a snack. Although actually, some lunches and breakfasts may lack one or two of those. But certainly a dinner ought to contain all three.

I admit though sometimes it can be easy to chuck oven chips and fish fingers in the oven and not eat any. I don't like eating like that, but sometimes I will in the name of tiredness.