I NEED HELP MY HUSBAND IS A FAST FOOD MANAGER!!!!! and i don

krista010105

My husband is a fast food manager so we have basically access to free burgers and fries non stop.
I am a very young mom of 4 kids under 9 years old.
my mom never tought me to cook at all unless it was cooked in the microwave or was simple on the stove like ramen soup. so i have no knowledge about food much at all. dont know what has carbs or protiens or starch or what is good or what is bad. just know wheat is good and white is bad when it comes to pasta and bread. and to obviously need to eat veggies and fruits.
im more of a fruit person
i only eat can corn and green beans. i lOVE potatoes (not the sweet potatoes) other than that i just started eating broccoli but i see other veggies and want to gag. carots and peas look so nasty and i tried them today and didnt like them in the steam fresh veggie mix. caluiflower asparigus squash all just look horrible. i just about only know how to cook from cans and boxes.
i can make chicken that was coated in salsa i just found that recipe.
we dont eat onions, mushrooms, alvacados, peppers, olives any of that kind of stuff.
we dont eat fish either other than tuna sandwiches.

we eat lots of ground beef and chicken

and LOTS of pasta.

i just dont know how to cook and my kids now wont try new things either.

please help me with some recipes that are really good for us that we can adjust to. people say start eating guacamole with pita chips and other stuff that has not one thing we are used to so the taste just totally turns us off. right now im stuck with lean cusine meals and dont know what else to eat other than sandwiches.

daisy89

I'm a vegetarian, so work with me here, it's been a while since I cooked with meat.

However, oh so long ago, I've heard I was amazing at it.

I would first start with: TACOS!

Everyone loves tacos, and the great news is you can make them with pretty much anything.

For instance, there are breakfast tacos in plenty of combinations: Potato and egg, bean and cheese, bean and eggs. And so on.

All you need is tortillas (corn or flour) and whatever you'd like for breakfast. They sell refried beans so that will be easy to find.

Then there's lunch tacos: these can consist of beef fajitas, chicken fajitas, or both!

If you want to start off very simple, you can find pre-seasoned beef and chicken and it will be great!

Add lettuce, tomatoes, or whatever you'd enjoy to them.

Next, try experimenting with chicken cooked in different ways.

For example, incorporate into your pastas!

I make a really awesome pasta that consists of: marinara sauce, bow-tie pasta, and cheese.

Be careful with pastas though, they're high in calories!

Another one would be chicken salad. Pretty simple recipes online.

Also, baked chicken on a salad with black or pinto beans!

I really love to cook, but it took me forever to learn.

My mom was an amazing Mexican cook and basically made all my food for me!

Finally though, I had her teach me and I'm really good now!

So, don't despair, you can do this!

If you need any help let me now.

=]

AngelaeLebron1

A couple ideas..
replace your pastas and breads with whole grains
replace ground hamburger with ground turkey
replace cans of veggies with frozen veggies..or fresh veggies and steam them..

Gemini_1980

Here is one of my favorite websites for yummy cooking and easy to make meals www.skinnytaste.com :bigsmile:

Pebble321

First thing - keep the fast food to a very occasional thing. "Honey, I'm going to cook dinner so you don't need to bring anything home" might work.

Second, as you are responsible for the health and wellbeing of 4 young children I'm really pleased to see that you are looking for good ideas about nutrition for all of you. It sounds like you need help and fast - are there any classes or groups near you that can teach you about healthy meals and cooking? Could you get a referral to a dietician to ask for a suggested meal plan?

If not, there are some great ideas here already. Maybe have a look for easy cooking books or websites and look through them with your kids - get them to pick something they like the look of, and try just one new thing a week. This way you can stick with the staples that you're eating for now and gradually add new things without making everyone grumpy!

