Do you make your meals separate from the rest of the family?

I make one dinner for all of us, no one complains about the meals, which dont have the diet food look/feel.

The only one who gets "special" dinners is my son, who has a limited diet due to sensory issues. He typically has a sandwich and an apple instead.

Tonight I am making my kid's favorite frozen pizza, and we will all eat it.

i also use the recipe builder. If a recipe is too low in calories for my husband, I adjust his portion, add cheese/full fat dressing/sunflower seeds, or a serve with a glass of juice.

I only cook one meal a day, as I've switched my other two meals to RAW meal replacements, but it's currently my boyfriend, my mother, and myself and I'm the only one who cooks, hah. I use the recipe builder for things like soups and stews, though before I did basically the same thing just by hand. For solid portions (like, say, some chicken and rice), I just put those in individually in a meal.

Definitely portion out the food before eating it though. It's hard to eyeball a pot of stew! ;D I have gotten better at making three-person pots of stew, but even then I break it all down into three separate bowls of equal fill before anyone's allowed to eat. That way you know if your portioning is right or if you should go increase the portion amount in the recipe. It works for me, anyway.

Yes and no..


I have made my sons aware that we are eating healthier and they are slowly trying new veggies and food combos they've never tried.

Eventually I hope to have us all eat the same meal :happy:

Sort of but it's because there are some foods that I can't eat due to allergies or intolerances. For example, I can't eat potatoes but they all can so if I'm making soup or something I'll separate mine from theirs before adding potatoes to it. I don't do "diet" food and have enough to do without cooking separate meals for everyone. If it's a logging issue I just do my best and try to get it "close enough".

We have been running around so much lately, we aren't all together for a meal. I will make/buy enough for whoever is home and enter that. But, when we do have a meal I just have smaller portions than everyone else. I have used the recipe builder and it works great. I want to eat real food and I want to make changes I can stick with, If separate meals work for you that is great.

I cook different meals for my entire family, sort of.

My husband is cutting and has a specific macro requirement.

I lift and do endurance exercise, so I have a different macro requirement.

Our kids are extremely active and need far more carbs and fat than we are allowed.

For example, today for lunch, he got 16 ounces of 93/7 ground beef, no bun; I got 8 ounces 93/7 with bun, the kids got 85/15 with bun, mayo, etc......

It generally takes me 15 more minutes to make meals, so it's no big deal. Right now, because I have certain fitness goals and so does he, that trumps saving 15 minutes.

I eat the same things, but with high calorie foods like potato I weigh out my portion and cut it into a different shape from everyone else's, so rondelles rather than cubes, for example.

Otherwise, I don't worry too much. Basically, logging accurately is best, but any logging is better than not logging at all. I eat in a school cafeteria on a regular basis and guesstimating there has never done my weight loss any harm.

Usually. I'm a vegetarian, my husband and children are not. Most days, myself, kids, and husband all eat different meals but it's not a big deal. Or I'll eat part of the meal, like veg fried rice and I'll add meat for the kids. I like to cook so it's not a problem.

When I make a meal for my family, we all have the same thing together. I just normally control my own portion. For example, I'll cook lots of veg and potatoes for them, but I just won't have the potatoes. If there's not enough alternative veg for me, I'll just put some extra peas on for me or have a bit of side salad too.

If we are having rice or pasta, I measure mine and put it in a little separate saucepan to cook so I don't overeat it. If we are having fish and chips, I just make sure I have a small portion of the chips and fill up on a big side salad or some extra cooked tomatoes and/or veg.

That kind of thing. We rarely eat things like stews. If we do make things like that with sauces, like casseroles, I work out the calories of the entire pot based on what goes in it, then make sure I more or less take my equal share, or a little less than my equal share. Normally we use low calorie sauces and stock cubes in our stew type foods, and use meat enough for 2-3 people. There's 4 people in the household normally, sometimes 5, so the extra bulk comes from loads of veggies like carrot, leeks, sweet potato, onions etc in there too.

My sister and I want to lose weight and eat clean, my mum tries to lose weight, my dad is a little bit of a health freak and my brother is a gym/health addict anyway. The boys both do a lot of exercise and/or bulking so I just normally make extra large portions of whatever main carb is in the dinner (i.e. pasta, rice, potatoes).

I don't.. I just add a grain for them, and sometimes an extra vegetable for them..We all eat good food..

Yes me and my beloved prepare our own dishes as she does not eat meat. We seem to have our timing down though so we are both ready to sit and enjoy at the same time.

Yeah. I only eat authentic Asian food. He only eats American food. We only eat together in the restaurants.

I don't eat diet food. And I don't run a restaurant. I have a full time job and no interest in spending all night in the kitchen.

My partner is a legend, and while he was raised meat and potatoes by his mum he will happily eat whatever I cook. I'm low carb so this is usually a good cut of meat, and some vegetables. Or bacon and eggs. Or a Caesar salad minus the croutons. What's not to love.

His two girls (15 and 13) are rather spoilt and ungrateful, and will pick and whine about everything that's put in front of them unless it's schnitzel or pasta, but too bad. The older one stuffs her face when she comes home from school and again after we go to bed, so there's no point trying with her, and the younger one will take a large portion, eat a little bit of it and put the rest in the bin, then be in the cupboard getting rubbish food an hour later.

This does drive me crazy as I've asked her to take only what she's going to eat, and I hate waste when it could be someone's lunch tomorrow, but they're not my kids, and not my problem. My kids have moved out now, but used to eat everything, and loved vegetables etc. I never used to keep cupboards full of crap for them to eat, and I never used to feed them just schnitzel and chips or pasta, so it was never even an option.

So for us, it's one meal or nothing. And if my partner chooses to buy chips and cookies and other rubbish for his children, that's his business.

No. I make one meal with regular food. People can choose to eat some, all or none of it. If they want something different they can get it themselves.
I do involve the whole family in the meal planning process so everyone generally has something they like most days.