Calling all Mom's of Teenagers

Taniesa

Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2015
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16
Location
Tracy, CA
So here is the deal, I have a family of 5... My husband and well the entire family needs to eat better and I definitely need to eat better. I am also not rich and damn healthy food is expensive and the less healthy stuff is cheap :( I am 12 years post-op looking into revision. Pasta is out (no one here likes it anyway besides me) and I cannot even look at a banana and avocado without dumping.

How do you meal plan, WHAT do you cook? What do you stock in your house for kids to grab and eat (and yourself too) all while staying within a reasonable budget and keeping the bottomless-pit children full enough.

I would love any and all advice!
 
Protein snacks are good for everyone. That's one place to start.

I don't cook differently for the family. I just eat different amounts of various foods. And snack on protein.
 
My husband eats low carb with me. My almost 21 year-old son will scrounge around with what I fix adding rice or pasta sometimes. He is pretty easy going. I made stir fried riced cauliflower last night with some fish filets he ate all the "rice".
 
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Are the kids old enough to be cooking for themselves (even with supervision?) I ask cause my daughter went thru an idiot phase when she was 12/13 and I refused to be a short order cook. If she didn't like what I made, she had to find stuff she liked to eat. I kept reasonable things in the house and during that time, every PENNY counted. Yes, pasta, rice, potatoes are cheap filling food but that doesn't mean they need to be eating that stuff all the time. BUT if you don't buy processed food, it does help the budget. And I was off the opinion that if you needed to snack, having to make it helped eliminate the grab & go idiot choices.

Options, depending on their taste...jerky, yogurt, cheese sticks, peanut butter, nuts...those are all healthy snacks and can be grab & go.
 
Options, depending on their taste...jerky, yogurt, cheese sticks, peanut butter, nuts...those are all healthy snacks and can be grab & go.

This is pretty much what we do here. My 17 y/o eats just as healthy as I do and my 11 y/o eats kind of like an 11 y/o but as long as we limit the types of things we bring into the house, she is stuck with what is here.

I thought as you about the expense of healthy eating before I really got started with it but it turns out that it doesn't cost any more to eat healthy than it does to eat like crap.

I am fortunate enough that my kids love fruits and vegetables I don't know what types of produce-only markets you have on the left coast but here we have Produce Junction and let me tell you, a little money goes a looooooong way there. Yogurt is usually pretty cheap too and they never have an issue choosing it as a snack.

I will cook a bunch of chicken breasts in the oven and throw them in the fridge which lasts about a week for lunches for three of us. It's way cheaper than deli meats and way healthier.

I think if you limit the types of things you allow in the house, they will change their eating habits. Not to mention watching you eat better will rub off on them.
 
When I started eating healthier I made sure the kids had plenty frozen dinners just in case. Also for the most part whatever I eat the children will and would follow just because they were to damn lazy to cook for themselves. My kids would even eat lean cuisines with me. I kept lots of lunch meats, fruit and quick stuff. But stuff I could really get them to eat and love slow cooker meals. Stews, roasts, meats then spruce it up a little for them with stuff like sweet corn bread. Rotisserie and smoked meats
 
Decent food on a budget is a way of life for me. The grocery store flyers come out on Wednesday here. When the flyers come I look for cheap meat and figure out what I am going to cook. Usually the best meat deals here are at the Hispanic grocery stores. And they always have the best prices on produce. I make a list of what I need and the first stop is always the 99centOnlyStore. They have real food plus I buy all my detergents/paper products there. You never know what you will find, not long ago they had jerky for a buck. I bought all they had. After that I usually hit the Hispanic store.

I never cook one meal. NEVER! I usually cook 2 or 3 days a month and that's it. If I make spaghetti sauce, I make enough for 4 or 5 meals plus some extra smaller containers for pizza sauce. If I do chicken parm, I do 2 full sheet pans. I don't make one meatloaf, I make 4. Same thing with chili. Honestly it doesn't take much more time to make for 4 meals than it does for one. And on major cooking days, everyone may be in the kitchen slicing and dicing. We turn on some music and make a fun day out of it. Better to trash the kitchen ONE day instead of EVERY day!

