Family meals for different nutritional needs (and low carbing for diabetes)

[shelivesthedream]

I have begun to be concerned about developing Type 2 diabetes and am considering cutting carbs out for Lent as an experiment. However, I am kind of overwhelmed by trying to do this in the context of family meals (as well as doing it at all, really!)

I already can't eat onion, garlic or dairy due to food intolerances and have had a firm policy that I only cook one meal for the whole family, and have also been trying recently to cut down on the amount of day-to-day cookong I do by buying a chest freezer and meal prepping at the beginning of each month. We homeschool and my husband works from home so I am doing three meals a day plus snacks 24/7/365. We buy very little prepared food and I have been actually trying to find more prepared food we could buy to take the load off me a bit but its hard to find something that fits my dietary requirements. Thus far it has not been a big deal to accommodate everyone by, for example, serve a pasta bake with grated cheese on the side for the rest of the family. But many diabetes meal plans are heavy on dairy and I honestly can't eat any at all.

But I have three young children who need (and like!) carbs, and carbs are a mainstay of budget eating. Right now I'm totally overwhelmed by how I can serve meals that:
1. Meet my desire to cut out carbs while providing enough energy and palatable food for the children
2. Don't require me to cook multiple complex dishes
3. Feel like everyone is eating the same meal (even if some partake of only part of it)
4. Don't involve spending 200% of our income on food

We also typically cut out meat for Lent. Children love fish so it's not a problem.

Honestly, if I could just figure out one week's meal plan that we could eat on repeat for six weeks I'd be ecstatic. We have an Instant Pot and a lot of cook-and-freeze pyrex dishes that I use to prep traybakes. My children eat normal people food (e.g. not just chicken nuggets) but do have preferences. I in general like things like vegetables bit am not a fan of a hunk of meat like a steak or pork chop.

I'm not even sure what my question is. I'm just very concerned and anxious about my health right now, and stressed about how I can do this without it being such a burden that I have to quit the experiment. My husband will be supportive of the idea but isn't really able to help with the actual cooking because of work.

[Trifle]

@shelivesthedream -- do you have a burrito night in your meal rotation?  We have kids and juggle multiple food allergies and preferences, and it works well for us.  It's good for (1) everyone eating the 'same thing', (2) giving everyone dietary choices, and (3) being easy and cheap.  It should work well for your low-carb goals as well.  You can go for a low-carb tortilla, or opt out of the tortilla completely and put the fixings onto some corn chips or onto greens for a no-carb salad.

The meal prep for burrito night doesn't take long, and our kids always enjoyed assembling their own burrito.  All the leftover meat/beans/tofu/chopped toppings/etc. can be put into the fridge to be incorporated into other meals that week.  Leftover chopped peppers/tomatoes/onions/etc are perfect for tossing into an omelet for breakfast the following day.

ETA:  Non-dairy cheese works well on burritos, if you haven't tried it.  They sell "Mexican" non-dairy cheese blends that are perfect for burritos (at least here they do.  Hopefully in London as well).

[Dreamer40]

“Carbs” don’t cause diabetes. But everyone in the family should work on reducing ultra processed carbs and replacing them with quality fiber-rich foods. Kids included.

A good source of current science-based nutrition information is the ZOE podcast.

[shelivesthedream]

“Carbs” don’t cause diabetes. But everyone in the family should work on reducing ultra processed carbs and replacing them with quality fiber-rich foods. Kids included.

A good source of current science-based nutrition information is the ZOE podcast.

There have been enough studies of low/zero carb diets and prediabetes/early type 2 diabetes interventions that I would like to try it for myself. It's not anti-science to say "Hey, this helped a bunch of people, maybe I should give it a try for a while and see what it does to my body." That's how I discovered my food intolerances, albeit that was a hospital-supported diet protocol and I'm doing this n=1 experiment solo.