Puffins1958

I would try to add fish to your meals. It is generally high in protein and low in fat. You can even make tuna fish with low fat mayo, celery, carrots, and onions. That's how I generally make it. For breakfast, I generally have cereal with fruit and milk. Lunch is generally a salad with cheese or turkey breast, for added protein and dinner is generally a protein with vege's. I hope this helps you. You can add me as a friend if you'd like

Charlie175

Here is one of my favorite websites for yummy cooking and easy to make meals www.skinnytaste.com :bigsmile:

This!! So many great ideas here for snacks, meals, desserts you name it! And broken down into type of food/meal etc.. great info

krista010105

THANKS ALL OF THOSE ARE HELPFUL!!!!!!! ITS SO HARD FOR ME TO TRY NEW THINGS. I HAVE AN ALVACADO IN MY FRIDGE AND IM SCARED TO TRY IT. ANY GOOD RECIPES OR IDEAS HWO TO USE IT FOR STARTERS?????

ninyagwa

Avacado--I usually make a kind of psuedo guacamole with it, just cut it in half, take the skin off (usually very easy if it's already ripe enough) take the pit out, and mush it up like you would mashed potatoes, and mix in some of your favorite salsa (I like the mild salsas, not a fan of spicy, and typically the corn and bean is good for protein, and it sounds like your a fan of starches like corn already). I love making this and you can either dip tortilla chips in it or use it on some of those tacos that another poster suggested.

For easy recipes I like allrecipes.com. Of course they aren't all healthy or easy, but you can put in what ingredients you already have and it will help you find recipes for the foods you already have but are unsure of what to make with them. I'm not much of a cook either, but you'll find if you make a couple things that come out as winners it may just give you the boost and desire to try newer and bolder recipes...at least that's how it works for me.

Showgirlbody

I never was taught to cook. I just started following directions on recipes. I started baking first. Now, I cook very simply. I don't want to have a lot of ingredients on hand unless I'm taking my time to make something special. I cook meat, chicken, shrimp etc. mostly with olive oil (just a little) garlic, salt and pepper. I use a skillet most of the time because waiting for an oven to preheat and then cook is a lot of time and work for one. Then you can try the frozen vegetables, but I never liked vegetables either because my mom did nuke them. I realized that if I broil, saute, or grill vegetables I like them much better. So you just need a protein, veggies and maybe a complex carb like brown rice or wheat pasta and you can make good meals. I like using spinach, asparagus, zucchini and fresh french green beans. Throw them in a pasta dish or just broil for a side to a meat.

Cooking light is a good magazine and has recipes online. myrecipes.com has them and you can put some ingredients that you have and find stuff to make. I cook very simply, it can be done. Also, for veggie haters I've heard good things about Deceptively Delicious, it's a cookbook that teaches you how to "hide" vegetables in things so that you don't notice the taste but you can fool the kids and have them eat some nutritious food.

Jeff92se

What resturant?? Almost every fast food joint has healthier alternatives to burgers and fries. Hell the burger itself isn't that bad if you limit the fries. But burger king, mcdonalds, wendys, KFC etc.. all should have salads or better alternatives.

Pebble321

Avocado is delicious! Creamy and smooth and not strong tasting at all.
If you aren't quite sure what to do with it you could try:
- mix it with tuna (canned in springwater, not flavours) and spread it on crackers or whole grain toast for a very tasty and healthy snack.
- spread it on bread when you make a sandwich, instead of using butter or mayo
- mash it up with a bit of lemon juice (stops it going brown) and put it in the bottom of a dip bowl. Top it with your favourite salsa to make a two-lay dip (see, fancy can be easy!) and dip raw carrots or celery into it.
- to make a classic starter - buy some cooked prawns (shrimp) and a low cal thousand island dressing. put a few slice of avo on a plate and put a few prawns on top, then drizzle with a little bit of dressing.
- mash it up and feed it to your kids with a spoon
- cut it in half and eat it straight from the shell for a delicous treat (my husband would do this every night if I let him!). He fills the hole in the middle with chilli sauce.

krista010105

he works at whataburger. they have a salad thats basically lettuce and fried chicken tenders with a few shredded carrots and 2 or 3 grape tomatoes thats just way too much lettuce for me. they have grilled chicken but ever time i eat their grilled chicken i throw up. my body just doenst like it for some reason. they have hamburgers, fried chicken sandwiches and breakfast items like breakfast tacos, biscuits and pancakes

silhouettes

A couple ideas..
replace your pastas and breads with whole grains
replace ground hamburger with ground turkey
replace cans of veggies with frozen veggies..or fresh veggies and steam them..

If your like me and hate the taste of ground turkey, check out the leaner beef, 93 percent is like half the calories (or something like that, I can't remember exactly) than the normal 73 percent one and I can't taste the difference.

