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Hi everyone! I'm a cook. A cook with no recipes, lol. I love to cook and I'm (was!) fairly good at it, but I'm really struggling with making dinners for my family now that I'm eating healthier.
Nothing I used to make will work anymore - pasta's with sauces, meats with gravies, fried this and that, Mexican dishes drowning in cheese, butter added to just about everything. For the past few weeks I've been stuck at either eating an unsatisfying portion or making two meals - one for them, one for me.
This won't work for the long term! I'd really like to have a dinner menu planned out for this week, one that everyone can enjoy. Well, most of us anyway, no matter what I make someone will complain ;)
Please, how is everyone cooking for their families? Recipe suggestions? Side dishes? Any tips or ideas you'd like to share will be much appreciated!
MAMAMIA! I would suggest using a website that helps plan menus such as www.eatingwell.com or http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/heart-health y-recipes/RE00098 or http://tracker.diabetes.org/myfoodadvisor.htm l all of these great sites have menu and healthy meal planning tools that I highly recommend to my clients/ as a Registered Dietitian. Hope that helps!
Side dishes:
veggies of all kinds, try different ones to add a change and try them stir fried
sweet potatoes, healthier than white, also try them mashed
brown rice and wheat pasta, still calories but more fiber and nutrients
Meats:
Baked is always good and when baking you can add many different sauces (BBQ, honey mustard, soups)
If you have a roatisserie use it, great for veggies too
For curries don't use the bottles of paste. Instead throw in some tomatoes and ginger garlic paste. You can make it fresh - it tastes best but otherwise get half a tin of tomatoes and powdered/frozen ginger garlic. And of course limit the oil that you use. A tsp of curry powder should finish it off (and chillies if you like it spicy).
Or else instead of half a tin of tomatoes use a pot of low fat yogurt stirred in at the end to make up the gravy.
I can completely understand what you are going through. Added to the mix of picky kids, my fiance has celiacs disease and cannot eat anything that contains wheat, MSG, and all kinds of other stuff. It makes it really difficult to cook for everyone at once.
Try making pizza with a whole wheat crust, low fat cheese and lots of veggies. If you put the cheese on top of the veggies the kids won't realize they are there until they've already called it delicious.
Build your own salad night is a good option for a varity of eaters as well. You can start with all the basic veggies and offer a selection of lean meats, such as grilled chicken breast, fat free cheeses and dressings, even things like pine nuts. Toss in whole grain rolls on the side and the meal will be a healthy hit!
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