Do you have pudding / dessert as a regular part of meals?

[ChangingWoman]

Random, trivial late-night question...

Was just looking through the meal planners on here for some inspiration and was struck by the fact that they all seemed to include pudding. This comes after staying with a friend a few weeks ago who was surprised that I didn't offer DCs anything sweet after their meals. Is lunch/dinner + pudding the norm?

When I was growing up, sweet stuff was for weekends and birthdays. Now I find it enough trouble to sort out one-course savory family meals without worrying about pudding afterwards.

We do eat fruit, chocolate, sweets etc.. for occasional snacks but I wouldn't be hungry enough to eat them after every meal.

No, same as you, it's enough just pulling a main course meal together, teens eat sweet stuff later on, I don't.

Yoghurt & fruit are the norm after lunch & dinner here! Ice cream may be on offer at some point for dessert during the weekend if they've been particularly good.

Yup, fruit or yoghurt or muffin or cake if there's any left. Crumbly pie thing and custard on winter Sundays.

We only have pudding after dinner on a Sunday or very special occassions (eg Christmas).

We don't regularly do a pudding, with exceptions. If it is the end of the month (i.e. a bit skint) and we have something that's a bit less nutritious than I would like, then we have tinned fruit and evaporated milk.

And again, towards the end of the month, we have soup and sponge night, so a home made soup for dinner followed by sponge pudding and custard.

I always have to have something sweet after a meal since I gave up smoking! Just discovered dd's mini milks. They are only 30 kcals so don't feel guilty. Dd doesn't like them, but I always offer her fruit or yogurt. Dp will tend to eat his own body weight in biscuits (which isn't much, he's as skinny as a whippet!). So nothing formal, but we all tend to having something sweet after meals.

We don't do dessert very often because I don't really like sweet foods generally. We occasionally have a piece of chocolate after meals or a scoop of ice-cream but that's about it.

we used to, but i need to keep a bit of an eye on dd1's weight, so have stopped. it's fruit on weekdays, proper puds at the weekend. i have my own chocolate stash hidden in the boiler cupboard for emergencies though.

Piece of fruit then a yoghurt for the children. Sometimes a piece of cake or biscuit if dinner has been eaten well.
DH and I will scoff a little bit of chocolate.

Yoghurt or fruit or ice cream is always available but not had every day.

No.
I used to as a kid. Mum always gave us a pudding, usually artic roll or vienetta
We don't bother.

I'm surprised when people say "no, I don't do puddings, only yoghurt" If it's not absolutely plain yoghurt (which my children wouldn't have touched with a barge pole after about 18 months and before about 13 years!) it's just as full of sugar as a mousse or something. Just marketed healthier!

we always have a yoghurt or icecream after dinner, and after sunday lunch have pie or crumble.

We don't have desserts unless it is a special occasion. My mother didn't have them either. I didn't grow up seeing it as a necessary part of a meal, more as an "extra" for special occasions.

yoghurt or fruit for dh and I

kids eat like birds so we give them pudding after lunch and dinner - usually a yoghurt or some jelly or fruit/smoothie. V occasionally cake or fruit with custard.

We have "pudding" after every lunch and dinner when eating at home. Usually just consists of yogurt or fruit at lunchtime though.

No, not at all. If the kids seem particularly hungry and are asking for more food once their dinner is gone, I do make pancakes or similar, and icecream is nice after dinner sometimes, but there's never a regular pudding, mainly because they both have school dinners which really are too reliant on simple carbs for me to be comfortable with offering cake at home.

Small yoghurt or fromage frais for dc's, I have fruit amd fat free yoghurt as on SW again

I grew up finishing dinner with something sweet and do the same with my family. We have cut it down to just fruit or yogurt during the week and usually something more special on the weekend. seeker, I disagree with what you say about yogurts being full of sugar. Of course they can be, but it depends what you buy. We normally get the Sainsburys fromage frais pots, which have 7g of sugar per pot, or Yeo Valley squeezy tube yogurts which have 4.5g of sugar per tube. One average apple has 23g of sugar, a serving of grapes 20g. So well within an acceptable limit I think.

(from the woman who takes 2 hours to do a family shop as she does read the labels on the packages)

No same as you OP. I was made to feel like a freak by my HV who said 'thou must provide puddings' for my DD. I've always thought puddings are treats. I only had them on special occasions growing up. We didn't even grow up with biscuits at home. My parents gave us bread for us to snack on.

OTOH my DH grew up having puddings every day. PILs eat very unhealthy, complete contrast with my parents. They are in their 60s, FIL suffered from multiple heart attacks, MIL has pre-diabetes. But they still eat icecream after every meal. And sometimes, they don't even cook a dinner, but munch on biscuits and call it their tea!

I mean we didn't have fruit or yoghurt at the end of dinner, as a healthy pudding. I think it's perfectly fine to grow up like this despite what my HV says. I don't have any food issues. I never crave biscuits. Whenever we have a pack of biscuits at home, it's always DH who can't help himself but finish the whole pack in no time. I think he's hardwired by his parents to want the sweet stuff.

We never have puddings unless entertaining or maybe I will sometimes do a crumble in the winter using our own fruit.

My boys are teens and they will usually get a lolly from the freezer or have a piece if homemade cake or a biscuit a bit later on after tea - sometimes they have all three! They can eat for England.

Sometimes have a yoghurt after dinner if I'm still hungry or fancy something sweet. We've got into a bit of a habit of having ice cream at weekends recently. Hardly ever make a 'proper' pudding though!

DH and DS would think the world had stopped turning if there wasn't a second course. (Both tall and slim and will have cleared generous portions of dinner.) Usually fruit or yoghurt sometimes DH makes a crumble and sometimes banana & custard or custard with sponge.