And yes wheat bread is actually good, I've been using wheat bread, pasta, ect.

You can get lighter calorie butter and cheese to cook with, reduced calorie peanut butter, lots of things come in smaller calories, they are helper when starting out. There are 100 calorie snack packs. Cracker Crisps that taste almost like sour cream chips.

Not all veggi's taste good steamed to me. I steam the ones I can stand, but if you can't stand them steamed stick with the no sodium cans. It's not as healthy, yes, but it's better than no veggi at least in the beginning.

Salads are good to, but believe me they take getting used to I suggest just eating a small dab of salad until you can add up to actually liking or standing it before attempting to eat a huge plate of it... that can turn you off it.

And chicken is low in calories and good, just look for different ways to marinate it. We use light Italian Dressing and other seasonings and it is yummy!

I agree with the tacos, but check out the wheat tortilla's less calories and I love the taste of wheat, it's a dab sweeter.

And belive it or not they make light sour cream that doesn't taste that bad, check it out

dargytaylor

i was never taught to cook either....just made myself learn after having children

definatley check out skinnytaste.com as the above poster suggested, awesome site!

good luck......

maybe check out youtube for some cooking sessions? not that i have looked, but I am sure there are some!

felice03

I would look into crock pot cooking. It is easy and you can find tons of recipes online. Most just involve throwing stuff in and letting it cook all day. Just watch out for recipes involving cans of soup as ingredients....use low sodium brands.

catcrazy

How about trying soups...theyre easy to make, can hide all sorts of veggies in them too. Start simple and work your way up. The kids can help make them even if its just sliding the chopped veggies into a pan - kids are more likely to try things that theyre helping to make. Hide your own discomfort at trying new things because your kids WILL pick on on it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/soup

As for the avocado - If you search google for avocado soup you will find lots, many call for 2-3 avocados but i'd advise starting with just the one, baby steps when trying something new

LauraRose03

Here is one of my favorite websites for yummy cooking and easy to make meals www.skinnytaste.com :bigsmile:

Thanks so much for this website!!!! I've been looking for something like this. Can't wait to try some of this stuff!!!

cbu23

Learning to cook with a crock pot was a great suggestion. If you would like to learn to cook there are a lot of great beginner cookbooks out there. One that I know of is from food network and it's called "How to Boil Water". It not only gives you recipes, but it teaches you basic techniques and gives you lists of items every kitchen should have. It's a really good book for anyone!

millionsofpeaches

It is easy to cook! Just get yourself a good cook book and follow the directions... They even have "Cooking for dummies" cook books that you can get started on. You can do it! Start watching the food network or if you don't have cable there is the "Create" station on PBS that has cooking shows. That will show you a variety of cooking techniques. It may take some time but you can do it.

Vegetables from a can are processed and have sodium in them. If you can't buy fresh from the produce... I would go for frozen. Honestly they all taste better if you fix them fresh from the produce section anyway. I heart asparagus... Just take the asparagus and chop the woody part of the stem off. Don't eat that part. A good way to check is to snap one... where it snaps is where the woody part ends. Spread on a cookie sheet and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Bake in the oven at 375 for 20-25 minuets. Ta-da! Roasted vegetables... You can do this with pretty much any fresh veggie. It is a flavorful way to cook them without boiling them in water or steaming them.

Cut the processed junk and start making the change... Not just for you but for your family as well.

ket_the_jet

I can understand if you don't appreciate the taste of something, but you have every right as a parent to force feed your children whatever you want to feed them. For your children's sake, I'd suggest a healthy, balanced diet.

Break the trend that you've been a part of.
-wtk

kapeluza

My husband is a fast food manager so we have basically access to free burgers and fries non stop.
I am a very young mom of 4 kids under 9 years old.
my mom never tought me to cook at all unless it was cooked in the microwave or was simple on the stove like ramen soup. so i have no knowledge about food much at all. dont know what has carbs or protiens or starch or what is good or what is bad. just know wheat is good and white is bad when it comes to pasta and bread. and to obviously need to eat veggies and fruits.
im more of a fruit person
i only eat can corn and green beans. i lOVE potatoes (not the sweet potatoes) other than that i just started eating broccoli but i see other veggies and want to gag. carots and peas look so nasty and i tried them today and didnt like them in the steam fresh veggie mix. caluiflower asparigus squash all just look horrible. i just about only know how to cook from cans and boxes.
i can make chicken that was coated in salsa i just found that recipe.
we dont eat onions, mushrooms, alvacados, peppers, olives any of that kind of stuff.
we dont eat fish either other than tuna sandwiches.

