[Brian.M3606]

Do you find yourself cooking two different meals, one for you and one for the rest of the family?

OK, so I try to follow a low carb, lean protein diet with good portion control. Not too much of a problem since I do the majority of the shopping and cooking.

The biggest problem I've run into is that my SO and kids don't like the stuff I eat so I end up making two meals, one for me, one for them.

Anyone else run into this?

Brian

[Penny]

Brian, since my husband retired, he does most of the cooking. He still will not shop, but seems to enjoy cooking. He worried about fixing meals I could eat and the rest of the family liked. I just told him fix the meals we normally have and I would serve myself the things I could eat, and itf it wasn't enough, I could always make something else to go with it. He makes spaghetti or rigatoni at least once a week, something my BS will not tolerate. Since he makes it with roundsteak (once in awhile meatballs), I just take my share of the meat with a little sauce and add more veggies and a salad. I don't mind at all. If I am low enough and he has made potatoes, I take a small amount, the same with other pasta or rice dishes. Most of the time, I just fill my plate with more veggies and a serving of meat, and skip the rest. It bothers my husband more than it bothers me that I cannot eat everything the family does.

[princesslinda]

Hubby eats the way I eat at home, we only cook one meal. If we're going out to dinner, I choose low carbs, he has whatever he wants. We avoid Itgalian Restaurants, as there aren't many choices for me there. If we want spaghetti, we have the Dreamfield's brand that we can BOTH enjoy.

On thing your SO may not be thinking about is that since you have diabetes, your children now have a family history of it and could be at risk later in life. What better time than now to implement healthy family habits that may keep them on a diabetes-free path throughout their life.

There are lower-carb options for most things I used to enjoy. We still have burritos, only now its on the low-carb ones, same with fajitas. I buy double-fiber bread/buns when we have burgers and substitute sweet potatoes for baked potatoes.

Explain to your children that you need to eat healthier and it would help you eat healthier if everyone tried to eat things at home that you could eat safely w/o causing blood sugar problems. Tell them they can have their treats when you eat out. You'll all live healthier that way.

[volleyball]

I do all the holiday meals for my family. I do most of it for me along with some extra's I don't eat. And they keep coming back. Well I do make the juiciest turkey ever.
So you should have no problem at home. There will always be some holdouts, my daughter jumped in on most whole grain stuff but pasta was tough for several years, now she is coming around. you can make a low carb dinner and cook up the "bad " items separately and they can add them to their plates as desired.
Anything they want not on my menu results in effort on their part and this means they usually go along and if something really is not to their liking, they have the option of changing it. For the pasta, I'd cook a second batch as she really like most other things. But if she wanted rice, she'd have to cook that herself.

[matingara]

Originally Posted by volleyball

you can make a low carb dinner and cook up the "bad " items separately and they can add them to their plates as desired.

that is exactly what we do. the only difference is that if the girls are having rice or mashed potato - i will microwave a bowl of green beans or fava beans that i use as a substitute for the "bad stuff".



-- Joel.

[BrianSCohen]

Originally Posted by Brian.M3606

Do you find yourself cooking two different meals, one for you and one for the rest of the family?

This is so totally unfair. How come you get away with two meals and I have to prepare four. I follow low carb, my daughter is vegetarian, my son is hot doggian and my wife will eat what I eat, but it has to have carbs.

I do all the cooking and frankly getting home after battling traffic and getting dinner on the table in half an hour is a challenge.

The key seems to be prepare mass quantities of main entrees over the weekend, identify acceptable common side dishes and use lots of frozen items (particularly veggies).

As noted above a useful strategy is the component technique, preparing a meal in parts and letting everyone assemble their own. I prepare pasta, with sauce, meatballs, cheese and veggies all separate. Then my daughter has pasta with sauce and cheese, my son has pasta with sauce and meatballs, I have veggies, meatballs and cheese and my wife has the works.

[mazea]

I usually make recipes for my family from a book by Annette Syms. Here is the link Annette Sym's guide to achieving sustainable weight loss. My family that aren't diabetic love the pasta bake and zuccini recipe, indian curry recipe. I highly recommend it.