Mothers are amazing creatures, but let’s face it, we need all the help we can get. I created a list of my top 5 meal hacks to support the superhero’s of the world: busy Mum’s
Let’s imagine the scene… it’s 5pm and you’re totally starving and your toddler Johnny is on his thirteenth tantrum of the day. You’ve completed approximately ten percent of your one million item to do list and your daughter Sally is tugging at your shirt and reminding you, “Mum, I’m hungry”. There’s no guarantee that Sally will actually eat anything you offer, but you still feel completely obligated to serve up a nutritionally sound and delicious masterpiece for dinner.
Sound familiar? As a Mum, there is so much to get right. And coming up with something healthy and quick to feed your family every single night can be quite the challenge.
Becoming a mother and a nutritionist has really changed the way that I prepare and execute dinners: for the better. I’ve become careful about the decisions I make, and every choice is an effort to keep things simple and streamlined. My system allows me to serve up something consistently good enough, but not perfect, as often as I can.
I know you’re busy too, so I’m sharing with you my top five meal hacks for busy Mum’s. As a special gift for being the awesome Mum that you are, I’ve included a link at the end to download my 7-Day Dinner Plan for Busy Mum’s.
My Top 5 Meal Hacks
1. Keep it simple: Find recipes that can be cooked in under 30 minutes, have only a handful of ingredients, or are easy one pot style meals. Too many ingredients or preparation steps signal a clear message: walk away!
2. Be Flexible: I consider recipes to be more like suggestions than orders. When it comes to cooking healthy, nutritious food for my family, I am very big on making substitutions. See something included in a recipe that you don’t have? Spare the trip to the shops and use something that you already have in the fridge. Be creative and give yourself permission to wing it a bit.
3. Cook a double quantity of your favourite meals: and freeze the rest or use as leftovers. This can take a little trial and error to see what’s freezable, or what is better left for a reheat. Soups, stews, casseroles, bakes and saucy foods are great for this.
4. Make a big salad with fresh ingredients: and use it over several meals to save time. I store my pre-made salad in an airtight container in the fridge and instead of dressing the whole salad, I dress each individual serving as I go. Use a basic dressing, like a mix of olive oil and lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, or balsamic vinegar.
5. Prepare your fresh groceries as soon as you get home: Instead of throwing all your fruits and veg straight in the crisper, actually take them out and wash, dry, cut, trim and store. Now this can seem like a lot of work, but it saves you a ton of time in the long run, and more importantly makes each dinner feel less labor intensive.
I hope you’ve enjoyed some of these ideas, and would love to hear how they work (or don’t work).
As a big thanks for all that you do, I created an e-book especially for busy Mum’s. It includes 7 of my go-to recipes for days that I don’t have the time (or the inclination) to spend hours in the kitchen. Each of these meals can be prepared and cooked in UNDER 30 MINUTES (except for the cauliflower pizza which takes a little longer – but you can make multiple at once and freeze them for later!)…
And I call that…
Winning!
To get your copy of the Busy Mum's 7-Day Dinner Planner CLICK HERE.