Hey guys!

So I know a lot of y’all are busy parents like me and don’t want to cook two meals but still want to eat healthy so thought it would be a good idea to get suggestions for meal plans/snacks that you can work around kids! This is presuming y’all are at the whole food stage already.

i.e.
1. Anything with breaded, baked chicken nuggets or fish
2. Baked sweet potato fries
3. Gatorade zero or body armor lite for drinks
4. Raw carrots or cotton candy grapes as snacks
5. Chicken parm with reduced fat cheese
6. Tuna fish sandwiches with light mayo for lunches
7. Light ground beef tacos minus the cheese for the adults (flour tortilla)
8. Turkey dogs with beans

My son loves corn and breaded baked anything with bbq or ketchup so I made him chicken nuggets last night then boiled some corn today to make a chicken salad. He’ll eat the corn tonight and have leftover chicken nuggets while I eat my salad. No cooking twice!

Ingredients:
-2 baked chicken nuggets cut up
-dash of cheddar cheese
-your fave salad mix
-1/8-1/4 cup of boiled corn
-1.5 tbsp light ranch dressing

I often have his football team friends over for dinner and those boys weigh more than me (in 6th grade at that) so I gotta find ways to turn hearty meals into healthy meals!

Give me your suggestions!

Quesodip

Forgot to add, the salad is about 270 calories total

I also prep things that freeze well.

Chili

Make a whole chicken (or turkey) and pull it apart and freeze in desired weight bags. I actually froze my leftover turkey from Thanksgiving and used some last week and make turkey stir fry instead of chicken. It was delicious!

I buy the frozen bags of chicken so I can pull 1 or 2 pieces out as needed- Shake and bake is my jam for a quick easy and healthier (15-30 cals per serving) "breaded" chicken or pork.

Make a big batch of pasta sauce and freeze in smaller amounts

Homemade meat balls and freeze raw or cooked

Homemade turkey or regular burgers.

Soups freeze well, although I am not a soup person so I don't make them

I started freezing more because learning to cook after WLS was not easy..lol.. I threw away tons of food. So I started freezing anything before throwing it away to see how it was after being thawed and reheated. Worse case I just threw it away later but then I knew and learned about what freezes well.

I also meal prep lunches for work, so make bulk and eat it for a few days. Mainly to stay on track but it would also save you a lot of time for dinners too.

You could cook the lean ground beef/turkey and use it for different things through the week. Spaghetti? Tacos? Etc..

Cook a larger amount of chicken and do the same thing? Chicken salad, chicken stir fry, chicken ON a fresh salad, chicken and veggies..etc.

We regularly have a “build your own salad” night. I also might keep fruit cups, fruits, and veggies out in plain sight so they’re more accessible than the chips, sugary stuff, or other less nutrient dense foods.
Your kids can only follow example and eat what you provide (for the most part), so healthy options, intuitive eating, and food modeling are great ways to keep kids having a healthier relationship with food.

I don't have kids, but I do have a husband, and an adult brother who lives with us, neither of which are bariatric patients. I usually just eat the part of the meal that agrees with my diet, maybe with some small alterations (i.e. I eat the broccoli and chicken that the fellas are enjoying over pasta, or just the stir-fried meat and veggies with no rice).