Family Nutrition (parents, husband, mature, health)

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by rkb0305

I made my own once and the kids didn't like it. The harder I work on a meal, the less they like it.

Isn't that funny how kids don't appreciate a good meal when they see it! Their mother slaving over a hot stove should be a clue!

Originally Posted by rkb0305

I've just been browsing vegetarian meals, and thinking of doing "meatless mondays." DH is not on board and the meals all look quite time consuming.

Isn't it hard when husbands aren't on board? I didn't make mac and cheese for years because my husband considers it a side dish.

[AnonChick]

Originally Posted by rkb0305

I made my own once and the kids didn't like it. The harder I work on a meal, the less they like it.

I've just been browsing vegetarian meals, and thinking of doing "meatless mondays." DH is not on board and the meals all look quite time consuming.

Obviously they are someone else's kids. YOUR children would love your cooking, and would ESPECIALLY beg for your mac and cheese. You should take your kids to the customer service desk and demand a refund. Also, not LOVING your cooking is grounds for divorce in some cultures. Remind your husband often, and make sure to include the phrase "half of EVERYTHING" in each discussion.

[haggardhouseelf]

Originally Posted by Hopes

What do you do with the young coconut after you use the milk? Do you just chop it into chunks and eat it?

We like to scoop out the "meat" and eat it, just with a spoon. It's soft and smooth and almost buttery in a way. When the kids were really young, they would take the shell - once they had scooped out all the meat - into the backyard and play in the dirt with it. They'd use the shells to built forts and things. Once they made boats for the bathtub. They'd just do whatever they came up with to do with the hollowed-out shells. Now that they are older - and we currently do not have a backyard, only a garden patio type of situation - we just toss the shells unfortunately. If we had a compost pile I might toss them in that and see what happens. Once I put tea lights in them, that was pretty cool. But the meat inside is yummy. It's nothing like the dried-out coconut flakes you find in stores. I don't like that stuff. The young coconut is different than the regular coconut.

[haggardhouseelf]

Originally Posted by rkb0305

I've just been browsing vegetarian meals, and thinking of doing "meatless mondays." DH is not on board and the meals all look quite time consuming.

I'll tell you a secret - sometimes you can omit the meat and they won't even notice. The trick is - don't make a big deal out of it. When they ask, "What's for dinner?" just say "Chili" or whatever... and be sure to toss/recycle any evidence before they see it... and then change the subject! Once you've tried it, and they like it, then you can casually allow them to discover what they like next time you make it!

I've been cooking vegetarian meals for years because it's what I like to eat. My husband and kids, though, are "meat and potatoes" sort of guys.

I do cook the meat dishes that they like, because married life with kids is always about happy compromises, but over the years I've been cooking less and less of those meaty kinds of meals, and more and more of the vegetarian (and sometimes *gasp* even vegan) meals that with trial and error I've found that they really like.

It takes a lot of experimenting, and a lot of hits and misses, but over time, you'll find what works for your family.

So far, after 15 years, I have found that my family really likes:

1. vegetarian curry with rice (in my curry I basically raid the vegetable stashes in my fridge and put in whatever I think might be good... so it really changes depending on what's on hand... there's almost always carrots, onion, potatoes, green beans, sweet potatoes, and cauliflower in it... but other veggies pop in from time to time...as well as things like garbanzo beans and one time I even tried slivvered almonds but it was gross, or so we thought...)

2. my homemade falafel with pita bread, hummus, tabouleh, pickles, sliced tomatoes and onion, sometimes with grilled eggplant or portabello mushrooms as well. (Tip: don't make homemade falafel with canned fava and garbanzo beans. It won't work. I tried it. Start with the dry beans, soak them overnight. Something about the canned beans just makes the falafel fall apart when you go to fry them in the oil.)

3. enchilada's made with a filling I make out of beans, rice, zuchinni, corn, carrots, onion, and vegetarian chili (and cheese) served with spanish rice

4. chili - I usually serve the veg chili with cornbread and a salad. I also do something weird and put broccoli florets in my veg chili and I know you won't believe me, but it's actually good and my family loves it

5. spaghetti with my homemade red sauce served with yummy garlic toast and a salad I make with kale, chard, fennel, lemon, olive oil, and a few other things...

