Re: Crowd Pleasing Recipes?

[Guest guest]

I think it all works for dinner. A meat portion, bake a potato, saute some

vegetables. More meat for the boys, smaller potato for you with no butter

and FF sour cream, done deal. Just get hubby to grill at night.

On 4/5/05 6:23 AM, " spantifical " <jacquelyn@...> wrote:

>

>

> Okay moms. I've been doing this alone for awhile since hubby was

> overseas and my daughter is young enough that she'll pretty much eat

> without complaint. She LOVES eggs and cottage cheese and has no

> preconceived ideas about what " breakfast, " " lunch, " and " dinner "

> mean.

>

> But now, hubby is home and we sometimes also get my two stepsons on

> the weekends now that he's back. They are 8 and 10. I'm finding it

> more and more difficult to stick to my plan while feeding all of

> them.

>

> So I'm looking for meals...particularly " dinner " type meal ideas

> that I can fix for the whole family. It's fairly easy for me to

> adjust the portions the way I need to, but I want to avoid preparing

> several meals...especially when I'm already eating 6x a day! Do you

> moms have any recipes that your families love?

>

> My husband is also very health-conscious, so at least I don't have

> to convince him to eat better, I just have to serve it. He'll just

> eat much larger portions than me (he's a big buff guy).

>

> Help! Thanks!

>

> Jackie

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

My family eats BFL meal for dinner (larger portions of course) most nights.

I love Eating For Life, the recipe book.

That is where most of our meals come from.

Some nights I just eat leftovers and make the family something I won't eat.

Ann

[Guest guest]

From the EFL book, how about the Turkey Sloppy Joes or the Roast Beef

Dip? My kids really like these particular ones.

Debbie

> My family eats BFL meal for dinner (larger portions of course) most

nights.

> I love Eating For Life, the recipe book.

> That is where most of our meals come from.

> Some nights I just eat leftovers and make the family something I

won't eat.

> Ann

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

As much as I love to cook, I am kind of a lazy schlub so I tend to

make things that are either easy, that I can freeze, or that make

good left overs...or all of the above.

Some things I make a lot are:

BREAKFAST (but sometimes breakfast for dinner is fun too!):

Scrambled Eggs with lots of veggies in them or Potatoes, Peppers and

Onions " fried " in fat-free Pam on the side

Fried Egg Sandwich in Whole Wheat Tortillas or Whole Wheat Bread

with fruit on the side (I found these GREAT tortillas (I think the

brand name is " Tortilla Factory " ) that are low carb and super high

fiber. They even have a good amount of protein in them!)

Protein Pancakes with blueberries and splenda...(Oh Splenda, how I

love thee!)

1/2 a cup of Fat-Free Cottage cheese, 1/2 a cup of frozen

blueberries, and 1/2 a cup of All-Bran (Great breakfast for lots of

fiber), and about a 1/2 an ounce of slivered raw almonds(or about 10

whole raw almonds) I just mix this all together in a bowl and eat

it. It is yummy! I start the day with this every day.

Another Cottage Cheese thing I make, though not as often since I

started doing the All-Bran thing, is Fat-free Cottage Cheese,

Blueberries, Oats and Almonds. This is also very yummy, but higher

in carbs.

LUNCH:

Turkey Slices with fruit

Turkey Sandwich on WW bread

Protein Shake

BREAKFAST meals

BLT with low fat bacon and I also add an eggwhite to it sometimes

for more protein

Big salad with chicken and lots of veggies

DINNER: (I don't have kids but if I did, I'd be recruiting them to

help prep dinner! How about that? But either way, I never spend more

than 15 or 20 minutes to prep dinner, and most of the time it's

closer to 5 to 10 minutes)

I pre-make meatloafs made with lean-ground turkey aand I freeze a

bunch of loafs. You don't have to defrost them for dinner either. I

take them from the freezer, then put them in the oven and bake them

for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours (for a 2 pound meat loaf). This also

makes great leftovers. Sometimes they're a little dry, but I add

parmesan cheese or steaksauce to it to make them more flavorful.

I'm tellin' ya, breakfast for dinner rocks! It's also super easy.

Baked chicken breast with a bit of parmesan cheese and spinach over

whole wheat or low-carb pasta (a bit of olive oil too!)

Rotisserie chicken from the store with Baked or Sweet potatoes

A Big ol' batch of chicken breast stir-fry with broccoli, carrots,

water chestnuts, red pepper, etc. with brown rice or potato or

whatever carb you'd like. This one is great for leftovers

Grilling is another great idea. You can do your whole dinner on the

the grill veggies and all. Then while you're at it, grill some extra

steak and chicken for salads or to eat alone as a protein for the

reast of the week.

