"Normal" evening meals on a cut?

I know I'm going to get a few comments here, but here's the problem...........
 
I'm planning a cut, I train at lunchtime, so normally I'd have a carb free meal at 6pm and something slow release before bed.
 
But........ I do all the cooking in the house.  My wife is going through a bit of a bad patch at the minute but enjoys ours meals on a night.  So I don't want to stop cooking these as she'd just end up having beans on toast or something.
 
She's actually dieting at the minute and she does a typical girls diet of eating cereal for breakfast and lunch, then a normal evening meal and it's working.  She can't understand why I can't do this. 
 
So, can I reduce my cals throughout the day, eat a normal evening meal but reduce my portion sizes???  Problem is the meals are so random, sometimes I'd blow my cal deficit, sometimes I'd be fine.
 
So the point is, I want to cut but still enjoy normal evening meals with my family!

I would not worry, I can cut while splurging for the whole weekend with the family. Can really undo your entire day with 1 meal, really?!?

That said, you are talking daily - you should easily be able to account for anything eaten within your diet and cardio you do. Just stay away from anything a bit OTT, like cream based sauces or fried/roasted, or at least not too frequently. BUt it's easy to make 'normal' meals that are healthy and enjoyable.
 
Browse thru some old newsletter menus etc for some ideas or even teeh Recipes section here for ways you can enjoy a 'proper' meal

My usual cutting plan is to eat normal meals but drop the carbs.  Eg, chicken curry - no rice, same with spag bol.
 
But some of the dishes we eat at the minute, this can't be done.  Eg, lasagne, shepherds pie.
 
I reckon I'll dodge carbs where I can and eat smaller portions of the carb meals to keep the cals down. 
 
See........ our 2 year old is starting to eat the same meals as us, so I don't want to stop cooking a main meal.  I could cook for just them, but I usually make a load and without me eating it, it would go to waste.
 
I think a bit of will power is in order.

Why not tweak your main meals so that carbs are not "built-in" i.e. cook more meat 'n veg meals?

Nigeepoo


Why not tweak your main meals so that carbs are not "built-in" i.e. cook more meat 'n veg meals?

I'll aim to do this mate, and hopefully I can skip carbs without purposley cooking non carb meals.
 
Even shepherds pie (our favourite lately) I can skimp on the potatoes and not put as much topping on my plate.  Lasagne is the killer....... another favourite!  Beef stew is a new one, so that will fit in well.

Have a look at my "what are you eating now thread"

loads of clean evening meal ideas

you can have a reasonable size portion of most things, chilli, spag bol, fish with rice and veg, chicken and pasta etc and keep it around 700 kcals. just be careful what you're putting in when you're cooking, and control portion sizes

make things from scratch where possible. Pre prepared foods and sauces tend to contain a lot of **** and empty kcals. Get most the kcals in the meal from protein and carbs then minimal kcals from flavouring, sauces etc

as soon as you have something with cheese ie lasagne it tends to bump the kcals right up so best avoided really

http://www.muscletalk.c...=eating+now&mpage=18

Adding in the laboureous task of trying to get a toddler to eat too and I certainly do not envy you - struggle a lot with mine

Im doing a timed carb diet at the moment with carbs PWO and PPWO only, so im very good when im in work and like you I do the cooking at home so have a more normal tea - last night had a roast - so chicken breast, little yorkshire pudding, a few quickie roast and a load of veg. There are plenty of fairly goodish teas which wont blow your diet out.

Been dropping 2ibs a week doing the above - as long as you not caining the food all day and the evening fits calorie, protein wise etc I wouldnt worry.

Thanks guys.
 
I can control my diet very well when I'm at work, but because I train at lunchtime I want to time my carbs around that.  But I just need to make sure my daily cals + evening meal doesn't blow the diet.
 
As Loz said, if I allow 700 cals for the meal that should be easy done.  I might work out the breakdown of a few example meals and see where they sit.
 
I don't wanna get anal about this, but i don't want to be wasting my time dieting and not getting anywhere.
 
Dirtyvest - yeah we have all the toddler eating troubles at our house!!!  Luckily he wolfs 2 weetabix every morning so he's getting a good start to the day.