Healthy main meals for picky partners

[Noahsmum]

Hi everyone both myself and my husband have quite a bit of weight to lose, it's just he is an absolute nightmare to cook for and loves his stodgy old school cooking and sweeties too much. He hates salad! I used to love having healthy meals before I met my husband and although I don't blame him ( he didn't force junk down my throat) I completely changed to unhealthy eating when we got together to accommodate him because he's so picky, can anyone help me with some healthy dinner ideas??

[TheHud]

Cook healthy food, count the calories, reduce the portions and if he is not happy you just reduce yours until he cottons on

I hate salad too because it hates me but you can fill up without any guilt on loads of lovely veg.

For a man who likes his stodge, nothing better than a big pile of carrots and swede, all mashed up. Root mash, he can eat loads. Do the same with just carrots, make it a mash, Bake little turpips and carrots, courguettes, aubergines, use vegetable and other stock cubes to soften things. Limit the potoato's that way.

Suggest no pastry it will kill you lol

Make jellies, sugar free as snacks, make milk jellies with skimmed milk.

Vanilla 0% fat activia yogurts taste just like melted ice cream for on the jelly. Add jucy fruits like tinned strawberries and peaches, pears in their own juice

[Zest Healthy BMI]

Hi Noahsmum,

There's a thread in the Pinned posts that Lucca10 put together and has lots of recipe and snack ideas, so you might find some inspiration there? Here's a link to that post, if you'd like to take a look:

healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...

Lowcal

[IndigoBlue61]

its always difficult in a family where people have different tastes/dietary needs. Could you bulk up the plain meals with extra veggies? How about different sauces? Salad on the side? And weight loss is as much about portion size as actual food choices, No food on its own is 'bad' 😕

Good luck 😊

[Elissy 3kg]

Try and get the Hairy Dieters cook books from the library, most of the meals in there are 'traditional' meals made in a healthy way. My husbands not the easiest to cook for, but he loves the meals 😊 Also contain adapted takeaways 😋

[Hidden]

My husband is all about stodge too. The hairy dieters burgers are good I add spices and shape them into kebabs. We have them in pitta with salad. Also cottage pie and stews don't need added fat I put lots of veggies in both grated if need be. Worked out calories for a big mince stew with swede, carrot, parsnip, peas and potato a big portion was about 300 calories. I used 5% fat minced steak. I used a 1 calorie cooking spray too. Oven baked sweet potato or white potato wedges go down really well too. I also swapped to 30% less fat mature cheddar as you need less because it's strong and is lower in fat than regular. Homemade curries are great. My husband now prefers brown rice as its got more bite and flavour. Fat free white sauce is good for lasagne and recipe is easy to find online. 😀

[Cooper27]

My OH is a little fussy too, although there is some working room.

I tend to reduce my carbohydrates to keep the calories down - I will have 1 or 2 potatoes and give him 3-4, he gets a bigger bowl of pasta, etc, and I will have extra veg instead.

Cooking from scratch so you can control oil and sugar helps!

I've been gradually adding more and more veg to our meals, and my OH is gradually coming round to like a greater variety of veg and beans. I find he hates certain veg in casserole type dishes, but likes it if I oven roast it, so experiment with ways to cook. At the end of the day though, your hubby needs to be willing to give it a go...

[Hidden]

Have a look at some of the slimming world recipes, they are sometimes healthy versions of traditional meals.

[kate2604]

Learn to cheat his meals. Quorn mince sheppards pies, quorn sausages with onions and gravy. You dont have to tell him its not meat. Take his 1 potato and cut it into 4s. He gets 4 pieces on his plate.

[Diana]

Cook yourself slim books are fab, bought mine at Amazon, yes I still love pastry and at times will make a healthy pie, chicken and mushroom or steak and mushroom, using normal puff pastry. I do use half mushrooms to meat tho!

Add loads of veg, mashed carrot and swede is lovely go easy on the butter tho!

I also make curry with creme friache instead of cream, a tikka one, and make a lovely fish pie , with spring onions, creme friache and celeriac, just remember to stick to 100g of nest or protein, the pie also has a splash of cooking wine and a touch of veg stock, tastes more luxury than the full fat one too