To do beans on toast once a week?

[MollyAndMuck]

Doing a different work pattern soon and two nights a week will be a lot of pressure to pick up DCs (infant age) from after school, feed them and not end up putting to bed too late.

I can't cook from scratch these nights and realistically don't think I'll be organised enough to batch cook for both nights.

AIBU to give my kids beans on toast every week for one evening meal? I know it's UPF but at least it's some kind of veg and very quick. They'll be having a hot lunch at school and are pretty good at eating it.

Judges
M and S beans are much the same price, I usually put a few drops of Tabasco in to sharpen them up.

Branston beans are £1.50 for 4 big tins in home bargains. Best beans ever, don’t need to add anything at all.

Ha ha I agree. But you just know it will be replaced by some new buzzword or phrase. Otherwise how will superior people let the rest of us plebs know how awful and neglectful we are?

Noshowlomo · Today 12:45
Haha ** pretty much any lovely food I describe as sexy. I don’t actually think it’s sexual, but it is sexy! 😂😂

In that case I’ll have a sexy dominos lol 😂

Beans on Toast with maybe some grated cheese or scrambled egg is a great quick meal so no problem with that. I do however have an issue with parents who think that because their children have a hot lunch at school, all their nutritional needs are taken care of. The children in our school rarely eat all the cooked meal and the amount of food thrown away daily is considerable. No one has time to police what your child is actually eating from the meal provided.

Can't beat it. Back in the 1970s when my Mum was working full-time as a primary school teacher, on the odd halcyon day our evening meal was steak pie from the butcher, chips* and beans or spaghetti hoops, followed by bread and butter and various cakes. All washed down with tea. Scottish high tea. My Mum is now 91, btw, and my Dad lived to 89. The high teas stopped at some point and she and Dad moved over to having a normal cooked meal in the evening, but always with a pudding course. She still always has cakes and biscuits in. And yet we survived!

(We did have vegetables and salad on other days. Fruit was expensive so handed out more sparingly. My brother and I often had to share an apple or an orange. I used to spend my pocket money on fruit because I was given sweets routinely so fruit was the treat for me. Unwitting reverse psychology!)

*home-made, but god knows what sort of fat they were deep fried in - it certainly wasn't mono- or polyunsaturated oil - probably lard or hydrogenated vegetable fat

@Shityshitybangbang yes!! Dominos is a very sexy food.
I’ve got my husband saying it now, if he’s out and he’s eating something nice he’ll send me a photo and say “look how sexy this is” 😂😂

OP has been very specific it's only one day a week.

It's fine to consider nutrition over a week, rather than requiring each discrete meal to be nutritionally perfect.

Yep, it is definitely a mumsnet thing to gloat about. The things is though half the people banging on about it on here actually don't truly understand the difference between UPF and just processed. There was a thread a while back saying that we shouldn't used mince of any type cos according to them it was UPF and we shouldnt drink fruit juice or eat tinned tomatoes. What most of them don't get is that the odd meal of pizza, nuggets or whatever is fine as part of a good varied diet.

The idea of having cucumber or salad alongside beans on toast is really weird. Not new, though. Back in the early 90s I was given an NHS booklet about feeding my baby once she went onto solids which recommended serving beans on toast with peas. We didn't.

Beans are one of your 5 a day and a protein and a carb . No need for cucumber unless you really like it.

This is probably me as I'm not entirely sure what counts and what doesn't.

For the record, bread has to be rubbish sliced white stuff as nothing else is tolerated. Beans are not organic, usually own brand so the article about how good the Lidl ones are is interesting!

Thanks for the other ideas, soup hadn't occurred to me for some reason but is a good alternative. Sandwiches would be ok for DC but I'll be eating with them too, as will DH and I like something hot.

Baked potatoes are a good idea, especially the frozen ones, although I microwave beans rather than hob them so toast means things can be cooked simultaneously.

By fresh pasta in the freezer, do you mean the ravioli/tortellini stuff?

Somethingontoast is a regular here. Knocked up by the kids when we all have to be in separate places. Beans, or eggs both with cheese and a bit of fruit works for us.

Not all processed foods are bad. Things like beans, wholemeal bread, whole grain breakfast cereals are actually beneficial.

We often have beans on toast for breakfast or lunch, occasionally dinner if we're in a rush. It's a good source of protein, iron and lots more.

I don't understand why you need to get mumsnetters approval on what you feed your children OP. 🤨

Don’t buy frozen jackets.
i sling a few in the oven when im doing something else and just keep them in the fridge and blast them in the microwave or air fryer
sometimes I do extra and turn them into loaded wedges with cheese and bacon

Good idea re jackets!

Ha! Lol, yes I do that with my son, a couple of sticks of cue or carrots with chopped cherry toms - makes any meal healthy 🤣

Speaking of pasta, I make normal dried pasta with sauce (I used tinned toms, herbs etc) and you can freeze that. I would assume that a jar of sauce mixed with pasta would freeze really well too. Or just the pasta with oil or butter.

Baked potatoes if not smushed open stay piping a while so I think it’s a good option (could cook, whack tea towel over whilst beans cooking if worried)

Pitta, hummus, cucumber, tomato and bought falafels is popular in our house for a quick meal. Olives and pickles if feeling fancy.

Tortellini is a good shout, or pasta, could stir in tinned salmon, cream cheese, some frozen peas and cherry toms and drizzle with garlic or herb oil.

I do beans or tofu on toast once a week here. 🤷🏻‍♀️

It's more the total time, as beans and toast only take about three mins to cook, versus doing the baked potatoes then beans.

I tried this once and the potato went a bit of a funny texture and the skins weren't crispy, but maybe user error so I'll try again.

250 replies tell you it's been an interesting chat for people so ... shrug.

Totally fine OP. Mine love instant noodles so we sometimes do that once a week. Or Pita bread with fillings of whatever we want. Hummus, ham, cucumber, feta cheese, whatever.
or frozen pizza with carrots/cucumber/hummus.

It is fine OP. You are doing great

The poster who said a stirfry was an easy quick option you can turn to so as not to 'resort' to UPFs is clearly untroubled by the idea of buying ready washed (including chlorine washed) and chopped vegetables, many flown thousands of miles across the world, generating large amounts of non-biodegradable plastic waste. I'd be interested to know about the environmental credentials of the protein element, pre-cooked noodles or rice, and sauce too.

None of these choices are easy once you start thinking about them. We're all doing the best we can and beans on toast is a perfectly good quick meal for a family as often as you all fancy it.

Definitely not just you 😊. Also I found it slightly insulting because I felt (even if it wasn’t intended) that it was only us so bung a few bits and pieces in the slow cooker.
I used to think why doesn’t he ever think of grilling some salmon fillets or roasting a small chicken?
In fact,I used to make a point of making something freshly cooked when he came to,us.