I know we’ve got many husbands and fathers on T-Nation that have to compromise with the family at meal time or do you. Do you fix your own food and the rest something different or does everyone eat the same thing…its just definitely protein based. Do you mix it up or is it the same ole, same ole.
My house…its seems to the be same thing over and over and I’m here to get some meal plans or ideas from those with family. My kids are 9 and 5, boy and girl, respectfully. We workout in the early evening…so what are some good family ‘post workout’ meals you and/or your wife like to fix for the family?
I don’t have a family but one of my favorite meals to make while babysitting is the “make your own mini pizzas” meal. English muffins, sauce, part-skim mozzerella, and whatever fixins you like. It’s easy enough for me to just substitute a low-carb tortilla for the english muffin for me, put ham and pineapple or veggies or something healthy (Shugs had a red/green pizza recipe for ideas), and go easy on the cheese. Everybody gets exactly what they want and how much they want, so everybody’s happy. Plus kids love stuff they can “make.” And one pan for everybody, so easy clean up.
[quote]theAnj wrote:
I don’t have a family but one of my favorite meals to make while babysitting is the “make your own mini pizzas” meal. English muffins, sauce, part-skim mozzerella, and whatever fixins you like. [/quote]
Wow!!! I haven’t made one of those since high school, I would always make 4 mini pizzas, (2 muffins) after coming home from school, and I’d make sure to put extra cheese!!! Its a great snack than an actual meal.
One of my best friends has 3 kids who are notoriously picky eaters, and one of the few things they all actually like is her “diet coke chicken.” It sounds really weird, but it tastes great. She got it from a weight watchers recipe book.
Throw in a crock pot on low for a few hours:
-1 can diet coke (I’d use the splenda sweetened one now that we know how bad heating up aspartame is)
-1 cup ketchup
-bunch of thawed chicken breasts
At the end you can take some liquid out and thicken it up a bit with a little flour (whole wheat if you like) or corn starch, just whisk it in and bring it to boil in a saucepan, stirring constantly.
Add chicken and sauce to brown rice or whole wheat couscous, with a side of steamed veggies.
Rice cookers are wonderful things for busy families. Couscous are too because they’re super fast if you don’t feel like making rice.
The diet coke chicken really does taste good, I swear.
[quote]aznt0rk wrote:
theAnj wrote:
I don’t have a family but one of my favorite meals to make while babysitting is the “make your own mini pizzas” meal. English muffins, sauce, part-skim mozzerella, and whatever fixins you like.
Wow!!! I haven’t made one of those since high school, I would always make 4 mini pizzas, (2 muffins) after coming home from school, and I’d make sure to put extra cheese!!! Its a great snack than an actual meal.[/quote]
Yeah, these can be made with low-carb tortillas too or pita slices.
And what about tacos? My 3 siblings and I loved these because we could all leave out whatever weird thing we didn’t like. Easy to substitute the low carb tortillas for these too, or make a taco salad w/out the shell and more lettuce. Heavy on the avocado (or add olives), light on the cheese and sour cream. Good to go!
My mom always bought the really cheap superfatty hamburger, but she would drain the fat out of the pan, then actually fill the pan with hot tap water and stir it up and drain and repeat several times until most of the fat was gone from the burger. THEN she’d add the taco seasoning and reheat just a little. This definitely stretched the buck further and made it healthier.
For the whole family it is usually chicken, rice and vegetables. Keeping some chicken or sauces to the side. Kids usually like food plain. I vary flavor with spices and sauces for myself. Pretty boring and many times we just eat different meals.
Crock pot recipes are a good idea and easy. I also find my wife and child are more likely to actually eat meat that way unless flavor is too strong.
I worry less about everyone eating the same thing as long as we eat together, combined prep time is not outrageous, and my childs meal is fairly healthy. Just find ways to make quick and healthy meals for your kids and eat what you want, and make lots of left overs.