" Fried " chicken. What I do, is take a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of seasoned

bread crumbs and add lots of spices (paprika, sage, ginger, onion

powder, garlic powder, seasoning salt) and I dip chicken breasts

into egg whites then dredge them through the crumb/spice mix and fry

them in fat-free Pam. This also tastes great over salads the next

day. I think the carbs in this dish are okay because the breadcrumb

mix is split between 4 to 8 chicken breasts. You could also bake

this.

Pot Roast. The leanest roast you can find with onions, carrots and

potatoes with fat-free broth and a bit of soy sauce and seasonings.

Slap it in the crockpot for 6 hours on high or 12 hours on low. This

is verging on being a free day meal, but I've done this meal with no

repercussions, just watch your portion sizes very closely!

Do you have the Eating-for-LIFE cookbook? It has lots of GREAT

ideas. Another favorite cookbook I have is " Betty Crocker's Healthy

New Choices " cookbook. All the nutritional info is included with

each recipe.

I'm not as regimented as some people with my food. I watch my fat

grams and eat as many fruits and veggies as I can and I've done

pretty well. You can exclude or substitute carb choices if you don't

like to eat bread, pasta or potatoes. I eat them in moderation.

Hope I haven't babbled too much. Good luck!

Ruth

[Guest guest]

I make a one pot-dish for my husband and myself and just watch my portion size.

-I quarter up a few onions,

- take 8 garlic cloves (don't peel, until after, then just squeeze the sweetness

of them out,

they'll be really mellow)

-2 sweet potatoes, use peeler, then cut into like 8 vague wedges (think,

" home-fries),

-1 or 2 red pepper, cut into rough strips

-some chicken breasts (on the bone, WITH SKIN. They are cheaper and flavorful.

You peel

the skin off yours after its cooked.)

Put all that into one big broiler pan, Sprinkle dried thyme, garlic salt

(optional) and salt

and pepper, then spray with a mister of olive oil, or if you must, pam.

Bake at 400, one hour. Remove chicken, then turn up oven a little higher, and

put pan

back in with just the veggies for another 15-20 minutes just to crisp them up a

little.

Its not as 'squeaky clean' as going skinless, but its a happy medium for the

family, and it

tastes REALLY good. The red pepper gets roasted up nice, the potatoes and onions

are

flavored up by the chicken juices. Remember to grab those roasted garlic cloves

and

squeeze out the good stuff, discarding the outer roasted part. To be honest this

dish

would be even better tasting with those red potatoes, because they roast up

nice, but

sweet potatoes are more " bfl " , if you know what I mean.

Let me know if you try it!

jodi

> > My husband is also very health-conscious, so at least I don't have

> > to convince him to eat better, I just have to serve it. He'll just

> > eat much larger portions than me (he's a big buff guy).

> >

> > Help! Thanks!

> >

> > Jackie

>

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the ideas so far everybody!

I do have the EFL book and love it. But when I'm cooking for 5 or

more people I find very little in it that I can afford that everyone

likes. My two biggest problems are the budget and picky eaters. My

stepsons don't eat healthy at home. They live on mac & cheese, chicken

nuggets, fish sticks, pop tarts, and soda/pop. My youngest step-son

is the worst. He won't eat eggs or pancakes or cereal (unless it has

marshmallows or a visible sugar coating); he eats very few

vegetables and no fruit; he only likes fish and chicken when

they're " brown " (fried? we're guessing he means). He does okay with

mock fried chicken as long as I don't tell him it's fake. lol. Even

without taking our diet into account, it's hard to feed everyone

something they like. Hubby and I are about to fix dinner however we

like and tell the boys they can fix PB & Js if they don't get enough

that they like during the meal. We're both a bit fed up.

And like I said, the other issue is the expense. I think they'd like

the sloppy joes, but even the cost of the fatty ground beef is

prohibitive. When it was just me and my daughter we could afford to

eat the way Bill suggests. But (using the sloppy joe example) lean

ground turkey is over $3 a pound here...make a double recipe to feed

a hungry husband and 2 boys...and add in the other stuff and we're

talking $10+ for dinner. Suddenly ma & cheese and fish sticks is

looking pretty good! lol.

I do like the idea of getting chicken with the skin on and just

removing mine. And Ruth, you had some excellent ideas as well. I

think maybe keeping everyone's meat portion small like mine and

giving them extra carb portions may be the cheap way to go. Luckily

(or unluckily depending on how you look at it) we only get them 4-6

days a month except during the summer. So 11 months of the year the

expense isn't a HUGE deal. I'm mostly gearing up for our 3 week

summer visit. I don't want to let them be my next excuse not to

follow through.

Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions!

