To think bangers and mash implies veg too?

[Crowsaregreat]

My kids love sausage and mash. I always do it with at least one type of veg, preferably two. Peas, carrots, broccoli sort of thing.

We stayed with PIL a while ago and MIL did sausage and mash that was exactly that - sausage, mash, gravy. Then recently my DM did the same.

It won't do DC any harm but I thought it was odd. I don't think I'd ever give DC just meat + potato for dinner unless it was a desperate situation. AIBU to think it's weird to have a dinner with no veg?

@BeenAsFarAsMercyAndGrand

I bow to your food superiority!

Surely it's just normal eating? When I eat at my friends/families houses they also serve veg in every meal. I don't know anyone who would serve just meat + staple carb with no veg.

Yeah I think it's quite normal for many people.

Where I grew up was quite working class and we would sometimes just have meat + carbs. My eating habits have changed a lot now, but some of my family still eat like this a lot of the time. One (adult) family member in particular eats no fresh veg at all - I despair!

Each to their own though, these days we all have access to information about healthy diet and can choose what to do with it.

[quote nancywhitehead]@warmfluffytowels It sounds normal to me to have fruit/ veg with every meal. Of course not everyone is the same, but I think aiming to get fruit/ veg of some kind with every meal is pretty normal and healthy.[/quote]
Agreed, it's not a super-wacky diet, it's normal eating.

Breakfast - include banana, or berries, maybe some apple
Lunch - A bit of salad with your sandwich, maybe some carrot sticks, maybe a soup containing veg
Dinner - include some form of veg either in the sauce or on the side (e.g. broccoli ifwith bangers & mash, carrots/onion/celery in a bolognese)

That's not some kind of unachievable super-food diet!

Why does every single meal need veg though? I’m veggie. If I’m doing a curry for dinner that has all my five a day in it. If I just want cheese on toast for lunch, why do I need to add an apple on the side? If the balance of your diet is good, every single meal doesn’t have to be.

Delicious with fried onions and garden peas and lots of gravy...but not with any other veg.

@BeenAsFarAsMercyAndGrand

I bow to your food superiority!

Surely it's just normal eating? When I eat at my friends/families houses they also serve veg in every meal. I don't know anyone who would serve just meat + staple carb with no veg.

Yes exactly, isn’t the stereotype meat and two veg? Even if you count the potato as one of them it still needs something else.

"Surely it's just normal eating? When I eat at my friends/families houses they also serve veg in every meal. I don't know anyone who would serve just meat + staple carb with no veg."

You've never had something on toast, something on a baked potato? (assuming we're not including potato as a veg)?
Pasta and cheese? Pasta and sauce?

That's not some kind of unachievable super-food diet!

Of course not, but there's no need to add fruit or veg to every single meal to be healthy, which is what people on here are implying.

It's pretty normal for people to just have a bowl of cereal or a couple of slices of toast for breakfast, for example.

"One (adult) family member in particular eats no fresh veg at all - I despair!"

We keep being told that frozen is just as healthy. Don't you agree?

@PurpleDaisies

Why does every single meal need veg though? I’m veggie. If I’m doing a curry for dinner that has all my five a day in it. If I just want cheese on toast for lunch, why do I need to add an apple on the side? If the balance of your diet is good, every single meal doesn’t have to be.

Exactly (though I admit I'm not myself a healthy eater). I've never heard of a rule that every meal should have veg, not included potatoes.

"Yes exactly, isn’t the stereotype meat and two veg? Even if you count the potato as one of them it still needs something else."

Yes, but not every meal is a meat and two veg type meal, is it?
It also depends what you count as veg. You're all discounting potatoes, but including beans and peas, which some people wouldn't.

@MrsFin

I often mash other veg into my mashed potatos. Therefore keeping the "bangers and mash" thing technically correct.

The DDs used to love orange mash, or green mash.

oh lord it took me ages to work out why i couldn't make mash like my mum. turns out she always snuck parsnips into it and really mashed them up. no clue....

i now do this for the dc sometimes. orange mash (sweet potato or carrot), carrot and swede mashed, green mash (spinach whizzed up and thrown in).

or depending on how i'm feeling i might throw some peas on the plate with the bangers and mash. always onion gravy though. especially with cheese mash...

@PurpleDaisies

Why does every single meal need veg though? I’m veggie. If I’m doing a curry for dinner that has all my five a day in it. If I just want cheese on toast for lunch, why do I need to add an apple on the side? If the balance of your diet is good, every single meal doesn’t have to be.

That approach might be reasonable for lunch, but I wouldn't apply that to the main meal of the day. Most people get c. 50% of their daily calories from their main meal (which is what bangers/mash would be), so if your main meal isn't balanced, your overall diet probably won't be.

