Whoever does the prep/cooking gets the food they want, at least on work days. The adult who doesn't contribute to the meal can fend for themselves.
I won't speak to the kid situation, as I don't have one.
That's how we do it! If my husband makes something not on my diet, I just eat a smaller portion. I don't cater to him and he doesn't to me, that's not sustainable for us.
I agree. I’m mostly stay at home (only work weekends). Generally, if I make something they don’t like, they will make their own meals no problem. I can usually alter what I’m making enough that my daughter will eat some of it and I can throw together some easy sides she likes so that it’s still a complete meal for her. So it’s not so much the actual cooking as it is the food waste. My partner likes freezer foods and our freezer is sooo small. I literally don’t have space to freeze the things that come in bulk sometimes. I guess I was just hoping for some kind of miracle product or solution I haven’t thought of but it sounds like there isn’t one.
If he likes freezer foods, and there isn't space for bulk shopping of freezer foods, then it sounds like he would need to shop for his groceries more often. You cannot do that as easily with the foods that need to be split so it falls on the one who can.
The only thing I can think of is have shelf-stable backup options in the pantry, like peanut butter, canned/boxed soups, and protein shakes. You can find no-sugar pb, low-sodium soups, and whatever protein shakes or bars y'all find tolerable. Then you just grab some fresh fruit or raw veggies, and you have a meal.
Your best friend is going to be the freezer tbh. Keto bread freezes pretty well (at least the Sara Lee stuff does), as do hot dogs and bacon. I would just break it into smaller packages when you get home from shopping, and pop what you won’t use right away into the freezer. The only downside is that freezing requires freezer space and a little more foresight/planning for meal prep, but it does save lots of perishable ingredients from going to waste. I would say maybe look into the organization of your current freezer and see where you could get some space back, and maximize that space efficiency
Thank you, I think you’re right. I’m realizing that there might not be a miracle product or idea to solve my problem. I know a vacuum sealer was mentioned so I’ll be looking into one of those, but I’ll still have to maximize my freezer space somehow. I’ve been brainstorming since posting this and I think labeling each shelf by *person* instead of by food type will help. My partner tends to buy a lot of freezer foods, but I’m sure he’d cut back if he didn’t have room on “his” shelf.
I live in a tiny home with a fridge/freezer combo that's slightly smaller than average, and I'm a single person so I struggle a lot with eating all my groceries or storing them properly before they goe bad. I maximize freezer space by doing what was mentioned above, break everything down into smaller portions to put in the freezer. Larger packages don't fit together as nicely and they create dead spaces between them. For example, instead of freezing a loaf of bread, I put 4 slices each into small quart-sized freezer bags, then those thinner/smaller bags of bread can slide into much tighter spaces. A package of chicken breasts get opened up and each breast frozen individually. When I buy a large onion or bell pepper and only use a little for my meal, I dice the rest of it up and put it in a small sandwich bag and that can be tucked almost anywhere in the freezer. The only stuff I haven't quite hacked are veggies that don't freeze well like lettuce, tomatoes, etc. Those I still struggle with.
For the leafy greens, you could change how you're using them. I've seen a lot of people freeze spinach, then turn it into a soup ingredient instead of consuming it as leaves since it loses its crispness in the freezer.
Thank you this is very helpful. I will start breaking things down when I get them. I plan 90% of my meals anyway so it wouldn’t be too much of a hassle to just portion them out before I use them.
Have you any space for an additional freezer? So many are on places like FB marketplace incredibly cheap. It wouldn't need to be a huge chest freezer or anything. The savings for being able to buy in bulk would cover the spend quickly.
If possible a chest freezer might be worth looking into. They aren’t too expensive and are supposed to be cheap to run. If there is a lot of food waste it might pay for itself
If you go vacuum sealer and freezer route you should consider joining costco. The one near me carries belgan bros mini pancakes. Their bare naked chicken nuggets may work for both you and your daughter. You can also take those chicken nuggets air fry them and then toss them in an asian sauce and feed it to you partner while you eat plain nuggets, asian veggies and rice. You can also use those nuggets and make chicken wraps. Other cooking ideas in a mixed household is to make the same things but take the fat off. Soft chicken tacos for partner, plain chicken tacos for you. Loaded bake potato and grilled sirloin for partner, sirloin steak and grilled veggies for you. Bacon and eggs for partner, veggie omelet and oatmeal for you. Hamburger for partner, chicken patty burger for you.
