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?

This is rubbish, what on earth are you talking about

Doesnt have enough protein and fibre for what exactly? The day, the week?

Nutrition isnt measured by individual meal, its measured by someones overall intake over the long term.

Protein is measured by daily intake because you cannot store it.
Pasta and pesto have very little protein about 5g/100g each - a 7yr old will probably eat a quarter of that so 2.5g. She may well get enough protein from other sources throughout the day but pesto pasta and few grams of grated cheese is not much protein at all.
She can’t eat 90g of protein one day and then 0g for the next two days and then say she has had 30g/day or 1g/kg on average, as any is used protein would be not be stored as protein or coverted back to protein at a later date.

This is not a criticism of OP - I am a fan of pesto pasta as quick meal after work on the odd occasion and my DC loved it when they were younger.

Maybe add some cheese and chicken to the pesto pasta to up the protein content and some tenderstem broccoli 🥦

A 7 year old is usually suggested to have around 20 grams of protein a day. It’s easy to overestimate because their body weight is lower. As you say, it doesn’t store so it stresses the liver and kidneys to have to process extra protein all the time. A cubic inch of cheese will have about 4 grams.
A glass of milk at breakfast about 5. Add an egg for breakfast and that’s 11 before they are out the door - 2 eggs and that’s 17 already. Even low protein foods have protein that adds up. Pop the egg on a slice of wholewheat toast and - while not a complete protein - it still adds up.

It would be perfectly possible for 7 year old to have a pesto pasta meal one day and still have plenty of protein. Our paediatrician said too little protein is very rare in children in the uk or countries with similar diets, unless they don’t eat widely. Vegan can be tricky and requires management but on the whole children can get too much. There’s protein fetish atm.

I have already said that she may well be getting enough protein from other sources throughout the day so I’m not sure why you are repeating what I had said back to me. It doesn’t change the fact that pesto pasta, itself, is fairly nutritionally deplete, so posters who have commented on that are not necessarily protein obsessives.

Absolutely this.

Your calculations are off

If she had 50g of dry pasta (might not eat quite that amount), thats around 5 or 6g of protein, around 30g of pesto is 2g, on the conservative side. So around 7g at the least.

Thats nearly a 3rd of her daily intake.

Lets say she has 25g of dry pasta, that 2.5g, plus the 2g, at least 4.5g of protein in that meal. Perfectly fine as part of one meal out of 3 plus snacks.

I’m just putting the other side of the picture.

For a child who had baked beans and eggs for breakfast, pesto pasta is actually a very appropriate meal.

I genuinely can’t believe there are people referring to pesto pasta as “nutritionally deplete”.

I think in fairness it wouldn’t cut it as a daily or habitual meal.

But as 1/21 it’s a reasonable source of vitamin e and k - things which are often not as rich in other meat or fish based meals.

But it’s not being presented as a daily meal - as you say, it’s one meal out of 21, not including snacks and drinks.

I get a bit sick of MN slamming perfectly normal family dinners because they’ve decided that it lacks X or Y. Not every single meal has to be perfectly balanced and nutritionally complete.

Yes you’re right.

If she had listed more meat it would be all....."too much meat!! Don't you know colon cancer is at an all time high in under 50s!!! You need to drop the meat and eat more vegan meals. Why do you hate your own dc 😩"
You can't win with the all knowing perfect posters.

This was supposed to be a quote that didn't work for me🤔

Hah yep. You’re not wrong.

You clearly haven’t read the rest of my posts. I have stated more than once that I think OP’s meal plans look perfectly fine to me and that the 7 year old may be getting protein from other sources thoughout the day.
I am not anti pesto pasta at all. However, it doesn’t surprise me at all that many think it is a nutritious meal.

Why isn’t it a nutritious meal?

Just a random google search but the below states pesto pasta is a good source of protein and it isn't the worst thing a child could eat by a long way. Even though they are growing a 7 year old needs less protein than peri/menopausal women (or teenage boys hitting the gym 🙄)

Sorry image attached now

Exactly - it’s fine.

If that was all OP was feeding then that would be a different story, but pesto pasta once a week on top of a normal, healthy diet is absolutely okay - and I dare say a hell of a lot more nutritious than the mins of food many other people eat everyday.

Crikey. Even a chocolate bar is about 30-40% fat. 51%!!!

It’s not necessarily bad for you per se but there is not much in it. It’s essentially a teaspoon-tablespoon of pesto per child’s portion - 100g contains 5g of protein so per meal it is less than 1g of protein.
Again, not much in the way of vitamins, fibre etc in that spoonful. Most shop bought pesto doesn’t contain olive oil so the fat in it is not even healthy. Maybe high in salt.

I think 3 are ok. Not impressed with the rest and if this is repeated every week, I’d say boring. So many meals can be made in 20/30 minutes and it seems very restricted. And yes, I worked 15 hour days split shifts and did all the cooking before anyone jumps on me and had 3 kids with an OH who refused to do women’s work. Which included child care

But as has been said multiple times, not every single meal needs to contain a perfect balance of nutrients, fats etc. Pasta with pesto is a lot better than many other quick dinners.

For those who think they can do better can you share a weeks example menu please and the age of your children?
If it was just me I would do better but my teenager is not interested in my healthy meals (although having now written it out I don't think it is that bad). I'll go first anyway
This week's menu is
Sunday - BBQ - sausage in bricoche bun, burger in brioche bun with mozzarella cheese slice. BBQ courgette, corn on the cob and mini peppers.
Monday- mozzrella and pesto pizza (frozen) with added red onion, sweetcorn and green olives. Salad of mixed leaves, tomatoes, cucumber, celery and sweetcorn.
Tuesday- thai green curry (using a jar of paste and coconut milk) with chicken, onion, mushrooms, courgette and broad beans. served with rice (and DS really wants prawn crackers but I would prefer not to add these).
Wednesday- sausage carbonara with pasta, cream, eggs, cheddar and parmesan cheese, onion, mushroom, peas and courgette
Thursday- pasta, prawns, asparagus, cherry tomatoes, parmesan, sweet chilli sauce
Friday- BBQ again - lamb kebabs, burgers, corn on the cob, courgette. maybe salad.
Saturday- chicken strips, oven chips , baby corn, green beans.
Sunday- nachos, mince, black beans, cheese, sweetcorn, tomatoes, sour cream, avocado and green salad with cucumber