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Post by melanell on May 19, 2015 12:42:49 GMT
If I'm having something that is a dish made of lots of ingredients I would probably not make a side dish at all. Things like stew, spaghetti, tacos, or stir fry don't get side dishes. We serve less side dishes with those types of things as well. When we have tacos, we still often put out one fruit, but that's it. I mean, really, the table is pretty full with a million bowls of taco fixings to choose from. There's no more room.
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Post by melanell on May 19, 2015 12:47:38 GMT
So that prompts my question of your (general you) definition of a 'side'? That's a good question...because like compwalla I rarely have a meal where the meat (protein) is the focus. Same here. Except for the very, very rare instance when my older son requests meatloaf, we don't have dinners that revolve around a meat. For us, a meal can very well be made up of only what others might consider "sides". Especially in the fall, when the local harvest is bursting with awesome vegetable goodness, sometimes we will cook up 3 or 4 vegetable based "side dishes" and let them be the meal. Technically speaking, I don't think a tossed salad is really a side. Salads are technically their own course, right? But here, we use them as a side. And sometimes our vegetables are more of an appetizer, as someone mentioned above, but typically we consider them a side.
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oldcrow
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Post by oldcrow on May 19, 2015 12:50:41 GMT
I'm too lazy to cook that many sides We usually eat a protein, a starch and a veggie ... or just a protein and a salad ... Pretty close to what happens here.
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Post by tuva42 on May 19, 2015 12:55:44 GMT
I do a green veggie and a fruit with every meal. I only make starches 2 or 3 times a week, and I try to make them healthy starches.
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mallie
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Post by mallie on May 19, 2015 13:47:15 GMT
Generally, our meals are very simple. Most of the time, they consist of a meat and vegetable. We have Italian night and Mexican night once per week. We generally eat out two nights per week.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2015 13:50:26 GMT
I'd never heard of serving fruit with every meal until 2Peas and it still surprises me.
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Post by gar on May 19, 2015 13:56:00 GMT
I'd never heard of serving fruit with every meal until 2Peas and it still surprises me. I've been thinking that too. I will often prepare fruit as dessert but are people serving it as part of the main meal? So strawberries alongside a stir fry? Shepherd's Pie and kiwis?
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paigepea
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Post by paigepea on May 19, 2015 14:10:39 GMT
I do 1 main and 1-2 sides.
Usually I do 1 salad and 1 veg or 1 salad and 1 starch. Or just 1 veg or salad.
If I'm having company for dinner I'll do 2 veg and 1 starch.
We also like meals with many components but no sides - my kids like lentil tacos and they top with lettuce, peppers, cheese OR they like salad bar night and I put out the toppings and they make their own salad. For these meals I make no sides.
To the OP, to me Mac n Cheese is a main, not a side, so to me it sounds like you're making more mains so everyone is happy but that your passing off your extra choices as offering sides. I sometimes make a meal I know my kids don't like - maybe once or twice a month. They complain. I tell them to try the meal - they usually find one aspect they like and double up on that part - and then they can have a banana after dinner if they're still hungry.
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wellway
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Post by wellway on May 19, 2015 14:10:37 GMT
I'd never heard of serving fruit with every meal until 2Peas and it still surprises me. I've been thinking that too. I will often prepare fruit as dessert but are people serving it as part of the main meal? So strawberries alongside a stir fry? Shepherd's Pie and kiwis? Gar, you need to check out Pinterest, I saw a Strawberry and Broccoli salad on there the other day. Not a combination I would have thought about.
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Post by gar on May 19, 2015 14:12:22 GMT
I've been thinking that too. I will often prepare fruit as dessert but are people serving it as part of the main meal? So strawberries alongside a stir fry? Shepherd's Pie and kiwis? Gar, you need to check out Pinterest, I saw a Strawberry and Broccoli salad on there the other day. Not a combination I would have thought about.
Hmm, ok! Open my mind to new possibilities Do you do fruit along side your main meal? Is it an American preference?
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wellway
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Post by wellway on May 19, 2015 14:16:45 GMT
Fruit is an dessert for me (or pick up anytime as you pass the fruit bowl). I try to have 2 - 3 veg at dinner, so I'm surprised at the number of people who only have one veg.
