Help feeding teenagers

lisst87

I live with my boyfriend and his teenagers. My boyfriend wants to eat healthily and I am a week into 1,200 a day and Insanity.

My trouble comes when preparing meals for the kids. They don't like brown pasta or brown rice, prawns and fish in general are a no no for them. So I usually end up preparing two meals, eg a prawn and salmon brown pasta meal and then a chicken and white pasta one.

Does anyone have any suggestions for low calorie meals which are not loaded with carbs for fussy eaters??

jigsaw_me

Well what I do is make stews etc with lean meats and loads of vegetables, then I have it with either cauliflower and broccoli and my girls (who eat more than teenage boys, trust me) have pasta.

Same when we have things with rice (e.g. chili), I either have a very small serve and the girls have quite a bit more and they add cheese.

I will do lean meat steaks for all of us, again I'll have a small microwaved potato (if any) and some vegetables, the girls add more potatoes.

Or I'll do a meal and make a side of potato bake - I'll just not have the potato bake. If I make a large batch, I make sure I hide (fridge) half of it for the next day before the girls see it. Then for the next day it just needs to be heated up.

The same can be done with pasta / rice salads. Easy to make batches to last a couple of days, the kids can add it to their plates, you don't have to.

RaggedyPond

If they don't like it they can make a pb and j.

Greytfish

Picky eating is a learned behavior. If you teach them to be picky eaters, they will struggle with making healthy and complete choices later.

lisst87

Unfortunately due to their ages it has been learned behaviour for 15 and 17 years. It is also difficult to 'educate' someone else's children without stepping on parental toes.

Thanks for the food suggestions so far, very useful!

Greytfish

I wouldn't bother educating someone else's children, either. If he raised them to be that way, let him cook for them or let them buy their own food and cook for themselves - they're well past the age where they should be able to cook for themselves.

healthytanya1

I have the same problems with my boyfriends son who is 16. The very few times that he has cooked for himself other than the microwave. He leaves the oven on every time. Yesterday he left the freezer door open all day so half the food was defrosted. Its almost easier to cook seperate meals. My boyfriend will cook breakfast food for him if I decide to only cook dinner for myself that day. Its very hard to eat healthy with 2 guys in the house.

elsyoommen

I have 4 kids of various ages from 4 to 20. I roast 1 or 2 chickens every week and I make a large batch of pasta.

I think it's not really realistic to tell them to cook all their own food all of a sudden. But you could start showing them how to prepare a meal or two or help you prepare the meals. It's a life skill. Nothing is easier to cook than white pasta and some meat.

randomtai

I wouldn't bother educating someone else's children, either. If he raised them to be that way, let him cook for them or let them buy their own food and cook for themselves - they're well past the age where they should be able to cook for themselves.

This times a million.

Holly_penguin

Agreed the 4 year old shouldn't cook for him/her self. The 20 year old should be more than capable.

kent4j

www.skinnytaste.com has a lot of healthy family friendly meals.

billsica

/thread

bbg_daryl

I wouldn't bother educating someone else's children, either. If he raised them to be that way, let him cook for them or let them buy their own food and cook for themselves - they're well past the age where they should be able to cook for themselves.

This.

Furthermore, you and your boyfriend are the adults. They are the children. They do what YOU say, not the other way around. In my house growing up, you either eat what Mom fixes or you don't eat. My mom was a single parent for 9 years before meeting my dad, so her two sons were taught the same way. Whatever you want, Mom will cook. Not when my dad became a permanent part of the picture. The boys refused to eat vegetables, roasts, steaks, pork chops... pretty much anything that wasn't a hot dog or mac n cheese. Couple nights without dinner fixed that right up and they realized healthy food is also delicious. So just make it the rule of the house, "If you don't like the food, don't eat it. Go hungry." They'll start eating what you fix.

mccindy72

I live with my boyfriend and his teenagers. My boyfriend wants to eat healthily and I am a week into 1,200 a day and Insanity.

My trouble comes when preparing meals for the kids. They don't like brown pasta or brown rice, prawns and fish in general are a no no for them. So I usually end up preparing two meals, eg a prawn and salmon brown pasta meal and then a chicken and white pasta one.

Does anyone have any suggestions for low calorie meals which are not loaded with carbs for fussy eaters??

Why is this an issue? They are children. They eat what's put before them or they don't eat, or get jobs and buy their own food.

GilesGuthrie

Mine aren't teenagers yet, but for me, feeding people with varying demands is about componentising the meal. So meat, vegetables, carbs and sauce. Then each can construct their meal to their preference from the components made available.