Do not give up on trying the occasional new meal you think everyone will like, but do not stress about it either. I only eat centerd solely aroud pleasure for one meal a week or so, but of course I like my food to taste good as opposed to not.
I think it is really important to eat together as a family and it is less of a deal to eat the same thing. If you have 12 kids than a big pot of rice and beans may be your only option, but I only have one child. Most people have 2 or 3 children.
Why do you think fast food is so popular? Everyone orders what they want and it is quick and cheap. I refuse to live like that.
Hopefully others will have more helpful advice. Many of the healthiest people eat what others would consider as boring diets.
Not sure about post workout specifically, but I made turkey chili meatloaf tonight, and it is healthy and can be made in large quantity.
I got the original recipe from a Rachael Ray burger recipe ( Recipes| Rachael Ray ) which I also made a few weeks ago (was GREAT), but tonight I left out the cheese and converted it to meatloaf. This is the rough amount of ingredients I used tonight, but you can easily make it bigger.
1 lb ground turkey
oatmeal or WW bread crumbs, didn’t measure, maybe 3/4 cup
1 egg
1/2 onion, chopped fine
1/2 green or red pepper, chopped fine
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded, chopped fine
garlic
chili powder
cumin
splash of lime juice
red pepper or tabasco sauce
parsley
cilantro
2 spoonfuls tomato paste
Grated cheese if you wish (I omitted)
Mix well and bake in a bread pan, well geez, I don’t know… it’s in the oven right now and my oven sucks… maybe 45 minutes at 350 or so. That sounds good for meatloaf.
The RR site has a lot of carb-heavy recipes but her meat-based recipes are usually alterable to make pretty healthy, so I get a lot of stuff from her website.
Another quick meal is the rotisserie chicken you can get at the grocery store, they’re not expensive and can be pulled apart into a salad or sandwiches, so you only are responsible for peripherals or side dishes.
EDIT: Tonight I learned that if you are going to be working with jalapenos, take out your contact lenses FIRST!!! haha… ouch.
Oh I forgot to mention I recently bought Berardi’s Gourmet Nutrition cookbook. That has tasty and healthy stuff that’s not difficult. I highly recommend it!
Also, growing up my parents were very busy and we often had breakfast food such as waffles for dinner. They were whole grain and served with fruit and yogurt, and being growing kids with a high metabolism we never suffered from the carbs at night. Plus you mentioned it was PWO for your wife and yourself.
Another favorite for kids getting to be hands on and “make” dinner is kabobs. Cut up any kind of veggie and meat and let the kids make their own skewers with the stuff they like best. Works on the grill or the broiler.
I grill up dessert too right with dinner. Take a big gallon ziplock bag, throw in a bunch of sweet apple chunks (fuji works great, although pink lady are my favorite) and a can of beer and let them marinate overnight. Skewer up the apples and cook right with dinner. Beer apples are the best!
Generally I cook Steaks Brats ect. A lot of the time the Kids(1, 3, and 5) want to eat what dad is eating So I let them and throw in some steamed veggies, raw veggies. For the most part my kids will eat anything I put in front of them so they eat like me + a few extra “good” carbs. Once in a great while we have a fish stick, boxed Pizza, or chicken nugget night and I eat my steak or chicken breast.
Thanks for all the suggestions. My 5yr old will eat anything she sees me eat, but my 9yr old is one picky eater, but you put a steak and baked potato in front of him and he goes to town. Unfortunately, steak every night is out of the question. Lately at my house its been everyman for him/herself, but I would like to get back to eating as a family. I will definitely check out the book that was suggested.
When we do eat together, its mainly tacos, spaghetti, soups, and steak…but doing that does get old week after week. My wife grow up on meat and potatoes, while anything and everything was up for grabs at my parents house…I guess that’s where the difficulty comes into play on trying to decide for everyone while also creating some variety.
