Please share your healthy family meals

[ChickenFriedMice]

I've always been overweight. Now my DH and DC's are following in my footsteps. In fact one of them, if I'm honest, is just plain fat

I've ordered large side plates to replace our current massive dinner plates and smaller bowls too as the DC pile theirs high with cereal. We all have large appetites so I'm looking for healthy and filling.

We've developed a bit of a pudding habit over the past year. I've been quite ill and I think I've been giving in to sweet treats as a way of making up for being a crappy parent. I feel so guilty that my habits are being passed on to them all.

The only major dislike we have is mushrooms and there are several dietary requirements due to allergies but I'm used to adapting recipes.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

have a look at the change4life website ( link ) there are loads of healthy recipes on there, and if you like, you can sign up to receive emails with recipes and offers x

tbh I'd keep cooking the things you like - but make the plate half veg, one third carbs (we need carbs but typically portions are far far too large) and one third protein.

Try and eliminate processed food as much as possible because these usually hide loads of sugar - cereal is disastrous. Get rid of it or at the least replace with the lowest sugar ones (eg weetabix, shreddies). Have eggs, porridge, toast with toppings such as avocado, peanut butter, fish for breakfast. Also things like flavoured yogurt, pre-made pasta sauces are stuffed with sugar.

Eat what everyone likes but a healthier version with lots of veg or salad on the side.
For puddings, have fruit with or without yoghurt or a bit of ice cream occasionally.
Some of our favourite meals are
Chicken curry with rice and salad
Dahl or veg curry with rice
Grilled chicken or peri peri drumsticks with homemade potato wedges and veg
Pasta made with veg and tomato sauce
Stir fry noodles with lots of veg and sometimes chicken.
Shepherds pie with grated veg mixed in
Chicken and veg casserole
Home made kebabs in pitta bread with salad or home made burgers

Half veg could be a challenge with one of the DC (ASD) but it sounds a good plan. The rest of us enjoy veg.

I've become so reliant on pasta bakes and such. I've lost my cooking mojo since being ill. I might start roping them in to help in the kitchen more.

Kebabs sound great, lean chicken and lamb pieces shouldn't be too bad calorie wise.

Fruit and yoghurt will be a good pudding especially if it's berries.

We have 6 children. They're aged from 5-18. And there's us, too, we are overweight (pair of piggies here) and need to lose a bit but we're doing this by changing our eating habits. We got into a very good routine before Christmas and were losing just by dint of eating more normally. Getting back to it now the children are going back to school.

Some ideas of changes we have made:

Stir fry - doesn't go down very well at all!

We've tried to replace "normal" foods with extra veg - courgetti carbonara / spiralised veg in place of pasta, or half and half.

Big salads once a week - I figure the children will eat anything in mayo so we chuck in as many veg as possible - cucumber, cherry tomatoes, spring onions, red and yellow peppers, radishes, celery, lemon juice, seasoning and use low fat mayo. It's always a winner. Pair it with protein or a jacket potato.

Mayflower curry from home bargains for a gorgeous veg and potato curry. It goes down very well with the children too.

Don't use oil to cook.

Make sure you plan out breakfast, lunch and dinner and a pudding after dinner for everyone every week - saves money this way too.

Only have fruit as snacks. (Or "proper" corn - the sweet and salty one is a wickedly yummy snack when you're craving sweetness!)

Don't snack in the evenings and mind your portion sizes, what we consider portions for the kids have turned out to be adult sized for the most part - so we have downsized the adult portion sizes and the kids too!
My 12 year old girl (very fussy) gets the same amount on her plate as my 5 year old.

When it comes to children remember less is more, it's better to ask for more than have too much on their plates and get overfaced.

Try new foods every week to discover different tastes.

Great idea on the side plates and the bowls - we use the Ikea kids stuff for the smaller children for cereal and puddings as they're great sizes.

Cereal for the kids is whatever is on offer, so it's usually crunchy nut cornflakes or shreddies or something and the odd box of krave.

