So you’ve decided to make some changes and want to follow the healthy eating diet plans from the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge. But how are you going to incorporate the recipes with the likes and dislikes of your family? Your kids? Your husband? Your partner?
The recipes that we include in the Challenges are really family friendly already and we ensure they are easy to prepare with everyday ingredients so it’s easy for busy women to make these healthy changes.

Children can be fussy (so can husbands!) and it’s sometimes a real chore to get them to try something different at meal times. Here are our top recipes to look out for and try to suit the whole family as well as some tips to making adding new meals to the dinner table a bit easier:

Pasta

Pasta is often a family favourite so add spaghetti and pasta recipes to your weekly Challenge Meal Plans. Try the “Turkey Meatballs in Rich Tomato Sauce”, “Spaghetti Marinara” or the “Puttanesca Pasta”. Look out for the “Chicken & Vegetable Lasagne” in the next round of the Challenge as this will suit many tastes.

Mexican

Mexican is great for the family especially when you set the table so everyone can help themselves and create their own meal. Children love it when they can choose what they are going to have on their plate rather than just have a plate of food put in front of them all the time. Mexican is great for this, especially wraps and tacos where the family can add their own toppings and flavours.
Try the “Mexican Tacos with Salad”, “Mexican Baked Potato”, “Mexican Spiced BBQ Chicken” “Beef Burritos” or the “Chilli Con Carne” for some great family friendly dishes.

Family Favourite Make-Overs

We all have our family favourites that sometimes might not be cooked in the healthiest of ways but being on the Challenge doesn’t mean you have to deny your family of these tasty dishes.
Try the “Chicken Parmigiana”, “Lamb Rissoles with Sweet Potato Chips”, “BBQ Seafood Platter with Homemade Chips”, “Lamb Kebabs with Greek Salad & Tzatziki” or in the upcoming Challenge there’s a “Quick & Easy Fish & Chips” that will suit everyone.

Soups & Stews

Soups and stews are often great meals for the family as you can make extras to freeze for another meal so it makes life easy for you, but also as you can hide a multitude of healthy vegetables and ingredients and the fussiest of eaters probably won’t recognise they’re included.
The “Minestrone & Bean Soup”, “Beef & Mediterranean Lentil Soup”, “Easy, Corn & Chicken Soup”, “Spicy Pumpkin Soup” or “Chickpea & Veal Casserole” are all great family recipes. You can omit anything spicy and could even blitz up soups so that there’s no traces of veggies!

Burgers & Fritters

There are a number of great fritter and burger recipes in the Challenges and these can be adjusted to suit your family’s tastes. Many of these types of recipes are served with a side salad but you could easily add them to a wholemeal burger bun, with a dollop of sugar free tomato sauce or sour cream and some melted tasty cheese and then you’ve got a great ‘takeaway’ style burger done in a healthy way.
These types of recipes are great to get the family to try different flavours, try the “Zucchini, Corn & Haloumi Fritters”, “Pea & Feta Fritters” or the “Vegetarian Lentil Burgers” and see what the family thinks.

Salads

Salad might not be the most family friendly dish but if you choose the right kind of salad to get the family interested then they may slowly come around to your healthier ways.
The “Chicken & Avocado Salad” or the “Creamy Chicken & Snow Pea Sprout Salad” are both good family friendly options as they have delicious, creamy dressings together with chicken and are quite substantial so your partner won’t complain of being served “rabbit food”!

Swaps

Remember that throughout the Challenge you can easily make swaps to suit you and your family’s tastes. If your children don’t like fish then prepare a seafood recipe using chicken. Or if there are certain vegetables that you don’t enjoy eating then replace them with something that you do like. Swapping meats, fruits and vegetables won’t ruin the recipes but rather it will enable you to get creative and prepare healthy meals that your whole family will enjoy.
If you can it is great to try new flavours every now and then and you never know you and your family may enjoy something you didn’t think you’d like. So be daring and you might surprise yourself.
The Challenge has been designed to be easy for you to make it work so it suits you and your lifestyle. So try out different things, make swaps and choose the recipes you know will please your family the most and you’ll find it easy to stick to the healthy eating plans.
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