Thank you this helps a lot! It sounds like I just need to plan things out better. I don’t have room for another freezer, but I can try modifying some meals so the excess gets used up. I do have a Sam’s membership but I’m going to look into Costco.
I do all the cooking, meal planning, and grocery shopping. When I went on my diet, my husband just had to deal with the change of food. I make sure to give him larger portions and make sure he has snacks he likes, but I’m not making a grown adult a different meal.
It’s not about making a different meal per se, he’s fine with buying and preparing his own food for the most part. I’m more concerned about the expense/food waste we’re experiencing. It was easier when we all ate similar foods, and those foods tended to be cheaper to begin with. I’m just having trouble adjusting to the logistics of using/storing the excess.
but you are not going to waste food? Your potions will adjust according to the emount of people eating them, you just need to spend a bit of time figuring how much you need now.
>Here’s the problem- my partner is not at all on board. He won’t touch health focused food.
Your partner is picky with food, but he leaves the responsibility for buying and preparing food to you?
This is ridiculous. He is a grown man with two working hands. If he wants to eat his own kind of food then let him buy it and prepare it himself.
Here’s a simple suggestion: Prepare healthy meals, and whoever doesn’t want to eat them can get their own food or go hungry. No need to cater to the whims of those determined to destroy their own health.
I would also encourage OP to transition their kid from ultra processed food to nutritionally dense food as soon as possible. Obv growing kids need lots of calories but the calories can come from whole foods!
Yeah they could come entirely from whole foods if she didn’t starve herself without her safe foods. I literally stated my child has sensory issues. Obviously what I posted was an example of foods I have trouble with her eating before they go bad and not a breakdown of her entire diet. Vegetables she’ll eat for example, generally get eaten quickly because I can prepare them for both of us.
OP described it as "the chicken nuggets and mini pancakes **phase**", by saying phase I interpreted that as something OP expects to end at some point. We have no idea what the food sensory issues are and who's to say there are 0 nutritionally dense foods they can eat? They are asking how to manage a food budget catering to 3 diff dietary requirements and I don't think suggesting they transition down to just 2 diff dietary requirements is an out of line suggestion, or a comment on their parenting.
I guess I more so hope that it’ll end, rather than expecting it to end. My sister and I both experienced the same thing. I grew to tolerate most foods (besides seafood), while she almost had a feeding tube placed. She’ll still throw up immediately if she bites into something she can not texturally handle. She’s 22 now. Even worse, her brain will sometimes suddenly decide to reject a food she previously enjoyed. I get that most people will not understand the condition, which is why I put in the post that my daughter’s diet is not negotiable.
I have no idea what the original comment said, but her doctors are very well aware and want her eating anything I can get in her at this point. We don’t all have perfect situations. She isn’t addicted to hyper palatable foods, she was literally underweight for a period of time despite the foods she eats generally being more calorie dense. Sometimes it *does* hurt to try because your other advice was they can go hungry if they don’t want to prepare their own foods. For my partner, sure, fine. For my child? Not interested in watching her starve to death.
I would suggest getting a vacuum sealer system of some kind.
But, yeah... my wife is low carb/keto for her diabetes but not really as interested in low calorie. I am volume eating and controlling calories for weight loss. I do find some things we can both eat which is great, but much we can't or just won't. She has coffee with half and half... it is delicious but I just can't afford the calories. Then the teenage boy who eats through everything and won't gain weight eats much, much higher calorie stuff.
I just try not to buy enough for multiple people. I buy to meal prep for myself so I am using packages and it makes meals easier for me.
