Where do I begin??

It is great that you are asking for help and want to make a change!!!

Do you like salads? My husband and I started having a salad before our meal about a year ago, and it has worked great! We have romaine or baby spinach and then add other veggies, like carrots, celery, red pepper, cucumbers, tomatoes...and we use fat free or low calorie dressings like vinegarettes

Do you like omelets? We have omelets for dinner with eggs, and then we add mushrooms, spinach, red pepper, tomatoes, olives, it's completely up to you what you put in your omelet!!! That might be fun for the kids...to pick their own ingredients!

For fruit: fruit in their oatmeal, or on whole grain waffles. Fruit salad. Strawberries or other berries with light cool whip or a tiny drizzle of chocolate for dessert

I like taking baby carrots or celery and dipping it into hummus!

You could do a stir fry where you have lean beef or chicken and mix in any vegetables you like. You can add some fresh garlic and low sodium soy sauce to give it a wonderful flavor!

BUMP

Wow! Sounds like you have your hands full so well done on choosing to educate yourself about leading a healthier lifestyle.

It can be complicated or it can be simple - I choose to keep things as simple as possible.

How about focusing on one meal at a time? e.g - you could focus on ensuring you make simple healthy dinners then once you have that down you could then focus on breakfasts too.

Some ideas: try to stay away from simple carbs (white bread, white rice, what pasta etc) and opt for the brown varieties and even with these try to limit the amount of these you have. Also be sure to include 2 servings of veg with each meal.

This would be a great starting point for you.

Feel free to inbox if you need more info - I'd be happy to help you along the way

I am a busy mom as well. When I come home from the food store I try to wash and prep all of my fruits and vegetables. I find that if they are clean and ready to eat, my family is more inclined to eat them. You can actually freeze lots of fruits and veggies so they keep longer. Defrost when needed. You can also grill up chicken or shrimp and keep them in the fridge for up to 4 days. Both are good on top of salad, pasta, rice and in a sandwich. A roast chicken can give you several meals. Another idea is to make larger quantities of healty foods your family likes. Left overs aren't so bad when it's something they like.

Hope some of this helps!

It's hard to know where to start, but asking is the first step. In terms of having 15 meals - that's actually not too bad - I think I've got 4 that I do And by the way - it's nothing about whether you are educated or not - that's the great thing about places like MFP There's resources to help everyone...

But as you mentioned Jamie, here's a great link: http://www.jamieoliver.com/jamies-30-minutes-meals/ - its a great book as well... But there's plenty of stuff online as well for so many different meals, food types etc etc..

One thing I try and do is only buy what I need for that day, admittedly it is only for me, but it's not always easy, especially when it comes to veg etc, but it may help.. Or another idea is to plan your week and pick two or three 'other' meals from online recipes that you wouldn't normally cook and when you do your weekly shop - make sure you prepare for them.

I don't have kids, so unfortunately can't empathize when it comes to the time aspect, but would cooking up some meals and freezing them for the odd days help at all?

Either way, I hope it may help, others I know will probably have some additional great and probably better advice But good luck with the upcoming move and all the best wishes to you and your kids.

I think we all deal with this to some extent! I have found that if I do marathon cooking on the weekends and refrigerate or freeze meals for the week that I can make it work. I also try to do extra prep work when I have time. Pre-cook chicken breasts, pre-chop your vegetables...things like that. Also, pick a few of your absolute favorite foods, regardless of the nutritional value. Then figure out ways to make the same thing healthier. Almost anything can be lightened up to fit better into your dietary needs. "Fried" chicken is great when instead of frying you dip boneless/skinless chicken breasts in buttermilk, then roll in crushed cornflakes and bake. Or substitute honey mustard instead of buttermilk. If you absolutely must have a "real" hamburger, make sure you make them in accurately measured sizes, then serve bunless or on those new 100-calorie extra thin buns (I can't remember what they're called). When I do buy pre made snacks, I make sure to measure them out into individual servings as soon as I get home. That way I can just grab one and go, without grazing on an entire box of something.

Also, I know exactly what you mean about not knowing which information to believe. I have found that I have to pick the dietary concerns that are most important to me and stick with it. Right now it's calories. Eventually your body (or your brain) starts to catch on that if it wants more food, the only way to get it is by making healthier choices with less calories. You can drive yourself crazy trying to watch carbs, fats, sugars, proteins, sodium...or by avoiding certain foods for certain reasons. Pick one or two top priority concerns and address those. With patience and persistence it starts to fall into place. Good luck!

i do simple things like when the kids want a snack i say you can have fruit or carrot and thats it. if the answer is no, then obviously they aren't hungry. it's a bit nazi, but the will accept it now.

often when they say they are starving and i'm cooking tea, they'll now ask for frozen peas and corn (yep, go figure) so i give them a handful in a cup to eat while i'm cooking, and it's vegies instead of a biscuit or a piece of bread. now, they just ask for peas and corn while they are waiting, because they know they aren't getting anything else to eat while i'm cooking tea.

i make my own hommus, it takes about 2 minutes and it tastes so much better than store bought hommus. my kids go crazy on it, and lick the bowl when they've finished dipping their carrots in it.

it's hard, and you have to be a nazi about it, and tell them they aren't having anything if it's not healthy, but if you are consistent, they realise what is healthy, and what is not, and they start asking for the healthy things knowing that they will be met with a brick wall if they want rubbish.

my girls also prefer natural yoghurt with a bit of honey to all the sweet yoghurts. they still ask for them, every single time i'm in the supermarket they want the dora yoghurt, or the thomas yoghurt, but i refuse to buy it, because they never eat it (they actually don't like it, but they still want it because it has the pictures). it drives me mental when their grandparents and dad buy it, after i tell them a thousand times that the girls won't eat it, but they still ask for it every single time.

i keep on reinforcing that anything that has cartoon characters on it, is pretty much rubbish, and that just because it has a pretty picture, doesn't mean it's good. they haven't clicked on this yet, but they will if i keep on going on like a broken record about it.

small differences make massive changes. also having them help grow some vegies in the garden is great, and talking about healthy choices and what is good and what is rubbish.