Maybe you're confused by my opening statement about being concerned about developing Type 2 diabetes? I hit a lot of tick boxes for being high risk and have prediabetes symptoms. I'm well-educated about diet and blood sugar having had gestational diabetes in the past which was successfully treated with diet alone when I was measuring my blood sugar half a dozen times a day and I know what worked for me then.

As you would know if you had read my post, we dont eat a lot of ultra processed carbs. I already cook almost everything from scratch because even if I fancied a packet of Jaffa Cakes or some store-boughten lasagna I can't eat them because of my food intolerances. My husband bakes all our bread using his sourdough starter.

I'm not an idiot, thanks.

[Dictionary Time]

It definitely seems overwhelming, but investing in your health will pay dividends.

2 thoughts…

Bowl-style meals. Burrito, pasta, stir fry, there’s lots to work with. You can prep and freeze the ingredients. Everyone can compose their own with regards to their own needs. Rice for the kiddos, extra veg for you.

Take what you are doing now (because you already know it mostly works) and good day by day and tweak what you can. If you have a day with hamburgers, fries, and salad, subtract the fries and buns and add another veg. Spaghetti night can exist, switch to zoodles.

And remember that the perfect is the enemy of the good. I don’t know your situation, but most of the time is not an all or nothing and some improvements will be good enough. (Disclaimer for severe allergies, etc) so be gentle with yourself and recognize it’s a process.

[Metalcat]

First things first, focus on figuring out how you need to eat to be healthy.

Your kids won't starve, they might whine, but they won't starve while you figure this out.

Focus on making meals that are healthy for your whole family. If your kids like cheese and you can't have it, fine, have cheese available for them to add to meals that don't have cheese.

I bulk cook for DH and I and he adds bread and I add mushrooms.

But the goal has to be to figure out the core of your diet.

I'm not an expert on diabetes by any stretch, so I don't know what diet is best. But I helped a dear diabetic friend transition to a legume-based diet a few years back, and that's a way of eating that's fantastically inexpensive and customizable.

You could make a black bean stew for example and anyone can add what they want to it: sour cream, noodles, rice, cheddar, pita chips, avocado, garlic bread. Whatever.

Also, engage family in taking responsibility for their customizations. If they want cheesy garlic bread, they can make cheesy garlic bread. If they want shredded cheese, they can shred some cheese.

Even someone working full time can manage to make their own toast if they want toast with their stew.

As I said, focus on figuring out your core diet. Fuss with accommodating everyone's personal preferences later. No one will starve while you focus on your health.

AND you will set an excellent example for them of how food is fuel and making smart choices should always come first and personal preference a distant second.

I imagine you want to raise humans who care more about your health than how much they like the flavour of the meal you prepared for them.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

We have less restrictions at our house, but still work around DH eating a Keto only diet (due to a nickel allergy - removing basically anything not allowed in Keto has the same effect as avoiding nickel), two teens who need a lot of calories due to sports/activities/generally being active teen boys, and me. Who would like to drop 15 lbs, and generally eat a lowish carb diet, with healthy options.

We bulk cook, but approach it slightly differently than you. For example, I might bulk prep (or, buy, I buy a lot of options for DH at Trader Joes) cauliflower rice, regular rice, & taco meat, & then I'll use all of those versions for various eaters. So, maybe you are bulk prepping your own food one week, and pulling it out & serving it at the same time as a bulk prepped item you made a few weeks ago for your kids. I guess what I'm saying is I wouldn't be interested in starting from scratch cooking three meals a day (x3?), but maybe move towards a place where you are warming up different options for folks, all of which have been bulk cooked.

Meals we often customize:
-Burrito bowls
-Chicken shawarma (bowls or with naan/pita)
-Customizable salads (served with fresh bread on the side for carb eaters). Salads have a variety of toppings + protein, and folks can mix/match
-Spaghetti & meatballs. Everyone can eat the meat/sauce, and the teens & I eat regular pasta, and DH has "Healthy Noodles" (that's the brand name - they are soy noodles & take 2 minutes to prep).  Could adjust to a variety of sauces/proteins.
-Homemade pizzas (one with cauliflower crust, one with regular crust). Everyone can tweak the toppings

What's helped me the most is bulk prepping proteins. Having that at the ready, and some easy/healthy sides makes it easy to throw meals together. Then, I have "add ons" for the teens. Extra pasta, bread, etc that they can add to fill out a meal.

