Cooking for my meat and potatoes family
jrk7382
Posts: 9 Member
I need help with cooking for my family! My freezer is full of beef...200+ pounds. Obviously that's what I've got to work with. My husband and kids will not eat anything that isn't comfort food. I feel like I always fail because 1) I get sick of cooking 2 meals 2) it's expensive to do that! What. Can I do to be successful? I LOVE veggies. I don't eat fish. I don't want to fail again!
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Replies
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I bet while the other food is cooking you can whip up some veggies for yourself. That way you can have veggies and what your family is eating for dinner. Are you trying to cut out comfort food completely out of your diet? Are the foods you make for your family trigger foods for you? Cutting them out seems so drastic. Of course, when eating with your fam you would just have a smaller portion size so that you could fit it into your calorie budget.0
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My husband is a meat and potato guy, too. While I was losing weight (and even now, in maintenance) I cook up a comfort food meal for the both of us and a large portion of veggies on the side. I eat more veggies and a smaller portion of the comfort food, while he does the opposite. Any left-over veggies can either be rewarmed or (depending on what it is) tossed with an oil/vinegar dressing as a salad the next day.
Any regular family meal can be made lower cal by eating a smaller portion and adding lots of steamed veggies or a salad. You can do this. Hang in there.0 -
Add a green salad to every meal and one of the veggies you love, then eat what you are serving your family. It won't hurt them to eat the veggies and you can fill up on the salad and the veggies and eat less of the higher calorie comfort food. Best of both worlds!0
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Eat a smaller portion of what everyone else is eating.
Orrrr. Go the "if you don't like what I put out, don't eat it" route. If they don't like what's on the table then they can help with the meal prep/cleanup as well. You shouldn't be responsible for a ton of different meals to accommodate everyone. If they don't like it, they can start cooking their own food or helping you out to make meal times manageable.
Also, if my mom can get me off white bread and iceburg lettuce (which I ate as an early teen), I bet you can get your family to try new stuff. I've tried so many things I never thought I would; flax seed, kale chips, ect...through my mom, and it was because we tried the stuff out together and she weaned me off of options that weren't as good for me. Get them involved, and they may be more on board. Try to force something on them, and they'll probably resist.0 -
mmmmm meaaaat and potatoes...
i buy one steak, a good sized one. (or defrost one). i cut off an end for me and give the rest to my husband. i have a potato or half depending on how many calories i have.. and a pile of vegetables. i give my husband a big steak, two potatoes, and some vegetables. i give my son a potato with cheese because he basically hates all food that has flavor.
one meal, everyone gets what they need.
now i am dying for a baked tater.0 -
I'm due for a steak. I like waiting for the local butcher to have a sale.
He basically cuts prices on the grassfed stuff by half. So I'll buy a two pound porterhouse and have a nice meal.0 -
Skinnytaste has healthier comfort food recipes.
Just have smaller portions of beef, make a ton of veggies on the side for you.0 -
I eat mostly meat and veggies and by meat I mean beef, pork, and chicken. Just make sure to hit your protein needs and then fill in the rest of your calories with veggies, maybe a salad, and an occasional treat. It's easier to do this if you pick leaner cuts of meat but don't go too low fat.0
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Pretty much what everyone else said. There was NO WAY I was going to cook 2 meals and can't believe some people actually go that route. Anyway, the important thing is that you cut your portion sizes down. You can eat whatever you want as long as it fits into your calorie goal. Go ahead and have your meat and potatoes but take less of those and more of the veggies. Potatoes are actually pretty good for you, especially if you include the skin - it's the stuff we put on them or mix into them that's the problem. So if you mash, don't add a bunch of cream and butter. If they want butter, they can add that once the potatoes are on their plate. I still use a bit of cream but "just" enough to help the potatoes stick together.
For comfort food type meals, you can do pretty much the same. Take lasagna for instance, I use less pasta then most recipe call for, use leaner meat, low fat or skim ricotta and add a ton of veggies to the sauce. For the shredded cheese, I might go low fat but if you check labels, you'll find there's usually not a huge difference in calories. I'd rather use a bit less cheese than sacrifice the flavor. NEVER go fat free - horrid stuff.
Good luck!0 -
Thank you everyone!
Trigger? My trigger is being awake. I just love food.
