Family is whining about my new cooking style

ash8184

I have the SAME problem, but it's with my boyfriend who really needs to lose 100lbs. I'll echo what others have said - can you explain to them that you aren't giving up the meals you had before, you're just making them a little more healthful for everyone?

You probably don't want to rock the boat by being a b**ch about it which I totally understand, but maybe you can subconsciously get the point across

cindybowcut

It's a hard change to eating healthy. I still try to make stuff that I know my daughter will eat. I look for ways to make my recipes healthier. If I use ground turkey instead of hamburger I don't tell my daughter and she can't tell the difference. My friend gave me some ground bison and I used it in place of hamburger and my kids didn't even know. Add more veggies and fruit to your meals. If they don't like the main meal they can eat the fruits and veggies.

weird_me2

Honestly, when my DH or I cooks, if the other asks opinions on the meal or the cook offers their opinion first, it's fair game and we are honest with what we think. I've often told my DH "It's okay, I liked it better last time when you...". My MIL looked shocked one night when they were over for dinner and DH had cooked. He commented on something tasting different than the last time he made it, and I agreed with him and told him I didn't like it as much. We then proceeded to decide what as different so we could fix it next time. That's how we cook.

Now, if we don't ask for opinions and/or don't share ours right off, I think it's only polite to not say anything. I think the half full plates of food at the end of the meal say enough for themselves.

Don't ask what they think of the food if you don't want their opinions. Serve it to them and then decide based on how much you like it and how much is eaten whether you want to cook it again or not. DH really doesn't care for soups or stews, but I sometimes make them for meals because my DD and I usually love them. I know his opinion of them, and I know he'll eat them, but I know he won't praise them, either.

As for making all those substitutions, sometimes you can go too far. It's fine to switch out white grains for whole grains in most cases, but some whole grain things just don't taste very good to most people and can really turn what was a favorite into a chore to eat. We eat pasta about once every 3-4 weeks in our house, so when I make it, I use the white pasta. We just really, really do not like whole wheat pasta and everyone CAN tell the difference. Sometimes we use brown rice, sometimes only white will do. As for bread, most of the time we use 100% whole wheat, but we usually keep some white bread on hand for grilled cheese or pb&j sandwiches, because they just taste better that way.

weird_me2

Usually the conversation goes something like:

Me: Mmmm, this is good!
Husband: I like your _______ better.
Daughter: It needs salt/butter/ketchup/BBQ sauce.

I have tried some recipes that we all agreed were losers, but so far I haven't made anything new that they acted the least bit enthusiastic about. And I'm a pretty good cook - nothing fancy, but I'm not afraid to experiment with recipes and seasonings, and my chicken stock will make want to slap your momma.
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Honestly, I would just not talk about it. Commenting that a dish that *you* made is, to me, asking for a compliment and/or opening yourself up to complaints. Your family doesn't really sound like they are being all that rude. You commented on the food, they shared their opinions. If your family has always commented honestly about the meals in the past and you didn't have a problem with it, then I don't think it's rude or ungreatful of them to comment now, since you are opening it up.

I understand wanting your family to be healthier and eat more healthily, but not everyone has the same tastes. My husband can make a fish or seafood dish that everyone else raves about and he knows that if he asks my opinion, I'll be only lukewarm at best, because I really do not care for those things. Your family apparently doesn't care for roasted red peppers (I don't either) as much as you do. Personal tastes.

elliemae207

My kids learned long ago what my standard reply was to complaints about what was cooked for dinner.

"You don't have to eat it but there will be nothing else so either eat it or starve."

That solved any issues quickly.

LOL! This should work for a lotta things that kids complain too much about, and not just food! :laugh:

slkehl

At least they're eating it. Let's face it, fat means flavor, and most people would probably like the old unhealthy stuff better. That doesn't mean they should it it all the time.

So, keep up with the new style, but make them their old favorites once and a while

AeolianHarp

I've been tracking and trying to eat better for a couple of months now, which includes paying more attention to what I'm cooking. And since neither my husband nor my teenage daughter can be bothered to learn to cook (don't even get me started on that one), that means they eat what I make.

Now it's not like I took away their fried mozzarella and tried to give them tofu and sprouts instead. I've been trying to find healthier ways to prepare the foods we all like - for example, making Skinnytaste's spinach lasagna rolls which are 225 calories a serving instead of my usual lasagna which is cheesy and nommy and 450 some-odd calories a serving, or subbing ground turkey for ground beef, or using whole wheat stuff instead of refined white stuff.

It's very frustrating to serve a meal that I worked hard on and be greeted with an unenthusiastic "It's okay. I like your _____ better" with _____ always being some high fat high carb thing I've cooked in the past. I gave them roasted red pepper soup the other day that was awesome IMO and was told it wasn't as good as my ham and cheese potato soup. Um, yeah, they're two different things - can't you like them both??

I do still sometimes cook the old favorites like the aforementioned ham and cheese potato soup (which is da bomb but the calories are crazy high) but I'm getting discouraged (and very very irritated) by my family's apathy and complaining.

- White is fine unless you need more fibre. If that's the case then you're better served to get it elsewhere than whole wheat stuff. Whole wheat products might arguably be the most overrated food product in the fitness community. I promise you won't live a shorter life if you eat white instead.

- Why sub ground turkey for ground beef? This has never made sense to me. You can purchase beef that's just as lean as ground turkey. Why not just use that instead? If it's because you heard information that portrayed red meat in a negative light then I'm here to tell you that these notions are based on poor methodology and myth.

You have to make the changes less drastic. There is pasta out there that tastes very close to white but has the added fibre. If you're going to make lasagna, get leaner ground beef instead of going turkey then use lower fat cheese. That aside, I will never eat anything I don't like for the sake of being "healthy" and I don't expect the same from my girlfriend or my family members.