I, for example, would go "meat, veg", leaving the sauce and having only a little carbs. My youngest would go veg/sauce/carbs, and my middle one would go meat/veg/carbs, leaving the sauce.

DamePiglet

I live with my boyfriend and his teenagers. My boyfriend wants to eat healthily and I am a week into 1,200 a day and Insanity.

My trouble comes when preparing meals for the kids. They don't like brown pasta or brown rice, prawns and fish in general are a no no for them. So I usually end up preparing two meals, eg a prawn and salmon brown pasta meal and then a chicken and white pasta one.

Does anyone have any suggestions for low calorie meals which are not loaded with carbs for fussy eaters??

OP, is your boyfriend helping you with this? If he is, that's great. If not, I strongly suggest that you enlist his help.
I agree that making 2 meals is a bit much.

You could keep things the same as ever, just modifying your portions to stay within your macros goal.
That's what many of us do.

marsellient

Have you tried keeping it really simple for everyone by cooking meat, chicken or fish, plain steamed vegetables and potatoes or rice....nothing mixed together, but easily added to with a sauce or condiment according to everyone's taste? That's what I do when the fussy one is here on weekends because I cannot stand to see her examine (like on a fork an inch from her face) every bite of something to see what's in it. Or, cook extra chicken one night and prepare the pasta and sauces separately and serve a make your own pasta bar.
On the other hand, it might help if you explained that you all have likes and dislikes and asked for suggestions that everyone can happily eat. I know how difficult it can be to deal with someone else's children. What does their father have to say about it?

I see others have made similar suggestions while I was typing. Good luck to you!

TheVeganPolice

Firstly, someone taught them to be picky eaters. Not cool.

Secondly, there's a lot you can do.

I myself LOVE what is usually considered junk food so I have substitutes for literally everything I crave.

Pizza? No problem! I keep tortillas in the freezer. Add some sauce, toppings, faux meat & soya cheese, I've got the taste equivalent of a thin and crispy meatlovers. The whole pizza is like 400 calories - half for dinner, half in the fridge for lunch tomorrow.

Bangers and mash? Easy! Soya sausages, instant mash and veg gravy, altogether I've got a whole hearty meal for like 250-300 calories.

There's a way to replace almost ANY comfort food with an easy low-cal healthy alternative made from plant products that provide the nutrition we need, not the cholesterol we crave.

Good luck!

healthytanya1

I feel like some of these posters don't get it.

If I cook something my boyfriends son doesn't like and won't eat. It's very simple he might take a bite or 2 of only the meat. Then say "I don't feel good I'm not hungry" throw away what's left on his plate. Which could have been left overs for someone else. After my boyfriend and I go to bed, the kid just eats junk food. Not healthy to fill up on doritos day after day

kbmnurse

Teenagers you say? Perfect time for them to learn to cook their own meals. Stop waiting on them!

Phrick

I live with my boyfriend and his teenagers. My boyfriend wants to eat healthily and I am a week into 1,200 a day and Insanity.

My trouble comes when preparing meals for the kids. They don't like brown pasta or brown rice, prawns and fish in general are a no no for them. So I usually end up preparing two meals, eg a prawn and salmon brown pasta meal and then a chicken and white pasta one.

Does anyone have any suggestions for low calorie meals which are not loaded with carbs for fussy eaters??

OP, is your boyfriend helping you with this? If he is, that's great. If not, I strongly suggest that you enlist his help.
I agree that making 2 meals is a bit much.

You could keep things the same as ever, just modifying your portions to stay within your macros goal.
That's what many of us do.

This is what I do. I still make Cheeseburger Macaroni, Beef Pastitsio, Spaghetti, lots of chicken dishes etc. that are not particularly "diet conscious" though I do take steps to make them a little healthier (for example, whole wheat pastas and 2% milk fat cheese and !% or skim milk when called for). I just make sure to enter my recipes in the MFP recipe builder and weigh out my portion based on the calories I'm allotted in a day. I try to think what's going to be for dinner early on in the day so that I can pre-enter the information into my calorie log, so that I know what I have to work with for the rest of the day and can tailor my eating accordingly so as to not go over. It works for us. Few things about this method: I am the one on the diet, not my husband nor my kids nor the rest of the world, and if I don't learn portion control over REGULAR, non-diet foods, then how am I going to function when we go to our friends' home for supper or out on a date night or home for the holidays? Plus learning how to lighten up favorite recipes is kind of a fun challenge.