we eat lots of ground beef and chicken

and LOTS of pasta.

i just dont know how to cook and my kids now wont try new things either.

please help me with some recipes that are really good for us that we can adjust to. people say start eating guacamole with pita chips and other stuff that has not one thing we are used to so the taste just totally turns us off. right now im stuck with lean cusine meals and dont know what else to eat other than sandwiches.

Cooking is not rocket science. There are many books available to you that can explain the basic mechanics of the kitchen and how to use a stove. In fact, a microwave is not even necessary to cook anything. If you want to make healthy meals for your family then maybe it will take a little more effort then eating burgers and trying different foods.

It might be a good idea to start introducing different vegetables and fruits to your children. From what you described, burgers and fries is not at all healthy and will probably be the sole cause of obesity in their near futures.

ElizabethRoad

I can understand if you don't appreciate the taste of something, but you have every right as a parent to force feed your children whatever you want to feed them. For your children's sake, I'd suggest a healthy, balanced diet.

Break the trend that you've been a part of.
-wtk

No, you don't have the right to force feed anyone.

ket_the_jet

No, you don't have the right to force feed anyone.

Perhaps we have a nomenclature misunderstanding, but even in this advanced year of 2011, the role of a parent is to produce a productive member of society. Just because you cannot spank a misbehaving child in public does not mean that it is not a parental duty to discipline a child.

I did not mean to imply that you should shovel vegetables down your children's throats; however, making a child sit at the table* until he or she finishes the fundamental parts of a meal is not at all out of line.
-wtk



* Or however you choose to deal with that as a parent. I don't give a damn.

eellis2000

My husband is a fast food manager so we have basically access to free burgers and fries non stop.
I am a very young mom of 4 kids under 9 years old.
my mom never tought me to cook at all unless it was cooked in the microwave or was simple on the stove like ramen soup. so i have no knowledge about food much at all. dont know what has carbs or protiens or starch or what is good or what is bad. just know wheat is good and white is bad when it comes to pasta and bread. and to obviously need to eat veggies and fruits.
im more of a fruit person
i only eat can corn and green beans. i lOVE potatoes (not the sweet potatoes) other than that i just started eating broccoli but i see other veggies and want to gag. carots and peas look so nasty and i tried them today and didnt like them in the steam fresh veggie mix. caluiflower asparigus squash all just look horrible. i just about only know how to cook from cans and boxes.
i can make chicken that was coated in salsa i just found that recipe.
we dont eat onions, mushrooms, alvacados, peppers, olives any of that kind of stuff.
we dont eat fish either other than tuna sandwiches.

we eat lots of ground beef and chicken

and LOTS of pasta.

i just dont know how to cook and my kids now wont try new things either.

please help me with some recipes that are really good for us that we can adjust to. people say start eating guacamole with pita chips and other stuff that has not one thing we are used to so the taste just totally turns us off. right now im stuck with lean cusine meals and dont know what else to eat other than sandwiches.

I like you don't like veggies, but after trying them with boiled rice and chicken or hamburger with a little soy sauce (semi diced and steamed or stirfried till soft) they're not that bad. Invest in soy sauce; alot of people would tell you its bad because of sodium but it doesn't take much to season some veggies so that you can eat them. also gravies or soups mask the taste of veggies if they're small enough.

Play_outside

If you google up "easy healthy recipes" there are sure to be a bunch of them out there-I'm not going to make specific suggestions there because I have dietary restrictions and you are just branching out and trying to eat healthy so I'm not going to add to the challenge of that.

I applaud you for realizing that you need to make changes! Way to go! You may want to start with having a discussion about it with your husband-talk to him about how you want to be healthier and in better shape, learn to make good food decisions, and teach these valuable life skills to your children.

As for getting more veggies and fruits-you could start by chopping lots of veggies really small and cooking them in tomato sauce for spaghetti (you said you eat lots of pasta). To take this one step further, to begin with you could even puree them in your blender so that they are not visible or recognizable in the sauce.

