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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To do beans on toast once a week?

413 replies

MollyAndMuck · 12/07/2024 22:39

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.

OP posts:
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5
UtterlyOtterly · 13/07/2024 09:49

Not only is this UPF obsession ridiculous, but it encourages those with "morally superior" diets to be boring.

Does anyone remember the thread a couple of years ago when someone wouldn't eat raw carrots because of the sugar content?

flyinghen · 13/07/2024 09:51

Completely fine

Needmorelego · 13/07/2024 09:52

@MorvernBlack and Alphabet Spaghetti is education cos you can make words 😂

MorvernBlack · 13/07/2024 09:54

soupfiend · 13/07/2024 09:47

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.

Heinz have tinkered with the salt/sugar ratios, which makes all their stuff taste too sweet now. Heinz tomato soup was my comfort food for decades, now it's revolting.
Heinz do make sugar and sweetener free pasta sauce though, which is my go to for a quick meal. My other recommendation is fresh pasta in the freezer, 4 mins to cook from frozen, ready by the time the sauce is microwaved.

LadyPenelope68 · 13/07/2024 09:58

Beans on wholemeal toast, using proper butter, some grated cheese on top and cherry tomatoes on the side, has always been a regular, once a week meal here.

MrsStottlemeyer · 13/07/2024 10:00

Just be aware that if you have the same quick dinner regularly there might come a point where you can no longer stomach it and the thought of it makes you nauseous.
For me it's pasta with tomato and basil sauce (my kids won't eat beans unless it's part of a full English 🙄) we had that on Mondays for years and now none of us can bear it. I think it's the association with rushing!

FiveClovers · 13/07/2024 10:05

GiveMeMySoddingCokeZero · 13/07/2024 08:57

@FiveClovers my bit about pesto pasta wasn't intended as a dig at you, BTW Grin 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.

That’s alright, I’m not offended! A four minute dinner (using the “fresh pasta” so it cooks more quickly), is right up my street though - I have been known to throw in some olives, feta and sun dried tomatoes, if I’m feeling a bit fancy, but that only adds a minute or so on anyway.

Noshowlomo · 13/07/2024 10:22

Beans on toast is sexy AF. My husband was obsessed with it as a kid and he loves it now and he’s a marathon runner, and climbs mountains regularly so it hasn’t done him any harm !

kierenthecommunity · 13/07/2024 10:44

Totally love all toasty meals. Beans, hoops, sardines, tomatoes. Especially love tinned cherry tomatoes on toast 😃

flannelonthesink · 13/07/2024 10:46

Nothing wrong with beans on toast! Yummy and filling. Could even chuck on a scrambled egg.

HRTQueen · 13/07/2024 10:56

it really is ok not to think is this the healthiest meal my child/children can eat (though beans in toast is a good meal) because there comes a time when they start eating when out and will eat tons of fried chicken, chips with everything smothered in mayo, burgers, kebabs, the greasiest noodles and all those other delicious fast foods

I have added to my shopping list thick white bread as personally think this is best for a beans on toast meal that I shall be having tonight

NImumconfused · 13/07/2024 10:59

MorvernBlack · 13/07/2024 09:54

Heinz have tinkered with the salt/sugar ratios, which makes all their stuff taste too sweet now. Heinz tomato soup was my comfort food for decades, now it's revolting.
Heinz do make sugar and sweetener free pasta sauce though, which is my go to for a quick meal. My other recommendation is fresh pasta in the freezer, 4 mins to cook from frozen, ready by the time the sauce is microwaved.

Definitely, I don't know what they've done to heinz tomato soup but it's vile now! And the beans you have to drain off half a tin of gloop before using them. I still buy them because autistic DD is not good with changing brands but it irks me that so much of the tin is liquid.

soupfiend · 13/07/2024 11:13

Nothing wrong with spaghetti hoops but wheres the iron?

GiveMeMySoddingCokeZero · 13/07/2024 11:17

FiveClovers · 13/07/2024 10:05

That’s alright, I’m not offended! A four minute dinner (using the “fresh pasta” so it cooks more quickly), is right up my street though - I have been known to throw in some olives, feta and sun dried tomatoes, if I’m feeling a bit fancy, but that only adds a minute or so on anyway.

I'm glad you took it how I meant it Grin

I'm pro-balance. It's all tasty, filling food with a variety of nutrients. No single meal is going to be nutritional perfection on a plate, but a pesto pasta or even chips and ketchup tea fits fine once or twice a week IMO, let alone something like baked beans on toast, which has lots of things going for it nutritionally.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I find some of the categorisations people make really odd e.g. how certain (often more traditional) dishes will be criticised for being pure stodge, while others with just as much refined carby heft (often from food cultures we consider more sophisticated) sail through without comment.

Or things like, earlier on someone said something like "it's hardly a kebab and a full-sugar Coke" — okay, tooth-etchingly acidic, sugar-crammed, caffeinated fizzy drinks are probably not the ideal thing to feed an 8 year old at 6.30pm. But whenever I've seen someone get a kebab, it's generally been some sliced or grilled meat and salad drizzled with sauce, in a flatbread. I'm sure you probably can get ones with stacks of fatty meat and gallons of creamy sauce and barely a lettuce leaf in sight, but that's not what I've seen. You can choose what kind of kebab you get. (And I'm sure that eating the kind I've described is fine once in a while.)

