Teenagers, do you fill them up?

**imagine** · 10-26-2010, 03:24 PM

Buddy is a teenager and has recently got the "eat you out of house and home" appetite that apparently goes with being a teenage boy.

My menu plan is all out of wack because I cook extra for planned overs ( example cook extra chicken breasts to make chicken pot pie for dinner soon) but everything is being eaten at dinner or if it makes it into the fridge it is gone before I can use it.

Hubby and I have been chatting about this. There has to be some way to fill up the boy without him eating two or more additional servings of the main dish. or are we way of base here?

How do you fill the teenager up with out breaking the grocery budget?

And how do you make a menu when you aren't sure if there will be leftovers even if you planned for them to be some?

**wanderinggrandma** · 10-26-2010, 03:57 PM

I made a lot of homemade whole grain dinner rolls and breads and had them warm on the dinner table with butter and homemade jams at meal time. Also made sure it was well balanced meals that were "stick to your ribs" type of foods-- lots of baked and mashed potatos, hardy soups and stews, spaghetti, sloppy joes.

The years all three DD's played basketball and 1 club volleyball at the same time, it was a feeding frenzy at meal times AND after the games. I kinda of miss it. I love to cook.

Good Luck filling your son up!

**Neeley** · 10-26-2010, 04:00 PM

DS is 15, 5' 10", 250 lbs, plays football, basketball, baseball throws shot put and wrestles. Plus he lifts weights and works out daily. That pretty much equals a big eater.

What has worked for us is...
***I had to just stop planning for left overs. If we have them, great. If not, I wasn't counting on them anyways. We also have a loosely enforced rule of only getting seconds, not thirds or fourths. If he or DD still wants something else after their seconds, they get fruits or a lighter desert.
***Protein. Protein. Protein. DS stays satisfied longer if he is given more protein and less carbs. For example, I cannot feed him cereal or anything like that for breakfast it leaves him starving by lunch if I do. To keep him satisfied, I feel him four pieces of turkey bacon on 12 grain bread and a large glass of milk at 6:30 am. He has a break at 10:15 and has a Powerade Zero and a granola bar, cheese squares or a piece of fruit. Then lunch at 12:30 (if he takes, he has a sandwich or left overs from dinner, a fruit, chips, a pickle, and a desert). After school (2:00), but right before working out, he has another Powerade Zero and a snack. By the time he walks in the door at 7:00-7:30 he is absolutely starving again. He will munch on fruit or something until dinner is ready - normally around 8:00. Before bed (around 10:00-10:30) he has another snack, usually some kind of fruit.
***I keep plenty of snacks available to him as well. He easily eats several, several pounds of fruit a week. It is not uncommon for us to go through at least one 13 lb box of oranges, 8 or more pounds of grapes, 10 lbs of apples and six pounds of bananas in a week. I also keep things like pickles, popcorn, granola bars, cheese, and frozen Go-Gurts handy.

When he is home all day on the weekends, he constantly has a snack in hand. I have watched him eat eight oranges in an hour, four pounds of grapes in one sitting, etc...The boy can put some food away.

Good luck! It was a lot of trial and error for us. There was a lot of running to the grocery store in between the regularly scheduled trips, and adjusting other budgets to compensate for the increasing grocery budget.

**imagine** · 10-26-2010, 04:07 PM

Yep, just what I thought.

Have to scrap all I knew about feeding a family, menu planning, grocery shopping, etc. And learn a totally new way.

Thanks for the advice given and anymore anyone has would be appreciated.

**mauimagic** · 10-26-2010, 04:11 PM

Good luck and have fun on this new adventure!! Sure have a lot of experienced moms here to help out!!

**frugalwarrior2** · 10-26-2010, 05:03 PM

Pasta. Is your friend. Unless he is sedentary. My DS was an action machine and could down a dutch oven of spaghetti in 2 sittings. I just always kept carbs in the fridge. I also make 2 of everything. 2 boxes of mac-n-cheese as a side dish,2 pkg of chicken etc. Also Ramen served as a filler. A hard boiled an 18ct of eggs.

**HappyMama** · 10-26-2010, 05:09 PM

I make big pots of sauce, fettucine alfredo, chili ( stock pots full), homemade pizza and wings, whole turkeys and make a meal , then soup ( which my boys love) , turkey pot pie, turkey and beef enchildas, homemade granola, granola bars, copy cat lara bars, cake , cookies and pies in bulk meaning I make a few at a time, the bread recipe I have is for 5 loafs so I do three wheat, and 2 cinnamon, cinnamon buns two large trays, salads and homemade Italian bread with meals. You get the picture...lol When I do roasts I do a meal, then pot pies, or burritos, or stirfry, today is philly cheese steaks with the left overs and homemade copy cat sub rolls.

If I buy whole grains and many things in bulk, and cook in bulk I can have good quality, make in large amounts and they are more then full and I have leftovers for other meals or the freezer. I have had such a large garden this year and shopped the produce auction getting hundreds of pounds so cheap, the kids don't know what to do with all the food. I dehydrate and make them granola, or power bars, trail mix and apple chips etc. Hope that helps and good luck to you.

**imagine** · 10-26-2010, 05:52 PM

Originally Posted by frugalwarrior2

. Also Ramen served as a filler. A hard boiled an 18ct of eggs.

LOL As I was fixing Ramen noddles for lunch. Hubby, just said we need more Ramen around here. As we were taking about grocery budgets and lunches/dinners.

Little Miss just home from school found the package and ask if there was anymore Ramen noddles or had a eaten them all ( her appetite as gotten bigger too. She must be heading for a growth spurt.

