Help me plan a shabbos that isn't all carbs!

amother

Wed, May 22 2024, 4:05 pm

My shabbos meals now are all heavy carby foods.
Tons of challah and dip
Eggs (yes, I know. Not carbs but eaten with challah)
Soup with noodles and kneidlach
Potato kugel
Rice
Farfel
Other kugels such as pumpkin, apple
Deli roll
Schnitzel breaded in crumbs. Grilled chicken won't go over well
Rice chulent (no fans of barley)
Baked chicken bottoms for 1 or 2
Puff pastry dishes

I will also have a salad and cauliflower every meal . My kids are incredibly picky and rarely eat vegetables, do not like roasted veg etc. I would love a way to incorporate more healthy foods into our shabbos rotation.
No fish please!

amother

Lily

Wed, May 22 2024, 4:14 pm

I do:
fish with fresh salads (lettuce based, tomato salad, pickled cucumber salad, celery salad etc), techina and chumus
soup with egg noodles
chicken, potato kugel, green veg and salad
shnitzel breaded in ground almonds
cholent with more legumes less potatoes and barley
eggs, liver with onions

I don't use any puff pastry or mayonnaise based dips. Replace kugels of all shapes and sorts with salads and vegetables. I make just potato kugel because my kids love it.
My sil has a rule. She cuts only one challa per seuda so people don't overeat on the challa. I don't make rules but I don't serve many dips and then people automatically eat more protein and less carbs.

amother

Mayflower

Wed, May 22 2024, 4:27 pm

Salads. There's no need to serve so many starchy side dishes. Farfel AND rice AND several kugels AND cholent AND deli roll AND another puff pastry dish? Why? For the same effort you could make five or six different salads and cooked veggie dishes. Choose one or two starchy sides each week. Somebody doesn't love the dish you serve this week, next week you'll make something they like better. It doesn't hurt to get people used to not having their favorite every time.

I'm not a fan of having a separate "dips" course, which is completely unnecessary. Most of the commercial ones are mainly mayonnaise mixed with other ingredients, but even if you serve homemade hummus, guacamole, babaganouch, matbucha and caramelized onions to which you have added zero or minimal mayo, serving them as a separate course with challah means that people are stuffing their faces with more challah than they need. This may be part of your plan to save money, as people stuffed with challah are bound to eat less chicken or meat. But if you're concerned about excess calories, you're better off serving these things, if you do, at the same time as the main course. All but the hummus count as vegetables as long as you don't drown the ingredients in mayonnaise.

amother

Wed, May 22 2024, 4:30 pm

amother Mayflower wrote:

To clarify:
I do not do a separate dip course. I make my own dips
I do not make everything on the list every week. I chose from it
No one mentioned saving money OR calories. I would like my kids to eat some foods that aren't carbs since on shabbos it's all they eat. It is not a calorie or weight concern.

tichellady

Wed, May 22 2024, 4:33 pm

Serve normal amount of challah with one dip
Eggs (yes, I know. Not carbs but eaten with challah)
Soup without noodles and kneidlach
Take out kugel, rice and farfel and deli roll or choose one
Schnitzel
Rice chulent
Baked chicken bottoms for 1 or 2
Take out puff pastry dishes
Salad ideas: Cucumber salad, cabbage salad, hearts of palm, tomato and Avocado salad, marinated mushrooms, green beans, mango and jicama salad,
Grilled or roasted veggies

Your kids are not going to start eating vegetables if you never make them

My kids are picky too, I get it, but I don’t cook around them. I make normal balanced food so they will be exposed to it

amother

Sand

Wed, May 22 2024, 4:56 pm

We have slowly cut out carbs just because they are too filling. We do eat a lot of Challah friday night but the rest of the meal is low carb
- schnitzel - I grill with a little olive oil and spices, comes out so good
- string beans
- roasted sweet potato
- roasted zucchini
- sometimes potato kugel

We usually skip dessert or just a little ice cream for my DH

chocolate moose

Wed, May 22 2024, 6:45 pm

I am only allowed one serving of carbs per meal so we never eat like that anymore.

if I have challah, I cant have potatoes or noodles or cake.

it boils down to: salad with the fish and roasted veggies with the chicken. that way I can have challah if I want, or dessert if I'd prefer that.

amother

Gardenia

Wed, May 22 2024, 8:42 pm

amother OP wrote:

Make vegetables that you like. It's ok if the kids don't eat them. Roast them lunchtime on Friday and keep snacking (yum, my favorite- I can eat the whole pan on erev shabbos).

Serve the eggs with veggie sticks. Skip the challah alongside it. 1 slice per meal, so save it for the dips.

Serve yourself soup with zucchini noodles and chicken balls, and skip the strarchy add ins. Others can still have the starch.

Make yourself a small broccoli kugel instead of tasting the potato kugel.

Serve juicy sweet melons while everyone else eats the sweet kugels.

Don't eat the puff pastry options. Have skirt steak salad ready for you to indulge in while others are eating pastry.

amother

Cerise

Wed, May 22 2024, 9:08 pm

amother OP wrote:

Chicken soup doesn't need both kneidels and noodles. Pick one each week and add extra veggies.
Dips really aren't necessary at all. In our home, DH gives everyone half a slice of challah for motzi and another half a slice if they ask after the soup. That's it.
Serve 1 starch per main course. Either rice or potatoes or kugel or farfel, not more than one.
Skip all puff pastry dishes entirely except as an occasional special treat.
I don't think breaded chicken is such a big deal, especially if it's baked instead of fried, unless you have specific dietary concerns. There are other things you can use to "bread" cutlets with besides breadcrumbs if you need a change. Also, grilled chicken doesn't have to be boring and plain. My kids love when I make grilled BBQ chicken or other types of flavorful marinated chickens that I grill on my trusty George Forman.
Make more protein and veggies and hopefully they'll fill up on that if starches aren't available.

amother

Magnolia

Wed, May 22 2024, 9:34 pm

amother OP wrote:

If your not concerned about calorie or weight I think some of the ideas here are a bit extreme. If my kids want more than one peice of challah they are more than welcome. And one puff pastry dish a week isn't the end of the world. I would add some yummy salads or roasted veggies they like instead of taking away things. And I don't eat everything I serve...just because I'm watching my weight doesn't mean my whole family needs to suffer. Personally I found that when I make a yummy salad or veggie platter or roasted veggies the kids will eat it and like it but if I would take away what they like and force them to eat it they would be resentful.

amother

Dimgray

Wed, May 22 2024, 10:20 pm

OP, my kids don't go for salads but they love vegetable platters. We do some combination of cucumbers, peppers, carrots, tomatoes, celery, raw string beans, thinly sliced cabbage, snap peas, baby corn, avocado slices, olives (not all every week - some subset of the above. Also, I sometimes do radishes but I'm the only one who eats them Smile

).

Would your kids go for something like that? My kids especially like the vegetables with dips like chummus and techina.

My kids also fight over roasted mushrooms.