Healthy meals - please help!
Mums I need some help regarding healthy meals for my family.
My husband has diabetes, bad cholesterol and other serious health concerns. I’m overweight and my children are beginning to follow suit. Dr has said we need massive lifestyle changes NOW!
Time is tight in our home, I also hate cooking, I’m not good at it, always struggle to come up with ideas, and avoid it at all costs.
What are some great meal delivery services that could help us get back on track? They MUST be enough for a family of 5 where we cook what’s in the box every night. Or any other life changing suggestions welcome 🙏🏼
*no referral or discount codes please
10 Replies
Family of 5 here too and I loathe cooking with a flaming passion 😂
So I'm a very lazy cook.
I don't have any meal delivery service suggestions (def not in our budget) but
I'm a big fan of salads and grilled lean meats. Literally couldn't be easier/quicker and I usually prepare enough salad for two nights so all I have to do is throw some chicken breasts on my George Foreman grill or some type of protein in the air fryer.
If i don't do salads, I prep all my veggies in advance so I just have to chuck em in a pot and turn it on (I also buy a lot of frozen veg).
I’m lazy too, so I only cook every 2nd to 3rd night. Make a double/triple batch of whatever and either freeze half or refrigerate. Add a salad and away we go.
We try and keep go the 1/2 plate veggie, 1/4 plate carb and 1/4 plate protein, that my dietitian recommended, so even if I cook a casserole I try to keep those proportions in mind.
If I am doing a one done meal, stir fries are my go to. Loads of veg, a packet of noodles and a bit of diced protein of your choice (I prefer chicken), soy sauce and sweat chilli sauce. It’s so very quick.
I do not sell them so I don't recommend based on the chance of a sale - consider a thermomix.
Contact Thermomix Australia for a consultant in your area and then have them come to your house and do a demo. Tell them you want to cook a dinner low in carbs, low in sugar and for 5 people. Let them find you a recipe. Try it that night and see what you think. Do bear in mind if she picks a Cookidoo recipe (the Thermomix recipe database) we find many of them lack the flavour profile we prefer, it's more run of the mill style food. Still quite flavoursome but we love spicy or punchy flavour.
If you're the same request she choose a Skinnymixers recipe.
I love not having to stir a damned pot!
I love that I don't have to set a reminder on my phone to do the next step, machine tells me when to do it. I love that some meals are as quick as 20 minutes from start to eat. There's a few little things I do to speed up the process but they do become second nature, just things like cutting some beef into strips for Mongolian Beef before I freeze it, chopping my wings into nibbles before freezing, separating sausages, things like that.
I pick a simple meal each week to try. If I like it I print it out and put it in a recipe folder. This means that most of the week we eat simplistically but we are also trying healthier recipes and can pick some out of the folder when we are lost with what to eat. The healthiest I have ever been was following the Paleo lifestyle and I will often look up Paleo recipes.
So I’m time poor too, but there’s only me and 1 child.
I’ve now chosen to go with hello fresh x3 a week (my child is incredibly fussy and this is enforcing trying new things and eating what’s been cooked), and quick easy stir fry or steamed veg and a protein on the other days. I’m just too tired to do it any differently. It’s healthy and relatively cheap.
Breakfast; usually a cup of coffee (white no sugar) with oats and fruit, or an omelette or 2x poached eggs on 1 piece of bread. Or my child likes weet-bix with yoghurt.
Morning tea - for me; fruit or a snack of veggies (think capsicum, carrot and tomatoes with a small tablespoon of Hommus)
For lunches, I have a ‘thin’ (basically bread but way less carbs, like 100 for a sandwich) and I have it toasted with cheese and tomato with a cup of soup (legit the cheap continental ones in the aisle that you just add water).
And afternoon tea is fruit with a cup of tea.
It’s basic, cheap and the whole day equals mostly health choices.
My advice is to plan your lunch boxes they’re often the biggest downfall. If you don’t eat enough your starving when you get home, or if you eat too many calories your sabotaging yourself both with calories and money spent.
My child takes a bento style lunch box- contains 2x types of fruit, a Sandwich, and a packet of plain chips and occasionally yogurt or vegetable sticks. For afternoon snacks it’s just veggie sticks or fruit.
It’s cheaper for us and saves time.
My doctor recommended I check out dietdoctor.com last year when my sugar levels were starting to get a bit high. Lots of fantastic low carb/keto recipes to choose from. You can actually do a meal plan so you know exactly what you need to buy each week. I’ve lost about 10kg in about 6 months. Don’t go cold turkey, cutting out sugar and carbs, as you’ll end up with “keto flu”. Change one meal or drink every couple of weeks to let your body adapt. It took me about 3 months to fully adapt. I can feel it if I’ve eaten too many carbs in a day, really grumbly belly or diarrhoea, migraines. Overall I’m feeling so much healthier and the peri menopause symptoms I had started experiencing have gone away for the time being.
Dr should refer you to a dietitian. You’ll get great, personalised advice, what to eat what to cut back, you’ll have input and choices and they’ll have recipes as well. Well worth it.
I despise cooking, however since we did an overhaul on our meals it’s been quite fun.
I have a huge meal ideas list, I meal plan and only buy what we need and I only cook good healthy meals, one night take away or a meal out. My husbands cholesterol has gone down, blood pressure is better, weight loss, diabetes is under control etc
We have tried meal services everyplate and found them good, but now I’ve got the hang of it I just cook from scratch, but every meal has to be quick, easy and delicious.
I also prep grab and go snacks, boiled eggs, carrot sticks, dips, cherry tomatoes, qukes, baked goods, protein balls.
Kids weren’t thrilled when we changed it all but if they request something I’ll make it every now and again.
Best of luck with it all xx
For dinner make veg or salad the main part of your meal + Meat and very small or no carb.
Come up with 10 meals your family likes might take a little experimentation then write them on a weekly planner before doing your grocery shop. Then just continually cycle through these meals I usually change it up summer winter
chicken + woolies american coleslaw in a low carb wrap. 1 wrap only
chicken soup
woolies pre cut veg to roast + peas and meat of your choice
mince meat, taco sauce, tomato’s in lettuce wraps + corn
pizza one slice only + big salad
These are on high rotation at my place at the moment. I add pasta or rice to the kids meals if they want it. I love all the bag salads from wool woolworths and eat them for lunch as well.
Always have healthy snacks available fir the kids, apples, manderines, bananas and oat muscle bars that the kids can help themselves to. Don't keep lollies, chocolate or unhealthy foods in the fridge or cupboard, If it's not there they cant eat it. Dtart doing healthy deserts like fruit salad or a banana/fruit smoothie.Tacos are always good, make sure you have lots of Salad, lettuce, tomato avocado. Burritos are good to, with lots of salads as well. I like cooking soup once a week using chicken bones make a bone broth, then pumpkin white potatoes, sweet potato carrot and onion a little bit of salt for flavor.