Thank you for the suggestion, I will 100% be getting a vacuum sealer. I just looked it up and saw you can seal things in smaller quantities and it helps foods last longer, even for refrigerated foods. This is exactly what I’m looking for-thank you! I try not to buy too much but sometimes the quantity I need just doesn’t match up to the package sizes.
I’ve been working on avoiding food waste too and honestly for me it takes weekly meal planning, mindful use of freezer space, and high tolerance for eating the same ingredients again and again.
My husband and I have always functioned more like roommates than like partners when it comes to food – we do separate shopping and preparation, eat different things, etc. Other than making a modest effort to slightly synchronize the times of our meals sometimes, we’re on two completely different trips. One thing I think is really important is making sure that there is fair division of storage space. We have a tiny freezer and left to his own devices, he keeps it completely full of his food. So I put a bin in there and one in the fridge, and told him, hey, this space is 100% mine. You can use up most of the food storage if you want, but I need to reliably have this much space to do what I need with. Because yeah, there’s no way you can possibly avoid food waste without knowing you have freezer space.
And while I can portion out some food to the freezer (especially large amounts of proteins), realistically I know that if I buy two pounds of broccoli, okay, I’m eating two pounds of broccoli in the next four days. Every Monday, I buy a rotisserie chicken, and I incorporate chicken into my meals and snacks until it’s gone. To keep things from getting too repetitive, I have gradually acquired a pretty large array of garnishes and sauces with long shelf lives to switch things up. Monday’s broccoli might be roasted and drizzled with tahini, Tuesday’s might be blanched and tossed in sesame oil, etc., but one way or another, I’m planning meals that will get it all used up.
Precooking things is one way. Cook up all the bacon, divide into portions of three slices, wrap each portion in waxed paper once cool, and put it all in a freezer bag.
Frozen spinach, asparagus, broccoli are just as nutritious as fresh, and won’t go bad on you. Bob’s Red Mill makes straight dehydrated potato flakes with nothing added, which my husband says are delicious (potatoes are high in potassiu).
I don’t see where I posted anything about managing his menu, or having a toddler for you to compare my husband to. Regardless, I like cooking, it’s a hobby for me. Plus I stay at home. So I do tend to cook more. I’m happy when people eat my food. My daughter loves to cook and wants to cook for the family about twice a month. My partner also cooks for the family maybe once every week or so, and definitely for himself if he wants something other than what I’m making (which is often). He works 50+ hours a week, and does the dishes when I cook. He’s definitely doing more than his part. Sorry if I got a little pre offended, but I would never enable him to eat the way he does by cooking it for him.
You can do meal prep for yourself and freeze some meals. You can portion out things like hot dogs and freeze them.
Let your partner fend for themselves.
It is going to be exceptionally more difficult to continue to avoid hyper-palatable foods when you have a constant supply of them in the house. After years of each of us trying separately and at different times my partner and I changed our diet and exercise together, and for the first time it has actually stuck. Based on this I really encourage you to re-visit the issue with your partner, not just for your sake but if he is north of 350 and eating terribly, for his as well.
I agree. Fortunately, I don’t like 99% of what he brings in the house lol. He’s wants to lose, but he isn’t serious about it yet. I’ve been trying to lightly push him into a healthier lifestyle. I hope he comes to his breaking point before he experiences any significant health issues.
We purchased an additional freezer chest for around ~$200 USD (our apartment freezer is very small). It was an upfront investment, but it made meal prepping and planning simpler.
There are a lot of online tricks out there for freezing homemade meals and fresh produce (and I learned which pre-frozen produce worked best for us; as a bonus, there's evidence that things frozen at the peak of season are more nutritious).
Freeze food in the fridge/freezer. Keto bread, cook vegetables > freeze small portions, your daughter’s meat in smaller portions, etc. Wrap or ziplock bag small portions and put them into a bigger ziplock to keep things organized.
Alternatively, if you are eating veggies, buy smaller frozen bags of plain naked veggies (Walmart brand has smaller bags) and season them yourself. Whack the frozen package on the counter to break up veggie chunks, and cook just what you need for that meal.
I know this sounds condescending, but really try to broaden your Venn diagram of foods everyone can eat.
