Hi,

When we move out of my mother-in-law's home, I plan on feeding my family exclusively South Beach Diet foods, I want to teach my family to live healthier life style and my 3 boys are ages 6, 3 and 1. My husband likes to eat pretty much anything but he doesn't like to eat FRESH fruits and vegetables. I am wondering how can I prepare meals with avoiding the fresh vegetables? Would canned vegetables be an acceptable alternative? My husband LOVES meat though so I know that this diet is good for him.

I do admit that I have started doing the South Beach Diet but it has gotten too expensive if I were to feed all 10 people in the household and no one is going to chip in so I have decided to wait until we live in our own place to start doing the South Beach Diet.

Hope to get some advices from you guys soon!

Thanks!
Kristen

Kristen,
It's great that you want to get your whole family on the SB plan. Starting your kids when they are young will get them used to eating a healthy diet, easier than trying to change bad habits later.
There's nothing wrong with canned veggies, although they will add sodium, and have less nutritional value than fresh or frozen. You have to be sure and read the ingredients, since sometimes they sneak nasty things like sugar in there too. They are still a better alternative than eating no veggies at all. Does your husband only like canned? This surprises me, as I find that fresh or even frozen veggies are superior in taste and texture. I suspect that maybe he grew up on canned and that's what he's accustomed to. It amazes me when people say they hate all veggies because there is so much variety I think anyone can find some that they will enjoy. It may be that once you start experimenting and introducing fresh veggies to the mix, you will convert him.
It takes some time for people to adjust to changes. After doing this for a year and a half, my kids now eat some things that they wouldn't go near at the beginning. They loooove turkey bacon. They now have no problem with ww pasta, tortillas, and brown rice. They really enjoy some of the smoothies I make, even though they may have (gasp!) cottage cheese in them. And they are still not great veggie eaters, but they eat way more of them than they did before.
Be sure and check out the recipes - there are so many good ideas there. Good luck with your plan!

Hello,

I do not expect to get the kids to follow STRICT SBD foods but I do want to encourage it at lunch times and dinner times and etc, u know? I would prefer that they follow it just the same way that I do but I can't really expect that if they're going to school and things like that. :-)

As for my husband, yes he was raised on canned veggies just like I was and I actually sometimes do prefer canned veggies over frozen, frozen tastes a bit too watery. Fresh is a different story. I have gotten him to get used to some of the fresh vegetables but not all of them yet but I am still trying to add them to the diet and etc.

Hmm, smoothies with cottage cheese? I suspect that Cottage Cheese is something I need to get used to. Because my mom is on the Atkins Diet and she eats cottage cheese with jello for dessert at nights and I admit that it looked appealing to me at first but when I first took a bite of it, Im like, UGH! But the more as I ate it, it's not SO bad, you know?

II truly am looking forwards to changing our eating life style.. I do know it would be a TRULY good thing for all of us and I know I will feel so much happier doing this. :-)

Thanks for your response.

bump

Kristen, glad to see you here! I think it's wonderful that you're interested in helping your family eat healthy.

You might try using fresh veggies in things like soup or casseroles (like the Taco Bake and Chicken Divan). They'll be much more like the consistency of canned, so your husband may like them more.

One of the ways I learned to like veggies was on pizza. Put some good sauce and cheese and a yummy crust and you hardly notice the veggies. (trust me, I was NOT a veggie eater before I buckled down and forced myself to learn while starting SBD) You can use the whole wheat crust from Boboli or make your own--there are some places that make them, too, in different local areas. Make sure the sauce is sugar-free (SF). I love using Ragu's Pizza sauce in a jar...it's just enough, tastes great, and is SF! Use lowfat mozzerella cheese (part-skim) and consider adding some turkey sausage or turkey pepperoni to it for the taste. Yum!

You might want to read the How To Eat More Veggies When You Hate Them All!!! thread. In it, I tell how I learned to love veggies and also mention a great book written about how to add veggies to food so your kids (big and small...) won't even know. I just got a copy of it from my library and am looking forward to trying some if it, even though I like veggies now. You may also find some good information on what veggies are most nutritional in the Best Veggies to eat... thread, though I'm not sure your husband would like all of them at first.