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.

Baked beans are not UPF

Of course it’s fine. I’d add in a pasta and pesto night, plus a baked potato and “choose your own toppings” one (you could do the potatoes the night before, even quicker with an air fryer)

Why make life harder for yourself?

Mine have a really good cooked lunch at school so they usually have sandwiches in the evening with veg sticks. There's no rule that says they need two hot meals a day, and they wouldn't get that if they were taking a packed lunch to school.

Sometimes one of them even has a pot of cold baked beans on the side. Unfortunately the other won't touch a baked bean, which rules out beans on toast as a nice quick meal.

This is a totally normal dinner for us once or twice a week due to clubs after school and needing something quick and easy.

We are also cutting UPF so:

Jasons sourdough sliced bread

Proper butter
Organic baked beans
Or alternatively eggs, tomatoes mushrooms on toast
Bit of grated cheese

All of that isn't UPF and makes a decent dinner in my opinion. You can also bake lots of potatoes in the oven, wrap them up and freeze them then easily reheat them in the microwave on busy nights as an alternative.

The obsession with UPF on this site is bonkers. Sure we can reduce the junk and make more homemade things where we can. UPF is such an umbrella term for so much food. We can have a balanced nutrient dense diet with a little bit of UPF it’s not going to kill anyone.

But it’s bloody beans on toast. It’s fine! Your children will be fed and full up. You will be less stressed when life is already stressful. Maybe give them so fruit for afters for more non upf nutrients 😂 Oh wait….that’s not allowed either this days is it.

We all like beans on toast. It often turns into beans and scrambled eggs/mushrooms/ cheese on toast.

Just a thought OP for a bit of variety for that meal (which I think is fine) - mccain's frozen jacket spud with beans. Takes 3-4 min in the microwave so can't be that much longer than a piece of toast, and I reckon would be the same amount of time as you'd need to heat the beans in a pan on the hob.

I'm pretty sure one of my mum friends does beans on toast with sliced cucumber on the side on one of her kids busy evenings. And porridge another night, with berries and honey to top it (add peanut butter or nuts for more protein if your kids will eat it).

Also cheesy pasta - boil pasta and chuck in frozen peas a minute or two before it's done. Drain and mix in a tub of soft cheese (A flavoured one if they will eat it).

I can't actually believe people are beating themselves up for giving kids beans on toast once a week.

My baked beans on toast are UPF?
2 slices of Warburtons seedy, butter, baked beans and a sprinkle of grated cheddar on top, and I am doing myself a disservice?
Clearly been poisoning myself for years.
I draw the line at a turkey twizzler, never seen one, but baked beans?

I wish I could remember what my North African acquaintance called it when she saw me eating beans on toast for lunch one day. Apparently she grew up with a very similar meal involving beans, tomato-based sauce and toasted bread, and I'm sure that switching from prosaic old "BBoT" to whatever the term was that she used for my lunch would net the dish instant MN credibility.

It's that whiff of exoticism, the one that makes people think the slightly greasy pile of refined carbohydrates that is "pesto pasta" is somehow nutritionally/morally superior to a plate of chips and a dollop of ketchup. (Or am I out of date, and pesto pasta is the devil now? Are we all about the spaghetti aglio e olio?)

It's food. It's fine. It's even good food. It's filling and tasty. It's got good macros, reasonable micronutrients, and plenty of fibre. It's got a bit of sugar but not much in the grand scheme of typical daily intake. It can be a little high in salt but you can choose your components carefully, or just accept that salt intake varies across the week. Don't let the fact it's easy, cheap and quintessentially British fool you into thinking it's bad.

Both of mine went through a stage when they were tiny where baked beans were almost all they would eat. Every lunch and dinner were beans related. They survived just fine.

Sounds delicious! Do you grill first and then add egg fried egg? Or do you grill the egg too?

I used to do a bowl of veggie sticks and hummus with a toasted bagel as I had one who doesn't like beans (must have been DH's genes). But the others loved beans on toast, or egg on toast, or cheese, egg and tomato baked.

How on earth are beans UPF? - The ingredients (Heinz) - Ingredients: Beans (51%), Tomatoes (34%), Water, Sugar, Spirit Vinegar, Modified Cornflour, Salt, Spice Extracts, Herb Extract. Heinz even grow their own bloody tomatoes! Batshit.

@FiveClovers my bit about pesto pasta wasn't intended as a dig at you, BTW I was writing my post in among doing other stuff so it took a while and a lot of posts came up in the meantime, so I hadn't seen yours.

And though I'm not personally the biggest fan, I actually have nothing against pesto pasta — it's easy and gets everyone fed. I was just using it as an example of something which, if it was a traditional British staple going back to the 19th century, would be derided as a lazy ultra-processed jar-and-packet pile of stodge that will probably set your child up for a lifetime of melting obesely into the sofa in front of reality TV until their early death, or some such bollocks.

Probably more 1960s than 19th century actually.

Once a week is totally fine I’d say, beans on toast, poached/scrambled eggs on toast, toasties, sandwiches, soups and crusty bread, all quick easy, healthy meals.

All these suggestions for organic beans. Jesus christ.

I'd forgotten about toasties. We used the sandwich maker often, I loved a cheese, onion and tomato sauce toastie. We have a waffle maker now, I'm all middle class and make buckwheat waffles or veggie fritters in it 😆 The waffles would still be a quick meal with scrambled egg or beans.

Nothing wrong with that at all, beans and sausages on toast is one of my favourite comfort meals (and absolutely smother it in ketchup 😁)

Why this hoops thing! Our local Coop and little Tesco only stock hoops. The tinned spaghetti is much much nicer. The pasta is thicker and so is the sauce.

No hoops. Spaghetti best!

There is nothing wrong with beans. They are beans with tomatoes, salt and sugar. This UPF nonsense is mad.

@Hobbesmanc no "shapes" is the superior pasta - in - a tin 😁

I mean the best argument is about what beans to buy

Branston or Cross and Blackwell for me

Not Heinz, they're too watery and soupy.

Beans on toast is a top tier meal, I could eat it every night.

My GP recommends spaghetti hoops as a good source of iron (I'm anaemic), now I can't eat them as I'm convinced they taste of iron 🤦‍♀️alphabetti spaghetti was always superior anyway.