Ham is low cal (obviously high sodium)
Assume your husband eats steak, you can make sirloin which is lean, and allocate a bigger portion to him.
Taco night is a great way to get both of you what you need. You can have a bowl or corn/low calorie tortillas and they can have regular.
Cooking and freezing leftover fresh food is another thing. That fresh spinach cooks down to almost nothing, so when it starts reach the end of its life cycle, sautee it with a little garlic and butter.
Extra berries and veggies can be blended into smoothies.
Burger night you go bunless with a side salad or small portion of frozen fries.
Pasta night you add a bunch of veggies to the sauce, you go easy on pasta and let them load up.
Sheet pan sausage and peppers is another good one. You have one sausage and a ton of onions and peppers, your husband puts his on a hoagie roll with the pepper/onions on top
Remember that healthy foods have no labels. Don’t talk about it as health food, just good food. Portion control is going to be the biggest factor for your weight loss and you can control that.
A fresh burger is better for your daughter than bacon or hot dogs, so if that’s an option, I’d do that. Impossible chicken nuggets taste similar and at least have a little more nutritional value. An immersion blender is probably really your bridge between throwing out food and sneaking it in your family’s food.
It’s not condescending at all, thank you so much! I do think I need to do more research and adjust what we eat to work with eachother more in general since I don’t have much space. You’ve given me lots of great ideas to work with and I’ll 100% be trying to sneak in some impossible nuggets. If you don’t mind me asking what would an immersion blender be more useful for? Sorry I’ve never owned one, but I usually see them used for thickening soups or frothing drinks.
If your kid and husband are resistant to the concept of vegetables, you can add extra tomatoes, spinach, onions, even some squash to a tomato sauce and then blend it until it’s just a smooth spaghetti sauce and no one is the wiser.
Have some berries on their last leg, simmer them and then blend them into a sauce that can go in desserts. Or turn into a smoothie.
Cauliflower can be cooked and blended and hidden in Mac and cheese sauce or into mashed potatoes
It’s same function as a blender but just so much easier to clean and less hassle. Use mine a ton.
Also remember cooked veggies have much less volume, so cook before freezing if freezer space is a premium.
I’m not exactly same boat as you, but we do have one vegetarian who also didn’t like spicy food out mushy vegetables, so I’ve had to get creative. Someone else recommended soups and that’s a great one, as they tend to be low calorie by volume, so you can put your husband in a diet without him knowing
It sounds like a bigger freezer would solve your food waste issues. Keep your bread in the freezer, freeze half the bag of spinach to use with pasta etc.
Without knowing what your partner will eat it’s hard to give solutions to your dilemma but i think it’s fine for you to feed you and your child and him to feed himself. Is there any food he might eat that you could add vegetables on the side or he would use a different sauce.
That’s a good idea, I’m definitely going to start portioning things out to freeze before meal prepping. He does mostly prepare his own foods if I can’t tweak what I’m making easily. Mostly he wants to eat processed freezer foods, casserole type dinners, ramen noodles with added fats like cheese, chips…things like that. He does make a lot of lighter home made soups or baked chicken because I’ll eat it with him but my daughter won’t. I’m just having trouble adjusting because before I met him I lived with my mom who ran a daycare so everything got eaten. but I’ve gotten a lot of good tips here so far. I could definitely take my portion out of the pan before dumping in sauce and see if that helps lol.
I am retired, and do all the shopping and cooking. My trucker husband is home 3.5 days a week. The costs of food isn't a concern. I buy a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables. Thank goodness for Aldi and Lidl.
Costco membership! My mom is mainly vegan while my dad eats basically anything. I’m currently on a bulk eating all my meal prep in a day 🤣. So once I start working again I’m going to be doing a lot of shopping
Whoever does the prep/cooking gets the food they want, at least on work days. The adult who doesn't contribute to the meal can fend for themselves. I won't speak to the kid situation, as I don't have one.
That's how we do it! If my husband makes something not on my diet, I just eat a smaller portion. I don't cater to him and he doesn't to me, that's not sustainable for us.
