Help me menu plan for this week!

[babycat42]

How about potato soup use skim milk instead of whole. Can you sneak in spaghetti squash for pasta?
turkey meatloaf
Mashed cauliflower instead pf mashed potatoes
Does he like shrimp? Hummus(cheap and easy to make your own with blender or food processor)

Give him a cook book and make him pick out a new recipe to try.

[Hungry Caterpillar]

Will he eat a "heavy" salad? My DH is a big meat person, like he thinks he needs it at every meal. I have been splitting one meat portion over two nights so he is eating meat, but not too much. He seems pretty happy with it.

One night I make a heavy salad - Saute bell pepper, corn, broccoli, red onion, whatever veggies we have in the fridge. Let them cool. Sear a good steak (I do one ribeye to feed three people) and then slice it nice and thin, but then bit sized. Add chopped cucumber and cherry tomatoes. Toss all together with a touch of ranch and a ton of arugula or spring mix. It's super filling, so my DH doesn't classify this in his "no salad for dinner" rule.

Next night I do rib eye over baked potatoes stuffed with chives, broccoli, and a touch of sour cream OR cheese. European style sour cream is not a lot of fat or calories in comparison to American, and greek yogurt can be subbed. Same idea with the ribeye, slice it up.

So, he eats one portion of meat but over two nights, thinks he is eating meat two nights, and hasn't complained. Can you find a way to do this with his limited likes?

[ajane]

Originally Posted by Mama*Kim Yes, this is very much for health. DH is about 50# overweight, has had high BP for over 10 years and now has high cholesterol, fatty liver and high liver enzymes. His BP was already high before he was overweight. I'm overweight too, but so far without the health issues he has. This will benefit us both. He's got this idea that eating more healthily means simmered plain chicken breast, brown rice and green salad with no dressing. I'm trying to prove to him that we can eat healthy without eating cardboard. He won't eat breakfast during the week and likes to grab lunch from convenience stores (fried chicken, pizza sticks, etc). I can't force him to stop eating those lunches or make him eat breakfast, but I can make sure dinner is healthy. Oh, and capers and olives are on his "no list" too. He likes to claim he's not picky! Ha!

First bolded: This is a horrible, but very common misconception. The healthiest way to lose weight is not to throw out all the food you enjoy and drop you caloric intake in half, but to do it all gradually. If you all of a sudden make a huge change in diet your body will go into starvation mode and even if you are only eating salads and lean chicken you won't lose weight.

Second bolded: That is really bad. He needs to think of you and your boys. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. There are MANY options for low calorie breakfasts. Even McD's has at least 3 breakfasts that are under 400 calories. There is a frozen breakfast sandwich (I forgot the brand name) that is less than 300 calories I think.
There are also a lot of healthier lunch options, Subway for one. Lots of options that are under 500 calories, he just needs to go easy on the cheese, mayo, etc. But he can still eat great and healthy. They even have a few different options for Baked chip flavors.

I agree with a PP to take meals he likes and tweak them so they are healthier. Use ground turkey instead of hamburger. You can use it for chili, tacos, hamburgers. You can make chicken pot pies with lean chicken and lower the fat by using half the amount of butter or a spread and skim milk. Add in pea's and carrots for extra veggies. You can serve it with lowfat cottage cheese.

Here are a few quick ideas:
Use a spread butter (we use I can't believe its not butter light) instead of regular butter.
Use light (not fat free) dressings, sour cream, mayo, etc. And realize how much of that you use. Measure it out if you have to.
Buy only skim milk for you and him. Skim milk is low in calories and fat and high in protein.
Make sure you have a lowfat/high protein snack between lunch and dinner. My fav's are pistachio's or 1 laughing cow cheese wedge w/6 triscuits, or Chobani yogurt.
No regular soda's.....horribly high in calories. Drink G2, flavored water or seltzer, regular water, iced tea
Walk!!! Walking is great exercise and will help you start losing calories.

[Resellmybelle]

Sounds like he would benefit from some "eat to live" recipes and that he has a wonderful dr to recommend changing his diet for improved health.

Oils of any kind, even plant based, provide too many calories and too few nutrients.

Highly recommend buying the book Eat to Live (check out these success stories!) and following any of the recipes on this sister sites to the book: fat free vegan & fat free vegan kitchen. Even if you start small introducing a few of these things a week it is worth a try. Think baby steps, that is how we did it.

Many of the recipes are filling and they are all wholesome and healthy.

My dad dropped his cholesterol levels over 100 points and my dh 60 points in just a few months eating plant based. They are happy and satisfied with every meal they have been served as are my mom and myself. We are eating to live, not living to eat and are all better for it.

I am always surprised when I hear that chicken is better then beef, just compare cholesterol levels, they are almost equally as bad as a rule and chicken worse in some cases. Eating any sort of animal product should be off limits if you really want to reduce cholesterol. And for heaven's sake, don't add shrimp, it has more than cholesterol than anything just about, lol. With a whopping 152 milligrams of cholesterol per 100-gram serving of shrimp (four or five shrimp), just two servings would put you over the daily recommended allowance of 300 milligrams of cholesterol! Comps between beef and chicken

There are so many fabulous substitutes out there. We do not feel deprived in the least, we simply switched ingredients. If you ever have any questions, please feel free to pm me.

Another go to source for us is happy herbivore, she actually sells meal plans, so takes all the planning out of it. Meal plans. I have two of her recipe books, she just came out with a third, which I will be picking up soon. We follow her on Facebook and her blog, she puts plenty of recipes up in those spots. She posts many testimonials of success stories of ppl who follow her plan and plant based in general on her blog and fb.

Cow milk has lots of cholesterol too, we have converted to plant milks like almond and soy. They are delish and even taste great over cereal, in coffee and in baked goods like pancakes. We do not eat eggs either but use egg replacer. This was not an overnight switch, just found our replacements as we went along. We use earth balance for our butter spread. No cholesterol there either.

If he isn't into reading perhaps some movies would help reach him. Some good ones are Forks Over Knives, Food, Inc. and Earthlings. If he does read, try The China Study, The Engine 2 Diet and of course Eat to Live.

Good luck!

[Funky Birdie Boutique]

I tend to have fun re-working less healthy stuff t make it healthier, can u give me some of his top faves? Maybe just some suggestions on how to tweak those will get u started my favorite switch we've made is ground beef combined 50/50 with ground turkey so it drastically reduces the fat but it's not like eating dry flavorless meatloafs, burgers and tacos and such. I too have been doing a lot of "stretching" of meats lately, taking 1# of hamburger meals and doing em with only half that, then it's only 1/4 of the fat it used to be also SMOOTHIES! You can get sooooo many good things in there, yogurt, fruits, honey, sometimes even spinach (serve it in a solid color plastic cup with a cover and dark straw and he'll never even notice its green cuz it doesn't taste like it!) ooh also check out Jessica Seinfelds cookbook deceptively delicious, she teaches a lot of fun ideas for hiding healthy stuff, so fun!

[Funky Birdie Boutique]

Oooh also consider switching to smaller plates, that way portions automatically get smaller but your plate still looks full, helps me a lot on the psychological front!