What do you feed your children while you are on Atkins?!?
I have 4 children at home, and I was wondering for those of you who are experienced Low-Carbers, do you have any suggestions for meals for your children?
I have started buying Low Carb bread and making sandwiches...but that gets old after awhile. Of course we have leftovers, and more leftovers. But if anyone has any new and wonderful suggestions, I would love to hear them!
Well, I certainly can't claim to ba an old pro at the Atkins WOE but, I think I can help out with the kids. I have 4 of my own and I find that they eat pretty much the same things I eat. I only add some starches and fruit to there diets. I just keep fruit in the basket on the table and some real snacks in the pantry. They haven't seemed to suffer for it. There fav is family burger night. I fry the hamburger patties on the stove...that's a real mess. They get buns and real catsup, I get lettuce and Atkins catsup. You can even go gormet and add bacon, cheese and avocado. Good luck to you and remember that kids are troopers.
Well I just feed them what i eat, they get their starch from fruit and crackers, snacks they eat but I don't. Their Ped. said it was OK for them to eat low carb and good for them too, as long as they still get more carbs than me, but he was all for them not even having bread accept on every once in awhile. I don't even feed them the buns anymore, they never ate is anyway it was a waste of money.
My kids love the quiche that is in the LC recipe section.
Just a note a little off topic, as I am kidless, but my df would eat my Atkins dinners and stuff but add his own starch in the way of buns, rice, ice cream etc. Meals high in fat (such as my fried burgers) and high in carbs can be very detrimental to arteries and overall cholesterol and pretty much everything in your body (Hello, pizza is one of those foods, I should have known!). So just be wary of combining high fat atkins stuff with high refined carbs for the family. Df's blood came back absolutely dreadful and he's usually in the "healthy" range for everything. He's just eating what I'm eating now .
Ok my 2 cents done And good luck Caroline on the family meal challenge.
Tummy
My little girl does not like meat, so thats out. I feed her differently than I feed me and hubby who is also on atkins maintance. But, one good thing is I give her the veggies we are eating and she will taste them, she won't eat them but she will taste them. She also likes salad.
When I get home at night, its usually a quick meal for all, she's very picky so its usually a light pizza, maybe ckn nuggets, pasta, cereal, yogurt, fruit. What ever she is in the mood for.
I do not like to give her any Low Carb pre packaged foods because I am afraid to give her the chemicals that are in it (such as ice cream, yogurts, etc.. you know what I'm talking about).
I have 2 girls-if they want something I can't have (or don't want--like pizza, tacos or tomato soup) I just make that for them and then make myself a salad and something else (venison or a steak). They're super skinny (the doc said one of them is almost TOO skinny) so I'm not worrying about carbs and starches as of yet. Hubby is doing Slim Fast so he makes his own supper (usually a sandwich). So we usually have 3 meals going at once. lol Makes my life interesting! lol
my dd eats the same as dh and i do. i still fix really lean meat. i just make pasta and additional veggies that we don't get for her to have also. she loves refried beans. she absolutely loved the spinach quiche that i made friday night. i used a dozen eggs, 1 lb block of cheddar, 16 oz frozen spinach, and a tiny can of mushrooms. i baked it at 350 for about 40 minutes. i rarely use recipes. i have a bad habit of just throwing things together that i think will go well together. she loved it so much that she didn't want her grilled chicken, which she usually devours. she even wanted some for breakfast the next morning. we'll definitely be seeing that dish again soon!
I don't have any kids, but most likely will in the future. The plan is to feed them according to what I've learned from this WOL. That means whole grains, some fruit, lots of veggies, and staying away from refined sugars and flours as much as possible. I'm more interested in teaching them about healthy carbs so they don't have to go low carb to get healthy.
They eat differently from me - because my dh does too.
Neither my dh or my oldest (7yrs) can go without carbs. They almost pass out- literally it is a physical thing. But they don't eat sugar - b/c they don't like the taste. The baby is still very picky and she munches more than eats. She's a real tough one! But she loves pork rinds and will search for them in the cabinet if she can get the door open.
I have 3 girls, 14, 12 & 8 they eat what we do only with added starches, i bake fresh goodies for their lunch boxes with organic wheat flours, i tend to keep them off proceessed food and keep sugar to a minimum!
It's not too much bother to cook something for them three and another (based on the same theme!!) for us!
Most meals that my boys eat are the same with my WOE. Last night we had bake n shake chicken except I crushed up porkrinds and spiced them abit and then dredged the chicken through that instead of the coating mix. THEY NEVER KNEW!!! It was sooo good. Most nights I cook a basic meat, and veggies (then they have either potatoes or rice). Mexican is a good one as we all enjoy the spiced hamburger mixture on salad with sourcream and salsa/cheese. They sometimes have either a taco shell or a fajita roll up with that. We are not the ones to eat dessert very much unless it is a special occasion, so sf jello is about it or some fruit cocktail. Breakfast is where we do eat differently, they have a bowl of cereal/milk (10gr or less of sugar) or a bagel with cream cheese. Once in a while they have waffles and I have atkins pancakes with sf syrup. Often I have cream cheese/celery with them when they come in for an after school snack or ham rolled over a cheese stick.
They usually just eat the same as I do. I give them an extra vegetable or fruit that I usually can't have. Actually they have begun to eat much healthier snacks than when before I started this WOE. I truly think my youngest had a HEAVY sugar addiction. He would SHOVEL candy into his mouth for snack. Now it's apples or oranges. At least that is a little better!! Needless to say when it is sandwich night, they do have the bread and I just have the insides of the sandwich with a little cream cheese!
Thanks so much everyone! It has really been helpful. My children are really good about eating what I serve them...there are some things that they don't like, but usually they are troppers!
Spedmom~ You are too funny!
Star ~ I agree with you. I think that it is wise to start them out with adequate information about proper nutrition.
angel-eyes, LoriAs, and others whom I cannot remember ~ Thanks for the great ideas, I will be using them!!!!
Just as a positive note ~ my 7 y.o son is super sensitive to refined flours and sugars, and I can tell that he struggles with hyperactivity and inattentiveness when he has eaten such things. Well, since I have been cutting out all of those, with the occassional (read:monthly) sugary snack or treat...his attentiveness has increased, his concentration is wonderful, and his activity is calming down. So....it has been a positive influence on our family!
I will have to search and find some recipes that the kids will love. Although they would probably eat hamburgers every day of the week. lol