How do you handle dieting when cooking for the family?

I have been on a restricted diet all year, and lost a lot of weight, but my kids are picky eaters and won’t eat a lot of what I eat.

So I make a main course (grilled chicken, roast turkey) that they will eat, veggies we all share, a side dish or carb that they eat but I skip, and then a salad for me. When we have hamburgers, they get a grilled beef patty, I have a grilled turkey breast burger without a bun. So I make similar adaptations of whatever is the basics for the meal.

Unless your diet is something outrageous I don’t see any problem with putting everyone else on it. My husband stopped eating carbs, so I don’t include pasta, rice, bread, or potatoes with dinner any more.

It takes some pre-planning. You can still cook some of the same things that you usually make for the rest of the family, but go through your repertoire of meals and make a list of some of the healthier ones, you might want to forego some of the unhealthier ones for awhile.

So with the regular meals, you will simply be adjusting your portion size and eliminating or limiting the additions such as salad dressing, croutons, cheese, butter or margarine, sour cream etc. Maybe you don’t eat a roll, and you don’t have dessert. You should also plan to have a salad with each dinner, but don’t add cheese or croutons or olives, switch to chopped or grated raw veggies and use only a tiny bit of extra virgin olive oil with your favorite vinegar, don’t use any of the bottled dressings, they’re usually loaded with fat, and the fat free ones taste terrible. You can also make a dressing with non-fat yogurt (I can supply you with some recipes).

The other thing you can do, is to alter your recipes, to make them healthier and hope that your family will still like the food. If that doesn’t work, then you will need to plan even more.

If you end up needing to make a separate meal for yourself, work it into the whole meal prep plan. Make a menu for the week, get your supplies ready (ahead of time, so you’re not scrambling at dinner time) prep as much stuff ahead of time as you can.

My Mom has changed her eating habits considerably in the last 2 months, going super healthy, so what I do is go to the store and get all of the fruits and veggies and whole grain breads and tortillas and whatever I need. Either that same day (if I’m not too exhausted by the shopping trip) I will wash and chop the veggies and put them in separate bags, so they’re ready to go when I prepare a meal. I also might prepare a vat of vegetarian chili and freeze some of it. Same thing with soup, so that I can simply pull out one of my frozen containers the night before and have it thawed and ready for the pan or microwave when dinnertime rolls around. You can still prepare whatever other meal you might have been going to make for the rest of the family, but your healthy meal will be much easier to throw together.

Lately I’ve been making lots of salads, like Waldorf salad, tabouli, coleslaw, bean salad, but I use healthier ingredients like non-fat Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise, or a squirt of lemon juice instead of Italian dressing. Find yourself (or I can help you) some recipes that sound good, that you can make ahead of time, that will last 2 or 3 days, and that will be part of your meal (even if no one else will eat it, like my Dad won’t eat any of this stuff I fix for my Mom)

It’s kind of funny, because on some days my Mom is in the kitchen fixing a pot roast for my Dad (that will last for 3 or 4 days, plus some frozen leftovers) while at the same time, I’m in there prepping veggies and creating salads for her and me.

Pre-planning is the key. And don’t forget to add in a 30 minute walk every day : )

@nikipedia Why no brown rice? It’s one of the healthiest foods you can eat. And instead of white potatoes, you could try sweet potatoes.

It’s tough and can be more work which sucks. I don’t even have kids, just a husband, and it is a little more work.

What will your diet be? I ask because if your goal is to limit carbs then @zenvelo‘s ideas will work. My recent diet change was to almost elimiate animal from my diet. I lost about 7 pounds doing that without counting a calorie, although my main goal is reduce my cholesterol. Anyway, what I do is keep lots of fruits and veggies in the house now. I can’t eat a ton of raw vegetables because of my digestive track, so I try to have a bunch of roasted or sauteed veggies all cooked up for the week. I also do keep some sorts of lettuce for salad which I do have about every other day. I eat more fruit than I used to. My diet is actually less work in the kitchen than when I ate more meat and dairy. I still eat pasta, rice and potatoes, but not a ton of it. I think the sugar from the fruit keeps those craving down. So, basically the only thing I cook extra for my husband is meat, and I have been lazy about it and buy more premaid meat while I am in the throws of changing my diet. He also is eating less of it though. He also has gone along with no cheese in the house. Can you basically cook what you always cooked and just only eat the things on your diet? Or, is the change you are going to make that drastically different?

The hardest part is having the taboo foods in the house, it takes more willpower on your part then. Maybe the family will agree to only eat the bad stuff outside of the house? So you aren’t tempted.

stir frys are generally healthy if you use healthy oil, lean meats, and lotsa veggies, with some sauces n seasoning for flavoring

Any lean meats/fishes for grilling/pan frying

Certain soups…

I used to cook separate meals for my husband and myself. What a huge waste of time and money, but my husband wouldn’t eat my healthy food. We ended up meeting in the middle so I could cook one meal for the both of us. I fit in good food like grilled burgers, pork chops, BBQ chicken, etc. and he gave up chicken alfredo and anything fried. Works for us. You don’t need to eat a salad every night to lose weight. Most “diets” call for WAYYY too few calories. Please don’t restrict to 1200 calories a day like every other woman on Earth seems to do. It’s ridiculous. Eat, just eat right.

When I’m dieting everyone eats healthy.

And because you know I can’t help myself, here are some recipes that should satisfy a family, while at the same time, allowing you to eat healthy.

Roasted Chicken with Vegetables

Pasta Primavera

Vegetarian Chili

Grilled Vegetable Pizza

Chinese Chicken Salad

Turkey and Vegetable Meatloaf

Crockpot Minestrone Soup

Low Fat Macaroni and Cheese with Broccoli

Grilled Salmon with Charred Corn and Tomato Relish

Spicy Veggie Wraps (scroll down a bit to see the recipe, as it has different components)

Shrimp and Vegetable Kabobs

Vietnamese Steak Salad

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas

Roasted Vegetables (This might be a side dish for your family, but I often eat roasted veggies with a little green salad and a piece of whole wheat toast)

Enjoy!

I agree with @livelaughlove21.

I also think it’s pretty easy to stick to a lower calorie diet as long as you’re eating whole foods. Once you cut out the processed stuff and load up on veggies the leeway on even a low 1200 calorie diet is still quite a bit of food. Personally, I tend to rely very heavily on lean meats and vegetables when I’m dieting. A piece of lean meat, a veggie and a salad, and not only am I stuffed, but that’s a good foundation for a typical dinner. Switch up your grains for the high fiber variety (if you don’t already do that), and there’s nothing really that you can’t eat that your family shouldn’t be able to agree on.

My family is extremely picky, and I have come to a point where I refuse to cook anything special if they don’t want to eat what I’ve made, so I don’t. Even though the situation isn’t the same, you aren’t obligated to do that, either. Cook healthy foods. If they don’t want to eat it, let them make their own food.

They all eat what I eat or fix their own meal.

Stick to fish, chicken, lean meat and vegetables and you will be able to leave things you don’t want to eat off your plate or if no starchy carbs are being served, just serve them larger portions.