What time do you eat Dinner?

[Katie Meadow]

I'm retired, my husband is doing consulting work part time out of the house. I don't know how it happened but we shifted to basically two real meals a day, a latish breakfast and then linner,  typically  at 3-4 pm. We go to bed around midnight, so if we are peckish it is usually a snack and cocktails in the evening, or sometimes my husband is hungrier and just eats a sandwich or leftovers. If we are lucky and I've made some dessert, there might be a late meal of cake or rice pudding or whatever. If I'm being honest, I really like having cocktail hour and watching the news, but I'm a cheap date and after one cocktail I'm unlikely to want to cook much or deal with a full meal. So this works for me.

 

There's almost always lots of good bread in the house since my husband started baking regularly, so that's an easy fix in the evening.  He's got a hollow leg and not an ounce of fat on him, so sometimes I worry that three meals a day would be better for him, but he makes up for it by sometimes eating staggering (to me) amounts, matched only by my millennial nephew when he comes for dinner. (And no, we don't subject our guests to our idiosyncratic schedule.) The two-meal thing really works for me; I don't like going to bed feeling full. Back in the day when we both worked out of the house or when our daughter was at home we ate three squarish meals, scraping together a dinner at around 7 or a bit later, whenever we got it together.

[lindag]

Dinner time for me revolves around the cocktail hour which begins at 5PM.

After a cocktail followed by a glass or two of wine, it's time for dinner.  That's about 7:30 or so.

The problem is that after the cocktails followed by food, I'm ready for sleep.  I'm always in bed by 9PM.

 I've always been a morning person so it works for me.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

6 hours ago, dcarch said:

Perhaps it would be interesting to know also what time you have breakfast, and lunch, not just  dinner. 

 

I don't eat breakfast. I don't think breakfast in our working culture makes sense. Rushing to work and eating all kinds of unhealthy food. There is no proof that breakfast is important for health.

 

I eat a light  lunch around 12:30. 

 

I eat a full dinner around 6:30.

 

I eat a full meal (second dinner?) around 12:00 just before I go to bed. 

 

This has given me good health and good energy all my life.

 

dcarch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For me, on work nights, a sandwich around 4:30 pm.  Otherwise usually just one meal a day, dinner about midnight, preceded by much rum (or sometimes apple brandy).  And if you will excuse me, I am running late.

 

[ChocoMom]

Our eating schedules vary greatly.   

Weekdays, I make toast and coffee for hubby and kid #3 at 7:30am.  I'll have coffee, but I don't eat until 10-11 most of the time.   I'm just not hungry. Lunchtime is always around 12:15 when hubby comes home for work. Again, I fix him lunch - but I usually skip it.  Dinner during the late fall and winter is usually 5_30-6pm.   During summer, it might not be until 9 or 10pm.  Depends on when we finish working at the farm. 

 

I think with all the meat-canning I did, its been super-helpful with meal prep on those late nights.  After loading hay bales all day long, I really don't feel like cooking at 9pm, so I can open a jar of taco meat, ground beef, or chili and go from there with little to no preparation. 

 

Currently, I am on a seven day water-fast, so I may rethink my own eating schedule after my internal clock resets, but my habit has been not to eat early in the morning - for the most part. 

[gulfporter]

On 2/7/2018 at 9:22 AM, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:

We've adopted the Mexican system of a good breakfast (fruit, yogurt, granola, toast with avocado, sometimes oatmeal or eggs) and then our main meal of the day between 2-4 pm. A snack around 7-8 if I'm peckish. My husband normally eats something at night because he has a bigger appetite than I do. When we invite friends for a meal we often return to the usual schedule and try to eat around 7. It's not quite like "eat like a king at breakfast," but it's worked well for us.

 

Nancy in Pátzcuaro

Same with us over here at Lake Chapala (Ajijic).  Main meal is midday.  We often go out in evening for a walk and stop somewhere for a glass of wine and share a few appetizers.  We are lucky to have 2 Spanish tapas places as well as a few international eateries which offer small plates. 

 

We find we don't sleep well if we eat a full meal in the evening.  

[DianaB]

This is a topic that divides our household (of two).  Husband would prefer his main meal at around 6.00 pm while I would rather eat later.  We tend to compromise on around 6.30 pm now that we are both at home and able to cook together.  A benefit of my husband’s recent retirement.

 

When I lived in France most people had their main meal in the middle of the day and that pattern persists when we are there since we stay with friends and adapt to their daily routines.  When working my lunch break in France was two and a half hours. Many French restaurants, at least in the provinces, cater for a main service in the middle of the day perhaps not even opening in the evenings during the week.  In England I think most people now have their main meal in the evening.  When I worked in France colleagues never understood my choice not to eat a large meal at midday.  My apple and coffee were considered inappropriate but amusing to those I worked with... 

 

i always find these cultural differences interesting, thanks for starting this thread.  

[chromedome]

I usually eat breakfast before 8, lunch between noon and 1 and then dinner around 6. My GF will nibble a few bites all day, be ready for an actual (light) meal between 6 and 8, and then devour twice her bodyweight sometime between 10 and midnight. For me as the cook, this creates a few logistical issues.

[suzilightning]

28 minutes ago, chromedome said:

I usually eat breakfast before 8, lunch between noon and 1 and then dinner around 6. My GF will nibble a few bites all day, be ready for an actual (light) meal between 6 and 8, and then devour twice her bodyweight sometime between 10 and midnight. For me as the cook, this creates a few logistical issues.

geezzzzz.... I feel for you as John tends to eat the same way as your GF.  I have gotten up to go to the bathroom around 1 am and found him having a huge bowl of pasta with shrimp or something else.........no wonder his sleep time is between 2 and 5 am

 

[Martin Fisher]

I don't eat early—no breakfast—and I don't eat late.

1 or 2 meals per day.

Earliest at noon, latest at 4:00 PM.

Unless it's a special occasion, which is very rare.

 

ETA: ZERO snacks!

 

 

Edited February 11, 2018 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[kayb]

37 minutes ago, DiggingDogFarm said:

I don't eat early—no breakfast—and I don't eat late.

1 or 2 meals per day.

Earliest at noon, latest at 4:00 PM.

Unless it's a special occasion, which is very rare.

 

ETA: ZERO snacks!

 

I'm pretty sure that's un-American.

 

[MetsFan5]

My husband will be away for a bit in a few weeks so I wonder if I will eat earlier. I have a feeling I will mostly graze. I can’t eat what most think is a full meal more often than I can. I am a lazy grazer too. A couple marinated mushrooms there, maybe a slice of cheese. Two sips of low fat chocolate milk if I need something sweet. And English muffin half toasted with butter and sprinkled with sea salt. 

 

  No doubt it isn’t the healthiest. I was an incredibly difficult eater as a child and as an adult I am not but I really won’t eat just to eat. It has to be something that appeals to me. 

[Doofa]

Thinking of odd snacking at odd times Iv'e recently started on Toast left to go cold then a few Anchovies and heaven awaits. This can happen at anytime.