eating healthy for me VS cooking for my family of 6

pchesnut
pchesnut Posts: 347 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I am fairly new to MFP so I'm still trying to work out the kinks that come along with changing my eating habits. My husband doesn't need to lose any weight but he is fully supportive of my efforts and willing to eat whatever I make for dinner. I have 4 daughters (3 of whom are teens--YIKES) and they are all very trim and should in no way be eating low-cal meals. In fact my 13 year old is so small her Dr has asked me to calorie pack everything she eats.

So here is my question--how do you make meals for your family? Do you just cook one meal and then you eat a small portion? Do you cook 2 separate meals? I need to hear how others have dealt with this issue. Thanks

Replies

  • pchesnut
    pchesnut Posts: 347 Member
    Does anyone else out there have to make separate meals for yourself?
  • Tishrei
    Tishrei Posts: 86 Member
    my husband eats what I eat, just more of it.
    I have been cooking two meals for years because my kids are very plain-vanilla types and I try not to eat too much meat/chicken/dairy.
    my big challenge is to not eat twice, I will usually have a snack before I serve the kids dinner so I'm not hungry. then I eat later with hubby.
    my kids are skinny too. I cook big hot breakfasts for them most days. I'm not a breakfast person so I'm not tempted by their french toast or pancakes. great way to add calories to their diets but not mine.
    since we are early risers, our family meal is usually breakfast, so this works well for us. evenings get hectic with everyone coming home at different times and the younger ones needing earlier bedtimes.
    also, if you really need to add calories for your kids, you can always serve lots of desserts or afterschool snacks.
  • paintlisapurple
    paintlisapurple Posts: 982 Member
    I have four children and a husband to feed. My eldest son wants to gain, I want to lose.
    Typically they eat what I eat at regular meals only more of it. I sometimes adjust for them, for example if having burritos (usually chicken, blackbean, veg lots of veg) I will provide them with regular wraps and get myself the low carb high fiber ones. At other meals I might put biscuits on the table but not eat them myself etc... Usually its all the same only different ratios. LOL
    I do have a teen and a two year old though, so you bet there are days where we eat dinosaur nuggets or mac and cheese too! Yep...all of us. :wink: :blushing: :bigsmile:
  • fourfiftythree
    fourfiftythree Posts: 203 Member
    I struggle with this and I just have a husband and a 9 month old. My husband is a fit and healthy guy, but god he just eats constantly. I can tell he is not satisfied with one of my low calorie meals, so I add some extras to his plate. For example, tonight we had shrimp tacos. I had two tacos with spinach leaves, shrimp, avocado and pico de gallo and no sides. I made him a side of Mexican rice, put cheese on his tacos and made him a salad with spinach leaves and ranch. If we have burgers or sandwiches - he gets cheese, mayo, bacon etc. and I just have veggies. He gets a bun, I may eat a pita pocket or low cal tortilla. If we are doing something like meatloaf or pot pie (comfort food), he gets a side of mac and cheese or mashed potatoes, I eat fresh veggies or fruit. So when it comes down to it, we basically eat the same main course, I just switch out sides and toppings.
  • pchesnut
    pchesnut Posts: 347 Member
    that is really helpful. thanks for the ideas
  • Pearlyladybug
    Pearlyladybug Posts: 882 Member
    one word....slowcooker!
  • elephant_in_the_room
    elephant_in_the_room Posts: 145 Member
    On a related note, I have a similar problem...
    When I come home from work, I am usually starving and have already used up my calorie allowance for the day.
    Impossible to be cooking and not eating, healthy or otherwise.
    Sometimes I can help it snacking on apples, but since I have usually already been eating apples all day long, I quite often don't feel like it any more.
    In addition the family is not too much into healthy food, but my husband will eat most of what I cook, but the kids won't.
    To be organised, it would be best to pre-cook every night for the next day...
    But again, I can usually choose between cooking myself and even remotely staying within my calorie limit.
    anyone have a similar problem? And how do you solve it?
    Would you care to become friends with me, to support each other and share ideas?
  • hhayes06
    hhayes06 Posts: 189 Member
    I cook one meal that everyone eats. If it's a lower calorie option then hubby eats more, if it's a higher calorie option then I eat less what I normally would. My boys (who are 5 and 3) eat the same amount no matter what it is, they are both in a bit of a picky stage. I will not do two meals, my time is limited as it is and who wants to do dishes for two meals at once?
  • miadhail
    miadhail Posts: 383 Member
    Well, currently there is only my fiance and I. So what I do is, I open up the recipe making thingy in MFP, log in the ingredients, weighing each one diligently etc. Oh prior to that i weigh the pot. Anyway, I proceed to cooking. Once done, I weigh the whole pot with the food in it. Get the total weight, minus it with the weight of just the pot. and tada I have the weight of just all the food in the pot (and the recipe maker would already tell you the total calories of that food). Whenever i serve myself, I weigh it, and figure out the calories of that serving using some math lol :P

    Over time it gets easier, just tedious in the beginning. Sharpens your math mentally too haha
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,218 Member
    It really about portion control.
  • candirose69
    candirose69 Posts: 149
    be creative! my husband eats NEARLY the same as me, but he too is probably underweight so i dont wanna cut his cals!
    he gets higher cal lunches (i put lots of cheese and mayo in his wraps).

    When we do dinner i just try and make one thing and change up for example the carb or protein.