6. veggie pasta (squash - like zuchinni or yellow - put through a spiral slicer to make it seem like pasta) used to make some kind of pasta dish like spaghetti, pad thai, or a salad (great in the summer when I don't want to turn on a burner or use the stove....). The veggie pasta is also good tossed with homemade pesto. Simples.

7. My family will actually eat store-bought veggie burgers and hot dogs, like the tofu pups and things. The veggie dogs are good with vegetarian chili poured over the top. I don't even tell them it's a "veggie" dog, I just say we're having hot dogs or chili dogs. I've been experimenting with making my own veggie burger patties using my food processor and food dehydrator. Haven't found a good recipe yet, though... still a work in progress... I always like them but haven't found that smokey flavor that my family likes yet. Next time I'm going to put in some chipotle peppers and a little adobo sauce to see if that's what does it. I'm worried it might be too spicy, though... my youngest says it's always too spicy anytime I go near the adobo...

8. vegetarian pizza with a homemade sprouted grain crust I do in the food dehydrater (recipe from Alyssa cohen's raw food book) and cheese made from fermented nuts and seeds - they actually love this, believe it or not. I would make it more often but it's really time consuming. That's what I don't like about raw foods - they often require a lot of ingredients and time AND refridgerator space of which I have very little! We make vegetarian pizza with regular crust, too.

9. A lot of times we make just very simple beans and brown rice bowls... we top them with slices of avocado, a dollop of sour cream, fresh homemade pico de gallo, some salsa, some of that yumm! sauce I mentioned earlier, chopped cilantro... the kids love it. Eat it out of a bowl with a spoon. VERY filling and brown rice and beans together is a complete meal in itself. It's good wrapped up in warmed tortilla or flatbreads, too, like a burrito or taco, or used in a filling for some easy enchiladas with some vegetarian chili and shredded cheese poured over the top.

10. Mac'n'chz. I make it from scratch, too, but like you other mama's mentioned I don't make it very often because it's so fattening and actually not very good for you at all. It's just fat and sodium and carbs and ... WOW. I tried using whole grain pasta one time and it was the only time in their lives my kids ever refused to eat mac'n'chz!! They'll even eat it with soy or rice cheese, or my fermented "cheese" I make with seeds and nuts, but they cannot stand the whole grain pasta's. You gotta do mac'n'chz once in awhile though. It's totally a comfort food thing. I do mine with stewed tomatos and sometimes (NOT vegetarian) some good smokey bacon thrown in. They love it when I do the bacon, but they like it without, too. I like to sprinkle seasoned breadcrumbs over the top before I bake it. When I'm making the cheese part of it, I add a bit of nutmeg and cumin. Yum.

11. Nacho's. Nacho's is another thing they like that involves no meat that they love to eat. I make a big batch of pinto beans and put those over the tortilla chips with some cheese, put it in the oven until the cheese melts... then sprinkle on some chopped cilantro, pico de gallo, dollops of spicy black bean dip... salsa... slices of avocado or some guacamole...

12. Veggie soup. I stole this from Marie Calender's, the veggie soup they have there is so good so I went home and worked at replicating the recipe. I serve it with cornbread and a salad or a sandwich. I think the secret to this soup is a can or two of really good (like Muir Glen) fire-roasted tomatoes and a good broth. Well... a good broth or stock is always the secret to a good soup!!!

13. Grilled cheese sandwiches. Another not-so-healthy vegetarian meal... but so yummy. On a good and sturdy sourdough bread, with pesto, a good cheese, sliced tomaoes, fresh basil leaves... we use our panini press/grill to make these. Yum. Served with the veggie soup or some tomato or roasted red pepper soup (comes in the cartons - easy and good!)

.... Sorry I'm typing fast and I don't have time to proofread so I apologize for typo's!