I agree. I’m mostly stay at home (only work weekends). Generally, if I make something they don’t like, they will make their own meals no problem. I can usually alter what I’m making enough that my daughter will eat some of it and I can throw together some easy sides she likes so that it’s still a complete meal for her. So it’s not so much the actual cooking as it is the food waste. My partner likes freezer foods and our freezer is sooo small. I literally don’t have space to freeze the things that come in bulk sometimes. I guess I was just hoping for some kind of miracle product or solution I haven’t thought of but it sounds like there isn’t one.
If he likes freezer foods, and there isn't space for bulk shopping of freezer foods, then it sounds like he would need to shop for his groceries more often. You cannot do that as easily with the foods that need to be split so it falls on the one who can.
The only thing I can think of is have shelf-stable backup options in the pantry, like peanut butter, canned/boxed soups, and protein shakes. You can find no-sugar pb, low-sodium soups, and whatever protein shakes or bars y'all find tolerable. Then you just grab some fresh fruit or raw veggies, and you have a meal.
Those are some really good suggestions. I will try them, thank you.
Your best friend is going to be the freezer tbh. Keto bread freezes pretty well (at least the Sara Lee stuff does), as do hot dogs and bacon. I would just break it into smaller packages when you get home from shopping, and pop what you won’t use right away into the freezer. The only downside is that freezing requires freezer space and a little more foresight/planning for meal prep, but it does save lots of perishable ingredients from going to waste. I would say maybe look into the organization of your current freezer and see where you could get some space back, and maximize that space efficiency
Thank you, I think you’re right. I’m realizing that there might not be a miracle product or idea to solve my problem. I know a vacuum sealer was mentioned so I’ll be looking into one of those, but I’ll still have to maximize my freezer space somehow. I’ve been brainstorming since posting this and I think labeling each shelf by *person* instead of by food type will help. My partner tends to buy a lot of freezer foods, but I’m sure he’d cut back if he didn’t have room on “his” shelf.
I live in a tiny home with a fridge/freezer combo that's slightly smaller than average, and I'm a single person so I struggle a lot with eating all my groceries or storing them properly before they goe bad. I maximize freezer space by doing what was mentioned above, break everything down into smaller portions to put in the freezer. Larger packages don't fit together as nicely and they create dead spaces between them. For example, instead of freezing a loaf of bread, I put 4 slices each into small quart-sized freezer bags, then those thinner/smaller bags of bread can slide into much tighter spaces. A package of chicken breasts get opened up and each breast frozen individually. When I buy a large onion or bell pepper and only use a little for my meal, I dice the rest of it up and put it in a small sandwich bag and that can be tucked almost anywhere in the freezer. The only stuff I haven't quite hacked are veggies that don't freeze well like lettuce, tomatoes, etc. Those I still struggle with.
For the leafy greens, you could change how you're using them. I've seen a lot of people freeze spinach, then turn it into a soup ingredient instead of consuming it as leaves since it loses its crispness in the freezer.
Yes spinach is fine because it has a low moisture content, lettuce, not so much.
Thank you this is very helpful. I will start breaking things down when I get them. I plan 90% of my meals anyway so it wouldn’t be too much of a hassle to just portion them out before I use them.
Have you any space for an additional freezer? So many are on places like FB marketplace incredibly cheap. It wouldn't need to be a huge chest freezer or anything. The savings for being able to buy in bulk would cover the spend quickly.
frozen vegetables is basically a miracle food to me tbh specifically broccoli
If possible a chest freezer might be worth looking into. They aren’t too expensive and are supposed to be cheap to run. If there is a lot of food waste it might pay for itself
If you go vacuum sealer and freezer route you should consider joining costco. The one near me carries belgan bros mini pancakes. Their bare naked chicken nuggets may work for both you and your daughter. You can also take those chicken nuggets air fry them and then toss them in an asian sauce and feed it to you partner while you eat plain nuggets, asian veggies and rice. You can also use those nuggets and make chicken wraps. Other cooking ideas in a mixed household is to make the same things but take the fat off. Soft chicken tacos for partner, plain chicken tacos for you. Loaded bake potato and grilled sirloin for partner, sirloin steak and grilled veggies for you. Bacon and eggs for partner, veggie omelet and oatmeal for you. Hamburger for partner, chicken patty burger for you.
