Flylady For Food!!!

[fiestabelle]

Hi

Title doesnt sound overly appetising I admit!! Having just read the ready meals thread, I have been inspired to make a real effort to improve my family's eating habits. None of us particularly need to lose weight, but notice that more and more of our meals are from the freezer into the oven type affairs, although I do try and serve with veg and/or salad. DS is 2.6, and a bit fussy but ideally I would like to have healthy meals on the go so that when he gets over this fussiness(I live in hope) he will be getting good wholesome, fresh food. I am no cook, but can follow a simple recipe. I have tried to make a start,

• learned to make Bolognese from scratch as we have this probably once a week,
• drink water instead of squash or fizzy drinks, stopped taking sugar in T,
• I have started to meal plan.

So, now I need some help. Idea is that I would like to make one change, every few wweeks over time, so that I gradually introduce us to a better way of eating, suppose re-training myself so that these new ways become a habit and my palate is educated to enjoy home cooked etc etc.

So, in the style of FlyLady baby steps what would be your suggestions to get the Fiestabelle Family on the rood to healthy eating????

Hi fiestabelle,

Your plan sounds like a good one!

May I point you in the direction of BBC good food where I find a lot of my recipes.

They are divided into sections, one being "easy", one "healthy" etc.

How about "try a new recipe" day, or "veggie Monday" or something?

Sorry, haven't got loads of ideas!

Sorry, should clarify, stopping sugar in T, and drinking water rather than squash not examples of what I consider "cooking" more examples of things I have done that have changed my taste, squash, fizzy drinks now taste horribly sweet, and couldnt drink sugar with T. Same for Bolognese sauce, always used to use Dolmio/Ragu type sauces but wouldnt dream of it now. Just to clarify

This sounds like a really good idea. We are currently trying one new recipe a week and it has been really successful. You could do it either on a 'skills' basis - for example, you want to learn how to make a white sauce so you make a lasagne- or on an 'ingredient' basis, eg, salmon is on offer at the supermarket so you do something different with salmon that week.

If you're eating a lot of ready made food and you want to make changes slowly, I'd start by picking out your favourite ready meals and mastering those as fresh meals. Inevitably, a you master a dish you develop it and find ways to make it healthier/tastier/whatever.

So, for example, if you often eat pre-prepared curries, search out a recipe that's easy for curry and try that to start with. You'll see what actually goes into it and then can adapt.

Also, I'd say investigate quick and easy recipes and see if you can master a couple of those. it's really handy to have a few quick and tasty and healthy meals you can pull out of the hat every day. I have a few soups and pastas in winter and a couple of salads/stir fry type things in summer that I haul out regularly, guilt free.

I'd say the simplest thing to do to eat healthy food, is to cut up fresh food into bite size pieces, say three or four different fruits, and put them on a big plate. When it's on the table, at snack time, it's bound to get eaten. Even my fussy ds who doesn't eat fruit as a rule, is very interested in the look of the fruit.

Another thing is to look at breakfast. A lot of cereals are mainly processed and sugary. Think about interesting breakfasts, starting with the fruit plate as above? Or pancakes with fruit on top?

I shall be watching this thread for meals ideas though, I'm not very inspired!

Hi

Thanks so much for replies, exactly the kind of thing I am looking for!! Might do the curry one, as we have curry fairly often, usually cook chicken, beef whatever, with onions, peppers and whatever other veg, but then add a jar of saucE, if I could learn to make the sauce myself hopefully would go the same route as the Bolognaise (sp??) and after a while I will just automatically make it myself.

Breakfast, thats another good one, atm I have T and toast with marmalade, day in day out, could maybe change that to porridge, or even make an effort with scrambled eggs for eg at weekend.

Prifterole Thief, my menu plan is v. similar to yours, have worked out a "type" of meal for each day,

Mon - baked pots
Tue - pasta
Wed - pork chops, saus, gammon steak etc etc
Thu - Mince dish
Fri - Fish
Sat - "exotic" night ie curry, chinese etc but not takeaways except as a treat
Sun - roast type of thing

DS is pretty good with fruit, and likes veg, (strange boy) but wont eat a meal as such, ie doesnt like potatoes,meat, fish etc - so he might just have rice and veg, or pasta - we are working on it, trying not to stress as think they are quick to pick up on it and start to refuse food as they know it pushes your buttons!!