To wonder if everyone has pudding/dessert after their main evening meal?

[sweeneytoddsrazor]

Whenever meal threads come up it seems the majority of MN have something after their main meal even if its just fruit or yoghurt. I usually have fruit or yoghurt as part of my lunchtime meal and evenings are just the one course. Am I in the minority? Obviously if I want anything later as a snack I do so but it's certainly not routine.

YABU you always have something after your main meal

YANBU you never/rarely have something after your main meal

Only if it’s a “special” meal. Don’t have a dessert after lunch either. But I do have fruit as a snack fairly often.

(Special doesn’t have to be an occasion, can just be special because we fancied something extravagant, but it’s less than once a week nowadays.)

I can't eat a lot in the evening, so we have main meal at lunch time. Yes we usually have something sweet, even if its just a yogurt or a tin of rice pudding.

Always

As I've got older I appreciate something sweet after my meal but that might be a square of chocolate or a piece of fruit. It's the sugar I'm fancying after all the savoury.

As a general rule though, I will have my dessert as supper a few hours after my meal.

Probably about 50/50 for me, I don’t always have something but it’s not never or rare either.

Actual pudding and custard at home, only Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. But fruit or cheese after dinner, a couple of times a week. Pudding in restaurants only if I think it’s going to be good. Mostly it’s not worth the calories.

Usually have pudding on a Sunday

We only have pudding as part of the evening meal if there are guests and I remember it's supposed to be normal. In which case I'll buy something like a tray of tiramissu.

Normally we'll have just the one course at dinner. If I am still awake 3hrs later and am at all peckish I might have a small snack as I find it difficult to go to sleep if my stomach doesn't feel satisfied. Usually just a piece of fruit or some oatcakes.

My kids used to kick off big style if there was no pudding! It was the highlight of the meal! Nowadays I have eased back to stewed fruit and yoghurt or similar. However I'm a greedy sod and so is my DH.

@ApplesinmyPocket

You are totally wrong. I am certainly not praise me or in the slightest bit virtuous about food. I could quite happily sit down and eat a large bar of chocolate in one sitting and a sharing packet of crisps is shared with myself. I just don't tend to have a dessert after my main evening meal and wondered if I was in the minority? Size wise I am certainly not slim probably need to shift a fair few pounds. Dessert is something we never had as kids and that is something I have mainly continued with. The only time we really had it was on a Saturday evening. Saturday lunch would be the chip shop and evening would be sandwich or cheese on toast and maybe rice pudding or a trifle.

If I’m having dinner at home, it’s usually just one (savoury) course.

No, I'm diabetic & eat a very LC diet to avoid medication. Theres just no room for dessert carbs in my diet.

id live to be normal though & move into one of your homes where you eat proper puds!

<sobs>

Most nights I want something sweet but I try to stick to fresh berries. Sometimes I cave and have a snack finger of Twix or similar. About once a week we might have a bought pud and will have a home made pudding (crumble, bread and butter etc) once a month or so. I always have pudding if eating out and will skip a starter to leave room!

We try to do a proper pudding on a Sunday, but rarely in the week; maybe if I’ve got some cooking apples knocking around or it’s really cold I will, but otherwise it’s nothing if we’re v full after our main course during the week, or a biscuit or piece of fruit midweek if DC still peckish.

I see dessert as an integral part of the nutrition of a meal. So a fruit or dairy-based dessert carries additional fibre/protein/micronutrients, as well as being a pleasant way to finish and avoids temptation to snack as I have itched the sweet food scratch and had enough calories for my day.

So yes, dessert with almost every meal, but I don’t snack outside meals. I think this helps me maintain a healthy weight.

We only have pudding on special occasions.

I sometimes have fruit later in the evening.

Usually fruit like pineapple or watermelon, sometimes a bit of chocolate, once a week a proper pudding like apple crumble.

Luckily I have a good appetite and can also comfortably manage two courses at most restaurants.

Kids will have a yoghurt but the adults don't

Can I move in?

I know it's wrong, but this is so much more appealing to me than the 'mini chocolate bar once a week/desserts for special occasions' brigade.

Sometimes we do, kids always, very rarely it's fruit or yogurt though as to me that is breakfast food. Unless it's something like pavlova with strawberries.

My idea of pudding is sponge / crumble / pie with custard or a slice of cheesecake.

I like a dessert but try not to indulge because I have a constant battle with my weight.

So it would be nice to when I eat out - but usually the same few things are on the menu - there is virtually no imagination, no effort! Sticky toffee pudding (yuck), brownie (usually with ice cream - much too sweet), ice cream on its own or brulee (if I am lucky). Even a decent old-fashioned Black Forest Gateau would be a nice change.

We don't tend to have a pudding after a meal but, from what many of you have described, the DC and quite often me are having these things when they get home from school (or work in my case!) and have a couple of slices of toast, a yogurt, fruit and biscuits or cake.

I don't think YABU OP.
The only time we as a family have dessert is when it's a special meal, birthday,Christmas, Easter.

When I am on my own I never have pudding, but when my dad visits I do three courses every day.

Yep.

Years of not being allowed a dessert because I hadn't eaten all of whatever it was on my plate that made me gag.

I don't let myself snack/eat sweet stuff during the day, I tell myself to save it for pudding, and then as pudding is only once a day I make sure its good (not necessarily extravagant, just worth the calories).

I find if I have my main meal and a pudding, I don't snack later on, and as my sleep pattern means I am up from around 12noon to 6am, and dinner is 10pm I think thats a valid consideration.

Pudding tends to be a choc/toffee/fruit mousse single serving thing, or if DP made a cake, a piece of that, or if we have none of those things, its a bit of emergency cake or donut out the freezer or two giant marshmallows on a stick. Rarely, special occasions etc, we might have sticky toffee pudding.

I don't see the issue if I want to 'spend' some of the days calories on that, breakfast is 200cal, lunch is around 400cal, the rest is for dinner/dessert.