[Momma_bear]

Originally Posted by Hopes

I only make real mac and cheese. It's to die for. My children's friends would look at it like it was from another planet. All they ever saw was Kraft.

I try not to make it more than once a month. Gotta watch our arteries. I have other heart-attacks-on-plates we enjoy too, like my fettucini . Gotta limit those types of meals to only once a week. That's why we only get mac n cheese once a month.


Thanks for sharing. Maybe it will be nice with cereal. I like almond milk. I'll try this.


I'll try both. I'll try it fresh from a young coconut and I'll try the bottled type.

What do you do with the young coconut after you use the milk? Do you just chop it into chunks and eat it?

Yup. Coconuts are delicious. We have coconut trees in the backyard. It's to bad they are such a pain to open.

[haggardhouseelf]

Oh - beans and cornbread! That American classic, and totally vegetarian so long as you don't season your beans with pork or whatever....

[psr13]

Originally Posted by haggardhouseelf

Oh... here's a thought: try drinking young coconut milk. It's actually really good! It's good stuff and has potassium... google it!

Is young coconut milk different than the normal coconut milk you buy at the store? I've started drinking coconut milk since figuring out I'm lactose intolerant. Never mind, I saw your later description.

Citrus fruits aren't a problem for us as we have a tangerine tree and an orange tree in our yard. My husband is now working at a store that sells only produce for really cheap, too, so we can up our intake of fruits and veggies without paying a lot.

Hopes, I don't like coconut, but I do like the packaged coconut milk. In fact, I despise coconut, but the milk is good. I might try the way haggard described, though. My husband could eat the meat. He loves coconut.

[haggardhouseelf]

... and if you like almond milk... or you don't like soy milk or rice milk.... Try making your own almond milk. It is so delicious. Way better than the cartons of almond milk that you buy! You just soak your almonds overnight. Drain them. Then blend them up in a blender with fresh water. Use cheesecloth to strain the almond milk from the almond pulp. (What I do: Place a large layer of cheese cloth over a large bowl. Pour some of the blended almonds/water ino the bowl, then lift up the cheesecloth and twist and squeeze to get the almond milk out.) After you're done squeezing the almond milk out, in your cheesecloth you'll have almond pulp which is really good in muffins, cookies, pie crusts, quick breads, etc. But the almond milk is delidious. Whenever I make Thai Tea or Chai at home I prefer to make it with fresh homemade almond milk. It's really good.

I'm not a big fan of soy or rice milk. You hear weird things about soy... and often those kinds of milk are high in sugar. So I try not to have it too often and when I do I make sure it's organic/non-GMO. The only soy milk I ever really buy, the rare times I ever do, is the Edenblend soy/rice milk. It can be hard to find, but it's good.

[haggardhouseelf]

Originally Posted by Momma_bear

Yup. Coconuts are delicious. We have coconut trees in the backyard. It's to bad they are such a pain to open.

How awesome is that!!?

I've always wanted meyer lemon trees. And avocado trees. Because they are $$$ and because we buy so many of them!

[LisaMc46]

For me, the biggest challenge is finding the time for all the produce shopping, chopping and prep work that goes into cooking healthy meals. When I get home from work at 5:15 it can be daunting to start preparing a meal while keeping my 11-month-old entertained and helping my 11 and 9-year-old daughters with their homework. It's quite overwhelming.

Lately I've been doing a lot of crockpot meals. There are a lot of great recipes online and usually I just have to make a salad to go with the main meal. I prep everything the night before, stick it in the fridge, and put it in the crockpot in the morning.

My other challenge---and I have no idea how to deal with this--- is getting my 9-year-old to eat more. She's very skinny to the point where she has bony arms and legs and you can see her ribs. Otherwise she's healthy and our pediatrician isnt' concerned, but it bothers me b/c she just doesn't look healthy. It looks like I don't feed her enough even though I don't limit her food intake at all.

She's not really a picky eater; she just doesn't have much of an appetite. Hopefully, she'll put on some weight when she starts to develop.