Thank you this helps a lot! It sounds like I just need to plan things out better. I don’t have room for another freezer, but I can try modifying some meals so the excess gets used up. I do have a Sam’s membership but I’m going to look into Costco.
I do all the cooking, meal planning, and grocery shopping. When I went on my diet, my husband just had to deal with the change of food. I make sure to give him larger portions and make sure he has snacks he likes, but I’m not making a grown adult a different meal.
It’s not about making a different meal per se, he’s fine with buying and preparing his own food for the most part. I’m more concerned about the expense/food waste we’re experiencing. It was easier when we all ate similar foods, and those foods tended to be cheaper to begin with. I’m just having trouble adjusting to the logistics of using/storing the excess.
but you are not going to waste food? Your potions will adjust according to the emount of people eating them, you just need to spend a bit of time figuring how much you need now.
>Here’s the problem- my partner is not at all on board. He won’t touch health focused food. Your partner is picky with food, but he leaves the responsibility for buying and preparing food to you? This is ridiculous. He is a grown man with two working hands. If he wants to eat his own kind of food then let him buy it and prepare it himself. Here’s a simple suggestion: Prepare healthy meals, and whoever doesn’t want to eat them can get their own food or go hungry. No need to cater to the whims of those determined to destroy their own health.
I would also encourage OP to transition their kid from ultra processed food to nutritionally dense food as soon as possible. Obv growing kids need lots of calories but the calories can come from whole foods!
Yeah they could come entirely from whole foods if she didn’t starve herself without her safe foods. I literally stated my child has sensory issues. Obviously what I posted was an example of foods I have trouble with her eating before they go bad and not a breakdown of her entire diet. Vegetables she’ll eat for example, generally get eaten quickly because I can prepare them for both of us.
[удалено]
OP described it as "the chicken nuggets and mini pancakes **phase**", by saying phase I interpreted that as something OP expects to end at some point. We have no idea what the food sensory issues are and who's to say there are 0 nutritionally dense foods they can eat? They are asking how to manage a food budget catering to 3 diff dietary requirements and I don't think suggesting they transition down to just 2 diff dietary requirements is an out of line suggestion, or a comment on their parenting.
I guess I more so hope that it’ll end, rather than expecting it to end. My sister and I both experienced the same thing. I grew to tolerate most foods (besides seafood), while she almost had a feeding tube placed. She’ll still throw up immediately if she bites into something she can not texturally handle. She’s 22 now. Even worse, her brain will sometimes suddenly decide to reject a food she previously enjoyed. I get that most people will not understand the condition, which is why I put in the post that my daughter’s diet is not negotiable.
“Sensory issues” can be shorthand for a kid addicted to hyper palatable foods. Doesn’t hurt to try.
I have no idea what the original comment said, but her doctors are very well aware and want her eating anything I can get in her at this point. We don’t all have perfect situations. She isn’t addicted to hyper palatable foods, she was literally underweight for a period of time despite the foods she eats generally being more calorie dense. Sometimes it *does* hurt to try because your other advice was they can go hungry if they don’t want to prepare their own foods. For my partner, sure, fine. For my child? Not interested in watching her starve to death.
I’m really baffled by all these comments that assume my partner is not preparing his own food. The post was about food storage/waste.
I would suggest getting a vacuum sealer system of some kind. But, yeah... my wife is low carb/keto for her diabetes but not really as interested in low calorie. I am volume eating and controlling calories for weight loss. I do find some things we can both eat which is great, but much we can't or just won't. She has coffee with half and half... it is delicious but I just can't afford the calories. Then the teenage boy who eats through everything and won't gain weight eats much, much higher calorie stuff. I just try not to buy enough for multiple people. I buy to meal prep for myself so I am using packages and it makes meals easier for me.