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Post by gar on May 19, 2015 14:20:34 GMT
Fruit is an dessert for me (or pick up anytime as you pass the fruit bowl). I try to have 2 - 3 veg at dinner, so I'm surprised at the number of people who only have one veg. I seem to remember talking about this on the 'what's for dinner' threads and people saying that they didn't want to be preparing 3 different veg every night. I think it's a British things to have that sort of meal breakdown. Maybe it's partly due to the 5-a-day thinking which presumably isn't a US well known 'slogan' for healthy eating.
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wellway
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Post by wellway on May 19, 2015 14:25:50 GMT
Def, 5 a day is in my thinking when preparing meals, on a good day I might get five into one meal.
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Post by anxiousmom on May 19, 2015 14:28:18 GMT
Gar, you need to check out Pinterest, I saw a Strawberry and Broccoli salad on there the other day. Not a combination I would have thought about.
Hmm, ok! Open my mind to new possibilities Do you do fruit along side your main meal? Is it an American preference? Not this American. Fruit is eaten for breakfast, snacks and maybe along with lunch like a fruit salad (and in my world, a fruit salad is cut up fruits mixed together-no dressings or anything like that-just the cut up fruit.) I rarely serve it for dinner.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2015 14:28:33 GMT
One side, salad and fruit.
No starches.
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Post by gar on May 19, 2015 14:29:10 GMT
Def, 5 a day is in my thinking when preparing meals, on a good day I might get five into one meal. That would be a good day I go for 3 veg at the main meal (sometimes it's 4 if I've used tomatoes in whatever I've made, plus the 3 'sides') one fruit for breakfast and/or lunch and fruit for snack or dessert. Sometimes it's only 4 a day sometimes 6 or so. I find I eat much more fruit in the summer.
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Post by gar on May 19, 2015 14:30:19 GMT
One side, salad and fruit. So if salad or fruit isn't a side, what would be?
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anniebeth24
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Post by anniebeth24 on May 19, 2015 14:32:19 GMT
I'd never heard of serving fruit with every meal until 2Peas and it still surprises me. I've been thinking that too. I will often prepare fruit as dessert but are people serving it as part of the main meal? So strawberries alongside a stir fry? Shepherd's Pie and kiwis? I never had fruit with a dinner meal until I was invited to a friend's home (as an adult) and she served a bowl of grapes with the main dish. It seemed very strange at the time. I now often serve fruit to my family, especially since my kids aren't big veggie eaters.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2015 14:43:39 GMT
One side, salad and fruit. So if salad or fruit isn't a side, what would be? We have fruit and salad at every evening meal. The other side varies. Those do not.
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Post by gmcwife1 on May 19, 2015 14:46:46 GMT
That IS a lot more then normal I think. I only do 1 or 2. Mainly 2, but sometimes I'll just do one. Like for a pot roast, I wouldn't necessarily even make extra sides, because I put carrots, and pot's in with the roast. If we grill, I will do like a baked bean and chips, or just one or the other. Same with me/us. Sometimes I might not make any sides, last night we had chili dogs with cheese and onions but no sides. A pot roast might have a side but wouldn't need to since it has meat, potatoes and carrots together. We don't have a lot of rules at dinner time, we are kind of all over the place
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Post by jmurray on May 19, 2015 15:47:37 GMT
Meat is maybe 20% of our dinner plate at most. I'm trying to get it down to 10% but DH is proving to be a tough sell on that! We usually have 3 to 4 sides, but I would include salad as one of them. Only ever one starch with a meal as well, so the other sides are in the leafy green category (broccoli, squash, asparagus, brussel sprouts, spinach, green beans, etc). We also never have rolls or any other bread with the meal. And fruit is afterwards, not with. Except for apple sauce if we have roast pork
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gina
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Post by gina on May 19, 2015 15:54:46 GMT
Always two. One veggie and one starch i.e. rice, potatoes or some kind of pasta.
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Post by melanell on May 19, 2015 15:59:21 GMT
Maybe it's partly due to the 5-a-day thinking which presumably isn't a US well known 'slogan' for healthy eating. The 5 a day slogan is definitely used in the US. I'm not what percentage of us actually follow it, though. We very rarely have an actual dessert, which is why we just include the fruit with dinner. Plus, so many fruit desserts are loaded with extra sugar. We prefer to just enjoy the fruit. Even when we make a fruit salad it contains only fruit. We also love to put apple or mandarin orange slices or berries into garden type salads. Yum!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2015 16:03:28 GMT
Two Peas food threads always make me feel like a weird eater.