Burgers often demonised too, when they're just a sandwich and it's generally up to you what goes in— usually meat (or substitute) and bread, then fried onions or maybe salad, pickles, a little sauce, maybe some cheese… you could just put beef and cheese and bacon and no plant material of any kind in your bun, but so what? Doesn't make burgers intrinsically unhealthy. (And again, a bacon cheeseburger is probably okay once in a while.)

Pizza the same. Components not significantly different to a cheese sandwich or a quesadilla. Someone can choose to have an inch of dough topped with an inch of cheesoid substance topped with a layer of sweaty pepperoni, but that doesn't make all pizzas somehow bad. (However, it is never, ever fine to eat pepperoni pizza. That stuff is utterly rank, and no, you can't just pick it off, the odour and tang permeates the whole damn fabric of the pizza. And any pizza cooked or transported alongside it, or eaten in the same room. That evil orange oil can travel through solid cardboard and the air itself, I swear.)

And chips. Proper fried chips. It depends on how the frying has been done, but deep-fried chips can be as low as 5% fat. Different places use different oils, some with better lipid profiles than others. They've got fibre, potassium, B vitamins and vitamin C, as well as having a lower glycaemic index than baked/boiled/mashed potatoes. (And I dunno about anyone else, but I tend to add butter to most of those, which puts the frying oil into perspective, at least.)

It's easy to end up digging into rabbit holes on comparative health benefits of this vs that, but people driving themselves insane trying to serve up perfectly nutritionally balanced delicious unprocessed meals that meet the approval of some of the obsessives on MN 21 times a week is pointless.

ALovelyCupOfNameChange · 13/07/2024 11:17

We have this sort of meal once a week as its cost effective and works with clubs etc. Beans on toast, cheese toasties, tinned tomato on toast, bacon pitta, sausage in a baguette. Quick easy can be customised for everyone’s tastes and cooked to order without much trouble.
and little mess so cleaning is easy.

ALovelyCupOfNameChange · 13/07/2024 11:21

@GiveMeMySoddingCokeZero
i agree entirely. Kebabs can just be grilled meat and salad, what is wrong with that?

I remember a survey by our health authority via the school asking how often your children eat sausages. Not all sausages are equal and what kind of a judgemental question is that? I may have written a bit of an essay at that question.

Shityshitybangbang · 13/07/2024 11:27

Cheesy beanos are delicious. Iv been having them a lot lately.

TheKingCobraIsNotStrictlySpeakingACobra · 13/07/2024 11:29

MollyAndMuck · 12/07/2024 22:39

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.

I’d happy do this for my DD. Baked beans are one of your five an day.

I’d top with a poached egg to make it more filling.

Then I’d do natural yogurt & fruit for pudding!

To alleviate guilt you could also serve beside a picky plate of carrot, cucumber, tomato etc that you quickly chop while everything is boiling.

Shityshitybangbang · 13/07/2024 11:30

Noshowlomo · Today 10:22
Beans on toast is sexy AF. My husband was obsessed with it as a kid and he loves it now and he’s a marathon runner, and climbs mountains regularly so it hasn’t done him any harm !

As far as I like them, I wouldn’t go as far as calling them sexy? lol

SeulementUneFois · 13/07/2024 11:39

HcbSS · 12/07/2024 22:42

The slow cooker is your friend OP. Whack it on before work - dinner done when home.
Alternatively, DH and I had stir fry tonight. I timed it - 9 minutes from starting to on plates. There is loads you can do that’s quick without resorting to UPF.

@HcbSS - sorry to derail, can you please tell me the recipe for your quick stir fry?
I always find prepping/chopping the veg takes ages..!
Thank you!!

LuckySantangelo35 · 13/07/2024 11:39

Bjorkdidit · 13/07/2024 02:04

I can't tell if this is a joke but at least it's proved that there's never a good MN batshit food thread without reference to the 'cucumber antidote' where you can assuage your guilt at failing to meet MN nutritional standards by randomly adding cucumber to what you've served despite it not going with the rest of the meal.

@Comedycook

as if cucumber goes with beans on toast! Just leave it out, it won’t do them any harm.

LuckySantangelo35 · 13/07/2024 11:40

soupfiend · 13/07/2024 11:13

Nothing wrong with spaghetti hoops but wheres the iron?

@soupfiend

eh??

MeAgainAndAgain · 13/07/2024 11:49

Needmorelego · 12/07/2024 22:42

Vary it a bit. Give them Hoops on toast once in a while 😂

Ahh what an opportunity you have set up here, thank you!

MeAgainAndAgain · 13/07/2024 11:51

PomPomtheGreat · 13/07/2024 01:49

Definitely!

Doh! You beat me to it!

AzureAnt · 13/07/2024 11:51

Thursday night was always bean night at our house when the kids were at home. I got paid on a Friday so by Thursday I was skint
My OH would have bean night every night if I let him but he farts enough already