What are you dinner recipes? I have a husband and 3 kids(ages are 12, 6, and 5) My kids eat great, they will eat whatever I fix and put down in front of them and the love all kinds of veggies. I am starting to get bored with the stuff I am cooking. Its a lot of sautéed chicken, broiled veggies and mashed potatoes (my favorite) occasional homemade pizza, and veggie soup. What are you favorite go to, regular meals that you fix for your family?
I love taco night!
It can be made easily calorie counter friendly with grilled up chicken lots of salsa and some diced up avacado. Yummy!!
I also like to make meat loaf with lots of chopped veggies inside.
Unfourtunatley I have to make different meals for myself, For my husband and then for my kids. I wish my 4 kids would eat what I put in front of them.
Lucky you. And Sorry I have no advice. But I looked forward to reading suggestions. I am getting alittle tired of my food I eat.
It's just me and my df, and I eat my own meals 90% of the time. That's not to say that I don't fix meals for him, including deserts and foods that I could not really eat. I find that it's good for me to learn how to control myself when those foods are around.
But as far as your own boredom, all I can suggest is trying to find ways to make all the foods you used to enjoy in new, healthy ways. Google is a good resource for recipes.
My family has jumped on the health band wagon with me. It was pretty easy to get them to follow along because my husband wants to stay "hooah" and I tell my son I don't run a restaurant. We eat as a famliy. Period. I have found fish to be an awesome, eat to cook meal. Tilapia, catfish, salmon...all awesome. Also...don't overlook steak. It's high in protein and, though kindof high in calories, if you forego the loaded baked potato on the side and go for asparagus and sauteed red onions and portabello mushrooms, isn't too bad. Any fish can be blackened with a bit of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and a blend of cayenne pepper, paprika, onion powder, black and white pepper, thyme, basil and oregano (go VERY easy on the salt). Stir fry is also a good option. I don't know what plan you're following, so I don't know if there are foods that you avoid like the plauge. If you want specific measurements and stuff -- feel free to PM me. Good luck!
I'd say get a fun cookbook. I love Cooking Light magazine (they have books too) and they give me new fun ideas to try to mix things up. I love roasted pork tenderloin and veggies, lots of fish dishes, casseroles... all kinds of stuff. I don't even necessarily use the whole recipe from the magazines, I just get new ideas to try, different ways to spice or make veggies, etc.
BTW, sounds like you did a great job with your kids, teaching them to try all kinds of veggies. I wish more parents did that.
Hey biker chick! Something I made tonight - pound chicken breasts til they're about 1/4 inch thick; heat some olive oil in a skillet and preheat oven to 350; in a bowl, smoosh together some reduced fat cream cheese, salt & pepper and some Italian seasoning (dried herbs in jar); spread the middle section of the chicken breast with the cream cheese; roll up and secure with toothpicks that you trim flush with the chicken; brown the chicken rolls in the hot oil; finish them in the oven for about 15 minutes. You can let them sit for about 5 minutes to finish cooking, while trying not to dry them out in the oven .
originally from Taste of Home, they rolled theirs in breadcrumbs but I cut that part out.
I want to experiment with making my own BBQ sauce that is low calorie, cause I love chicken strips with BBQ sauce in reduced carb wraps, with lots of shredded lettuce and veggies.
Whole wheat spaghetti, a small portion with a sauce that is way chunked out with extra veggies.
chicken parmie-type, cooked chicken breast in skillet with spagh. sauce and a small amount of cheese melted on top, with a b-i-g salad.
I do a lot of lean proteins -- fish, chicken, turkey -- either broiled, grilled, baked, or crock-potted (is that a word?). I'll fix a starchy side (pasta, mac and cheese, potatoes, rice) and veggies/salad. I just don't eat the starchy stuff or the bread, but fill up on the salad and veggies and lean protein. For a shortcut, I'll pick up a hot rotisserie chicken from the supermarket on the way home.
I also do taco night -- and I just make a salad out of it with no cheese and no tortilla. The kids like to assemble their own soft tacos the way they like it.
We'll do hamburger night, and I'll have a veggie burger instead.
I do a lot of do-ahead bulk cooking. I'll make an enormous pot of chili, and freeze dinner-size portions for later. I buy boneless pork loin when it's on sale, cook it in the crock pot on a weekend, shred it, and freeze portions. Re-heated with barbeque sauce, it makes awesome sandwiches, and it's really quick.
Here's one of my go-to quick/easy dinners that my family loves. Cook 2 (dry measure) cups of egg noodles according to package directions. Drain the water and add 1 can cream of chicken soup, 1 can chicken broth, 1 can chicken (or leftover diced cooked chicken), 1 cup cheddar cheese. Heat until bubbling hot and serve. You can add veggies, omit the cheese (or add more), add a cup of sour cream, use any creamy soup and/or use fat-free versions of any ingredient. Spice it up with garlic/pepper or anything you like. I always have the ingredients on hand and it's dinner on the table within 30 minutes. I usually cook this for the boys, and have something leftover (and low cal) for myself, because of all of the carbs in the noodles.
My whole family has had a change of lifestyle and since Nov 30 we have lost over 125 total. I make out a monthly menu for my family and since some of my kids are teens I let them choose what they want to eat and they have to cook it. We have found that taking some of our favorite things and changing them to make them healthy is easy to do.