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Post by Linda on May 19, 2015 16:06:13 GMT
I'd never heard of serving fruit with every meal until 2Peas and it still surprises me. I've been thinking that too. I will often prepare fruit as dessert but are people serving it as part of the main meal? So strawberries alongside a stir fry? Shepherd's Pie and kiwis? we don't usually have dessert except on holidays and special occasions - certainly not every day or even every week. Fruit-wise - we tend to serve dinner from serving dishes on the table passed around (family-style?) rather than already plated. So yes, I'll have a serving dish with fruit on the table along with the other serving dishes but unless it's something like applesauce, fried apples or cranberry or the various 'boys' for curry which are designed to go with the protein as a topping or side, we usually each have a small bowl in addition to our plate that we put the fruit in. The children often eat it with their meal, the adults usually wait and eat it after we're done with the savoury dishes.
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Post by crimsoncat05 on May 19, 2015 16:07:23 GMT
I make one main side dish, possibly two. But our meals are just the two of us, so if there were too many side dishes, we'd be left with a lot of leftover side dishes and nothing for them to go with. I usually make one vegetable, but since my BF hates vegetables (except for salad), I add another one that I know he'll eat.
(Now if you're talking Thanksgiving dinner, that's a whole different story, lol!)
eta: I take it back-- if it's grilling out, we'll generally have more side dishes: we grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, and the side dish options were baked beans, potato salad, cut up fresh veggies, and corn on the cob. (again, those options were my BF's ideas, since he doesn't like most vegetables.) But the potato salad will last in the frig for a few days, and he eats stuff like that as a 'snack' after he gets home from work. (it's a battle I've given up fighting...)
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Post by gar on May 19, 2015 16:20:17 GMT
The 5 a day slogan is definitely used in the US. I'm not what percentage of us actually follow it, though. We very rarely have an actual dessert, which is why we just include the fruit with dinner. Plus, so many fruit desserts are loaded with extra sugar. We prefer to just enjoy the fruit. Even when we make a fruit salad it contains only fruit. We also love to put apple or mandarin orange slices or berries into garden type salads. Yum! I agree, most desserts are sugar laden. I prefer plain fruit mostly although a rhubarb crumble or apple pie goes down well from time to time
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Post by gar on May 19, 2015 16:22:26 GMT
I've been thinking that too. I will often prepare fruit as dessert but are people serving it as part of the main meal? So strawberries alongside a stir fry? Shepherd's Pie and kiwis? we don't usually have dessert except on holidays and special occasions - certainly not every day or even every week. Fruit-wise - we tend to serve dinner from serving dishes on the table passed around (family-style?) rather than already plated. So yes, I'll have a serving dish with fruit on the table along with the other serving dishes but unless it's something like applesauce, fried apples or cranberry or the various 'boys' for curry which are designed to go with the protein as a topping or side, we usually each have a small bowl in addition to our plate that we put the fruit in. The children often eat it with their meal, the adults usually wait and eat it after we're done with the savoury dishes. I was thinking of dessert as a bowl of cherries or some cut up melon or pineapple rather than an actual pudding/dessert.
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Post by crimsoncat05 on May 19, 2015 16:28:15 GMT
I haven't read the whole thread, but as to dessert, I'm the only one who would eat it (and I don't need it!), so we don't typically have a dessert with any meal (except a holiday). If I want something sweet later, I'll have some sugar free pudding, a fruit bar, a piece of fruit, etc. maybe 30 min - 1 hr after eating the rest of the meal.
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Post by crazy4scraps on May 19, 2015 16:28:35 GMT
Do they still teach "starch" in the food pyramid? Just wondering if this is a generational thing as I've never heard anyone use that in reference to meal planning. I only see it here. Starch = carbs and yes, it's still in there. That would be potatoes, bread, rice, crackers, even beans and peas are starchy even though most people would consider them veggies. To answer the OP's question, DH cooks dinner most nights and will typically make some type of low fat meat, chicken or fish along with two veggies or maybe a veggie and a starch/carb side. We've been kind of watching our carbs though so we don't eat them with every meal. We also sometimes make meals that have the veggies incorporated, like pot pie, stew or stir fry and then we wouldn't have a separate vegetable. LOL, I don't know where we would store the leftovers if we were making four sides with every dinner meal! As it is we end up tossing more food than I would like because it doesn't get eaten quickly enough.
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