Are my dinners rubbish?

[Sowhatbigdeal]

Been told they are

Here’s an example of an average week, more or less:

Monday (I work at 6, so do something simple)

Feta & red onion salad with new potatoes & rice

Tuesday

Pasta with jar pesto (working today)

Wednesday

Dh to do omlette/eggs on toast with salad (working today)

Thursday

Salmon, salad, new potatoes

Friday

Homemade chilli with rice, nachos & dips

Saturday

Takeaway

Sunday

Roast dinner/homemade lasagne

Are they?

Onions = 1

But I thought herbs and spices counted too?

I cannot believe so many people think a salad is just leaves. We live in a hotter country so often have bbq chicken, fish or meat with a big salad and potatoes or rice or baguette etc
The salad would be salad leaves/lettuce (we eat mixed ones) cucumber, cherry tomatoes, red pepper, corn on the cob, red onion/spring onion, grated carrot, coleslaw, maybe egg and/or cheese. So this on Monday for example is served with Feta cheese (protein) new potatoes and rice (granted, I wouldn’t normally do both, but Dc has been asking for it, so that’s ok.

Do you want to eat 80g of oregano in one shot 🤣🤣🤣

I see no one here knows the joy of having roast potatoes and saffron rice together, it’s so good.

Been told they are

@Sowhatbigdeal Who told you? Your partner? Another parent? Your own parents?

It's really hard to get any context for this. Your meals sound basic and perhaps lacking in variety IF you repeat the same dishes every week.

The menu here needs context of what else your 7 year old eats- breakfast, snacks, fruit, veg, dairy, etc.

It's not clear if when you say you're working if you start work at 6pm or come home at 6pm. If you start at 6pm, you will have time during the day to prepare something unless you work shifts and sleep during the day.

They sound very similar to our standard weekly meals. Kids all at various activities in multiple directions Tuesday to Thursday evenings, so we do a lot of pasta with salad, jacket potatoes, noodles with various protein/veg, eggs of some sort on those days. Other days are more involved, like tomorrow and Monday we are having a pork chilli verde that takes me 3 bloody hours to make but it’s delicious.

And I couldn’t figure out what sort of pasta to have for Thursday, and now I think it will be pesto. 😂

So you don't live in the UK?

Where do you live?

Unless I've missed it this is the first mention of not being in the UK, and also how you eat other meats/fish with salads.

Apologies for missing the salmon and saying no fish.

Or saag aloo
with rice

There's nothing wrong with your dinners but Monday to Wednesday seem like student meals or lunches to me. Presumably you don't have this every week.

We have a takeaway every Friday as well. Either a spicy chicken and rice type thing (like Nando's but not actually Nando's) or a stone baked pizza. Can't see that either is much worse than if we made them ourselves - which we also do.

Its not odd to only eat salad stuff in summer a) because we should be eating seasonally b) OP might be like some of us who dont like cold food in the winter

Your dinners sound delicious.
If i was breing picky, i would say add some spinich or another leafy green but other than that .....yum!

The '30 plants' thing is different to the 5 portions of fruit and veg a day. It's about variety and you just need some, not a portion.

There will be onion, tomato, turmeric, chilli and coriander in just about anything from an Indian takeaway, so that's 5 right there. Could be one or two more spices (cumin, paprika).

If you eat the salad and sauce garnish, you've also got lettuce and cucumber (onion and tomato already counted), plus mint in the yogurt. so probably up to 10.

Get a dhal for the lentils and something with spinach in so you're up to 12, which is good going for one meal.

But yes OP, your mistake was to ask MN for an opinion on food, which predictably brought out the 'protein and massive salad' crew. Like a PP says, your food looks fine and way ahead of the majority of the population for whom the majority of the veg they consume will be due to ketchup on their chips, baked beans, or tomato on their pepperoni pizza.

Who's saying 'your dinners are rubbish'? If it's your partner, are they doing their share of cooking? If it's your MIL, ignore her.

These are more like light meals to me. Are the lunches filling?

Agree and
c)….. you can always have a warm salad in the summer by just heating up or roasting a few of the veg.

Most salad stuff in the UK is not home grown, it's from Spain or Holland.

It's too early for most salad stuff here at the moment.

are you eating vegetarian most days? You might need to watch your protein intake. Personally I would find them low in veg, but they do sound like tasty meals for someone who’s busy working /cooking in a rush.

Not bad, but I'd definitely be adding to it, especially for a 7 year old. If I make jarred pesto pasta for me and my 8 year old, I stir through spinach and/or mushrooms and onions, and serve with either tofu or vegan chicken, topped with nutritional yeast and pine nuts.

Calories are not the barometer of what is 'healthy'. And there is no such thing as a healthy food as such, but we should be measuring a healthy diet, looking at intake overall.

OP has only posted a selection of dinners, hasnt said whats for breakfast, lunch and snacks but people are acting like they're dietitians and nutritionists (and even they all disagree amongst themselves about what constitutes healthy or good enough).

If the salads as you have have now described ( with tomatoes, sweetcorn etc) I can’t see how anyone has said they are rubbish meals op. I’d just ignore.

This would not be a very nutritious meal. It’s basically just a load of carbs with fat /salt.

I agree, it tastes so good and totally fine as an occasional thing but as part of a regular weekly meal plan, not so sure. Not in OP’s case, though, her meals otherwise sound super healthy and delicious.
Those from the Indian subcontinent have major health issues because of their diet - low protein (if vegetarian), high carb and fried. And before I I get a pile on about pulses and lentils - the quantity that is eaten is minimal, probably do not reach even half their daily requirements (I know from personal experience).
Loss of muscle mass is a major problem in the elderly and leads to falls, which with it comes a high risk of death. So keep your protein uptake up and do strength exercises!

your food looks fine and way ahead of the majority of the population for whom the majority of the veg they consume will be due to ketchup on their chips, baked beans, or tomato on their pepperoni pizza

Clearly this shows that being way ahead of the majority of the population is not a great barometer to set your healthy eating habits by. You can still fall way short of what is required.

Feta & red onion salad with new potatoes & rice

This is more like a side dish. The rest is ok, though I would add more protein and vegetables.

I love threads like this - the comments are always so entertaining, & Lolz at the once a week take-out comments. I swear some view ordering food means a tub of lard is delivered.

Its a load of rubbish anyway because it includes spices and herbs in things rather than 30 different full sized portions of fruit and veg (which of course would be almost impossible over 21 meals when you also need to include protein and carbs)

So I could say last night for example, I had chickepeas, tomatoes, red peppers, green peppers, lemon (juice and zest), walnuts, pine nuts, spinach, rocket, watercress, cucumber, avocado, onions, carrot, sultanas, spring onions (not sure whether to double count the onion family), coriander, basil, chives, parsley, ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander seed (again not sure whether to double count that), chillis, sesame seeds, olives, cashew nuts, dates, beetroot, orange, cherries, blackcurrants.

That was all in my 3 course dinner, 34 plants based foods.

But what does that mean, its meaningless.