Butternut squash soup for dinner

[NoPinkPlease]

AIBU or is butternut squash soup on its own not enough for dinner?

Firstly, OP has already said what she ate for other meals and snacks including calorie counts. Secondly, I know exactly how many calories I eat, how many I need and how I like to split them. Im sure so do most people on this thread. A bowl of vegetable soup is going to come in around 300 calories. Even if you're dieting, that's very low for a meal. I don't stick to 1200 calories a day because I think that's absurd and unsustainable so my evening meal is more like 600 calories which also enables me to make sure there is enough protein in it. The amount of protein in a bowl of butternut squash soup is negligible. Competitive undereating is tedious .

ETA how on earth can you claim that a bowl of soup with a toastie is half of everyone's calorie requirements in one meal? What a silly statement

For me, a bowl of home made soup with bread and cheese has always been plenty for the main meal of the day. My BMI has always been within the healthy range and I'm a size 12/14. I walk for 1-2 hours a day and I've never counted calories in my life. If you eat a healthy, balanced diet you shouldn't really need to.

I would say there is far more competitive overeating on mn than the opposite. This thread is definitely testament to that.

No, not without a few sandwiches or a crusty roll.

Your bread and cheese will double the calorie content and more than double the protein content so it's not surprising that soup plus bread and cheese is a filling meal in comparison with a bowl of soup alone!

But you're now contradicting what you said previously:

"ETA how on earth can you claim that a bowl of soup with a toastie is half of everyone's calorie requirements in one meal? What a silly statement"

For some of us that is enough to sustain a healthy weight without obsessing over calories, and yet you label it competitive undereating.

Well it’s not flavoured water really is it? It’s blended up food with some added stock. A decent soup is anyway. (Not that I’m agreeing it’s a main meal, I would have it for lunch)

Does it have lentils in it ? If yes with a chunk of bread it’s great as dinner. Without bread if I eaten too much during the day ( I go by feeling not counting anything)

I need around 1700 calories a day to be stable - I’m quite active but not large

I would normally have two bowls and one slice of bread

Just by its self no, I have it with garlic bread.

The point is that claiming that soup and a toastie is half of everyone's daily calorie allowance is a daft thing to claim!!

Doesn't sound daft to me, I would say it's fine for a person of healthy weight with a normal BMI.
But then I neither know nor care what my daily calorie allowance is.

This has been very helpful!

This is what sparked this thread:

My DP of 10 years has depression and inconsistently contributes to the household. He’s a lovely DP in most ways and I accept and understand that’s he’s doing what he can when he can.

Recently he’s been able to cook more and has tried to share the load as he’s been feeling better, which I appreciate. But we have clashed in the past about what constitutes a family dinner - there are two older teens in the house too - when he’s cooked.

We’ve been trying to agree each morning who is going to cook and I mentioned there was stirfry veg and butternut squash in the fridge that needed eating in the next couple of days.

For additional context, we’re vegan and have been for years, and so when I use those things I tend to pair them with tofu, tempeh, beans, nuts etc. I am also the active person I described upthread, with one additional detail, I’ve also been on a mission to lose weight and sort my body out the last three years. I’ve lost 2.5 stone and have shifted my body fat from 45% to 39% but I still have another stone to lose (ish). To achieve this I do intermittent fasting and so I don’t eat til midday, then usually have a large bowl of soya yoghurt, soya crispies, flaxseed, berries, walnuts etc - it’s about 500 cals and 50g of protein. I then have a couple of healthy snacks during the afternoon (2-300 cals) and then a main meal - ideally at 6ish but I fit in with the family. But I need about 700 calories at that meal and I need carbs and protein and veg or I’m not eating a balanced diet. And I go to the gym or run at 6am so I need fuel! I’ve done so much research and I’m not a faddy eater - I follow dr Gregor’s daily dozen as much as I can, I batch cook, we eat whole food plant based with an emphasis on making sure we get enough protein in there too. My kids also run and go to the gym and have loads of stuff on.

So when I said there was butternut squash, he said he’d make soup, I said that wasn’t enough (in the very recent past he’s made soup and didn’t think bread was needed) and he got grumpy about it and said everyone else in the world would think it was a meal. I then was treated to a small rant about my particular ways of eating etc but in the context of depression and his contribution I’m going to let that go.

In the end he wasn’t feeling up to making anything so I’m making a massive warm salad with wholewheat couscous, tempeh, sundried tomatoes and olives with it today instead.

Clearly we have bigger issues on how to work through this as a team than the status of a bowl of butternut squash. Just needed a quick reality check for my own sanity. Thanks :-)

At the top end of calorie estimates you're looking at 700 calories for that meal. Most people even healthy weight people use a lot more than 1400 calories a day. It was a daft comment to make.

As a vegan on a health journey with a sensible approach to calories and protein I get you 100%!! Of course you need to add protein to a meal of soup, especially when you're active and intermittently fasting. Your DP sounds quite annoying TBH.

Soup = 350 calories when I worked it out. Cheese and ham toastie 500 calories. How many calories do you need?

53 year old women, 5’5, 10 stone, office job. TDEE 1,489 calories a day.

When I was a child I really looked forward to soup and dumplings. Get some veggie Atora suet and there's a dumpling recipe on the back, add some dried herbs, pepper and flour and lob them in the soup and you'll transform 'soup' into 'dinner.' I still make them as comfort food now.

Butternut squash soup (1 bowl, ~300–350 ml)

• Homemade, blended with stock and a little oil: 150–200 kcal
• Creamed version (single cream or coconut milk): 200–250 kcal

Cheese toastie (1 sandwich)

• 2 slices standard bread: 180–220 kcal
• Cheddar cheese (40–50 g): 160–200 kcal
• Butter/spread for frying or grilling: 70–100 kcal

Cheese toastie total: 410–520 kcal

Combined total

• Lighter soup + toastie: ~560–620 kcal
• Creamy soup + toastie: ~610–770 kcal

Personally I have a TDEE of 1900 calories, age 45, BMI 25. If I were younger it would be higher than that. There is a wide variation in bodies and caloric needs.

Butternut squash soup with lovely fresh bread and butter. Ideal as an evening meal for me. Husband not so keen but he has a massive appetite and my daughter thinks any soup is old persons food!!

With chunks of butternut squash in the soup, plus some side-veg and side-bread and a couple of pork chops, it could be a light dinner.

I can't believe everyone butters the bread or rolls,do you dip.it in the soup.. doesn't it melt!

Well yes, of course it melts but seeing as melted butter is delicious then that's a good thing surely?

Your aversion to buttered bread is quite unusual, you must be aware of this?

Are you new to planet earth?

I don't have an aversion to buttered bread, I only actually use Cornish seasalt butter. I dip bread in my soup, but I want crusty bread dipped not soggy bread and butter floating on my soup. Or do you keep the bread and butter on a side plate and eat it separately? Me, unusual... what about salad with soup!!

This

It needs a cheese scone.
I would also term this a supper not dinner.
Lovely if you are tired and cant face cooking

Depends. When you say dinner do you mean evening meal? And what meal was had for lunch? If it was a roast then soup in the evening is plenty.