[wenchsenior]

Insulin resistance (the metabolic dysfunction that leads to Type 2 diabetes, among other bad health outcomes) is best managed by adopting a low-glycemic, though not necessarily low-carb, diet (along with regular exercise and meds if needed).

Some people find they do need low carbing to control IR, but many do not (I've managed my IR and prevented it from progressing to prediabetes for >20 years and I eat 'moderate' carbs of about 100-150 g most days; doing this also put my PCOS into remission). The crucial thing is eating lower glycemic and lower in highly processed foods.

If you want a typical 'published diet' guideline, the best baseline is a Mediterranean diet slightly tweaked to have higher protein and lower starch.

The easiest rules of thumb for getting started are:

1. Greatly cut down/limit all forms of sugar, particularly any liquid forms.

2. Cut way down on highly processed foods (anything with more than 3 or 4 ingredients on the label) and focus on eating whole unprocessed foods (e.g., mainly from the outer rim of the grocery store). Particularly avoid highly processed starches (anything made with white flour or processed corn or white rice).

3. Don't eat any starch by itself, but only in context of fiber/protein and/or fat to slow down the glucose spike.

4. Aim for a typical plate or bowl to contain about 50% non-starchy veggies, 25% protein, and 25% starch from one of the following types:  whole grains, fruit, legumes, or starchy veggies (potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, winter squash, etc.)

That should get you started.

ETA: I'd suggest just cooking your starches separately and then adding portions of starch to each person's plate as needed for that particular person's health needs.  Apart from that, these guidelines are pretty much foundational to a good diet for most of the population so they won't do your family any harm. Everyone can eat this way, just add a bit more starch to the plates for people who want it/can eat it.

[shelivesthedream]

@shelivesthedream -- do you have a burrito night in your meal rotation?  We have kids and juggle multiple food allergies and preferences, and it works well for us.  It's good for (1) everyone eating the 'same thing', (2) giving everyone dietary choices, and (3) being easy and cheap.  It should work well for your low-carb goals as well.  You can go for a low-carb tortilla, or opt out of the tortilla completely and put the fixings onto some corn chips or onto greens for a no-carb salad.

The meal prep for burrito night doesn't take long, and our kids always enjoyed assembling their own burrito.  All the leftover meat/beans/tofu/chopped toppings/etc. can be put into the fridge to be incorporated into other meals that week.  Leftover chopped peppers/tomatoes/onions/etc are perfect for tossing into an omelet for breakfast the following day.

ETA:  Non-dairy cheese works well on burritos, if you haven't tried it.  They sell "Mexican" non-dairy cheese blends that are perfect for burritos (at least here they do.  Hopefully in London as well).

I went ahead and cobbled this together for dinner tonight - it was good! We had fish burritos and the big children had 3/4 of the available options (a different 3 each) in theirs and the toddler had a piece of mackerel wrapped in a tortilla. Go figure.

[Trifle]

@shelivesthedream -- do you have a burrito night in your meal rotation?  We have kids and juggle multiple food allergies and preferences, and it works well for us.  It's good for (1) everyone eating the 'same thing', (2) giving everyone dietary choices, and (3) being easy and cheap.  It should work well for your low-carb goals as well.  You can go for a low-carb tortilla, or opt out of the tortilla completely and put the fixings onto some corn chips or onto greens for a no-carb salad.

The meal prep for burrito night doesn't take long, and our kids always enjoyed assembling their own burrito.  All the leftover meat/beans/tofu/chopped toppings/etc. can be put into the fridge to be incorporated into other meals that week.  Leftover chopped peppers/tomatoes/onions/etc are perfect for tossing into an omelet for breakfast the following day.