Jackie

[Guest guest]

Ooooh, Jodi, I am definitely going to try this! I will probably take

off the chicken skin though. I think I'll use regular potatoes too!

I eat potatoes all the time, just in moderation when the rest of my

meals have been lower in carbs. I don't know what I'd do without my

potatoes!

Thanks again!!!

>

> I make a one pot-dish for my husband and myself and just watch my

portion size.

>

> -I quarter up a few onions,

> - take 8 garlic cloves (don't peel, until after, then just squeeze

the sweetness of them out,

> they'll be really mellow)

> -2 sweet potatoes, use peeler, then cut into like 8 vague wedges

(think, " home-fries),

> -1 or 2 red pepper, cut into rough strips

> -some chicken breasts (on the bone, WITH SKIN. They are cheaper

and flavorful. You peel

> the skin off yours after its cooked.)

>

> Put all that into one big broiler pan, Sprinkle dried thyme,

garlic salt (optional) and salt

> and pepper, then spray with a mister of olive oil, or if you must,

pam.

>

> Bake at 400, one hour. Remove chicken, then turn up oven a little

higher, and put pan

> back in with just the veggies for another 15-20 minutes just to

crisp them up a little.

>

> Its not as 'squeaky clean' as going skinless, but its a happy

medium for the family, and it

> tastes REALLY good. The red pepper gets roasted up nice, the

potatoes and onions are

> flavored up by the chicken juices. Remember to grab those roasted

garlic cloves and

> squeeze out the good stuff, discarding the outer roasted part. To

be honest this dish

> would be even better tasting with those red potatoes, because they

roast up nice, but

> sweet potatoes are more " bfl " , if you know what I mean.

>

> Let me know if you try it!

> jodi

[Guest guest]

Ruth, definately go for the red potatoes. You know the ones. they roast so much

better

than the white ones which get mealy. Just halve or quarter them and the whole

meal

might be ready at the same time without taking the chicken out first. If the

potatoes

aren't nice and brown after an hour, take chicken out and proceed to roast em'

(oven up to

450-475, on the high rack 10-15 minutes more. Oh, and if your husband isn't as

health

conscious as you leave his skin on , it protects the meat, keeps it nice and

moist.

-jodi

PS. you are the cottage cheese thingy goddess, so if you think of any

variations, or add ins,

let me know!! I eat " c.c. thingy " about six times a week! Thanks! (Anybody else

who is

reading this who is new, should try it!!!! No cook, Bfl breakfast or late night,

perfection!)

> >

> > I make a one pot-dish for my husband and myself and just watch my

> portion size.

> >

> > -I quarter up a few onions,

> > - take 8 garlic cloves (don't peel, until after, then just squeeze

> the sweetness of them out,

> > they'll be really mellow)

> > -2 sweet potatoes, use peeler, then cut into like 8 vague wedges

> (think, " home-fries),

> > -1 or 2 red pepper, cut into rough strips

> > -some chicken breasts (on the bone, WITH SKIN. They are cheaper

> and flavorful. You peel

> > the skin off yours after its cooked.)

> >

> > Put all that into one big broiler pan, Sprinkle dried thyme,

> garlic salt (optional) and salt

> > and pepper, then spray with a mister of olive oil, or if you must,

> pam.

> >

> > Bake at 400, one hour. Remove chicken, then turn up oven a little

> higher, and put pan

> > back in with just the veggies for another 15-20 minutes just to

> crisp them up a little.

> >

> > Its not as 'squeaky clean' as going skinless, but its a happy

> medium for the family, and it

> > tastes REALLY good. The red pepper gets roasted up nice, the

> potatoes and onions are

> > flavored up by the chicken juices. Remember to grab those roasted

> garlic cloves and

> > squeeze out the good stuff, discarding the outer roasted part. To

> be honest this dish

> > would be even better tasting with those red potatoes, because they

> roast up nice, but

> > sweet potatoes are more " bfl " , if you know what I mean.

> >

> > Let me know if you try it!

> > jodi

[Guest guest]

Oooh, Cottage Cheese Thingy Goddess!

I don't know if you saw my earlier post about recipe ideas, but I have

started eating the following every day:

1/2 cup Fat Free Cottage Cheese

1/2 cup Frozen Blueberries

1/2 cup All-Bran

1/2 ounce (about 10) raw almonds

It's about 258 calories, 8.5 grams of healthy fats (almonds), 40

carbs, 14.6 grams of fiber(!), about 20 grams of protein.

At first glance, this is kind of carb heavy, but if you look closer,

you'll see that there is LOTS of fiber. This is a great first meal of

the day. I've been eating this almost every day for months!

Thanks for the shout-out Jodi!