How many courses at dinner?

mrs_motivated

kathrynha wrote: »

Most of the time we have just 1 course, although the fruit bowl is available all the time.
About once a month on a Sunday I will do a pudding.


Only time I do a starter is for special occasions.

For saving money I fluff out the meat with other stuff like veg in curries, spag bol, chilli etc. and for a roast dinner I do plenty of side dishes and always plate up the meals.

That's word for word exactly what I do

Rowan9

We have soup most days. I'm Scottish and I wonder if that might be part of it. I think we are a nation of soup makers probably because of the climate. There is always a bowl of soup when you come in from the cold etc. I agree that portions have increased - just look at the size of plates and bowls now! So, home made soup then main. Sometimes just soup if it is meal in itself kind. Rarely pud.

VfM4meplse

For me its just the one course...usually a big mug of coffee. I think the concept of 3 meals a day is ridiculous for most of us, as we're quite sedentary. One meal a day and perhaps a snack is sufficient.

wmf wrote: »

Sometimes just soup if it is meal in itself kind. Rarely pud.

For me, soup is always a meal in itself. If I'm feeding others, I'll sling in some artisan bread and salad but not if its just me.

Ben84

We have three courses for dinner every evening. It's not as difficult as it might sound as I tend to make a few big things each week and rotate between them until they're used up, so overall I cook about as much as anyone else. Today I made a lemon cheesecake, which will do 2-3 deserts over the next week. Tomorrow is a no cooking day actually as the house needs cleaning. We're having the cannelloni I made yesterday (made double, saved half uncooked), soup from Monday to start, and some of the cheesecake from today. So I just need to light the cooker really and put things in, and wash up at the end. It does mean seeing the same things multiple times in a week, but I don't repeat anything too soon and eat them in different combinations each day, so we find it's ok.

System

At our evening meal we always had desert. It was a habit we got into.... which was fine until hubby was weighed at the hospital and he was a good 3 stone overweight.

Ive never been slim either so it made sense to cut it out.

Our son, slim as a rake was never really into desert so it didnt matter to him.

YORKSHIRELASS

I have actually got into making puddings over the last six months or so. I have two skinny, sporty teenage lads and the amount they can consume is astonishing. I would rather they had some home made fruit pie, crumble or rice pudding than launch themselves at the biscuit tin or start raiding the freezer for oven chips at 9pm.

I love making soup but we tend to have it for lunch with some homemade bread on a weekend rather than during the week.

FrugalWorker

I try and keep portions of soup in the freezer. means OH can get home and have a bowl before cooking dinner for himself (assuming I'm not home first). Not so much a starter as something to take the nastiness out of the hunger.

THIRZAH

We just have the main course followed by fruit during the week. We then have one chocolate with our coffee. When DDs lived at home we did have puddings but now we just have them at weekends or if we have visitors.
It was against the school rules to eat in the street when I was at school and I still can't do it. I can just manage an ice cream on the beach in the summer but could never walk along eating.

Emm-in-a-pickle

I sometimes do 2 courses - soup and `main`, but we always have them at the same time! OH likes meals with gravy or sauce, so what he calls `dry` meals (which I love!) are quite acceptable if he`s got a bowl of soup to eat at the same time!
eg, HM leek & potato or broccoli & stilton with a `dry` main like jacket spud & a chop or chicken portion.
I scoff soup first then the `dry` main, he dips happily into both courses at the same time. OH regards smooth soups as a substitute for gravy/sauce, and a lumpy soup as a main, as long as there`s a lot of it.

suki1964

As a child it was two courses, main and dessert, the dessert being pudding- rice, tapioca, sponge and custard or tinned fruit and carnation milk ( was so tempted to buy some the other day)

Meat portions were tiny back in the 60's and 70's. Most of the plate was filled with veg, the meat being sliced so thin you could read a book through a slice. The only time it seemed like you got a lot of meat was if it was offal or stew

There was no snacking during the day either. Fish and chips were a family meal, not something you ate between meals. Breakfast , lunch and dinner, with perhaps a slice of bread and jam for supper if dinner was particularly light and bellies were rumbling

We eat like that again now here. There is more veg on the plate then meat. Stews and casseroles, curries etc are on the menu more then steak. Pies and dumplings are regularly had, perhaps one or the other in a week

However none of us have sedentary jobs, I'm now back on market research so am out pounding the streets for 6 hours a day, before that 12 hr shifts as a cook, hubby is a builder and mum runs her own shop so a few stodgy meals won't ever kill us

If anyone is hungry after dinner there is always ice cream or I sometimes bake

I always have a jug of soup in the fridge, for lunches or if someone is that hungry they can't wait for dinner, or for times like tonight when I was home late