tips to plan an ideal diet chart

[shubh]

How do you plan an ideal diet chart for the entire family that could keep happy every one? I face this problem, so I cook 2-3 dishes daily, that is too much time consuming and tiring too at least for a working woman.

[Orpheus]

How many people and at what ages are we talking about?

[abbychoice]

Hello!

Well, first of all you should take into account the type of persons you cook to, in terms of food preference, weight, associated conditions (diabetes, cardivascular disease, etc.).

Anyhow, if you cook 2-3 times a day, you should seek quick, easy and healthy meals. The mediterranean diet is the best for this.

The easiest way is to open your fridge / feezer and see: what do I have? And figure out the easiest thing you can do with it. This may look like a dum thing to say - I probably figured this out by now =) - but for the ideas to pop into your head, you should read every week a few new recipes, and maybe print them, that way you will have a nice collection. You could even organize them by kinds of foods, or make a book with about 60 recipes than you rotate every day and that will give you 2 months of different recipes!

I hope it helped!

[Elisha]

I agree, cooking 2-3 times a day is a bit much. It's very difficult to keep everyone happy, especially if your family members have a very different taste when it comes to food. But after all, you mustn't forget about two things: You guys need to eat balanced and healthy in general, and you must be able to cope with all the cooking.

Try to sit down with the whole family and negotiate. Make them understand that you are working and you simply don't have the time to cook 3 times a day. Ask them for a bit of willingness to compromise.

Also check: What does everyone like? What do they love or hate? Write it down in a table and use this as a help when planning your meals. It will then be easier to find something that everyone will eat.

You can also plan the menu together with the whole family. Let everyone pick a meal or two, depending on how many people you are. This way, everyone will get the meals they love. In exchange, they also need to respect the other family member's preferences which shouldn't be asked too much. In my family we also have a tradition that you can choose the meal for your birthday which is a very nice thing.

If you got older kids, you can also let them prepare some meals, or do preparations for you so that you have less work when you come home.

You also need to keep in mind if someone in your family has special dietary needs, like heart-friendly food or diebetes suitable meals or weight loss foods. But if you stick to a general healthy diet, this should not be too much of a problem. Sometimes it can help a lot not to tell them so exactly what you are cooking. They might think low-fat food is boring, but if they don't know your lasagne is made with low-fat ingredients, then they won't even notice...

Hope this helps
Elisha

[lionking]

Certainly this is a serious issue..!!Every wants to eat healthy and stay healthy but the problem is healthy foods are not tastier like pizza, burger and fast foods..especially it is very difficult to satisfy today's children. So you must first change the mindset and perception of your family members. You should make them realize the importance of healthy foods. From your side you can prepare healthy foods in attractive way that can tempt all sort of people. There are so many healthy recipe that can even make spinach to taste good. You should try those. Please bare in mind that nobody should eat foods with uneasy.

[Elisha]

Yes, I agree that it is important to make people understand that healthy food is important. But especially younger kids will battle to understand the benefit of eating whole grain pasta now so that they won't get diabetes 20 years down the line...

The best thing is to raise kids in a healthy way. If they grow up eating healthy, then this is what they consider to be normal, and they will appreciate it and not won't to eat other stuff. But when you missed this train, then you need to make an alternate plan.

I wouldn't say that healthy food tastes less good than fast food. The reason why fast food is unhealthy often lies in the ingredients they take and the way they prepare it. Let's talk about patties, for example. My husband loves them, but he is quite overweight. So I tried something different lately: Instead of frying them in the pan, I put them on a baking tray (on baking paper) and baked them in the oven. Took a bit longer, but then I have to add zero fat plus I don't have to clean up a messy stove full of fat splashes afterwards. And they taste just as nice. If you then use lean beef mince, you can get patties with a much lower amount of fat. Put them on whole grain rolls, with fresh lettuce, tomato slices and a slice of low-fat cheese and you have the tastiest burger which is healthy and filling.

Another example you mentioned: pizza. The most fat in there is certainly the cheese, that you can reduce by using low-fat cheese (you don't really taste a difference). I normally put two layers of cheese on, one at the bottom and one right on top because I love cheese, but I'm certain just the top one would also do. Take the leanest ham you can get, and the rest of my pizza is anyways veggies. This is healthy and tastes divine.

You can also reduce fat a lot if you have non-stick pots and pans that don't require much fat, and if you fry foods in the pan rather than in oil. Many things can even be baked in the oven with no fat at all. And they still taste nice.

One great way of healthy eating is vegetarian cooking because it contains lots of vegetables, legumes and grains. Vegetable fats are much healthier than animal fats, and olive oil even prevents coronary disease. You just need to be careful that you don't go overboard with dairy products, or at least take low-fat ones. I just read lately you even get low-fat sour cream. I figured that you barely taste the difference between low-fat cheese and milk when you use it in the food. And you should eat lots of whole grains instead of white bread, pasta and rice, because these complex carbohydrates are healthier.

Yeah, I know tons of recipes that are healthy and taste great. I would leave every fast food immediately for my own homemade food.

Now, let me stop, otherwise it's gonna look like I want to write a book here... Hope these thoughts help!
Elisha

[jass.pett21]

First try to understand the need of everyone and according to that cook food. Because of meal u can make everyone happy.

[Love2Cook]

Certainly this is a serious issue..!!Every wants to eat healthy and stay healthy but the problem is healthy foods are not tastier like pizza, burger and fast foods..especially it is very difficult to satisfy today's children. So you must first change the mindset and perception of your family members. You should make them realize the importance of healthy foods. From your side you can prepare healthy foods in attractive way that can tempt all sort of people. There are so many healthy recipe that can even make spinach to taste good. You should try those. Please bare in mind that nobody should eat foods with uneasy.

As a nanny I had to cook 2 meals a day but the children were really fussy. It takes creative thinking to eat healthy foods. And the worst is if you go through all the trouble to make nice meals and they poke at their food and secretly eat sweets or bread afterwards because they are obviously still hungry.
I think someone must bring out a book on how to make healthy pizza-like food items which kids will enjoy. Or like lionking says, change their mindsets. That is tough! Good luck!