Eggs hard boiled Buddy loves them and they are around 66 cents a dozen around here. That I must do.

Those are things we were thinking about doing for the family to cut back on our grocery bill. Sounds like I need to make more at each setting of our cheaper meals.

**JerryG** · 10-26-2010, 07:36 PM

Neeley gave some great advice and one thing that I might add - if it's leftovers, put it in individual portions in containers. If I put 'all' the leftover spaghetti in a one quart container, DS would indeed eat the entire container. If I put it in two smaller containers, he would (might) leave the other one alone.

**Libby** · 10-26-2010, 08:38 PM

Everything I was going to suggest has been said, extra protein, extra carbs, more fruit/vegs. Maybe start serving up a mug of hm broth - to help fill the void. You know they're just going to eat again later, why not less now?

Ramen noodles as tasty as they are, are sooo not good for you - deep fried and all the hidden sodium in them to help preserve them

I'd advise against eating those if possible. You have to cook the ramen for 5-10 mins'ish - why not cook reg pasta instead?. KWIM?

**imagine** · 10-26-2010, 10:06 PM

Originally Posted by Libby

Everything I was going to suggest has been said, extra protein, extra carbs, more fruit/vegs. Maybe start serving up a mug of hm broth - to help fill the void. You know they're just going to eat again later, why not less now?

Ramen noodles as tasty as they are, are sooo not good for you - deep fried and all the hidden sodium in them to help preserve them

I'd advise against eating those if possible. You have to cook the ramen for 5-10 mins'ish - why not cook reg pasta instead?. KWIM?

I love ramen noodles though. We don't use the seasoning packet, normally. Like them plain.

Have the most amazing oriental recipe made with Ramen. My friend who helps/works with the foreign exchange students and makes annual trips to Japan makes it. The students all say it tastes just like home.

I'm so craving it right now!

**frugalwarrior2** · 10-26-2010, 10:18 PM

exactly on the Ramen. We don't use the packet and sometimes the kids just eat them-like crunch,crunch while watching TV!!!
Also you can make a meal once in awhile w/ them by adding bits of meat/veg leftover.

JerryG-is right. i started hiding stuff.- in the bsmt freezer and under other stuff. Putting it in fake containers. My kids eat at night-meals not snacks. DS asks-like so,how many can I have??
He knows I'll get mad if I am thinking of the pizza for breakfast and he ate 1/2 a pizza all night. They are just 10x hungrier than we were preggers.
I make double rice mixes too and add tomatoes and mushrooms. Sometimes I buy the $5.99 fried chicken for him and friends. Always have hot dogs. 3 packs for 4-5 boys.
Pizza bagels are good. Lenders,leftover sauce,preshredded cheese in the toaster oven-quick.
Tortillas made like grill cheese. I throw lunchmeat in them if I have in. Cut it like pizza If I get a chance to cut it.
I also keep boxes of cereal. Healthy as he'll eat. He will eat a box watching tv-has hands like an oven mitt anyway.
This is making me think of Jethro from Beverly HillBillies.
Forgot about waffles and french toast. I make a loaf of french toast at a time. Just toast it,rotate and toast it again if it's frozen. When i make pancakes i make triple batches too.

**Palooka** · 10-26-2010, 11:32 PM

I always try to have left overs for dh to take for lunch.(otherwise he will drop 10 bucks on fast food.

) If DD is still hungry and dinner is gone, then there is always PBJ, cheese sticks, several fruits, and cereal. We go through a lot of fruit, many types of bread and peanut butter weekly. These are the things she likes and keeps her full.

I've noticed the more I have stocked, the hungrier she acts.

Oh and Ramen noodles we always keep on hand. We don't always use the packets either. Boxed mac and cheese too because it's cheap, filling, and they love that stuff.

Imagine, would love that recipe.

**mndtrp** · 10-27-2010, 01:25 AM

Beans and pastas.

My parents were lucky, both my sister and I got jobs in the food industry during that age, so we ate someone else's food instead of my parent's.

**imagine** · 10-27-2010, 04:49 AM

Originally Posted by Palooka

Imagine, would love that recipe.

My friend says it is a easy one to change depend on what you have on hand or dislikes and likes. I'll post the original then some of the suggestions she gave. She also makes a big batch as she is normally feeding a big crew with it. At my house we make it and eat it as leftovers for several days or freeze some for later.

The Oriental Ramen Stuff
about 36 servings give or take we are guessing

ingredients:
A pound of bacon
three pounds of onion chopped or sliced.
a package of carrots ( not sure of the size) sliced
a celery bunch sliced
fresh ginger grated ( about 1/4 after grating)
12 packages of ramen noddles, chicken flavor
Jalapenos, optional for topping depending on if you want the original spicy version

Fry up the bacon ( we use a deep dish electric skillet with lid my friend use a big skillet). Remove bacon. In the bacon grease fry/steam with a lid on skillet the veggies (not including the jalapenos) the grated ginger, and half the season packets from the Ramen noddles.

Meanwhile cook the ramen noddles and set aside. Cut the bacon in to small bits.

When everything is finished cooking mix everything together and serve.

We serve the jalapenos as topping, stirring into individual serving at the table because not everyone at our house likes the spicy
version.

Variations my friend suggested ( haven't tried any of these - we like the original way)

omit bacon if you don't have it, like it or want it. Fry in veggie oil instead.

She says green peppers are good in it as well

She says sometime she adds eggs.

She says the thing she never omits is the fresh ginger but admits that is because they love ginger.

I bet you could change the flavor by changing the flavor of the Ramen you buy. Just a guess though.