Maintaining a healthy weight shouldn’t be just a wish. It is possible to cook for your kids and for yourself while maintaining a slim figure. Creating a food plan will depend on which recipes the family enjoys having served at meals. Favorite family recipes can often still be used with lower-calorie replacement ingredients.
Meals should have lots of vegetables and fruits. Whole grain products should be used instead of processed grain products. Recipes must be easy to prepare and cook. Ingredients should be readily available in nearby grocery stores. The cost of ingredients must also be considered when choosing recipes.
Beginning a meal with a small appetizer is a great way to reduce calories. Great appetizer choices are salads, soups, and crudités. A small bowl of soup made with broth, vegetables, and noodles can be filling. Use canned vegetable broth, fresh seasonal vegetables and lower-fat versions of packaged noodles.
Salads can be made with dark green lettuces, tomatoes, and other vegetables. Homemade salad dressings can be made with simple ingredients to add flavor to salads too. Using soy sauce, vinegar and spices can make a lower fat salad dressing. Use smaller amounts of salad dressings to reduce calorie consumption.
Slicing up cucumbers, celery and carrots create a nutritious platter of crudités. Make dips at home in a lower calorie version. Plain yogurt can be used as a base ingredient for a delicious dip. It can be found in most stores in a reduced-fat version that still has a great taste. Add spices or herbs to the plain yogurt so the family will have a great tasting lower calorie dip.
An easy main course at lunch is a sandwich. Purchase whole poultry to have nutritious protein for preparing sandwiches at home. Remove the skin before baking to reduce fat calories from the meat. Use pieces of bread that are labeled as lower fat. Whole-grain bread will assist your family in feeling fuller than eating processed flour pieces of bread. Use mustard instead of mayonnaise to keep from adding calories to a sandwich.
Dinners can be family favorites using lower-calorie ingredients. For recipes that include pasta sauce, try using real tomatoes or canned tomatoes that contain less sugar. Find cheese varieties that are lower in fat. Alternatively, use smaller portions of cheese. When preparing pizza replace fatty sausage or pepperoni with cooked ground turkey. Serve smaller portions of main dishes at family meals. Serve fresh fruit as a dessert instead of calorie-loaded cakes, cookies or ice cream.
