Meal ideas

Hi all. I am Pre Op. scheduled for Apr 16. I am a stay at home mom of 2 and a wife to the best husband ever. My question is this...

i need meal ideas that are large family portions but can be on point for me but still can all eat together. I recognize this is for way down the road when I am able to eat semi normal. Here is what I came up with. Please help w ideas! I plan my family's meals each week and like to be super organized so I am planning now to keep a stash of meal plans to choose from down the road.

Burritos....no tortilla for me 

Lasagna....no noodles for me

Chicken parmasean using grilled chicken for me

Tacos....no tortilla for me

Hot ham and Cheese...no bun for me

Eggs, turkey Sausage

chilli Billy's ....this is chilling, cheese and fritos but I will skip the fritos

 

Overall, just make meals that are a meat and veggies.  Using the crock pot can help. 

For lasgana -- just make it with grilled eggplant or zucchini and everyone eats the same thing.  Or make youself a small ramekin that way and large pan of regular lasanga for the rest of the family.

There is really nothing about your plan that is not normal food -- except rice, pasta, potatoes.  If your family loves those things, well, a basic meal is still meat, veggie and starch, so you all have the same food, and you just don't eat the starch.

Overall -- you can grill the chicken for everyone -- or what I do, is bake the chicken breasts and sprinkle breadcrumbs on the top and sprinkle with a little olive oil.  They get brown and crunchy on the top, then cover with marinara and cheese.  Does your family really benefit by having fried foods or Fritos? 

Your children are developing eating habits for life, and they can always eat junk at school, friends homes, etc.  Just a thought!

Yay! Another stay at home mom!! I have a 4 year old, and I watch my 3 year old niece 3 days a week! 

Do you use Pinterest? I have a Low carb meals board on there and I pin all of my recipes there. Here are some things I make:

I make roast (beef or pork) in the crock pot with carrots, onions, celery, and turnips instead of potatoes. SO yummy! 

I have replaced mashed potatoes with mashed cauliflower and we eat that pretty often.

I use a julienne peeler and make "spaghetti" out of zucchini. and put whatever sauce on top of it.

Lasagna you can also use zucchini as your noodles.

Miss Shell has an awesome Tuna cauliflower casserole recipe that my whole family loves (just type it in in the search bar, it will come up).

You can use cauliflower to make pizza crust. 

Oh Carrot fries are great too, cut your carrots into fry size and then salt, pepper, garlic, and roast them in the oven, they are so good. 

At the beginning I ate separate from my family, but then I got more creative and found ways to make just one meal and actually my hubby and son don't seem to miss our old way of eating. 

I make everything still the same. I just eat around it. Like you said...no noodles, no buns and such. 

http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/   has some great recipes that are family friendly.  I make a lot of her recipes and my husband loves them.  Skinnytaste.com also has a bunch of really inventive weight loss friendly recipes.  Pinterest is a great place to find recipes as well and you can turn almost any meal into weight loss friendly!

I will be the same way... I am a SAHM of 5 kiddos and have a surgery date of April 1st.  I will be pinning on pinterest to find some new ideas but also looking for ways to make their regular faves but pull out and alter my portion.  I do think I want to get the whole fam eating better but I want it to be a gradual positive experience.  Maybe 2x a week no carb meals and then increase that # as they become accepting.  I actually think they wont have too much probs as I am(WAS) the carb lover in the house!

 

We eat more simply now, but we pretty much all eat the same thing. I even make the occasional casserole with pasta and have some, BUT - it's whole grain, my serving is very, very small and I make sure I get in ALL of my protein regardless.

I can't eat beef, don't eat pork and eggs still bother Fred, so my day commonly looks like this:
Breakfast - 1/2 cup oatmeal with 1/2 scoop of whey mixed in
Lunch - 1/2 cup bean soup with slice of high protein/fibre toast
Snack - protein shake with at least 25g protein
Supper - grilled fish with 1/4-1/3 c steamed veg
Snack - Greek yogurt with a sprinkle of All Bran

There are times when lunch needs to be eaten on the run. I keep baby bel cheese, tuna kits, RTD shakes and Quest bars on hand so I don't just grab "whatever" as I head out the door.

We also travel quite a lot (spent January in New Brunswick helping with new grand baby, just got back from Mexico, are headed out to Victoria for a weekend next month...) so I keep easy travel food available - dry bean soup packets, instant oatmeal, Quest bars, tuna kits, RTD shakes, 100ml Greek yogurt cups etc.

After awhile this isn't some oddball "diet" - its just the way you eat. Small portions, protein, water and fibre watched carefully, minimal crap carbs.

My family is totally on board with the things I eat. They would never have considered it before but they have found everything to taste good and to be very satisfying. I cook a lot with ground turkey instead of beef but I don't avoid beef, just find that the protein/fat ratio on turkey to be better for weight loss. I eat a lot of steak and salad. Here are a few ideas and you can find recipes for this and other stuff on low carb recipe sites and some are on my blog listed in my signature.

Taco Casserole

Turkey Chili (take 25 mins to make, on my blog)

Thai Lettuce Wraps (on my blog)

Zucchini Lasagna

Ground Sirloin Hash (ground sirloin, fresh chopped carrots, fresh chopped celery, spinach, garlic, ****aki mushrooms all saute'd together) you could add anything else you like to this as well.

Steak, Filet, Chicken, Salmon, Lean Pork  - any of these on the grill with a mixed green salad (check out Annies Naturals Gingerly Lite dressing - very good)

I have not had a lot of luck with chicken (it makes me vomit 80% of the time) but buffalo chicken dip goes down pretty good, there is a good low carb crock pot recipe for it on http://www.skinnytaste.com/

Elina_7 has a bunch of good recipes on her blog I particularly recommend her green chicken soup not only for your puree'd stage but also all the time, its really good.

I spend a lot of time on pintrest, youtube and just searching low carb sites. I think you will find your family jumps on board quickly. I do add to the recipes I find so depending on the type of cook you are, you will know what you and your family like flavor wise and what to add/remove from a recipe to make it good.

tell me the recipe for cauliflower pizza crust??

Spaghetti w/ Spaghetti squash ( for me), noodles for others

Salmon --(my daughters favorite). We just lightly coat w/ olive oil and lemon pepper and bake. She could eat this every night. So we are both happy.

I love the Taylor Made Salads from Sam's... Just add meat.