Making your own recipe on mfp......how do you decide portion? Weighing meat, measuring veggies, etc is easy. How do I for example portion spaghetti? I have cooked noodles and a pan of meat sauce. If I decide it serves 8 how do I get the correct portion?0 -
I have FOUR kids, and a husband. We always ate veggies with our meat/starch, now I just make more of them, usually skip the starch and go heavy on the protein and veg. I have a teenage daughter, a nearly 12yo son (who eats like a teenager, needs to grow into his size 11 cleats, lol), a nearly 11yo daughter and a 9yo daughter. They eat the meal I make, or don't eat. I'm not running a restaurant.
So just make what you would always make, but add salad or veg. Make sure you are introing your kids to the veg too.0 -
Thank you everyone!
Trigger? My trigger is being awake. I just love food.
Making your own recipe on mfp......how do you decide portion? Weighing meat, measuring veggies, etc is easy. How do I for example portion spaghetti? I have cooked noodles and a pan of meat sauce. If I decide it serves 8 how do I get the correct portion?
Weigh your pan you use for sauce empty, then weigh the whole she-bang with the sauce in it (this is why I have a metal scale, not plastic). Divide the weight (in oz or grams) by however many portions you want it to be, that gives you your portion size.
For pasta, it depends, but 2oz uncooked pasta in my experience adds up to about 5oz cooked pasta (I cooked 2 weighed oz to al dente per box directions, then weighed it).0 -
Spike their potatoes with cauliflower. I did this to my man and he didn't notice until he saw me making them. Then you can still have mash potatoes but save on the calories.
I really agree with everyone. Add some veggies just for you and there are a lot of ways to add veggies into calorie dense things (like potato) to make them a little lighter. Good luck.0 -
I also add veg to my chili and sloppy joes. I add mushrooms, onions, green or red bell peppers and celery. If you want to get more adventurous you can also add zucchini.0
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Look for ways to cook it to be healthier. I lived in a meat and potatoes environment for a long time, but altering how I cooked said meat and potatoes was better for us overall.
When my kids were smaller, I used to add carrot zest to the pancake batter. They never knew until one day one of my daughters was helping me.
When I make potato soup, I add a little spaghetti squash to bulk it up. They like it and it's better for them. Spaghetti squash takes on the flavor of whatever it is you're cooking. Same for spaghetti itself, if you just add some spaghetti squash to the noodles, it's better.0 -
I would never make two different meals. Make some healthier meals and they can eat them too, and make some comfort food but also put out vegetables of some sort for you (and maybe they'll eat them as well). They'll learn to eat new things if you put it out for them and there's nothing else.0
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Making your own recipe on mfp......how do you decide portion? Weighing meat, measuring veggies, etc is easy. How do I for example portion spaghetti? I have cooked noodles and a pan of meat sauce. If I decide it serves 8 how do I get the correct portion?
I would decide how many servings the recipe made and mentally picture how much one serving would be (ie: if 4 servings, I'd try to picture what 1/4 would look like while staring into the pot/pan). Then I would take what I pictured as the portion size, keeping in eye what was left in the pot/pan. It's a guestimate but you'll get pretty accurate in time. If possible, take your portion first so that you can take what you mentally pictured as a portion while the pot/pan is full. Then look at that hard so that you can remember the approximate look of it for next time.
It's a bit of a guestimate, as I said, but it's also real life where one is aware of portions and control and such. It's hard at first but you get pretty good at eyeballing portion sizes.
One way to make spaghetti night lower calorie for yourself is to have spaghetti squash instead of spaghetti. It's not the same thing but it's a tasty meal once in awhile. I found that spaghetti squash tastes best with tomato based sauces.
I do this if we've been having a week of heavier meals and we have spaghetti on one of them.0 -
Weigh your pan you use for sauce empty, then weigh the whole she-bang with the sauce in it (this is why I have a metal scale, not plastic). Divide the weight (in oz or grams) by however many portions you want it to be, that gives you your portion size.
This is genius.0 -
I'm another 'ONE-meal only' cook! And we are definitely a meat and potatoes kinda family, too. Sometimes I'll make a healthier meal for all of us, sometimes I'll just eat a smaller portion of the normal meal. I also like to do a small salad and we've always had a veggie on the side anyhow, so I'll eat more of those with the main dish.
I also have a really supportive husband and my kids don't really get a choice around here since I'm the one cooking. Well, I guess technically they do: 1.)Eat it or 2.)Starve
I will say one thing I do for mashed potatoes to keep the cal count down- I use almond milk and fat free greek yogurt, garlic powder and salt/pepper. My family has no idea I do this. 0 -
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.0 -
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! 0 -
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.0 -
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!0 -
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.0 -
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!!0 -
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-pie0 -
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.0
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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. Lol0 -
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:0 -
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 side0
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