Right now I have beef chili, white chicken chili, spaghetti sauce, chicken parm, and Jamaican chicken in the freezer. There's also quite a bit of cheese, hot dogs, and sausage in there right now. I always have cheese and pepperoni for pizza. I probably won't cook anymore this month. For snacks I always have cold cuts, eggs, and cheese. There is always peanut butter in the pantry. And usually cole slaw made with ranch dressing(no carbs). I buy the bags of shredded cabbage for a buck at the 99centsOnlyStore. Usually there is egg, tuna, chicken, or ham salad too. I make it myself. It's easy and economical. Someone always has a sale on eggs and chicken. Plus I make stock out of the water I used to cook the chickens. The ham comes from the Hispanic store. They sell their odd bits and pieces for a buck a pound. Tuna comes in a 6lb can from Costco.

I have to get the freezer emptied out because I ordered 40lbs of ground beef from Zaycon Foods that I pick up on May 7th. It was $179.00 but it's excellent quality. Much better than the grocery stores. When I pick it up I will do 2.5lb packages and freeze them.

Bulk cooking is one of the keys to eating well on the cheap. It also minimizes the number of trips you make to the store. Stuff just jumps in your cart and you spend more than you planned. When I do go to the local grocery store, Smith's, I check out the marked down produce, meat, and baked goods for bargains.

Lots of times, I serve the dishes I cook with pasta or rice. I don't eat either because of the carbs. And no bread for me. I usually keep Mission low carb tortillas to use as wraps and there's always bread for the normies. I have lots of frozen veggies I fix as side dishes. Usually lower carb ones I can eat like green beans, cauliflower, and broccoli. The normies get their pizza with a normal crust. I make mine on a low carb tortilla.
 
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Another place for good deals is Aldi...
And did y'all know that Aldi and Trader Joe's are both part of Aldi Einkauf GmbH & Compagnie, oHG... Aldi as the US knows it is operated by Aldi Süd and Trader Joe's is part of Aldi Nord. They share some house brands. (altho not by TJ's choice but the parent company overrides that).

Where you live ALSO makes a difference. For me, the ONLY "local" in town store is the local IGA. And they are great but not the least expensive. I have to go 25-35 miles to get to most of my stores...so the cost of gas has to be figured into that. I do have 3 options within 10 miles but they are all chains and not all that great. The best of them is BI-LO. BUT we also have farmer's markets and tailgate markets and road side stands galore.
 
So here is the deal, I have a family of 5... My husband and well the entire family needs to eat better and I definitely need to eat better. I am also not rich and damn healthy food is expensive and the less healthy stuff is cheap :( I am 12 years post-op looking into revision. Pasta is out (no one here likes it anyway besides me) and I cannot even look at a banana and avocado without dumping.

How do you meal plan, WHAT do you cook? What do you stock in your house for kids to grab and eat (and yourself too) all while staying within a reasonable budget and keeping the bottomless-pit children full enough.

I would love any and all advice!

I buy 4 cases of Pure Protein Chocolate shakes, 2 cases of no sugar added peaches, and 4 containers of Breakstone cottage cheese, and 10 solid white albacore tuna cans with romaine lettuce every payday. This plus meats keeps me a very happy boy. I generally have either 1 shake, 1/2 cup of cottage cheese and 1/2 cup of unsweetened peaches every 2 hours. I eat 1 can of tuna and 1/2 a small onion 1 tablespoon of Helmans real mayo on 6 leaves of romaine lettuce once a day. Then for dinner I will eat a normal meal. I tend to eat 6 times a day.
 
When I started eating healthier I made sure the kids had plenty frozen dinners just in case. Also for the most part whatever I eat the children will and would follow just because they were to damn lazy to cook for themselves. My kids would even eat lean cuisines with me. I kept lots of lunch meats, fruit and quick stuff. But stuff I could really get them to eat and love slow cooker meals. Stews, roasts, meats then spruce it up a little for them with stuff like sweet corn bread. Rotisserie and smoked meats

I want some sweet corn bread!!
 
