Wow what a crazy morning!! My wife and daughter started protein power todat (I am still on atkins). My wife went to the gyno and was told she needs to loose 20 lbs. You would think it was 200 lol..... My daughter is 9 and is 30lbs overweight. So I sterted her on the maint protein power today also.
I was nutso this morning. I had to cook breakfast 3 times. Pack special lunchs.
This plus my 10 year old is a skinny mini and will continue eating regular. For my duaghters lunch I packed ham ans chease roll ups made with low carb tortillas, string cheese, and a container of V8 splash with splenda. I made my wife ham on low carb bread. I am not sure what I am going to do with dinners. My wife and my daughters idea of a veggie is corn!!!! Dinners are gonna suck!!!! I am cooking up a big mess of green beans with sausage in it that will work but they will get bored. Oh well we will se how it goes. I think my wife will rebel first. She started at breakfast complaining of all the grains in her bread LOL!!!! She only like white she says. My 9 year old was in heaven having a scrambled egg, bacon, and a piece of 3 carb toasted bread with butter.

Wow, you do have a full plate. lol Have you checked out the recipe section? There are great recipes there. I bet you will find foods that appeal to the girls like deep dish pizza quiche (I hope I have the title right. Opps.) and Tuna, Cauliflower and Cheese Bake ... It doesn't really taste like cauliflower or the mock mashed taters ... heaven.

What a wonderful, patient man you are. I wish you all the best of luck.

Hey, can you pack my lunch for school tomorrow? jk

I am not realy to conserned coming up with stuff. The problem is they hate veggies. Hidden as I may they still hate them because they are there. Just as my wife will not eat fish cause it made her sick when she was 5. Me being a chef and she would not eat anything I made the first few years we were married. Now she needs a diet lol

Ian, I can relate. My 17 year old daughter will eat corn, green beans and peas. That's it - not even lettuce, so no salads! She has a lot of weight to lose and I really struggle with coming up with her lc foods. The meat & cheese are easy, but boy getting the veggies in is tough. Now that cooler weather is here, I'm thinking beef & veggie soup is going to have to become a mainstay for us. At least with it I can mask the various veggies a bit, LOL!

Hi ian. Uhm, can I marry you? My wife packing my lunch is unheard of!

And I thought my life would be easier if the rest of my family would lowcarb with me!

I have a feeling that as a professional chef you are actually enjoying this challenge. However, if you do get fed up with it, in my opinion you really aren't obligated to make everyone happy at every meal. The rule in my house is that we always stock foods that the varied members of the family like -- I have a shopping list on the kitchen counter and anyone can write on it. If someone doesn't like what is being served for a meal, they can make themselves something else, but they can't necessarily expect it to be made for them. My husband and I (he is the main cook during the week, but I cook on weekends), do try to accomodate likes and dislikes to some extent, but there are only a couple of meals that everyone likes, so someone often gets left out. For example, if my husband feels like making spaghetti and meatballs, I will make myself a chef salad or an omellette for dinner. If we make red meat, which my daughter won't eat, she'll make herself some tortellinis or chicken nuggets. (I know, you don't have to lecture me, they are terrible for her! However, she is healthy and thin.) Both my kids could work a microwave by he time they were nine or 10 and they started packing their own lunches around then also.

I go through that too Ian; I have some particular eaters here as well, and my DH has worked crazy shifts for years and eats at all hours. I used to feel like a short order cook some days. Then as they got older I started depending on leftovers and taught them how to cook for themselves, and now I'm a free woamn several nights a week.

My oldest son has come a long way but he has a neurological disorder that gives him hyper-sensitive taste, and as a kid he could find the teensiest bit of onion in anything I made. That tongue would come out like a cash register drawer and the rest of the meal was suspect after that. Used to make me crazy... But he got over it as he got older and is gradually adding things back into his diet. He does raw onions and peppers on sandwiches, and just started eating a bit of sauerkraut of all things - yet he can't handle mayo, raw tomatoes or mustard. My youngest is 17 also and he's very veggie shy now - this is the kid who before he was 14 used to eat just about everything I put in front of him. He drinks OJ by the gallon and eats tiny portions of only the parts of the meal he likes. He'd live on pizza, fries and bagels if I let him - but he loves to BBQ for us so we build meals around that. I think it tastes better to them if they help cook or prepare it some way. I also have my elderly mother living here and there are some foods that are too spicy or strong flavored for her (chili, broccoli). She does have small hiatal hernia, high BP, and is susceptible to ulcers, so we make allowances. DH isn't too bad, there's very little he won't eat. He cooked for a 2 star general when he was in the army, and also ran an officer's club kitchen, so he's a fairly accomplished cook. We cook together now and then - it's fun to watch us whirling around each other in the kitchen! It's nice because on the days when the DH puts in long hours, I don't have to drop everything and cook for the family, but if he's home and available he'll lend me a hand or even take over. The boys can usually manage on their own and they even fix something hot for grandma. I like to cook, but after almost 21 years of marriage, I do get tired of it and can use a break.

I can't do much with my mother at 69, but her diet is much better than it used to be. When the kids were younger sometimes I did alternate choices. Other times I just placed a tiny portion of the offensive food on the plate and encouraged them to try it again - if you still didn't like green beans after you ate three pieces, that was all you had to have that night. I used to make the boys a sandwich or something when thye were younger and we had things for dinner they really couldn't stomach - I didn't want any food issues for them. If you force it on them, they get weird about that food for the rest of their lives. I've found cheese sauces, gravies and red sauces seem to camouflage the offending food long enough to get some into them before they hit a naked peice and revolt. My youngest will not eat breakfast at home - he gets ill if he eats before he's fully awake and he leaves the house before 7AM. After years of lectures, I finally gave up and left him to his own devices. I don't like it, but it's not my body.

Bag lunches are tough to get enough variety in for a fussy eater. The school lunch was often overwhelming for my oldest and he lived on PBJ's from home for years. Kids would rather eat the same boring thing day after day than struggle through another gagging meal. It's funny because now Jason makes these elaborately constructed roll-ups to take to work, or he fills a microwaveable container with assorted leftovers. They do change! The youngest used to eat the regular school lunch until his tastebuds changed and he decided to lose weight, now he just buys whatever he really likes a la carte. Probably pizza, fries and OJ. *sigh* Well, his tech school has a culinary department that prepares the lunches - hopefully that makes them a bit healthier!

Hi Ian, Just read your post here and had to reply. I just got my daughter who is 15 and about 50# overweight to join me on this woe. It's kind of hard since brother, sister and dad eat what they want. Yesterday, I attempted a frittita? w/ cream cheese/cream/cinnamon/splenda filling for Breakfast. She said it was okay. This morning we just had an old ham & cheese omelet. I need to find healthy "fun" alternatives to eggs. She eats a regular lunch at school w/ friends and has Atkin's woe when she has dinner. Tonight was meatballs with mustard-yum?, spinach salad & green beans. Anyway, it's work, but I hope and pray we both stay consistent and see a victory at the end of this road. Good Luck!