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.

splixi

Hate to admit it but I was this kind of child.....

Ever since I was very little there were fights (I did everything right as a kid but could never eat what was in front of me)

To this day I have never tried most sauces (including tomato and bbq), rice, pasta, noodles, salad.

My parents would tell me that I could sit at the table till I ate it (I would fall asleep there)- then they tried telling me I could go hungry then (which was a relief that I didn't have to deal with looking at the food in front of me) ..... but when i'd constantly choose no eating happily- i'd rather hunger pains over the fear of food....my parents gave in.

What they would do though is give me the plain foods that a meal was made up of and some fruit on a separator plate. I'd have the piece of meat on its own fine, a bit of mash potato, some peas .....rather than the stir fry they might have been having it all in. I'd often just have the meat and a piece of cheese from the fridge with a piece of fruit.

I VERY quickly learned to start doing dinner for myself with maybe a plain piece of meat mum had cooked.

Maybe just tell them there are plain ingredients there and ask what they'd like to do with them/ask them to do it themselves...if they want to fry what you grill then they are old enough and thats their choice.

I'm 22 and still to this day I eat this way because I just feel like I can't eat like everyone else. - although now I battle an eating disorder as well.

lisst87

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.

Thanks, that's a really good idea (don't know why I haven't thought of this!) as I usually plate everything up.

Take it or leave it comments are appreciated, though generally I think it is nice to be able to do lots of different food so the food ideas are really welcome!

sullus

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??

The white rice has less calories, carbs and sugar per cup than the brown ....

Capt_Apollo

if they don't like brown rice or pasta, just call them racist.

lisst87

if they don't like brown rice or pasta, just call them racist.

:laugh:

asaw00

I have a picky husband, I call him the complainer. Don't tell them they are eating healthy just try to disguise it. Brown pasta put sauce on it. the rice, take your potion out and put a little butter and grated parm cheese on it, you'd be surprised how just that improves the flavor. I try to eat low carb but I make a starch every night for them, I just don't eat it. Mashed potatoes, add cauliflower to it they will never know! Grind up loads of veggies in a food processer and mix them in, they will never know! Tell them to try what ever you make, if they don't like don't eat it. I do this my whole family eats better and actually like the healthy stuff! good luck!

Phrick

I have a picky husband, I call him the complainer. Don't tell them they are eating healthy just try to disguise it. Brown pasta put sauce on it. the rice, take your potion out and put a little butter and grated parm cheese on it, you'd be surprised how just that improves the flavor. I try to eat low carb but I make a starch every night for them, I just don't eat it. Mashed potatoes, add cauliflower to it they will never know! Grind up loads of veggies in a food processer and mix them in, they will never know! Tell them to try what ever you make, if they don't like don't eat it. I do this my whole family eats better and actually like the healthy stuff! good luck!

This is actually something I started doing when my kids were really little and continue to this day and they have no idea (neither did hubby till he "caught" me one day - he keeps the secret though lol)

I steam cut up carrots and peeled, chopped broccoli stems till soft then puree with some of the cooking water and add approximately 1/2 to 2/3 cup per jar of spaghetti sauce used. It makes it go further, so it helps the budget, and it doesn't change the color or consistency or flavor so they have no clue it's there, and I like feeling like it's healthier (whether it is really THAT much healthier or not). I will make a bunch all at once and freeze what I don't use in an ice cube tray so I just have to pull out 4-6 cubes and chuck them into the hot sauce and let them melt. To calorie count that I created a recipe for veggie cubes and before I cook the carrots & broccoli (and sometimes I add other veg too), I weigh, then portion out the result before freezing so I know how many calories per cube I will be adding.

Mother_Superior

if they don't like brown rice or pasta, just call them racist.

Don't you mean......................riceist?

Greytfish

:laugh:

DamePiglet

I have a picky husband, I call him the complainer. Don't tell them they are eating healthy just try to disguise it. Brown pasta put sauce on it. the rice, take your potion out and put a little butter and grated parm cheese on it, you'd be surprised how just that improves the flavor. I try to eat low carb but I make a starch every night for them, I just don't eat it. Mashed potatoes, add cauliflower to it they will never know! Grind up loads of veggies in a food processer and mix them in, they will never know! Tell them to try what ever you make, if they don't like don't eat it. I do this my whole family eats better and actually like the healthy stuff! good luck!

Oh my...
Finicky teenagers are going to detect cauliflower in mashed potatoes.

My husband would, and he'd be unhappy at my misrepresentation. And that's what it would be.