Need food ideas! please Help!

Your family will rely on you to feed them nutritious food. You need to learn how for the little ones sake as much as for your own.
There are some amazing websites on the net dedicated to good food.
If you want some direction I'm happy to help you.

Grilled chicken with lots of veggies is my favorite "healthy" option. I vary up the seasonings.

I also love ground turkey, I make turkey burgers, turkey chili and turkey sloppy joes. There are so many awesome healthy recipe sites out there. My fave is http://www.cookinglight.com/

When I get beef I try to get the leaner options. Walmart does carry ground turkey, but be careful of turkey recalls...

try sparkpeople.com they have great easy to follow recipes and you can always alter or leave out if it calls for bell pepper or onions.

The easiest healthy meal I make is chicken breast and vegies. They also have lean beef, 93%

Well, cooking things for the whole family....is going to help you all stay on track and you are going to raise a healthy child! Glad you are starting now! I cook healthy now, but, regret how I cooked when he was little. YEs, he was overweight because of it. I use to make rolls with every meal.....a big dinner....etc. Anyway, we like to cook on our GEorge Foreman Grill. WE make grilled chicken with BBQ lightly coated, we make lemon pepper talapia, salmon with lemon juice and lemon pepper, or we have even made the salmon with kraft honey bbq sauce lightly coated on each. WE make fajitas by buying low fat, wheat tortillas with the grilled chicken and fajita seasoning mix....but dont use sour cream etc. WE like to always keep sugar free jello made with fruit in the fridge with lite cook whip as snacks. eWe have deer burger we make chili with....or use ground turkey. WE buy spray butter )I cant believe its not butter) to spray on baked potatoes.... we keep salads in the fridge.....etc. There are so many sites with wonderful recipes. Take a looksie. I think the biggest probelm is portion control. If I make food and have lots of left overs, I find myself going back for more and end up messing up my calorie intake! SO try to make just enough for dinner if you're like me. lol If you made a big pot of turkey chili, freeze a bag or two..which makes it even easier to make dinner on a busy night! There are cake recipes where you can use a diet orange soda or diet coke in it to replace oil etc....that are neat to try. We have been drinking protein shakes in the morning .....eating yogurt.....taking our lunches to work....and until winter hit, been walking to help us burn calories.. I hope you find some cool recipes. I agree with others who have posted...skinnytaste.com has some great ones! BEst of luck! : )

To me meals fall into one of two categories -- meals where you are making a protein by itself and then making veggies to go on the side (like grilled chicken with green beans and squash on the side) or meals where you are mixing the protein and veggies together (like a chicken veggie stir fry).

If you prefer to make things in the first category then it is mostly a matter of figuring out veggie side dishes that you like and how to cook your protein in a low-fat, tasty way.. For the veggies -- steaming them is one of the healthiest ways -- just season with salt and pepper and herbs and some lemon juice or even orange juice. Roasting veggies can bring out tons of great flavor -- just cut them up and spread them out on a cookie sheet spray with a little cooking spray and season with salt and pepper and put them in the oven. Mashed veggies can be great too -- try steaming cauliflower in a little chicken broth, when very tender add some milk and mash with a potato masher -- kind of like mashed potatoes! The main thing is to look at all the fresh veggies in the grocery store and try as many different things as possible to find out what you like. Regarding the protein -- keep it simple. Grill a boneless, skinless chicken breast with a little salt and pepper and herbs. Pan fry (in cooking spray) a fish fillet with no flour, roast a whole chicken but remove and discard the skin before serving, roast a pork loin or braise it in some wine or chicken stock, make a turkey burger on a low-cal bun or with no bun, or go meatless and have beans and rice cooked together as your protein.

If you are more into the second category there are lots of places online to get recipes (allrecipes.com includes nutrition data for their recipies) but here is one that is a standby for me:

Stir fry -- in a big frying pan on high heat stir fry your protein (chicken or shrimp or pork), remove from pan. Add cut up veggies and stir fry them until tender. While doing all this get ready with a little bowl of sauce made up of chicken stock, soy sauce, minced garlic, wine or a little orange juice, sesame oil if you have it, chili garlic sauce if you like that -- experiment and look at recipes and find what you like. Anyway after the veggies are done add the meat back in, pour in the sauce, let it bubble furiously and coat the ingredients, serve over brown rice.

This recipe can be a different thing every night depending on what protein and what veggies you choose and what things you put in the sauce.

Another standby -- pasta and cherry tomato sauce. Put some water on to boil. Spray a big fry pan with cooking spray and throw in a container of cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes and whatever other veggies you want like summer squash, eggplant, or mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper. Let it all fry for a few minutes, then add in about half a cup of wine or chicken stock and let it all simmer until the tomatoes get soft and wrinkley looking. Use a potato masher or the back of a spoon to smash the tomatoes so that their juice comes out. By now you should have your pasta cooking in the boiling water. When the pasta is done scoop it out and mix it in with the veggies. Its okay if some of the pasta water goes in, the starch helps bring the sauce together. Add some fresh herbs and a reasonable amount of Parmesan cheese. Yum!

Again this is a recipe that can be different every night depending on what veggies you add in, or if you add protein, or if you put in a little red wine, or whatever.

Enjoy!

I have found using taste of home comfort food diet to be very helpful. It gives you meal plans and has a fitness program on there. Easy recipes and exercises you can do from home. And amazingly my kids will eat their recipes!!! Good luck!!

Hi, you add 1/2 cup of boiled brown rice, black beans, or lentils to your lunchtime salad. Throw a sweet potato onto your dinner time salad.