Want to get healthier but struggling on cooking healthy family meals

disasterman

I agree with the person who said make small changes. For weight loss, the most emphasis should be put on portion control. Try a balanced plate with protein/starch/vegetable - add a salad maybe (watch out for high calorie dressings and toppings) eliminating extra servings of high calorie items (usually carbs). For example, instead of potatoes and bread have one or the other. Learn to cook with smaller amounts high calorie oils and fats - every gram of fat has 9 calories! so a little can go a long way.

It used to be common for me to have pasta AND bread and have that be the majority of my calories in a meal. Now I might pile a bunch of veggies on the plate with a small serving of pasta (1 cup or less cooked) and a 4 ounce serving of meat or fish. I'll have a salad too or seconds and thirds of veggies, and skip the bread. Doing this has taken my average evening meal down from over 1000 calories to more like 600.

dargytaylor

k80flec wrote: »

Hopefully you will take the time to read this, apologies for its length.
I use the recipe tool, to cook the food I've always cooked, weighing each ingredient as it's added. When it's cooked, I weigh the food. I either transfer it to an empty jug (after zeroing the scale) or I weigh it in the casserole dish (having previously weighed the empty casserole dish). If it weighs 2000 grams I say that there are 2000 servings. Then my 300 grams are 300 portions. Then each plate can have as much or as little as desired. I never eat the same size portion as my DH or adult sons, so saying 6 portions per recipe wouldn't work for me.

If it's cakes or cookies, I weigh the baked product and make the total grams the number of portions. 12 biscuits at about 70 or 60 g each = 720 portions ( if I've got my maths right)
the app it asks you to state the number of servings at the start. You can then, just before you save the recipe, edit the number of 'servings'. As for the measurement, it can be whatever you want it to be - cups, ounces, grams . . . You can also edit the recipe later when you've finished cooking it, (and each time you cook it) whatever it is, using whatever weighing method suits you (at least you can edit using the iPhone/Pad app - you can't on the windows app).

The recipe tool is fab, one of my favourite elements, means I can be so accurate with the calorie content of my creations and what goes on my plate
Edited for typo.

I love this!! I just recently starting really weighing my food (not guessing the size of a banana for instance) and this is great information in regards to the recipe builder, as I use it all the time!

Tried30UserNames

What are your family's current favorite meals? Instead of throwing a completely new way of eating at them, I would recommend taking those favorite meals and making them healthier.

One example inspired by Madz0007's post, is my own Shepherd's Pie recipe. It used to contain meat, onions, gravy and mashed potatoes. I bulked it up and slimmed it down by adding a whole variety of vegetables to the meat mixture and topping it with a combo of mashed potatoes and mashed cauliflower. I can eat a larger portion for fewer calories and I get more nutrients because of the vegetable content.

My spaghetti recipe used to just include meat, tomatoes/paste, and herbs/spices over spaghetti noodles. Now, I add a variety of roasted vegetables to the sauce and serve it over a mixture of spaghetti and zucchini noodles or spaghetti squash.