Another great thread! A lot of good ideas, especially @Munchkin.... and @Dave0168. I do similar things as well and buy and cook in those large quantities when possible. One example from me is green beans. We LOVE green beans and though fresh and then frozen is better, I have this “Cheating” method to share where I "Doctor up" canned grean beans and they taste GREAT, just like you’ve been cooking them from fresh ALL day. My Daughter loves them.

At Sams/Costco, I buy the 1 gallon cans of green beans for THREE dollars each!! I open them up and drain out all the juice and put the juice in a large pot. I then add in some onions, a little garlic and a ham bone with a lot of fat and meat on it, or sometimes just add junks of ham and fat if I have no bone. I boil the crap out of it until the onions become mushy and translucent, turn it off, let it cool until warm and then add back in the green beans and stir it all up! I SWEAR they test like Grandmas homemade beans and are still reasonably good for you. It makes enough for 3-4 meals and I freeze them and store in meal size containers. NOTE: You do NOT want to cook those already cooked beans themselves, or they will get too mushy.
 
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At Sams/Costco, I buy the 1 gallon cans of green beans for THREE dollars each!! I open them up and drain out all the juice and put the juice in a large pot. I then add in some onions, a little garlic and a ham bone with a lot of fat and meat on it, or sometimes just add junks of ham and fat if I have no bone. I boil the crap out of it until the onions become mushy and translucent, turn it off, let it cool until warm and then add back in the green beans and stir it all up! I SWEAR they test like Grandmas homemade beans and are still reasonably good for you. It makes enough for 3-4 meals and I freeze them and store in meal size containers. NOTE: You do NOT want to cook those already cooked beans themselves, or they will get too mushy.

God, that made my mouth water and thanks for the recipe.

I have a ham bome left from Easter that I'm going to do this with
 
I'm not a mom but my 2 athlete teen sons eat shit piles of PB+J's LOL. They eat dinner with us and within 1-2hrs are eating sandwiches. Obviously if your kids don't burn mega calories weightlifting and playing Rugby, this may not work :)

We watch all the ads on Sunday and hit whichever store has the majority of the best deals/coupons that week. Driving all over town to save a buck just doesn't make sense even with "cheap" gas right now. Mostly our house is stocked with beef, pork, and chicken of differing varieties. Not super cheap but neither is obesity. I have a hook up for whole ribeye, I pay about $6/pound and cut them myself, much better than $10-12/pound in store. We DO NOT ever buy frozen meals as they are typically a shit storm of chemicals and crap.

Any chance you have a fisherman in the house? Over the summer I load the freezer up with walleye and northern and we eat fish quite a bit. Also venison is good if you hunt, and if you don't get it made into sausage and stuff, or you do it yourself, it can be a very healthy and relatively inexpensive way to eat (after the initial expense of guns, poles, boats, etc LOL) but that money was spent years ago :)

Last thing - can you trim the budget in other places? I just went in and bitched at Time Warner because I was pissed new customers got a better deal than me. They ended up lowering my bill $33/month (that'll buy a few meals) It is amazing how much money I spend without even thinking about it that could be saved to be spent elsewhere. Coffee here, soda there, jerky from gas station and next thing you know there goes $50-100 a month. Just a thought....
 
So here is the deal, I have a family of 5... My husband and well the entire family needs to eat better and I definitely need to eat better. I am also not rich and damn healthy food is expensive and the less healthy stuff is cheap :( I am 12 years post-op looking into revision. Pasta is out (no one here likes it anyway besides me) and I cannot even look at a banana and avocado without dumping.

How do you meal plan, WHAT do you cook? What do you stock in your house for kids to grab and eat (and yourself too) all while staying within a reasonable budget and keeping the bottomless-pit children full enough.

I would love any and all advice!
A great and cheap idea is crockpot chicken and/or pork and some tortillas and a bag of shredded cheese. Make some salsa and have some green peppers and onions chopped up in containers. They can mix it up, have it cold or hot and do it themselves. I buy a HUGE package of chicken breasts at Sams club for about 12 bucks, throw them in the crockpot before bed and put them in the fridge in the morning. Lasts at least a week.
 

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