Cooking for the family and counting my calories

Tulip9

How do you cook family meals, and still keep track of your own calories? My sons eat one way, I'm doing MFP, and my husband eats vegan most of the time. It's hard for me to keep track of everything!

jgnatca

Weighing and logging makes it easier. Just prepare the family meal and weigh out a decent portion. You can have a side salad for yourself.

Put the recipes in to MFP.

How old is your son? Can he cook for himself?

I prepare vegetable based main courses a couple times a week. Sometimes hubby joins in, sometimes he does not. If it is a vegetarian dish he does not care for, I eat the leftovers for lunch.

mjbnj0001

I cook for us all, dinner at least and some of the other meals. The only "sacrifice" made is by me, who would eat more red meat (we eat chicken so much, I'm afraid we're going to sprout feathers). My daughter and I love a great variety of veg, my wife less so. My daughter and I post to MFP, my wife and I are following a lowered-glycemic approach recommend by a nutritionist, but we take differing tacks on the problem in the meals we cook or consume separately.

So that's 3 dietary preferences in two plans tracked separately by three people. To each their own for tracking. This is the modern world, <sigh>.

dutchandkiwi

Never understood, why is the family all eating differently?
When I grew up and in my house we all eat the same. When going up and you wanted something else form what my parents had wanted to cook, we were taught to cook the family meal instead. My parents put up with a lot of not very good food to teach us how to cook, but we always always ate the same meal.

kms234

We all eat what I make. The only time the kids have something different is if the meal I make contains eggs (they are allergic). I don't do this too often but I do like to make sweet and sour chicken/shrimp a couple times a year and it doesn't taste the same without the eggs.

I cook our meals, weigh out/track a smaller portion, and then add in extra veggies/fruit/side salad for myself. My hubby isn't a big veggie eater but he will eat it if I make it. My kids know the rules. Eat it or don't but that's all you have for dinner and the rest of the evening. I do give them the option to swap out the veg I made for a raw one if it's something they've tried in the past but do not like (ie: brussels sprouts).

Tried30UserNames

Do you actually cook 3 separate meals for your family or do you, your husband and son all eat different parts of the same meal?

If you're currently cooking 3 separate meals, why not just cook 2 meals and you can choose which items from your son's or husband's meal fit into your nutrition and calorie goals. Or just cook one meal that works for your plan and let them either eat that or cook for themselves.

If you make, for example, a big green salad, a non-starchy vegetable or two, a starch such as potatoes or rice or lentils, and a grilled or baked or poached protein like fish, chicken, tofu or beef, then each of you can choose which of those items to have. Your husband can skip the fish. You can eat everything in the proper portion sizes. I don't know what your son's plan is. Each of you can add your own preferred dressing to the salad. Each can choose whether or not to add some butter or olive oil or cheese or sour cream or whatever to the vegetables or starch.

ashjongfit

I just cook things that are easily altered to everyones tastes. For example, right now I'm in the third trimester so I eat a lot . SO is cutting so he eats less and our three year old is semi picky.

Tacos. SO has his on salad, I have mine on salad with tortilla chips, our daughter has the meat crumbles, cheese and cut veg with like three chips. Everyones tastes and caloric needs are met when I only had to make one thing and present it 3 different ways.

For you guys, you could have yours on a salad if you wanted, hubs could have beans or vegan soy meat and vegan cheese, your son could have his on tortillas or over chips as nachos.

Most meals you can do this for. When I was cutting and SO was bulking, I would make pasta sauce and he would have his on whole grain pasta with bread and I would have mine on zoodles with a small slice of bread and our daughter would have her sauce beside her pasta (shes strange haha) and some cut veggies.

If I make a meal we all eat like soup, I just log the recipe and servings is however many grams it is then I just put 200 servings if I had 200 grams and bam done.

Tulip9

Tried30UserNames wrote: »

Do you actually cook 3 separate meals for your family or do you, your husband and son all eat different parts of the same meal?

If you're currently cooking 3 separate meals, why not just cook 2 meals and you can choose which items from your son's or husband's meal fit into your nutrition and calorie goals. Or just cook one meal that works for your plan and let them either eat that or cook for themselves.

If you make, for example, a big green salad, a non-starchy vegetable or two, a starch such as potatoes or rice or lentils, and a grilled or baked or poached protein like fish, chicken, tofu or beef, then each of you can choose which of those items to have. Your husband can skip the fish. You can eat everything in the proper portion sizes. I don't know what your son's plan is. Each of you can add your own preferred dressing to the salad. Each can choose whether or not to add some butter or olive oil or cheese or sour cream or whatever to the vegetables or starch.

Tried30UserNames wrote: »

Do you actually cook 3 separate meals for your family or do you, your husband and son all eat different parts of the same meal?

If you're currently cooking 3 separate meals, why not just cook 2 meals and you can choose which items from your son's or husband's meal fit into your nutrition and calorie goals. Or just cook one meal that works for your plan and let them either eat that or cook for themselves.

If you make, for example, a big green salad, a non-starchy vegetable or two, a starch such as potatoes or rice or lentils, and a grilled or baked or poached protein like fish, chicken, tofu or beef, then each of you can choose which of those items to have. Your husband can skip the fish. You can eat everything in the proper portion sizes. I don't know what your son's plan is. Each of you can add your own preferred dressing to the salad. Each can choose whether or not to add some butter or olive oil or cheese or sour cream or whatever to the vegetables or starch.

Tried30UserNames wrote: »

Do you actually cook 3 separate meals for your family or do you, your husband and son all eat different parts of the same meal?

If you're currently cooking 3 separate meals, why not just cook 2 meals and you can choose which items from your son's or husband's meal fit into your nutrition and calorie goals. Or just cook one meal that works for your plan and let them either eat that or cook for themselves.

If you make, for example, a big green salad, a non-starchy vegetable or two, a starch such as potatoes or rice or lentils, and a grilled or baked or poached protein like fish, chicken, tofu or beef, then each of you can choose which of those items to have. Your husband can skip the fish. You can eat everything in the proper portion sizes. I don't know what your son's plan is. Each of you can add your own preferred dressing to the salad. Each can choose whether or not to add some butter or olive oil or cheese or sour cream or whatever to the vegetables or starch.

Tulip9

I usually cook basically the same meal. If I cook a big batch of sautéed veggies, I guesstimate how much oil is in my portion.

Tulip9

Thanks everybody. Just trying to figure ways to be tracking my food correctly while still cooking a family meal. The family is very considerate of my wanting to cut back my calories. I have to be a little creative with recipes since hubby doesn't want to eat meat, and we do eat some. He will eat eggs and occasionally fish. Tacos, pasta, stir fry and baked potato night have been some good options.