"Good Enough" meals

What’s your go-to dinner when your energy reserves are low, your pantry is bare, the kids are hungry and you’ve got limited time to whip up a meal? Do you plate up a bit of this and that and hope that it is “good enough”? The good news is, it definitely can be!

roast chicken and strawberries!

I’m always looking for ways to make life easier, keep food as stress-free as possible, whilst still feeding everyone hearty, nutritious food that fills their bellies, tastes great and provides all the nutrition the family needs to grow, learn, move well and not succumb to too many illnesses. It’s a massive ask! (and it sounds like a commercial for a fortified milk or multi-vitamin product). The truth is that life is far more complicated, and these goals can be paradoxical. Too much pressure on yourself to provide “healthy” food can lead to a lot of stress, that can negate some of the good of eating well! Oh dear, what to do then? Here are 7 tips to help reframe what a “good enough” meal can be.

Keep it colourful.

Tip #1

• Save a portion of last night’s dinner and serve it for lunch. Even the smallest of portions can be useful to feed a hungry belly quickly.

Tip #2

• Get your vegies delivered. There are numerous organic or regular produce boxes being delivered Australia-wide. If you focus on the fruit/vegie boxes, then they’ll generally deliver once a week, on the same day, and you can be sure that you’ll always have something healthy in the fridge and pantry. If you start the meal preparation with fruit and vegies, you’ll be sure to find something healthy for your meal.

Tip #3

• Balance out a meal with a bit of protein (meat, fish, eggs, milk, cheese, legumes, nuts, seeds- served in an age-appropriate way). Add a bit of carbohydrate (bread, pasta, crackers, rice, other grains) and complete the platter with some fruit (mandarin, apple, pear, tangello, banana…) and vegetables (carrot, pumpkin, beetroot, . It doesn’t have to be pretty enough for social media, nor a meal to get you a spot on a cooking show, it just needs to fill a belly, provide some nutrition, and taste good enough to be eaten!

Tip #4

• Create your own family version of “A little bit of this and that”, or “a pantry special”, “a little bit of everything” or “make your own dinner”. These are all fancy (or non-fancy) names for serving up a nice variety of the best foods available in your house at this meal. Maybe you have one apple, one carrot, some leftover rice, meat or stir-fry and a tin of chick peas. This can become dinner! As long as you’re not serving fatty processed foods for every meal, and as long as there is a balance of food groups (real food, not “food-like substances”), then you should be fine.

Tip #5

• Share the load- Humans are social creatures. We’re not really designed to function optimally when one adult is responsible for all the food decisions, preparation and feeding for all the children, at all times. So share with your partner, your family, your friends. Make as many meals as communal as possible. Take it in turns to provide meals for many, or all bring a plate when you get together. Keep it as colourful (naturally) as possible, and opt for the best you can manage in terms of healthiness. Sharing with friends and family also offers you and your child/ren opportunities to try new things, see what others are doing and get new inspiration.

get the kids to pick food from the garden.

Tip #6

• Make time to plant a garden! A few raspberries and strawberries, tomatoes, cucumber, beans, or herbs are all super easy to grow, and can make a very easy snack! It can take a bit of work to get started, but over time it becomes very rewarding to duck outside into the garden to grab a snack rather than always relying on the supermarket.

Tip #7

• Get your kids involved. I had a client a few years ago who decided he might like to make “Strawberry soup” for his family. So he did and it was delicious! Children can come up with all sorts of kooky ideas, and not all of them will work, but some may well become a new family tradition.

Happy Eating!

Food straight from the garden is great for kids and adults alike.