ETA:  Non-dairy cheese works well on burritos, if you haven't tried it.  They sell "Mexican" non-dairy cheese blends that are perfect for burritos (at least here they do.  Hopefully in London as well).

I went ahead and cobbled this together for dinner tonight - it was good! We had fish burritos and the big children had 3/4 of the available options (a different 3 each) in theirs and the toddler had a piece of mackerel wrapped in a tortilla. Go figure.

👍

If what you're after is some ideas and a break from the mental work, there's a good cookbook for that -- Lickety Split Meals, by Zonya Foco, a nutritionist.  She approaches food from the "healthy fuel" perspective, and all recipes are super easy, cheap, and flexible.  She has a section for ultra fast recipes, which is cool; good for busy people.  And they have complete nutritional facts with each recipe.  I've found it helpful so many times when juggling multiple different family food needs.   

[FrugalShrew]

I think soups and stews is a category that would have a lot of options for what you're looking for: low carb, no dairy, can be batch cooked and frozen. Rice/noodles/other carb could be added by others at the table.

[AMandM]

MaybeBabyMustache's approach is very rational, but I think irl it would be too much mental work for me, keeping track of which pieces are available, making sure I have all the parts I need, and defrosting them.

Can you cook a basically keto regime and have carbs be a side dish or add-on? Soups and stews and bowls as others have suggested, to which I would add stir-fries, though they're not so good frozen.

[Hadilly]

I actually second MaybeBabyMustache’s approach. I have three teenagers, a low-carb preferring husband, and me. Four of us pack lunch every day.

I think in components. Right now in the fridge, we have beans, turkey vegetable soup, roast broccoli, leftover chicken,Dal, potatoes, and some chicken curry. My tasks today are to roast squash, make beef stew, make a cauliflower dish.

Cooking and reheating work very well. Cooking in components allows folks to combine to taste. I only freeze food if we aren’t going to finish it.

Sample ideas
Burrito night
Soup and grilled cheese (Costco has a good low carb bread if that is near to you)
Roast chicken and cabbage and baked potatoes
Frittata and salad and roast veggies
Breakfast for dinner
Quesadillas with low carb tortillas

I love having soup around. It is a great vehicle for vegetables and easy to make large quantities.

MaybeBabyMustache: do you make your own cauliflower crust for pizzas?

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@Hadilly - I don't make my own cauliflower crust. Depending on what's available, I either purchase the crust & add our own toppings (for my husband, he's not picky about proteins, so I use any leftover protein/veg/cheese combo in the fridge), or I buy a pre-made cauliflower crust pizza, and doctor it from there.

[tygertygertyger]

Following along. I have a strong family history of diabetes, so i am suitably wary of it myself.

A family friend whose job was caring for an elderly man with diabetes shared that when she served him a cup of soup or a small salad prior to his meal, his blood sugar stayed lower (regardless of what he ate for the meal). I've thought about that many times since in my own eating, but it's anecdote that may or may not be helpful for you.

My partner and I do customizable meals similar to many other comments above, so I'll vote once again for those. A base component and then everyone eats it just as they like.

[Josiecat22222]

I have a similarly challenging family (I'm a vegetarian, DH is damn near full on carnivore...and eats almost no carbs and DS eats everything as teenage boys are well known to do)

I think bowls are your friend here...each person can combine their ingredients to meet their needs.  In that you are making 21 meals a week, I think the best way to lighten your load would be to batch prep ingredients which can then be used for multiple meals.
For example, shredded chicken made once can then be used to go on salads, in a burrito bowl, added to soup or made into a chicken potpie type of meal.  Meat balls can be added to spaghetti and tomato sauce, placed on a roll for a sub, or served over brown rice, etc.

I'm glad to share some recipes for any of my family meals if it is helpful.

Best of luck to you as you navigate this.