We have Alpen or fruit and Greek yoghurt for breakfast - on a weekend we might have egg and mushrooms on toast or just egg on toast.

Have switched over to 1 sweetener (from 3 sugars!) and I've managed to kick the Diet Coke/fizz habit just by buying myself a pretty travel cup and having a jug of squash ready whenever I want a drink.

It's great that you're doing this and I don't think it's ever too late. So long as you can plan and stick to it it's not too difficult and I personally can't stick to a "diet" as such so just being a bit more proactive is helping us loads.

Good luck and hope I haven't waffled on too much!

Oh - and actually ice lollies (not ice creams) are a great pudding. They're essentially sweet water - and the best thing about them is that they help to break down food in your tummy so if you've over eaten or whatever it'll help you to feel better! (Satsumas/oranges etc do this too)

pasta vbakes with hidden vegetable sauce. asd allowing

gradual changes, so more lentils in a bolognaise, and less meat, done gradually all but the autistic child should cope.

I have klucked out that the asd child wants proper dinners, (veg based) though drew the unlucky straw as no loonger eats his healthy packed lunches. school dinners only. I am preparing him for not doing this at secondary when it will be more expensive.

I try and tweak unhealthy meals to make them more healthy for example well make our own piri chicken, rice and salad instead of nandos, ill make home made kebab and chips using chicken breast fatfree yoghurt and spices and home made oven chips using potatoes and frylight rather than a take away.

I meal plan every week and try to include 7-10 portions of fruit and veg daily by splitting it

2 breakfast
1 midmorning snack
3 lunch
1 mid afternoon snack
3 dinner

Dont always manage everyday but dd does and splitting it down helps us

Try and eat as naturally as possible. Don’t buy anything from a jar! The sauces are hideous and full of crap.
Make yoour plate colourful. So mostly different types of vegetables or salady stuff with some protein and a very small portion of carbs.
Don’t double carb.
But remember to treat yourself once a week.

As others have suggested, don't base your meals around carbs (eg mainly pasta with a bit of veg or mainly meat/potatoes with a little veg etc).
And treat cheese, cream, butter as an occasional treat rather than a regular part of meals.

Try:
Roast veg with wholemeal couscous
Veggie fajitas using wholemeal wraps and salad
Sweet potato, carrot and lentil curry with wholemeal roti or brown rice
Veggie chilli (carrots, peppers and kidney beans) with brown rice and salad
Fish baked in foil or in tinned tomatoes served with any veg.

I haven't time or inclination to spend ages cooking so all of above are quick.

Also, sometimes kids ask for food out of boredom or (dd's tactic) to delay bedtime. Fruit or veg (dd weirdly likes frozen peas!) is fine for in between meals. Just don't keep crisps, biscuits etc in the house if the kids are helping themselves (or hide them!).

mine like frozen peas too.

I like the bags of frozen berries for a pudding. If ypu let them defrost all the juices are there too so makes a nice sort of "sauce" drizzled 9ver yoghurt or topped with a bit of creme fraiche.

We are a healthy weight family. The DC and DH especially. We are all very active which helps. From a dietary perspective:
-We only have water on offer except on special occasions
-porridge, Weetabix or no added sugar muesli or eggs on toast for breakfast
-i meal plan and cook from scratch most days. We do have quite carb based meals as it is cheaper but I do include as much veg as possible. Favourites include carbonara, curry, roast chicken and mash, homemade pizza
-We don't snack except for fruit.
-We don't have pudding. Sometimes DC will have Greek yogurt with honey and banana but we got out of the habit of pudding and no-one asks anymore.

Baked or poached salmon, just cooked with lemon juice and/or pepper. Cooked veg or salad on the side. Half a baked potato (without the butter, if you can).
Salads once we are on the approach to summer. Salmon, chicken, prawns etc on a bed of green leaves with cucumber, tomato, olives, spring onion etc.
Omelettes, with a side salad. Each done separately, so can cater for taste eg peppers, mushroom for any that like them, onion, sweetcorn. Use half a baked potato again if needed! Or do savoury pancakes if that would have more appeal.