Am I making things too difficult for myself?

[NKF]

Two kids at school. Both easy eaters. They eat breakfast (eggs or bagel and cream cheese or porridge and toast) and then a hot school meal. Perfectly fine food at school. Suddenly occurred to me that maybe it would be okay to give them a sandwich and crudites type tea. Don't know why I find the idea so strange but it would be okay wouldn't it? Filling and nutritious. In case you all find this odd, my mother was a professional caterer so proper meals cooked from scratch every few hours is what I'm used to. But you can get sick of the sight of pans.

NKF i am in the same situation. but still have dd3 at home for lunch. am wondering if we can switch main meal to lunch time, and the light dinner.

but some days they come home so so hungry.

Sandwich and crudites would be fine now and again surely.

IMO though, knowing how hungry they get, sometimes it's nice to come home to a nice, hot, home cooked meal.

No reason why you couldn't do both though, mix and match depending on how you feel each day and how hungry they are...

Sounds perfectly aceptable to me. Just make sure you know that they are eating a good meal at lunch time though. DD had school dinners for a term and although the menus suggested good food, in reality it wasn't quite as nice.

Ds; most favourite thing in the world is to have a "snacky tea" especially is he has had a "dinnery lunch". I pile his plate with sandwiches, loads of cheese, carrots and cumcumber etc etc. But I know what you mean about it being a bit odd, not having a hot meal in the evening. I don't think there are any rules on this though - or at least I hope not.

I know what you mean .. I sometimes find it difficult to not cook .. sandwiches fine .. cook if you feel like it .. crudites fine too ... worst I did was popcorn followed by jam sandwich .. sod it, t'aint gonna kill 'em

If your children are actually eating their school lunch and don't come home ravenous, then go right ahead - children don't need two main meals cooked from scratch every day.

They eat their school lunch. I'm pretty sure of that and I've been to school food tastings. And it's perfectly okay. I might try a lighter tea once in a while on a day when they've had something heavy like lasagna at school.

sounds fine - how about soup and a sandwich...nice halfway house.

here in holland it's only expected to "eat warm" once a day, and I must admit that I've stopped feeding mine two cooked meals a day. They get a hot meal in the evening and homemade soup and sarnies and crudites when eldest ds comes home from school at lunch.

Really good way to use up leftovers too....

i have 2 soup dragons!

Soup and a sandwich a very good idea. Nice in winter too. Thank you.

Or things like beans on toast / eggs on toast so warm, but not huge or time consuming?

Isn't it funny how pasta with cheese and vegetable sauce feels like a Proper Meal and a cheese sandwich with carrot sticks and some fruit feels like A Snack!

Seeker, I know. And yet nutritionally, they're the same sort of thing. And I suppose some people would say that the raw veg is better for you than the cooked.

I did frozen sweetcorn and peas mixed with baked beans for tea tonight, all done in the microwave. And toast soldiers to dip in it, went down a treat.

It's funny, my three absolutely love 'dippy eggs' with soldiers. I usually serve that with a huge bowl of cherry tomatoes and some raw veggies alongside.

My lot think it's great, a treat for tea. Somehow a bit more treat-like or decadent than a full cooked tea. Of course I know the truth - it's a great, quick and easy meal for when I'm busy or don't feel like cooking!

Sweetcorn, peas and bean recipe sounds ace. What are we talking here - four minutes tops? Marvellous.

I have a plastic saucepan with lid that doubles as a strainer (Pampered Chef) so I microwave the peas and corn, strain, stir in beans and zap again. Minimum washing up too!