AIBU to ask for your opinions re feeding my children

[laydeestardust]

And is what I'm feeding them unreasonable??

Please be as frank with me as you like-I promise not to flounce!

A friend told me she thinks what I feed my kids is crap-ie too processed , not enough of it made from scratch,not often organic, (although she let me off that one because of the cost!)

I said I think it's ok in the context of having 4 kids aged between 17 and 5, a busy full time job, tiny freezer, no dishwasher(!) etc etc, and the kids all seem healthy enough etc My initial response was to reject what she said...but now I'm pondering and wondered what the Mumsnet Jury would make of it!

We eat;
Breakfasts.
cereals (ie rice krispies, oatabix minis) breads, toast and jam etc

lunches
all take a packed lunch-rolls, wraps etc with quorn slices/cheese/tuna mayo etc with salad +fruit/veg/ and a treat ie biscuit/cake/yogurt/dried fruit

dinners
jackets with beans, cheese, tuna etc, small potatoes,roast/mashed potatoes, pasta (dried not fresh)rice with veg
quorn mince/pieces/fillets
fish/veg fingers/boil in the bag fish in sauce (one DC adores this, her gran introduced her to it!)
omlettes with tuna for the two fish eaters,cheese for the rest of us who are veggie
falafel + salad
casseroles-ie with quorn sausages
Very Very Occasional nut roasts/lentil slices if I have a spare day
all served with lots of fresh or frozen veg and salad
fruit juice

Does this seem ok or have I seriously lost the plot?I can see I rely heavily on Quorn-which is mainly what my friend means by over reliance on processed food, I do try to make marvellous lentil roast type things but I find it takes me an entire Sunday or something, and the kitchen looks like the Somme.

Be Honest with me-I can take it [gulp]

this looks fine, tell mate to butt out

thought i'd be readingt abiout findus crisy pancakes and their ilk (used to love them!)

I can't believe that there are people out there who actually make their own bread!! I think she definitely needs to get out more and hasw a bit of a brass neck telling you off. I was brought up on a diet of chips ( in lard!!), all sorts of other fried nonsense, Smash (remeber that!!) and if I was really good, Angel Delight on a Sunday teatime. Then I progressed onto Spam and luncheon meat (remember that) sandwiches followed by a quick trip to the chipshop to pick up a pie! Those were the days!

Smash and Angel Delight were our saturday night staples (mum too exhausted to cook anything else probably) when I was little, I'm having a serious craving now!

I might cook it for my friend when she next comes for dinner and tell her it's a locally sourced speciality

Your friend needs to get a life!

op - your menu looks fine to me. to me an over reliance on processed food would be tons of ready meals and snacks. i think your menu looks quite balanced and healthy!

i think your friend may be fed up of her slavery to cooking and wants to transfer some frustration by criticising you when actuall she is a bit jealous because it sounds like your cooking life is much easier than hers.

i really dont see what the 'cooking from scrtach' issue is - you serve your dinners with veg/salad?? cooking from scratch surely refers to things like spag bol/cottage pie/lasagne etc where you can buy it ready made but its healthier to make it to avoid the preservatives etc? or am i being naive??

[whispers] I have been known to feed my children super noodles or frozen pizza on occasion. We also have a very similar diet to your's as I'm veggie although DH and DC (4.5 and 2.4) aren't. Although they eat a very varied amount of things, like most small children, they like asserting their authority over what and when they will eat and I don't want to force them, so long the current craze doesn't last more than a week.

We must be terrible parents

Nothing wrong with your diet.

As for 'friend':

ignore
ignore
ignore

Oh dear that link to the quorn article has really worried me ! Myself and ds eat a lot of quorn but i have had my doubts about it as i think it is to dense in its texture.
Think i will stop buying it from now on.

Who is your friend, the food police?? Your initial response was inaccurate though, in that you didn't tell her where she could stick her homemade bread. The cheek.

I forgot to say your menus are very similar to ours and i occasionally think i rely on foods like canned tuna and baked beans too much but i do try and make home made chillis ect.
I am going to cut the mould (quorn) from our diet . Wonder if Linda mcartney stuff is any better ?

Don't know about Quorn but that is a scare-mongering article. I wouldn't make any decisions without better sources.

OP, when did your friend get her promotion to Chief Superintendent in the Food Police?

If she thinks organic is better maybe she can quote reputable science on why? As far as I can tell there is no evidence organic as a whole is always better for human health but some organic products may be better as they are more nutritious, like milk (I accept organic is better for the planet though).

I agree there is a lot of Quorn but otherwise your diet sounds good. Could you replace some with pulses eg lentil curries and bean dishes? I'd ditch Rice Krispies for wholemeal something but I am an evil mother.

it all looks good to me, too.

i have to agree with others that you have got too much quorn in there.

you can get lots of other things that replace the protein from meat.

use more
cheese
nuts
eggs
beans

etc, as they are a bit more natural.

i've been veggie since i was 13 and very very rarely use quorn - if i need something a bit more meat-like in texture, then i use lentils, chickpeas or mushrooms instead.

i do sometimes use TVP mince, which is the same stuff you get in pot noodles, but that's very rare too.

i've never had any weight or dietary problems (eg anaemia etc), so i can't be doing much wrong.

i disagree with Eldritch on the Rice Krispies too, actually - they are rice after all, so it wouldn't be the same having wholewheat in the diet (i know she said wholemeal, but i think she meant wheat rather than brown rice, which would not make a good breakfast cereal! )

not too i haven't disagreed on anything else.

and the main reason i disagreed is because i practically lived on Rice Krispies for most of my youth!

(disclaimer - i had real food too, but had RK for breakfast and after school snack)

Fair enough nickel.
Mind you, I am hard core (I think All Bran's actually nice) and would eat brown rice cereal! I was thinking of those worthy low salt low sugar millet and whatever cereals supermarkets sell in the no fun earthy crunchy section...

Sounds fine to me, wish I could get ds to eat half of that!

I am on my way round for dinner

that sounds like a reasonable diet to me! Not over the tophealthy but not at all unhealthy.

[boak] Eldritch, you're very odd

I eat weetabix, but that's as far as i go with brown stuff.
i tried All Bran once and thought i was going to projectile vomit. < that's supposed to be a vom-face!

Heh heh.

You have to mix your cereals my dear: try All Bran with some Dorset Cereals Muesli and a few of those chocolate Weeto thingies. Ta daa!