Homemade spaghetti sauce is SUPER easy to make and it's really delicious and healthy. Do you have a slow-cooker? If not, I would recommend investing in one (get a bigger one since you have a bigger family). It is so easy to just chop stuff, brown meat, and pop it in and let it cook.

Homemade spaghetti sauce (you can basically add as much or as little of everything as you like-mine varies depending what I have on hand, and I usually don't buy meat)

1lb extra lean ground beef
1 medium onion
a few cloves of garlic
coloured peppers (red, yellow, orange, green)
celery (3-5 stalks)
tomatoes (roma tomatoes are more "meaty" and less juicy)
1 can of pure tomato paste
1 can of no salt diced tomatoes (if desired, I usually like to use all fresh ones)
salt, pepper, oregano, basil, thyme, and a couple of bay leaves

Put the ground beef into a pan and fry on a medium-low setting (do not add oil to the pan, beef has enough oil on its own). Dice onions and garlic and add to the pan. Cook until beef is browned and onions start to soften. While this is browning, you can dice the rest of the veggies and add them to either your slow cooker or a big pot. When beef/onions are done, add this to the slow cooker or pot. Add the tomato paste (and canned tomatoes if using) and spices. Add the spices to taste-you may want to start with very small amounts if you are not adventurous eaters (these spices are not crazy at all, just saying that sometimes taking it easy to begin with helps).

Cook until the veggies are a texture you like (I like mine a bit crispy still). Serve over whole wheat pasta with a bit of parmesan if you like.

As far as getting the kids to try new things, in public health we teach parents that they control what their children eat, but the children control how much of it they eat or whether they choose to eat at all. Your children will eat if they are hungry-even if it means to get hungry they choose not to eat a few meals. There is also the "number of bites according to age" thing. If you have a 3yr old, the 3yr old has to take 3 bites of the food, and has to have had 3 bites each on 3 separate occasions to officially "not like" the food.

Remember that changing habits requires time and practice and repetition. It's not going to happen overnight.

Good luck!

ElizabethRoad

Perhaps we have a nomenclature misunderstanding

"Force feeding" is widely understood to mean shoving food into a person's mouth. If that's not what you mean, then use a term that conveys your intent.

There is plenty of room to debate your wider point, anyway, but I really don't care enough.

kapeluza

Perhaps we have a nomenclature misunderstanding

"Force feeding" is widely understood to mean shoving food into a person's mouth. If that's not what you mean, then use a term that conveys your intent.

There is plenty of room to debate your wider point, anyway, but I really don't care enough.

You don't care enough but yet you responded? Yeah, keep lying to yourself.

See you in 10, 9, 8, 7...

fbmandy55

A couple ideas..
replace your pastas and breads with whole grains
replace ground hamburger with ground turkey
replace cans of veggies with frozen veggies..or fresh veggies and steam them..

THIS! I lost 40 pounds in 6 months doing this. I also replace MT Dew with water

starross87

lean, grilled chicken with sauteed veggies (like mushrooms, zucchini, and onions) is always a healthy, delicious meal that you can never go wrong with! You can add a little bit of rice/starch on the side if you really want to, but it's best to just cut that out sometimes if it's not necessary...lean meat and veggies are a guaranteed weight loss meal.

cramernh

Krista.. give Austin Healthy Cooking a call.
http://austinhealthycooking.com/

ChefRoy@Clear.net


They offer both free and small fee classes for cooking...


You can also take a look at some Youtube.com videos for free tidbits about cooking... Thats entirely free.


Also - make sure your children dont 'learn' from your childhood eating habits. They (including you) need to learn to eat healthy foods... that includes things like broccoli, fish varieties, and such.

Your husband should also make sure he is being a role model in this as well. He may work at a fast-food joint, but it is also his responsibility with you, to eat healthy, advocate healthy eating and reinforce healthy eating at home too....

I work as a Chef for a living and Im surrounded by healthy food all the time.... I wish we lived closer, I would teach you so many wonderful things about how much fun you can truly have with cooking. You can even get your kids involved in the prepping and cooking process as well.



Another suggestion... Most Food Banks offer free cooking classes... you might want to see if your local food banks offer them. Also - consider calling some of your local colleges and universities... they may have access to free or small fee classes that you can join for cooking lessons as well.