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.

Cheese on top - microwave it for a minute - extra protein AND calcium!

I do get what people mean about the slow cooker food. I do use ours alot, but for things like batch cooking soup for the freezer, cooking a ham for slicing (so much cheaper than buying sliced ham), making cordial/lemon curd/chutney, cooking meat sometimes for a roast if we're out all Sunday morning. Also handy for cooking jacket potatoes. Not a fan of the sloppy-style slow cooker meals. And I'm not a fan of the smell of dinner for hours beforehand - bored of it by mealtime. The newer slow cookers have more power than the old sort, so many recipes want to you cook the food for far too long, which adds to the slop.

For both time and budget reasons we have one of these for 3/4 dinners a week:

beans or cheesy scrambled egg on toast
jacket potato meal (with tuna or beans/cheese- salad etc)
pesto pasta (with broccoli boiled with the pasta)
sausage or bacon sandwiches
soup with a sandwich/toastie

Absolutely fine as part of an overall varied diet - you could alternate beans with other simple things like egg. An other option is a slow cooker or making double portions another night for the busy night.

All sound good to me.

Not at all. We have beans on toast night when DS1 has footy training each week and the kids love it. Only if they can have grated cheese on top obvs.

Couldn’t agree more. A ‘posh’ stick-up-your-arse cafe near us used to serve sandwiches with salad and bloody strawberries on the side. WHY? So affected. Who the HELL wants strawberries with a ham and mustard sandwich??

Totally normal. Or soup out of a tin, or something made on the weekend and frozen. Or over pizza and chips.

Some times we have cold bits and bobs, cold meat, sandwiches, crisps, salad, hummus etc.

Well now, slow cooker lemon curd I could get on board with!

It is the pervasive smell that definitely adds to my dislike.

I'm very grateful for this thread. My DH loved his beans on toast tonight (with added hot sauce) and melted cheese on top while my DS enjoyed his non-hot sauce beans and grated cheese, unmelted.

I had soup from a tin with hot buttered toast.

Food fit for kings

Brilliant

Is this a serious question?! Oh the UPF, the poor darlings…you’re hardly feeding them arsenic.

Yeah me to 🙄

Beans on toast is a healthy, filling, quick tea. What's not to like 🤷‍♀️ do you grate a bit of cheese on top, my dd loves it with cheese!

Scrambled eggs or eggs and soldiers are another quick tea.

Op I hear you on the slow cooker thing, they gross me out as well.

@MollyAndMuck tofu might be worth checking it's high protein and quick lots of different styles (silken, firm etc).can make sauces, scrambled etc

OP Someone already suggested a toastie maker and I think that is a good shout. I have one that you can change the plates so you can do the traditional cheap bread cut into triangles or swap the plates for a panini or make waffles.

I also use mine to cook eggs, a bit of spray oil and then put the eggs in to the triangle and leave for a couple of mins.

You can also use ready rolled pastry, although I have not done it.

Another quick meal is hotdogs, eith with bread rolls or you can just add them tot he beans (you can get tins of beans and sausages).

One of my children, who won't touch peas at home, tells me to the individual pea how much she's eaten each day at school. They have excellent school meals and the menu is published in advance so we can talk about what they're eating and I can plan home food around that. If the veg is sweetcorn they're not going to eat it so we make sure there's an extra portion of fruit or veg at home.

They are "policed" at our school - they're not allowed to leave until they've checked with an adult, and the supervisors encourage them to choose other veg from the salad bar if they don't like what comes with the main meal. If they're not eating, it's discussed with parents. It also helps that the cook is excellent. So yes, I'm confident that their nutritional needs are being well supported at school, and not sure how getting home and heating up their balanced meal of carbs, protein and veg adds more to the mix than serving an uncooked but nutritionally adequate meal.

Of course it’s fine. Mine had jacket spud with beans and sausages (from a tin) once a week when we had swimming lessons straight from work and school. Those McCain jackets you can microwave. They survived!

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

You asked if you were being unreasonable to feed your kids beans on toast and I answered that you don't need mumsnet approval and of course you aren't being unreasonable. I see now that you just wanted a thread of your own and your aim seems to have been to give people an 'interesting chat'. 🤪👍

I'm one of those weird people who Lake jacket potatoes done in the microwave, take about 5 mins

I don't like the skin when they are done in the oven

Risotto or omlette are super quick
You can use a ready chopped or frozen veg mix if no time to chop.

Great ideas, thanks!

Omelette I can see, but risotto is definitely not a quick meal for me!

Real risotto, no. Savoury rice, yes. Even if you cook the rice from scratch, that's quite quick, but it becomes super quick if you use a pouch of rice or leftover home-cooked rice. Fry an onion (can keep some ready chopped in the freezer), maybe some mushrooms, ready-chopped peppers (freezer again), peas, maybe some chopped tomato, cooked chicken or prawns or a tin of tuna, some sort of seasoning or sauce, mix in the rice, heat till piping hot, done.

Batchelors Pasta 'n' sauce or savoury rice?

Toasted sandwich and a cup-a-soup?