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

Your dinners are absolutely fine. We work stupidly long hours here in the UK, so well done for cooking most nights and for training your 7yo to be a fuss-free eater who eats all sorts.

I'd probably just ensure there's a well-stocked fruit bowl for anytime snacking, if you're not already (but you seem like you probably do)

We get sushi take away and chicken with salad and rice with nan take away doesn’t have to be unhealthy.

id add some pulses and beans in there to bulk things up and boost plant based protein- you can easlily make bean chilli or lentil spag bol and freeze it which is a godsend when busy. Chickpea curry, lentil sloppy joes, puy lentil salad etc.

I am acutally have pesto pasta tonight as my treat, tomorrow is a tofu and veggie bibimbap and then i also have a beetroot and coconut curry on the list for later in the week as well as some nice salads and homemade soups (pea, watercress and leek yum). I batch cook as i work full time, am studying and have a side hustle and theres noone to cook with/for me.

FWIW in my country it’s perfectly normal to have rice and potatoes together in the same dish

I think it’s going to depend on the child. An omelette wouldn’t cut it for mine, for example.

I love pasta + pesto on itself but I’m hungry after 30min. If I was serving it to DD I’d add at least some chicken breast. That should be quick enough to sort.

Sound nice to me but more veg needed.

also for chat gpt make sure you have the remember history toggle on so when you tell it, hey plan a plant based menu for seven days including snacks, include gluten free options and no mushrooms, it will remember and incorporate in the future. I find it very heklpful for meal planning specific to my health needs - its briliant. I also ask it to rate what i have eaten and it gives feedback and tweaks to meet my goals

I think because there tends to be more salt and fat than if you cooked it yourself.

They are absolutely fine.

Feel free to come round and cook for me.

It’s not bad necessarily ,but you could add some garden peas and chopped, sautéed courgette to it. It’s also really easy to make pesto and is much nicer than in a jar.

This.
But otherwise, your menu looks fine.

All sounds lovely OP
Its not that dissimilar to our meals although we are veggie so have more beans, nuts and pulses

Suggest drizzling some nuts/ tofu/paneer/halloumi over the salad for variation
Add yeast flakes to the chilli and pasta sauces for added b12
Grate fruit into the salad occasionally
Limit takeaways to max once a month.

Agree
Plus some toasted pine nuts. They are delicious over this dish

Depends on what you order.

Maybe try varying the leaves in your salad, things like baby spinach, rocket, watercress, pea shoots etc, they are all a bit more nutrient dense than lettuce.

Also try adding some roasted veg and tuna to the pasta and pesto. You could bulk freeze some roasted courgettes, mushrooms, aubergines etc, reheat in the microwave and add a couple of handfuls to the pasta and pesto. That way you aren’t having to roast fresh veg each week. I also sometimes stir through spinach leaves into pasta and pesto, the heat of the pasta gently wilts the leaves but it isn’t completely cooked.

Monday and Tuesday are a bit rubbish. Potatoes, rice, feta and onions?! What is that?! Who eats so many carbs at one go?! And where are the vegetables and fruits?! And pasta with a jar of pesto?! I am sure you can do better. Is this on a budget? You could stop spending on the take away and eat some grilled chicken, lamb chops, halloumi etc.

Unless you eat a lot of salad including spinach and other veg you won’t get much fibre from a few lettuce leaves.

The protein?? Salmon, feta cheese, chilli beef, mince beef for lasagne…also have chicken, tuna, tuna steak, bbq burgers etc

I love a feta salad with new potatoes but I agree, I wonder why the need for rice as well

Have you tried a grain salad OP

Equal measures rice, barley and cracked wheat ( up to a total of a mug full for 6 people )
Herbs, lots, to taste
Bay leaves about three
3 mug fulls of hot stock ( ie 3 x the quantity of dry ingredients )
Put everything in a casserole pot, cover and bake about 40/50 mins.

If you have more time fry a couple of onions and some garlic and throw in too.
You can also add cashews, sweetcorn, peas before cooking too.

We have this grain salad a lot with lots of raw veg ( salad ) mixed through after it’s cooked
then you can have it with a poached egg, halloumi, tofu etc

Nice enough but I would say lacks some imagination perhaps do you need two carbs?

@Sowhatbigdeal personally I wouldn’t offer eggs/beans on toast or something like that on a weekly basis, and also pasta with a sauce jar either and the Monday dinner isn’t great either in my view. The salmon seems like a good meal and roast dinner seems fine too.

And indeed, what your "home-cooked food" actually is.

About the pasta & pesto and everyone worried it doesn’t contain enough protein. The current obsession with protein is mostly marketing misinformation- if anything most people in the western world eat too much protein and risk overloading their kidneys. For the record, a 100g serving of pasta & pesto would have about 7g protein which is about a quarter a 7 year old’s daily requirements. Sprinkle a tablespoon of parmesan on top & it’s 12g protein or nearly half their daily requirements.

There is fish…? I said salmon and also usually tuna or tuna steak and cod

The proteins are absolutely fine I think op. Except the pesto dinner. Just grate on some Parmesan and bung in a few toasted nuts. .