help, cant cook separate meals for me, and family

Posts: 605
7/25/11 10:49 P

Cooking separately for yourself can be easy if you do it right, it just requires dirtying another pan. For pasta night, cook yourself the chicken breast and dump a little of the jar of marinara on it, stir up the rest with ground hamburger and the pasta for the boys, grab your bit of pasta.

If you have 15 minutes to spare once or twice a week, prepare your salad fixings for supper, and just have a tiny portion of what the menfolk eat. Don't try to limit their portions.

Posts: 2,066
7/24/11 6:27 P

My advice would be to worry less about them and more about yourself. I know you have to cook for them, and Michael's way of doing it is great -- think of it as "units of food" and you can take what you want. The other thing you should consider doing is looking at vegetarian recipes and cookbooks to find mostly vegetable dishes. Instead of just steaming side veggies, you could make a vegetarian dish that would serve as a side to the men but could by your healthy main dish. Good luck.

Posts: 3,833
7/24/11 3:19 P

I can relate to this. I do the cooking in my house. I live with my wife and son.

Now my son is so skinny that his pajamas only have one stripe and he can eat anything he wants and not worry about it. He wants piles of meat, McDonalds, buckets of chinese fast food, etc. He says that his favorite vegetable is chicken and won't touch any other vegetable even if it did cluck.

My wife is another story all together. She is a strict vegetarian that doesn't even want to smell meat cooking. She loves her dairy though: real butter, raw whole milk, ice cream, cheese, etc. She eats sweetened condensed milk with a spoon right out of the can. Her idea of a balanced snack is a coke and a box of milk duds.

It's not easy to feed both of them and have a healthy plan for myself. My way of dealing with this is to cook portions of the meal separately. For instance, I make pasta and marinara sauce, cook the meat separately - then my son puts a little pasta on his plate with a little sauce and a lot of meat. My wife gets some pasta and a little sauce. I measure my pasta, sauce, and meat - and add a salad on the side. We all get what we want in the portions that we want.

If I make tamales, some have meat, some don't. They can eat all they want, I count mine. I make two small casseroles when I fix those. I'll mix it all up then just add some meat to one of them. They make their own plates and get as much as they want, I measure mine.

Once a week I fire up the grill outside and cook l a r g e amounts of meat so that's already done for the whole week - and it's done outside so my wife doesn't smell it.

The basic rules of thumb for me are that no food is off limits, I just have to control the portions. When I am offered real junk food, I realize that nothing tastes as good as being healthy feels and I politely refuse. I keep some tv dinners in the freezer for both my son and my wife so that if they really can't handle the latest new recipe I try, they are free to pop a frozen dinner in the microwave. When we have left overs, I freeze healthy portions of the healthy stuff for myself, so on nights when they want to order a pizza, I can have my tv dinner. (I can't eat white flour due to a wheat intolerance.)

It has taken a lot of time to find what works for me in my situation, and it will likely take time to work out what will work for you, just don't give up trying.

Best wishes,
Michael

Edited by: PRIMALMICHAEL at: 7/24/2011 (15:23)

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7/22/11 3:02 A

You can make their regular meal but for yourself choose to eat smaller portions of the pasta and meat. Then bulk it up with veggies so you feel satisfied. Adding a large salad and steamed veggies are quick and easy and will help you keep satisfied. If you serve the salad and veggies in addition for the whole family it can also help them eat healthier too. Some days you can make items such as a vegetarian lasagne's or chili where the sauce will help them not miss the meat so much. Making simple subs such as low fat cheese,lean ground turkey

Edited by: HEALTHYJ29 at: 7/22/2011 (03:05)

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7/21/11 2:38 P

I am hoping someone has some ideas for me. I have 4 grown men living in my home. hubby, 2 sons and nephew all grown , the youngest is 18. When I cook I have to cook for all of us. I am the onlyone with issues and these men like to eat. They work very hard and like their meat and potatoes or big dishes of pasta with some variety of spaghetti sauce. I try to use boneless skinless chicken and trim pork. I usually steam our veggies and have substituted spices for salt. If I start trying to feed them 1 cup portions or salads with nuts or seeds, they would probably rebel very much. Any suggestions?