EP 95 | Quick, easy, healthy dinners your family LOVES? Strategies for crazy days, no food prep, & picky eaters!! With ASHLEY SMITH, Veggies and Virtue Podcast
“I…want to come alongside families & serve them in the struggles that I first hand know they face, but also that nutritionally I understand as a dietitian.”
Do you wish you could have family dinners that are quick to make, have easy ingredients, and that your family loves? But do you just feel like your days are so crazy, and you don't have time for the food prep, and my goodness, those picky eaters just won't eat it whatever you make?!
You are not alone, friend. Pretty sure we all face these same obstacles AND we also want the family dinners we make to feel like we put a lot of intention into them. We want them to be nutritious for our family and not a struggle. Ashley is here today to remind you that we all really CAN do this (even among all the busy) and she gives us simple strategies to use TODAY to bring less stress and more mealtime success. After you listen, be sure to stop by Ashley's podcast at VEGGIES AND VIRTUE and subscribe for all her latest episodes to help your family at snack and mealtime!
Let's grow!
Jennifer
Connect with ASHLEY SMITH HERE on Instagram
Listen to Ashley's podcast VEGGIES AND VIRTUE
15 EASY MEALS FROM COSTCO in under 15 minutes! HERE
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HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE!
Ashley validates that this is hard to get all the nutrition “right” for our families. She is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist raising three young children of her own and understands the struggles we moms face daily.
Look at where your biggest pain point is:
Know that it can’t change quickly; it requires time.
Most often the solution is a combination of a system and a strategy
Remember each child travels a different road
Use the PLAN, PAIR, PREP method and be honest about the season you’re in.
Some of Ashley’s favorite strategies can work for families with children of ALL ages!
“Love It, Like It, Learn It Framework” (for more information, visit veggiesandvirtue.com)
Introduce something that’s novel to get your child to try something new (like using a toothpick instead of a fork)
Encourage “exploratory bites” (call it “LEGO man size bites”)
“Parent provides, child decides”. How does this work in your family?
What can we do to avoid making three different meals to appease everyone?? “It’s one menu for the whole family and one approach for everyone. Let the children know that this is a family approach for mealtime.”
“Confidence isn’t a ‘nice to have’. As lights in this world, it’s a ‘necessary to have’. If we’re going to draw people into God’s love, we have to be secure in who we are. THAT is compelling to people.”
Children like boundaries to give them limits. We need to remember this for our eating habits, too. There are several things we can implement as “rules” in our homes that take the pressure off of us as parents and off of the children for having to “fight” against any rules.