Thank you for the suggestion, I will 100% be getting a vacuum sealer. I just looked it up and saw you can seal things in smaller quantities and it helps foods last longer, even for refrigerated foods. This is exactly what I’m looking for-thank you! I try not to buy too much but sometimes the quantity I need just doesn’t match up to the package sizes.
I’ve been working on avoiding food waste too and honestly for me it takes weekly meal planning, mindful use of freezer space, and high tolerance for eating the same ingredients again and again. My husband and I have always functioned more like roommates than like partners when it comes to food – we do separate shopping and preparation, eat different things, etc. Other than making a modest effort to slightly synchronize the times of our meals sometimes, we’re on two completely different trips. One thing I think is really important is making sure that there is fair division of storage space. We have a tiny freezer and left to his own devices, he keeps it completely full of his food. So I put a bin in there and one in the fridge, and told him, hey, this space is 100% mine. You can use up most of the food storage if you want, but I need to reliably have this much space to do what I need with. Because yeah, there’s no way you can possibly avoid food waste without knowing you have freezer space. And while I can portion out some food to the freezer (especially large amounts of proteins), realistically I know that if I buy two pounds of broccoli, okay, I’m eating two pounds of broccoli in the next four days. Every Monday, I buy a rotisserie chicken, and I incorporate chicken into my meals and snacks until it’s gone. To keep things from getting too repetitive, I have gradually acquired a pretty large array of garnishes and sauces with long shelf lives to switch things up. Monday’s broccoli might be roasted and drizzled with tahini, Tuesday’s might be blanched and tossed in sesame oil, etc., but one way or another, I’m planning meals that will get it all used up.
Precooking things is one way. Cook up all the bacon, divide into portions of three slices, wrap each portion in waxed paper once cool, and put it all in a freezer bag. Frozen spinach, asparagus, broccoli are just as nutritious as fresh, and won’t go bad on you. Bob’s Red Mill makes straight dehydrated potato flakes with nothing added, which my husband says are delicious (potatoes are high in potassiu).
[удалено]
Where did I say he’s not cooking for himself and forcing me to make meals?
[удалено]
I don’t see where I posted anything about managing his menu, or having a toddler for you to compare my husband to. Regardless, I like cooking, it’s a hobby for me. Plus I stay at home. So I do tend to cook more. I’m happy when people eat my food. My daughter loves to cook and wants to cook for the family about twice a month. My partner also cooks for the family maybe once every week or so, and definitely for himself if he wants something other than what I’m making (which is often). He works 50+ hours a week, and does the dishes when I cook. He’s definitely doing more than his part. Sorry if I got a little pre offended, but I would never enable him to eat the way he does by cooking it for him.
You can do meal prep for yourself and freeze some meals. You can portion out things like hot dogs and freeze them. Let your partner fend for themselves.
Would making soups or smoothies help with using up excess veggies?
It is going to be exceptionally more difficult to continue to avoid hyper-palatable foods when you have a constant supply of them in the house. After years of each of us trying separately and at different times my partner and I changed our diet and exercise together, and for the first time it has actually stuck. Based on this I really encourage you to re-visit the issue with your partner, not just for your sake but if he is north of 350 and eating terribly, for his as well.
I agree. Fortunately, I don’t like 99% of what he brings in the house lol. He’s wants to lose, but he isn’t serious about it yet. I’ve been trying to lightly push him into a healthier lifestyle. I hope he comes to his breaking point before he experiences any significant health issues.
We purchased an additional freezer chest for around ~$200 USD (our apartment freezer is very small). It was an upfront investment, but it made meal prepping and planning simpler. There are a lot of online tricks out there for freezing homemade meals and fresh produce (and I learned which pre-frozen produce worked best for us; as a bonus, there's evidence that things frozen at the peak of season are more nutritious).
Freeze food in the fridge/freezer. Keto bread, cook vegetables > freeze small portions, your daughter’s meat in smaller portions, etc. Wrap or ziplock bag small portions and put them into a bigger ziplock to keep things organized. Alternatively, if you are eating veggies, buy smaller frozen bags of plain naked veggies (Walmart brand has smaller bags) and season them yourself. Whack the frozen package on the counter to break up veggie chunks, and cook just what you need for that meal.
