TIPS PLEASE

Tacos with lean meat (lean turkey, beef or chicken), tons of veggies (tomatoes, romaine lettuce, avocado, onion), a sprinkle of low fat cheese all wrapped up in a whole wheat tortilla! I love these and so does my nearly three year old, which is great considering it's my "ol reliable".

Id do some healthy alternatives to fast food- like a chicken breast fillet in a wholemeal bun with some sides they like!

One of my favorites is a "taco salad" my wife makes. She basically takes Morningstar "veggie crumbles" (meat substitute, though turkey or even beef works fine too), browns then with some spices, and gets out some salsa and yogurt and a big bowl of shredded lettuce.

I lay a THICK pile of lettuce down, put about a half-cup of the veggie crumble on top, a couple of spoonfuls of salsa, and a couple of spoonfuls of yogurt (maybe 1-2 tablespoons of salsa and a tablespoon of yogurt). Mix it up just a little to make sure all the lettuce has a little something on it,and tuck in!

It's easy to make, gives you a nice "crunch" from the lettuce that replaces corn chips, gives you gigantic handfuls of green leafy vegetables, and makes you feel like you're eating Mexican food for surprisingly few calories. I can always fit a second helping into my "budget".

I try and get stuff set up on the weekends when I have more time...I will brown a package of ground turkey to be used in place of ground beef, pre slice veggies for easy snacking (and bag them up for easy lunch grabs), and figure out the weeks menus to see what I need to get at the store. My husband had no idea we had been eating things like ground turkey instead of ground beef and plain greek yogurt instead of sour cream for months before he found out! The main key is to plan...I try to do that after the kids go to bed.