Feeding the Whole Family

[Atkid]

I know we had a thread last week talking about what we feed the others in the family who are not on Atkins. Does anyone think it would be possible to make like a section down in the recipe section or elsewhere that people could post menu ideas that are more appropriate to feed to both Atkineers and the rest of the family. Mainly I am thinking good menus that don't contain all the excess fats. It is just a thought seeing that we do want to keep the whole family eating healthy.

[killerbombshell]

Re: Feeding the Whole Family

Maybe this is just me, but it seems like there are already a million low-fat websites and cookbooks floating around that are easy to find. I don't want to get tempted or confused by browsing thru recipes that are low fat and not low carb on here!

[Atkid]

Re: Feeding the Whole Family

Understandable. But what I was thinking of was recipes that are definately low carb and lower fat content not necessarily low fat (since that wouldn't be atkins) . LOL! Okay now that I am thinkng of it you are right. Oh well, you have it much easier cause you only have to think of you to feed, where alot of people are thinking about dinner for the whole caput. Like I said was just a thought.

BTW! Sorry you patriots didn't make it all the way. Neither did my Tigers (Men nor Women) but at least they did all make it to the Final Four!

[Barbde]

Re: Feeding the Whole Family

Most of the time now they eat what I eat. I may add in a baked potato or some bread for the carb heads. But Meat & veggies are a staple. Today I made a huge pot of spaghetti sauce, they will have pasta I will have spaghetti squash. And side salads all around. Usually anymore it's just a little more "extras" for them. They are eating a lot healthier than they ever did, and liking it too!!

[Isabeau]

Re: Feeding the Whole Family

Ditto exactly what Barbde said in my family.

[Atkid]

Re: Feeding the Whole Family

[QUOTE=Barbde] they will have pasta I will have spaghetti squash. QUOTE]

Is it hard to make that spaghetti squash. And which squash is it that you use?
Thanks!

[Laurenfra]

Re: Feeding the Whole Family

[QUOTE=Atkid]

they will have pasta I will have spaghetti squash. QUOTE]

Is it hard to make that spaghetti squash. And which squash is it that you use?
Thanks!

Its called just that spagetti squash. After you cook it you pull it out of the skin with a fork and it looks like spagetti.

I slice mine in half, pull out the seeds, place it cut side down in a dish with a few oz of water and microwave until tender about 20 mins for a large one. It is sweet(for a vegi )and takes on the taste of what ever you put on it. I like butter and parm cheese

[Ms Blue]

Re: Feeding the Whole Family

I love spag squash and it really is easy to cook!

[not2late]

Re: Feeding the Whole Family

I think you should approach it like Barbde does. Have a meat and a veg/salad. If the family wants starchy stuff, provide that for them. If you really want them to have a healthy diet, get rid of the refined grain products and use whole grain ones. Ditto for the processed starchy veg, like "instant potatoes".

As you move through the Atkins Diet and begin to re-introduce food groups to your diet, you can add that to your families diet as well. For example, some of us on OWL and Pre-Maintenance can eat starchy veggies and grains. So, we can have a bit of the baked potato or corn with dinner and oatmeal for breakfast.

And remember too, even the USDA agrees that grains and starchy veg, have portion sizes. 2 oz dry pasta is one serving. That amount boils up to about 1/2 to 1 cup pasta. 1 slice of bread is 1 serving. 1/2 cup of rice is 1 serving. 1/2 cup cooked potatoes or boiled corn is 1 serving.

[Momtofour]

Re: Feeding the Whole Family

I also make the same meals for my family. I sometimes add in a carby side that they want. I do the spaghetti squash thing all the time for our sauce. Two of my kids still want the pasta, but my son now prefers the squash. Personally I wouldn't want to make 2 different things at each meal time. My kids do have oatmeal or cream of wheat for breakfast sometimes, but they are eating more and more low carb as time passes.

[Vampyre]

Re: Feeding the Whole Family

My husband has jumped on the Atkins bandwagon with me. Our three sons eat what we eat at dinner. They get whatever carbs they want at breakfast and lunch at school and I make sure there are sweets for them in moderation as well as healthy snacks. At dinner we have an Atkins friendly meal with a meat dish and a substantial portion of veggies because the kids will eat more than the 1 cup we allow ourselves.

Two interesting things have happened. I've always had a sweet tooth and they were competing with me for sweets. Now they eat much less because they don't worry that it will be all gone when they get home. A box of cookies now lasts for a week or more. Secondly, all three kids have lost 5 to 10 pounds. They don't overeat meat at dinner and one major carb source has been replaced with veggies.

[Kent]

Re: Feeding the Whole Family

In my mind, it is not the "excess" fat that I worry about with my family (mainly kids) supper. The fat and protein will have the same effect in their diet -- make them fuller quicker. For me, the extra for the kids generally revolves the addition of carbs in different starchy vegetables *corn, potatoes* that I don't have. Or recently, Sombersusie's and my stirfry's will have SHirataki noodles and theirs will have regular ramen noodles.

[MotherOfGizmo]

Re: Feeding the Whole Family

I do the same thing as everyone else. We have meat and veggies as our main meal and I add a bread or potato type thing for John. I've been doing this for over 2 years and its never been a problem! Its gotten where some nights John will even say "you don't need to fix anything else, the meat and salad (or veggie) will be plenty" -- so its working out just fine!

[Atkid]

Re: Feeding the Whole Family

Seems like everyone pretty much follows the same rules. I guess I was just looking at all those good recipes that involve the cream cheeses and the mayo and stuff.

Last night, I went with pork chops, broccoli, and coleslaw. The family didn't even miss the carbs.

[not2late]

Re: Feeding the Whole Family

Seems like everyone pretty much follows the same rules. I guess I was just looking at all those good recipes that involve the cream cheeses and the mayo and stuff.

Last night, I went with pork chops, broccoli, and coleslaw. The family didn't even miss the carbs.

When you serve the recipes that have a higher fat content, do what you did last night---> eliminate the starchy carbs and serve the veggies. Chances are your family won't miss those starchy carbs because the other food will be satisfying.

And again, when you do feed them the starchy carbs, feed them whole grains and minimally processed starches. It makes no sense to me for you to continue feeding your family garbage-food, while you eat the healthier things. Gotta break them out of that garbage-food habit. If the children are young or are teens, this is very important---get them into good eating habits now. It might be harder for you to do it, but it will save their health when they are older. Let's face it, do you want them to go through all the gaining weight-losing weight troubles you are going through?