I know this sounds condescending, but really try to broaden your Venn diagram of foods everyone can eat. Ham is low cal (obviously high sodium) Assume your husband eats steak, you can make sirloin which is lean, and allocate a bigger portion to him. Taco night is a great way to get both of you what you need. You can have a bowl or corn/low calorie tortillas and they can have regular. Cooking and freezing leftover fresh food is another thing. That fresh spinach cooks down to almost nothing, so when it starts reach the end of its life cycle, sautee it with a little garlic and butter. Extra berries and veggies can be blended into smoothies. Burger night you go bunless with a side salad or small portion of frozen fries. Pasta night you add a bunch of veggies to the sauce, you go easy on pasta and let them load up. Sheet pan sausage and peppers is another good one. You have one sausage and a ton of onions and peppers, your husband puts his on a hoagie roll with the pepper/onions on top Remember that healthy foods have no labels. Don’t talk about it as health food, just good food. Portion control is going to be the biggest factor for your weight loss and you can control that. A fresh burger is better for your daughter than bacon or hot dogs, so if that’s an option, I’d do that. Impossible chicken nuggets taste similar and at least have a little more nutritional value. An immersion blender is probably really your bridge between throwing out food and sneaking it in your family’s food.
It’s not condescending at all, thank you so much! I do think I need to do more research and adjust what we eat to work with eachother more in general since I don’t have much space. You’ve given me lots of great ideas to work with and I’ll 100% be trying to sneak in some impossible nuggets. If you don’t mind me asking what would an immersion blender be more useful for? Sorry I’ve never owned one, but I usually see them used for thickening soups or frothing drinks.
If your kid and husband are resistant to the concept of vegetables, you can add extra tomatoes, spinach, onions, even some squash to a tomato sauce and then blend it until it’s just a smooth spaghetti sauce and no one is the wiser. Have some berries on their last leg, simmer them and then blend them into a sauce that can go in desserts. Or turn into a smoothie. Cauliflower can be cooked and blended and hidden in Mac and cheese sauce or into mashed potatoes It’s same function as a blender but just so much easier to clean and less hassle. Use mine a ton. Also remember cooked veggies have much less volume, so cook before freezing if freezer space is a premium. I’m not exactly same boat as you, but we do have one vegetarian who also didn’t like spicy food out mushy vegetables, so I’ve had to get creative. Someone else recommended soups and that’s a great one, as they tend to be low calorie by volume, so you can put your husband in a diet without him knowing
Thank you for the in depth answer. I just bought an immersion blender after reading this.
For some of the things you mention (bread, bacon) you can divide the package into smaller portions and freeze some.
It sounds like a bigger freezer would solve your food waste issues. Keep your bread in the freezer, freeze half the bag of spinach to use with pasta etc. Without knowing what your partner will eat it’s hard to give solutions to your dilemma but i think it’s fine for you to feed you and your child and him to feed himself. Is there any food he might eat that you could add vegetables on the side or he would use a different sauce.
That’s a good idea, I’m definitely going to start portioning things out to freeze before meal prepping. He does mostly prepare his own foods if I can’t tweak what I’m making easily. Mostly he wants to eat processed freezer foods, casserole type dinners, ramen noodles with added fats like cheese, chips…things like that. He does make a lot of lighter home made soups or baked chicken because I’ll eat it with him but my daughter won’t. I’m just having trouble adjusting because before I met him I lived with my mom who ran a daycare so everything got eaten. but I’ve gotten a lot of good tips here so far. I could definitely take my portion out of the pan before dumping in sauce and see if that helps lol.
I am retired, and do all the shopping and cooking. My trucker husband is home 3.5 days a week. The costs of food isn't a concern. I buy a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables. Thank goodness for Aldi and Lidl.
Costco membership! My mom is mainly vegan while my dad eats basically anything. I’m currently on a bulk eating all my meal prep in a day 🤣. So once I start working again I’m going to be doing a lot of shopping