Cooking for my meat and potatoes family

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  • onefortyone
    onefortyone Posts: 531 Member
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    I am DEFINITELY a meat and potatoes girl with a meat and potatoes hubby. You can still eat what you want, but they do have to be portioned out correctly, so here are a couple of tips to weigh cooked food as you're serving it. (Also: search USDA database for the calorie values of cooked foods, not raw/dry)

    1. Place plate on scale.
    2. Tare scale.
    3. Add potatoes/noodles until scale reaches desired weight (depending how much you have calories for!).
    4. Tare scale.
    5. Repeat with meat, veggies, etc. so you know how much each item weighs :)

    For large pot meals (i.e chilli, pasta bakes, etc) I put in enough ingredients for 1 serving per family member, and then dole it out equally (using the plate-on-the-scale technique for each person) - so when you input the recipe on MFP, put in everything and give yourself one fraction of the recipe :) have a giant salad & a veggie as your side dishes, and you'll be stuffed!
  • TrailRunner61
    TrailRunner61 Posts: 2,505 Member
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    First of all, I feel your pain. When I was anorexic (yep, anorexic), I had a husband who was on a strict low cholesterol diet, and had 2 little girls who were picky eaters and would only eat certain foods. I knew I needed to add calorie dense foods to my kids' diets and I didn't want 'bad stuff' in the house, that I'd be tempted to binge on. I ended up going to a nutritionist and she gave me ideas to cut the bad stuff out, get the girls to eat healthier and keep everyone happier. What I did was put most meals in the crockpot, and baked or grilled everything else. My kids are grown now, I'm recovered, and my kids grew up eating healthy stuff and now my grandkids do too... well most of them.

    Now my husband and I are still working on eating healthy so I have a few 'tricks'.

    Use whole grain pasta, whole grain and wild rice.. in those comfort casseroles. Use whole eggs + egg whites in places of all whole eggs.

    Fix a variety of dishes, so you can pick out what YOU want. I even do that for potluck dinners, so I can at least have my fruits and vegetables and/or lean meat to choose from.

    We try to eat half a plate of veggies, 1/4 plate starches and 1/4 plate lean meat.

    Potatoes aren't bad! It's all the junk you toss on them that adds so many calories. Try sweet potatoes for a healthier choice if you want.

    Make stir fry with your round steak and sirloins. We used to raise our own cattle, so I know how you feel about a freezer full of beef! Hopefully your hamburger is lean. If not, cook it into crumbles, brown, and drain it well. Make chili, stuffed pepper soup, tomato based stews.

    Make beef barbecue with roasts. Cook it overnight in the crockpot, toss it in the frig so the fats solidify, then closer to dinnertime, skim the fat off and reheat.

    Try Skinnytaste.com!! There are a LOT of revamped healthier versions of our old, unhealthy casserole type foods that our mothers made. They taste just as good too!

    Good luck and remember that no matter what's on that table, you are the one who chooses to put what in your mouth, so make sure you have some healthy choices.
  • Cortneyrenee04
    Cortneyrenee04 Posts: 1,117 Member
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    You could try making the same meals but just swapping ingredients... greek yogurt instead of sour cream, etc. or making things from scratch, like bread, butter, tortillas (it's not hard!) and slowly transition the food to be as nutritious as possible without shocking them.

    Cooking for a family is a big responsibility and it's not to be taken lightly. You're teaching them habits that they'll carry with them forever- every day, 3+ times a day. You can definitely do it, it just might take some time. Good luck!
  • husseycd
    husseycd Posts: 814 Member
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    Easy! Cook the meat and potatoes! Weigh your portion. If you want veggies and no one else does, just make some for yourself.

    This is exactly how I eat and stay plenty lean. In fact, I think it's easier to watch calories when it's a meat/potato/veggie meal as opposed to a pasta or bread based meal.
  • brandi9172
    brandi9172 Posts: 61 Member
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    For potatoes (because I LOVE them) I switched to the Tasteful Selections Honey Gold Potatoes from WalMart, 4 of them for 90 calories is a LOT of potatoe and they are delicious!
    For the beef...all you need is portion control. There isn't anything wrong with having beef (though it's not your best option, obviously) but just keep your portions in line and supplement with a ton of veggies :)
    You got this!!
  • Hell_Flower
    Hell_Flower Posts: 348 Member
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    Hide the veggies.

    I find cottage pie good for this. You can easily get broccoli, carrots, parsnips and peas up in there and they will be so distracted by NOMS they wont even notice :)

    This is a good one to start you off. Takes ages, but so worth it

    http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/775643/cottage-pie
  • rhtexasgal
    rhtexasgal Posts: 572 Member
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    My hubby and boys took some time to acclimate to healthier eating. I found though that they would eat more veggies as long as it had cheese on it or eaten raw with dip (which I made with greek yogurt, them being none the wiser). Now I make colorful salads at least 4 times a week and they eat it. My salads have romaine, red cabbage, green onion, carrots, celery and colorful sweet peppers ... a great way to get a ton of healthy nutrients. I make salad dressing too using healthy ingredients and they really don't know the difference except to say that it tastes "cleaner" than the bottled stuff.
  • jrk7382
    jrk7382 Posts: 9 Member
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    You are over complicating the whole thing. You shouldn't have to cook two meals. Just eat less of the meat and potatoes and have more veggies.

    DO NOT replace the potatoes with cauliflower. That is just nasty.

    DO NOT eat a bowl of veggies or salad while they eat meat and potatoes. You are just setting yourself up for failure.

    The secret to long term success is learning to eat what you like in moderation.



    I think I love you. Lol
  • ksy1969
    ksy1969 Posts: 700 Member
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    You are over complicating the whole thing. You shouldn't have to cook two meals. Just eat less of the meat and potatoes and have more veggies.

    DO NOT replace the potatoes with cauliflower. That is just nasty.

    DO NOT eat a bowl of veggies or salad while they eat meat and potatoes. You are just setting yourself up for failure.

    The secret to long term success is learning to eat what you like in moderation.


    I think I love you. Lol

    :blushing: :blushing: :blushing: :blushing:
  • FindingAmy77
    FindingAmy77 Posts: 1,266 Member
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    crockpot roast with tons of vegies and taters, steaks with baked green peppers and onions, oven fries as a side, twice baked potatoes as a side
  • melimomTARDIS
    melimomTARDIS Posts: 1,941 Member
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    consider your toppings carefully. A baked potato is super healthy, but sour cream, cheese, butter, bacon bits... not so much.

    as for veggies, buy frozen, scoop out a measuring cup full, and heat it up for yourself. add you your plate.
  • Hannahp1402
    Hannahp1402 Posts: 85 Member
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    The only way I got around this is by my partner making and eating his own food and I make my own which I make a portion for my three year old and she will mix and match between the two dinners

    Either you compromise by sitting down together writing a list of dinners you can both enjoy and go from there or they eat their own, or you eat theres but make it to your own needs, removing things, smaller portions etc.

    Good Luck I know how hard it can be, especially when they wont eat with you at all!

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