One meal we love is lasagna. I do frozen spinach instead of meat. They love it.
I use a program called Recipe Cal (on download.com) it is free to try. You put all your ingredients in and how many it serves and you have all the info you need. I start with my old recipe and change it till I am happy with the out come.
There are several things we will never eat but now there are things that we eat that we had not tried before. There are several site that I get recipes from and several cook books but for me I love trying new things.
I usually make a big pot of soup that lasts for a good portion of the week. It's a great starter, filling and healthy and a big "chunk" of my meal is over and done with.
Soups that I make:
Butternut Squash
Red Lentil
Mushroom Onion Barley
Tomato Cabbage Barley
Roasted Garlic Chunky Vegetable Soup
Chicken Soup, this is usually the whole meal. I serve it with all the soup chicken and veggies that I used to make the soup - parsnips, carrots, sweet potatos, zucchini and celery.
Then there's a protein -
Baked Salmon with Roasted Pecans and Honey
Terriyaki Salmon
Salmon with garlic, lemon and Parley
Lemon Chicken
Chicken Marsala
Chicken with Spaghetti Squash, peppers, mushrooms, onions and marinara sauce
Chicken with Spinach and Mushrooms
Grilled chicken with various different spice combinations
Roasted Chicken - cooked till it falls off the bone - SOO good
Roasted Turkey Breast, cooked with carrots and celery
Then there's LOTS and LOTS of vegetables, I'm talking an enormous amount
-
Roasted Cauliflower
Roasted Green beans
Roasted Brussel sprouts
Roasted Asparagus
Roasted Turnips
Butternut or Acorn Squash
Roasted Broccoli
I also do a taco night. Huge amounts of cut up "salad veggies", chicken breast seasoned with Taco Seasoning. I myself eat the salad with the chicken and I crumble up 1/2 a taco shell. The family usually puts their "stuff" right into the shell. We then use Taco sauce on top.
Last edited by rockinrobin; 03-25-2009 at 08:51 AM.
I refer to a lot of food blogs for ideas for chicken and fish. I buy big bags of frozen chicken from the store, and I totally understand your woes about how boring it is to mix it up!
Now, some of these blogs I use are not *calorie counter* blogs, so I have to sort of look up the ingredients and make educated guesses. One of my favorites is here:
I don't count points since I'm not on WW, but you'll find a lot of her recipes to be low calorie as well. Also, she has so many wonderful ideas for chicken and fish. My seven year old daughter and annoyingly skinny boyfriend are no longer moaning about redundant chicken dinners since I started putting her recipes to use.
Sometimes I have to make myself a separate dinner. Often I cook my husband a hearty meal (his weight & cholesterol are good) and based on how many calories I want to use, I just eat a couple of items... say the meat & veggies, but I'll forgo the potatoes and bread.
If I'm cooking something I love, I'll save calories for it or have a very small portion (like hot wings). There are a few things I love so much that we just can't have it very often... like brownie sundaes!
So I guess the short answer is plan, plan, plan....
I totolly eat different then my family( I too have hubby & 3 kids)
They didn't wanna be on the diet with me....So I look for different things for me all the time and make them the same things I always did.
Maybe for you ~You could try boca burgers~They are yummy
Or maybe a different type of chicken~that helps sometimes~Or a different type of soup~or different side dishes~Or maybe even some different toppings on your pizza or a new low calorie snack to make you feel like your changing but not a drastic change.
My husband is very picky. He gets bored of chicken very fast and I, unfortunately, do not like anything that comes out of the water to eat, so I normally have to save most of my calories for dinner. I do try and buy the leanest cuts of meat and load up on lots of veggies instead of carb sides for dinner. Right now my favorite recipes for dinner are
TERIYAKI CHICKEN
4 chicken breasts
1/4 c soy sauce
1/4 c honey
1/8 c white vinegar
1 1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp ground allspice (I didn't add this because I didn't have any)
Preheat oven to 375. Combine soy sauce, honey, vinegar, paprika, cayenne pepper, allspice and pepper in a shallow baking dish; mix well. Pierce both sides of each chicken breast with a fork. Place in baking dish; turn chicken several times using tongs. Bake chicken, basting several times with sauce, for 30 min. I also turn the broiler on for the last 5 min of cook time. Serve over rice or chill breasts and slice into thin strips for chicken salads or wraps.
Heat oven to 425 and cut chicken into 4-6 oz pieces.
Cook bacon in microwave for only one minute
Sprinkle chicken with S&P
Wrap each piece of chicken with one slice of bacon
Sprinkle with rosemary
Bake 15 min then reduce heat to 375 for another 15 min. Broil last 5 mins if you like your bacon more crisp.
I hope your family will enjoy them as much as mine does.
ATTN: Calorie counters with family
Something I made tonight - pound chicken breasts til they're about 1/4 inch thick; heat some olive oil in a skillet and preheat oven to 350; in a bowl, smoosh together some reduced fat cream cheese, salt & pepper and some Italian seasoning (dried herbs in jar); spread the middle section of the chicken breast with the cream cheese; roll up and secure with toothpicks that you trim flush with the chicken; brown the chicken rolls in the hot oil; finish them in the oven for about 15 minutes. You can let them sit for about 5 minutes to finish cooking, while trying not to dry them out in the oven . 
with a sauce that is way chunked out with extra veggies. 