    For example if I am making chicken and veg he will have his with chips and i will have quinoa or brown rice.
    and tonight he had chicken drumsticks with the skin on ect and I had 1 gourmet sausage and we had the same roast veg (he probably had more potato). it all went in the oven at the same time so we are both happy. I DO NOT cook a completely seperate meal but if its something simple I can swap and isnt gonna take too much time i dont mind
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    IMO healthy eating is a good habit to give your kids, so I wouldn't make different meals. They might need to gain weight now, but down the road they'll be glad they learned how to eat healthy. You can give them snacks with more calories, or give them more of what you're serving.

    We all eat the same at dinner here. But they sometimes get dessert (even if it's one cookie) too.
  • cilu90
    cilu90 Posts: 31
    Healthy, clean eating is what is most important to me. I think as a mother, that is also an important habit to get your family into as well. If you cut down on processed foods as much as possible and try to serve more "clean' foods to your family, it really comes down to portion control. Teenagers are active, even if the activity is just growing (you need a lot of fuel for that). They can eat bigger portions!
  • ShannonMpls
    ShannonMpls Posts: 1,936 Member
    Does anyone else out there have to make separate meals for yourself?

    Basically never.

    Your subject line confused me - eating healthy vs cooking for my family? Why are those at odds? If you're eating healthy, that's awesome, and a great way to set your family up for healthy habits too.

    My husband can eat bigger portions. He might have more pasta or add a slice of bread to dinner. He might use more salad dressing than me, or add butter to a dish, or put syrup on his pancakes (I like mine plain). He'll sometimes have a beer while I drink water. He eats more snacks than I do. My son is a toddler and obviously not on a calorie-restricted diet. He also eats what we eat with few exceptions. We don't do separate meals.
  • msrootitooti
    msrootitooti Posts: 253 Member
    We do the same thing as the other posters, I cook one meal. I eat less, they eat more. I also "bulk" up the meal by adding sides such as rice, pasta, etc. I also make rolls or some other bread with butter for them. I try to also make sides that I know the kids will like just in case they don't like the main course.
  • elyelyse
    elyelyse Posts: 1,454 Member
    i think one problem with just eating less of the same thing... is that you may not feel satisfied with smaller portions. Some alternate options are to cook an extra, more calorie dense side dish for them that you can skip or just have a little of. You can create sauces or toppings, but have them on the side, so you can manage your specific portion of that while the rest of your family slathers their food in sauce. You can also cook your protein separately, so maybe you are all having chicken but you grill or bake yours instead of covering yours with bread crumbs and frying it.
  • blink1021
    blink1021 Posts: 1,115 Member
    I too cook only one meal. I just eat less of it and my son ( who does not need to lose weight) eats more. My husband could stand to lost 30lbs so he eats what I eat. I do not have the grocery budget to make multiple meals nor the time. The only one who gets a different meal is my 5 month old and that is only because she is not yet on solids yet. My kids will eat what I make or they go hungry.
  • sullycc
    sullycc Posts: 37 Member
    Hi, I only cook one meal, i may have a smaller portion (weighed!) than my other half and my son but we do all eat the same. If something doesnt fit my macros then I may make a small significant change for me, such as no pasta with a bolognaise sause, I may put my sauce in a grilled pepper, same with chilli if I cant have the rice I will have something else. I don't want to make more than one meal at night, its too time consuming after working all day! I also see myself as a role model for my teenage son. I make healthy home made meals, we all sit and eat together. They tend to have higher calorie lunches than I do and may have an extra snack along the way but we all eat the same evening meal or they starve! I do not encourage finicky eating, lol. My diary is open if you want any tips or recipe ideas (don't judge the slip ups though!!)
  • kodyjs
    kodyjs Posts: 2
    That is two words strung together.
  • DrMAvDPhD
    DrMAvDPhD Posts: 2,097 Member
    Portions. You can also provide higher calorie/bigger portion lunches and snacks for the kiddos.
  • ILuvMoo
    ILuvMoo Posts: 41
    Just me and hubs (actually, right now, we also have his brother living in our spare bedroom), so I only make one dinner... except every once in a while I'll have a night where I really want something that he hates (usually fish), so I'll make him a separate dish of something he loves that *I* hate (usually some big stinky sausage).

    Hubs only has a few vegetables he likes, and they happen to be the exact few that I hate. So working veggies into dinner is hard. (Brother-in-law eats nothing green. :huh: Feeding him is like feeding a 22 year old picky toddler.) But it's easy to have a main course that everyone enjoys, and then mix it up with the sides. Side dishes that take effort we usually all eat, just in different portion sizes (such as spanish rice or mashed potatoes). For things like salads or chips or other no-cooking side dishes, it's every man for himself :bigsmile:

    Or I'll do things like omlettes for dinner (I love breakfast for dinner) and do custom toppings for each person. Or build-your-own pizza with from-scratch pizza dough (Kitchen-Aid for the WIN!), with a variety of toppings for each person to select from (grocery store salad bars are great for getting a bunch of pizza toppings in small amounts - little ham cubes, olives, green peppers, etc are usually on the salad bar).

    My husband has a bunch more weight to lose than I do, but he's still working on embracing the idea of making a "lifestyle change"... he's working on it and he knows he needs to do it, but he's gotta get good and ready... so if I'm cooking slightly more healthy now, that's fine all around, as long as it's still yummy :wink:

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