[quote]stretch67 wrote:
Thanks for all the suggestions. My 5yr old will eat anything she sees me eat, but my 9yr old is one picky eater, but you put a steak and baked potato in front of him and he goes to town. Unfortunately, steak every night is out of the question. Lately at my house its been everyman for him/herself, but I would like to get back to eating as a family. I will definitely check out the book that was suggested.
When we do eat together, its mainly tacos, spaghetti, soups, and steak…but doing that does get old week after week. My wife grow up on meat and potatoes, while anything and everything was up for grabs at my parents house…I guess that’s where the difficulty comes into play on trying to decide for everyone while also creating some variety.[/quote]
Your question is very pertinent for me. I have twin boys, who are 4 years old. My wife just mentioned that we have to stop preparing separate meals for them at dinner. I’m still working on this, but here’s a few suggestions I’ve tried for meals for the entire family:
-Hamburgers for all (buy the low fat burgers). The kids can have the bun, I don’t eat it with bread
-Spaghetti. I cook noodles for them, but have mine with spaghetti sauce. I cook the spaghetti sauce with low fat turkey or ground beef
-Crock pot recipes with chicken breasts (and cream of mushroom soup)
-Chicken noodle soup (homemade - boil some chicken with veggies)
These are just a few. It isn’t easy so keep us informed of your progress so we can learn together!
I make dinner for the family every night. I cook what my husband and the boys like to eat and then just mod it for myself.
One of their favorites is Sesame Chicken. really really easy
This is the basic recipe I use, I usually double it.
1/4 c. lemon juice
1/4 c. soy sauce
1 tbls. sesame oil
3 garlic cloves
6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 tsp. cornstarch
1/2 c. water
1/4 c. chicken broth
1/4 c. sesame seeds (optional)
In a large plastic bag, combine lemon juice, soy sauce, oil, and garlic. Add chicken and turn to coat. Let marinate for at least an hour, best if left in the refrigerator overnight.
Remove chicken from marinade and place on broiler pan; empty marinade into a small saucepan.
Broil chicken anywhere from 10 to 14 minutes, turning once, until juices run clear.
Add cornstarch, water, and broth to marinade in saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook for 2 minutes or until thickened.
I serve the chicken on rice with some sauce overtop and sprinkled with sesame seeds. I usually serve either steamed broccoli or green beans with this. I cook up some shredded cabbage to replace the rice for me and the boys have started eating that too.
Hope it helps, it’s really fast and goes over well with kids.
Marvel Girl your Sesame Chicken sounds great and I will try that.
We always had something in the crockpot when I was growing up.
Mom also would have a bag of shredded chicken that we could take some out and mix it with what ever we wanted, soy sauce, BBQ sauce, avocado, whatever so that was an easy go to.
We also liked her curried carrots so there was pretty much always cooked curried carrots in the fridge.
Egg salad is easy and you can just keep a mass of hard boiled, peeled eggs in the fridge ready for mashing or just eating.
another thing is mini meatloafs cooked in a muffin tin. When we were kids we could put in our own stuffing to have our special meatloaf (cheese, olives, bbq sauce, again… whatever!)
and I still do a lot of that stuff now. Freezing extras is easy.
another thing is mini meatloafs cooked in a muffin tin. When we were kids we could put in our own stuffing to have our special meatloaf (cheese, olives, bbq sauce, again… whatever!)
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That is a fantastic idea, thanks OG! (no kids here but a dietic-ly ADD husband with a monstrous appetite, I swear, that man would eat a cow if it showed up in our living room, but he would want every bite to taste different, I wish Willy Wonka had a meat factory cause it would solve all my problems
[quote]300andabove wrote:
Also reccomend PN[/quote]
I made that cabbage/asparagus casserole a bit ago and the ingredients look freaking weird but it’s so good; and the chai oatmeal… all I can say is it is so cool that he incorporates protein powder in his recipes, especially breakfast stuff that’s traditionally carb-sugar-ey.
And one pan for everybody, so easy clean up.
Plus you mentioned it was PWO for your wife and yourself.