Need inspiration/motivation to get whole family eating more healthily.

[respectdue]

I am desperate to get organised with my shopping and menu planning! I want to be one of those organised mums who shops once a week and always has a plan of what the family is going to eat. atm we tend to shop everyday and always struggle to decide what to cook, usually we end up going for convenience foods.
After a lifetime of being slim dd (10) is starting to get a bit of a tummy, and both dh and I could do with losing a few pounds.

It is a bit of an extra challenge for us to find easy, healthy, family meals. I want to steer clear of dairy and gluten (ds has autism and I think it doesn't suit him and anyway its nearly all empty sugar/carbs). That in itself isn't too bad but I have a food sensitivity that means tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, aubergines (nightshade family) make my psoriasis flare up. With so many low fat family friendly recipes containing tomatoes it's a real nightmare.
But possibly the main problem is that I am not 'the cook' in our house, dh is. He does the shopping too and is fantastic at cooking but with running our own business and the extra demands of ds' SN we usually do not eat anywhere near as healthily as we would like. I want to take control and make a plan but it's hard to do especially as I am nowhere near as good a cook as dh is!
So, inspiration for organising myself and for fail safe, crowd pleasing, healthy recipes without gluten, dairy or nightshades please!

Oh thats a lot of dietary considerations, I'm not surprised you're struggling OP.

There's a great blog somewhere with 'free from' recipes but I cant think what it's called! I'll try to find it for you.

This was it (sorry can't link as on mobile) www.theintolerantgourmet.com/journal/2013/4/29/chickpea-bread-gluten-free-vegan-dairy-free-egg-free-yeast-f.html

When googling though I found loads of sites. Good luck OP.

As we're coming up for the warmer months I would suggest you go the route of lean grills with salad or steamed vegetables on the side. Quick, healthy and less complicated than ready-made foods.

Could be straight pieces such as fish steaks, chicken breasts, pork chops, home-made burgers etc or you could be a little more creative, dice up the protein element and grill it on skewers. For flavour, try various rubs and herbs. Cut back on salt as that tends to give people 'tummies'. The vegetable/salad part can be tweaked for you so that it doesn't contain the vegetables you have allergies to but added to everyone else's plate so that they are getting a broader choice. Rather than potatoes as the starch element, try brown basmati rice, cous-cous, quinoa or steamed squash. All very quick and healthy

That does sound challenging. Cog's ideas sound perfect.

Other thoughts:

Risottos/pilaffs/kegeree with whatever veg in or meat/fish. Smoked mackerel with broccoli, leeks and peas is lovely. As is roasted squash with bacon and peas. Or chicken, mushroom & broccoli. etc etc.

Pulses? eg Dahl with rice and greens

Mashed swede is a great substitute for potato. You can use it to top a cottage pie or to go with sausages & veg or to go with a roast, we like roast pork with mashed swede, green veggies & gravy.

Eggs? Frittata with salad? You could serve potatoes on the side for the rest of the family. I am partial to onions, broccoli, mushrooms and peas in mine, but really any veg/fish/bacon etc is nice. The lack of cheese is a shame but you could experiment with non dairy cheeses like goats or feta.

Vegetable stirfrys with rice/quinoa/buckwheat with meat/omelette strips/cashews in?

Two books spring to mind Fay Ripley's family food, lots of her food is gluten free and Phil Vickory's gluten free for kids. Both should be available from the library.

Another thought - is it wheat gluten or all gluten that you are excluding? If just wheat gluten then you could also experiment with pearl barley - great in stews or as a rice alternative in risotto. Also, Sainsburys now do a wholegrain spelt spaghetti that is 100% spelt, so that may be of interest to you. Obv spelt is related to wheat so you may want to do a bit of reading before trying.