Cooking when you have a family

Use the recipe function on the add food page. You list all ingredients and put in the number of servings. It tell you calories and nutrition.

I make a meat and veggie at each meal, some times add a side of carb, if it fits the meal. Sometimes, two or three veggies works better. I slowly cut out the side dishes that were not as healthy ( mac n cheese? ) and substituted with more healthy options. They have not even noticed. Once a week, .i make their fave pasta dish and just plan my day around it.
I have four kids 16-5 years old, so this should help with most ages.
Oh, some nights, i make equivalent meals. For example, i eat grilled portobello mushrooms with a side of steak and they eat steak with a bit of mushroom! Lol

I havent really cut put any food. We eat all meats, i just try to pair them with healthier things to balance the meal.

I eat the same things they eat, (or rather, THEY eat what I cook!!) and I eat them in proper portion sizes and make them fit in my daily calorie limits. I would never make separate meals, unless there was some dire medical reason to (someone has allergies or other medical condition for example). I have Pinterest boards I use to organize recipes and a notebook stuffed full of recipes I've printed and repeatedly made over the past year.

Some examples of our dinners:

chicken-cheddar-broccoli soup
cheeseburger macaroni
paprika-parmesan chicken breast
asian ramen noodle salad w/ oriential shredded chicken breast
parmesan crusted tilapia
chicken-bacon-ranch macaroni & cheese
spicy honey chicken thighs
steak & rice or potatoes
applesauce pork chops
taco soup
crockpot chicken tacos
regular old taco salad

you really, really don't have to go boring to be successful.

We all eat the same food. My husband does not eat veggies so he will just have more meat and potatoes. I also have a 21 month old and a 3 year old and they get what I make. I personally do not focus on cooking foods like I am on a diet. I make what I want so if it is something like lasagna I just watch my portions.

I enter all my recipes into MFP at the beginning of the week after I go to the grocery store. I plan our menu weekly so I usually have everything logged a few days out.

I find it easier to track when I make the food. I use the recipe builder or meal builder, depending on the situation. I have about 4 pages of recipes in here now. There's no reason to make different meals. Just have a smaller portion of the protein and have extra veggies. Task your family with finding recipes they might like but are healthy and nutritious - or come up with meal ideas. You can have fried foods now and then, just smaller portions.

My family eats the same thing as I or my husband makes. I have 3 little kids, but they are not fussy eaters. Nobody gets separate foods at our house. Regarding the correct data, you can click on the recipe tab and enter your own recipe that calculate it for you. I have done most of our favorites that way. Some places like Allrecipes.com have the nutritional data listed for you. Good luck!!

I just have a smaller potion of the main part of the meal (like the protein if it is breaded fish, or hamburger helper etc) and load up on the veggies. I also have started to eat less at dinner and more at lunch and evening snack where I don't have to worry about other people as much.

There is always a resistance to change. I remember watching "Jamie Olivers School Dinners" in the UK and how they converted kids over to new food choices. I would not cook separate meals but sometimes we can lack some imagination for variety. Portion size is another thing you may give yourself a smaller serving when you cook steak etc... For fish I crumbed my own for the family and cooked mine with less crumb for eg. Sometimes getting the kids involved in cooking gets them excited to eat it, because they helped make it they will eat it for vegies keep them fresh and vibrant- I would try that also the hubby will eat rather than starve if the kids are on board Again with things like potatoes - nothing to say you cannot eat them just keep your portion smaller for that part. so you do some roast potatoes / sweet potatos / cauliflower - all can be cooked together (I recommend pre-cooking the potatoes (Microwave or partly boil) as they take longer to roast otherwise) - dish yourself a help of the cauliflower for eg and maybe 2 serves sweet potato and maybe no "normal potato" at all and bias the potatoes the hubby and kids with small portions of the others.

For fish - if others don't like it then not much you can really do other than cook this separately I have an electric grill which fold flat and I can cook steak on one side and things like fish on the other; still only one set of plates to wash up that way. There are also many types of fish to try our kids don't like seafood in general but they love my crumbled whiting for instance. See if it is all fish they don't like or there may be varieties they do? Once again if they help make it they are more likely to eat it especially for kids

You can sneak all sorts of things into stews - again the rest of the family can have bread and you can skip the bread or have a smaller portion. We had tacos the other day and the rest of the fam had the wraps / shells and I used whole lettuce leaves instead. With some clever substitution you can make a "Healthy" meal more healthy for you and still relatively so for the rest without cooking separately.

For the record we are a fam of 6 and I do a fair proportion of the dinner meals....

Make meals with modifications for yourself. For example, I'll make tacos for my husband but put my toppings on a salad instead. Or I'll make pasta but add extra vegetables to my plate and less spaghetti.

Well, we've always eaten pretty healthy so it's not a huge change here, but if they crave something, I make it healthier. The kids get their chicken nuggets on days when I have to feed them fast, or on days I make something I know they won't eat (like stuffed peppers).

You can put in your recipe's so it'll figure out the math for you.

Sometimes you probably are going to have to make something different for you than for them. That's just the way it's going to have to be.

We've changed the pasta to whole wheat pasta, and I don't think our daughters even noticed. We also switched from ground meat in our chili and spaghetti sauce to ground turkey, and nobody noticed.

Someone once asked Kate (of John & Kate plus 8) what she does if not everybody likes what she made for dinner. She said, "We are not a short order cook, and we are not a buffet." In my parents house, we either ate what my mother made, or we went hungry that night.

Although I'm convinced my youngest is going to be a dietician.....she has proclaimed on more than one occasion, "I don't eat fries or breadsticks because they are NOT a healthy choice!! Bananas, apples, yogurt and applesauce are healthy choices!" Consequently, we are pretty lenient when she asks for those things.

If you can sneak in things into the lasagna like veggies that have been whirred up in the blender into the sauce, then they won't know any different!

I make slight variations to the meal i make for them. I am a low carb-er, so not all of these will work for you. But I hope it helps!

Family gets spagetti. I make french cut green beans or asparagus as a side. I just the veggies as noodles for my own personal plate.

Tacos. Family gets the normal tacos, I make taco lettuce wraps for myself.

Hamburgers. I just eat mine without the bun.



And I'm always finding recipes that works for all of us! Some of my favorites:

Chicken enchiladas. I just place chicken and green chili sauce in a slow cooker all day. Serve on low carb tortillas with cheese.

Salsa chicken. Chicken rubbed with taco seasoning, baked, and served with salsa on top.

Stuffed bell peppers. Honestly.. I just stuff beef, cheese, onions, or whatever else i can find in them.


And when all else fails, alter your shopping list. There is alway a pork loin or two on mine. Everyone loves these. Roast go on sale at Kroger for BOGO free atleast once a month. I stock up on these and have many many different healthy slow cooker recipes.