What do you feed your children whilst low carbing?

[kazzawazzawoo]

We've been low carbing for a while now on and off. It works well for weight loss for myself and dh.

However my dd aged 13 is quite picky about food, a bit of a carb monster in fact.

What do you feed your children? She doesn't like fish or chops or curry. In fact she isn't keen on meat really except mince.

I don't want to cook separate meals but I'm fed up of her not eating, pulling a face when she sees what we're having and then being hungry at bedtime.

To make things more difficult we are on a very tight budget of approx £60 per week to include lunch for myself and dh.

Grateful for suggestions and mealplans. Thanks.

[HippyTea]

Personally I'd cook her the same as you but serve a small portion of carbohydrate with hers. Its difficult when a child claims to not enjoy something and it might be genuine (I genuinely hated meat and veg as a kid) but I'm glad my parents were persistent with it as living off carbs only just dooms you to ill health.

[kazzawazzawoo]

At the age of 13 dd now spends her pocket money on crisps sweets and the like, so i try to keep her salt and sugar intake low, but it's difficult.

When she was younger she would eat anything, but these days she's picky, although mainly about meat.

[HearMyRoar]

You do have to hunt about for a lower salt one, they are really variable. We have the added complexity that dd is oat intolerant. We go for the aldi ones as they don't have oats and as dd has a pretty low salt diet most of the time (except the ham, i realise!), I don't sweat it too much. Even with a couple of crisp bread she is within the recommended amounts.

Dd loves tomatoes, she will eat big ones like apples :)

[kazzawazzawoo]

How much salt is there in crispbread? Dd doesn't really like toast or bread, not tried her with crispbread.

She does love cherry tomatoes.

[HearMyRoar]

I can sympathise with you on having a child who doesn't like eggs! Me and dh love eggs but it is pretty much the only thing dd had always consistently refused to eat since she was weaned. She is only 2 and gets a bowl of cereal when she gets into nursery so I didn't want to give her cereal at home to.

I have started going a bit continental with her and doing a sort of cold platter. This morning she had a bit of ham, a few cherry tomatoes, some grapes, some crispbread and some sugar and salt free peanut butter.

It's super quick to chuck some stuff on a plate and I have noticed she snacks less in the morning when she has this breakfast compared to when she had a bowl of cereal so it must be filling her up.

[kazzawazzawoo]

Yes I don't mind her eating carbs, just think she would eat only carbs if I let her! So if we have salmon and veg I would make pasta and veg for her but then she needs some kind of sauce too and I end up opening a jar because I don't want to cook that from scratch as well. .. But I'd rather she didn't eat food out of jars/cans ..

We have a problem at breakfast time too, as she doesn't like eggs. She would like baked beans or tinned rice pudding for breakfast, but I'm worried about the amount of salt and additives she's getting through such things, but when I've got to get to work I don't have time to mess around. She'd happily eat no breakfast!

[BrokenStar]

I do sometimes cook separate meals as ds is a pasta fiend. I'm not really low carbing, just don't eat huge volumes of carbs as hate that over full feeling.
Mostly though I just substitute part of a meal. So if I'm having salmon, spinach and veg ds will have rice instead of spinach. If we're having meat I'll have mine with veg or salad, ds will have rice or potatoes, that kind of thing.
Am also on a budget so I look out for deals, buy lots and freeze. Tesco had salmon fillets half price this week so I bought 6 and froze them.
Children do need more carbs than us as their bodies need more energy for growth and they usually expend more energy than adults too.