Personally, I prefer having fruit & veg throughout the day. If I have cheese on toast, I tend to add chopped onion (because it tastes lush).

Peas always, because peas and mash on the same fork is teatime nectar.

I’d always add something green. And onion gravy.

Has anyone commented about all the carbs in peas yet?!

@Gwenhwyfar

"Surely it's just normal eating? When I eat at my friends/families houses they also serve veg in every meal. I don't know anyone who would serve just meat + staple carb with no veg."

You've never had something on toast, something on a baked potato? (assuming we're not including potato as a veg)?
Pasta and cheese? Pasta and sauce?

Yes, but usually it involves veg!

Pasta sauce is tomatoes, onions & garlic, right? Veg!
I don't eat pasta and cheese on its own.
My main jacket potato topping is veggie chilli, or beans.
Toast is not a meal. Maybe beans on toast would count as a meal, but again - it contains veg!

Gravy or beans. No veg

We generally have peas with it alongside onion gravy, but it’s perfectly acceptable just to have sausage and mash with ketchup or onion gravy and no veg.

@Crowsaregreat

YANBU. Me and DH would have petit pois with bangers and mash...!

"I don't eat pasta and cheese on its own.
My main jacket potato topping is veggie chilli, or beans.
Toast is not a meal. Maybe beans on toast would count as a meal, but again - it contains veg!"

Well, lots of people do eat pasta and cheese, or baked potato and cheese. Or scrambled egg with salmon on toast. Or pizza.
Pasta sauce is sort of veg yes, but I was thinking of the ones who come in a jar, very cooked down veg I suppose.
Toast can definitely be a meal, maybe not one slice, but a few slices with something else.
And if you accept beans as a veg, why not potatoes?

I just can't believe none of your friends would ever have something like tuna on baked potato.
Must be how the other half lives I suppose...

@Gwenhwyfar

"Yes exactly, isn’t the stereotype meat and two veg? Even if you count the potato as one of them it still needs something else."

Yes, but not every meal is a meat and two veg type meal, is it?
It also depends what you count as veg. You're all discounting potatoes, but including beans and peas, which some people wouldn't.

Well it isn’t for me as I don’t eat meat (but I do eat veggie sausages, had them with mash and veg last week in fact) But I honestly would find a dinner incomplete without vegetables, like if you just served mash without the sausages. Peas and green beans are usually counted as veg unlike other types of beans. I think baked beans count as one of your 5 a day because of the tomato in the sauce rather than the haricot beans. A jacket potato definitely needs some veg or salad with it otherwise what a disappointing meal! Pasta - I always chuck peas and spinach in with pesto, tomato sauce is obviously made of tomatoes but I would probably serve broccoli or something on the side and I put mushrooms and peppers in my ragu.

Away from home I would expect potato and sausage, potentially with gravy.

At home we would have it with baked beans (dh) or tinned tomatoes (me)

For light meals such as jacket potatoes, toast etc I wouldn't see the need to have veg. But for a full plated meal there would be very little that I wouldn't add veg to.

I wouldn't always add veg to pasta - but I do like peas mixed in, or some other green veg. I also like spinach salad on the side. I grew up with veg confined mainly to Sunday dinners, and the occasional casserole and never at any other time and I think that's left me with a pathological need to have veg with my food. I never feel like a meal is complete without some veg or salad to bring a freshness to it, complementing the main parts.

I'm 100% not some kind of superior food snob though - I absolutely binge on sweet stuff and really, really need to stop stuffing my face with utter shit.

To answer the OP more explicitly, for me, the veg is an unspoken but expected accompaniment. When I say to the kids what we're having for dinner, I just mention the main bits so "gammon roast", "beef casserole", "chicken and pasta" - I wouldn't say "gammon roast with potatoes, peas, cauliflower, sweetcorn and carrots". The kids know veg just comes as part of it. Also that's not a brag - my kids don't eat all those different types of veg - one eats two sorts, and the other eats two different sorts and woe betide if even a single morsel of the wrong type of veg lands on their plate......

Anyway. I now really crave bangers and mash tonight!

I'd never dream of eating peas, surely everyone knows they're just bags of sugar.

@onlyhereforthecake

If nothing else, a normal portion of mash is very filling, you don't need to add anything, or do you serve a spoonful of mash?

Oh God, we’re getting into competitive undereating, are we?

Yes, a portion of mash is so filling, we make it last for at least four meals in this house. 🙄

No veg here. Bangers, mash (with a shedload of butter and black pepper) and home made chutney in this house.