Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Family Food for Moms Podcast I Inspiration for Family Cooking and Dining I How to Enjoy Special Meals Together

Hi friends! I'm Karyn, and this is the Family Food for Moms podcast. We're talking about inspiration for family cooking and dining. 

Today we're going to talk about five ways to make your dinner table special. Imagine you're in a fancy hotel in Paris, looking out the windows. We all love a beautiful view and any kind of beauty enhances the meal experience.  

We can set the atmosphere by setting the table beautifully, serving nourishing food, and then encouraging good conversation (with laughter for the soul)! We have to guard our family dinner time if we want it to happen at all. There's so much else that wants to pull us away from eating together!

I want to talk about practical ways to make your dinnertime special, to get your imagination rolling - and then you do the things that suit you and your family; things that you love!

Hopefully this episode will inspire and encourage you to do that.

Check out familyfoodformoms.com/episode-3 to see the videos of napkin folding.

Hi friends! I'm Karyn and this is the Family Food for Moms podcast. We're talking about inspiration for family cooking and dining. Check out our website on familyfoodformoms.com!

I want to help you with the inspiration, the perspiration, and the celebration of food in your family.

So often we only talk about the middle one of these, the perspiration. That's all the practical stuff. We need to plan meals, we need to shop, we need to actually cook the meals, and we need to serve them to our family. And that’s what takes up a lot of the time, but I think there's so much more to food in our families than the perspiration.

The first category, inspiration, and the third category, celebration, are just as important as the practical part, the perspiration.

So on this podcast, we're going to be talking about all three of these things.

In today's episode we'll be talking about what we can learn about food and dining in Downton Abbey times!

It's fascinating to think about these people and how they lived. It's  so different to how we live today. Today we have a very fast paced life and And in those days it was such a slow lifestyle in so many ways. 

What can we learn about food and dining in the Edwardian era and around Downton Abbey times?  It wasn't so much about the food itself, although it was definitely whole food, growing their own vegetables and fruit, hunting their own venison from their land, making their own condiments,  but it was even more in the way they dined - slowly, together, being present and making it an occasion.

That's what we're going to talk about today!

Hi friends! I'm Karyn and this is the Family Food for Moms podcast. We're talking about inspiration for family cooking and dining. Check out our website on familyfoodformoms.com!

I want to help you with the inspiration, the perspiration, and the celebration of food in your family.

So often we only talk about the middle one of these, the perspiration. That's all the practical stuff. We need to plan meals, we need to shop, we need to actually cook the meals, and we need to serve them to our family. And that’s what takes up a lot of the time, but I think there's so much more to food in our families than the perspiration.

The first category, inspiration, and the third category, celebration, are just as important as the practical part, the perspiration.

So on this podcast, we're going to be talking about all three of these things. We need inspiration! We can get it from all kinds of places: from our grandmothers or our parents; the way they used to cook and eat, we can learn from other cultures like the French, the Italian, or the Mexican; and the way they do things, or from the internet and famous cooks and chefs from both the past and the present. There's so many ways we can be inspired. Even looking through a good cookbook can inspire us and it's so important to be inspired by it. 

We should know what we want to achieve and why, and then we should know how we want to go about it. Celebrating together as a family is such a wonderful thing, especially when it's done with food. Having special family meals brings connection and closeness. Fun events and traditions help us to enjoy our meals, enjoy our food and to relax after the craziness of life. 

Slow food makes time for conversation and to be together as a family unit. We need to create an atmosphere for our family that encourages celebration. 

We'll talk about all kinds of family events: family fun nights, date nights at home, larger family celebrations, or just all kinds of things you can do to help to celebrate your dinners together. 

Hi friends! I'm Karyn, and this is the Family Food for Moms podcast. We're talking about inspiration for family cooking and dining. 

Today we're going to talk about a few snacks I find that are really helpful to have available in the fridge when I have a crazy day, which is most days. I definitely have a sweet tooth, and often I'm looking for something sweet but healthy to grab when I feel that lull in energy - or when I'm just feeling like I want to eat something.

So I’m going to talk about a few things that are quick and easy both to make, and to grab from the fridge when you're at home and you're craving something good. Sometimes as a mom, it's hard enough to make sure that you're getting the nourishment you need - forget about sitting down and actually enjoying eating your meals - some days are just too busy! Also, there's the time in between meals when you need a snack - a protein snack or just something to keep up your energy.

I struggle with knowing what to grab!

One thing I know for sure is that if I'm not nourishing myself properly, then a lot of other things are going to start falling apart. If my blood sugar is all over the place, if I'm moody and tired, then things are not good. When my blood sugar is balanced, I feel calm and able to handle my days much better. If I don't eat enough protein and enough nourishing food, then I feel exhausted. Exhausted, and often overwhelmed and not able to cope with all the conversation that goes on in a busy home plus homeschool. But if I eat good protein and nourishing meals then I've got energy and I can give my attention to my kids, to my family and the home as needed. I have energy for cooking for other hard times too. 

So do you have these struggles? Then stick around for some ideas. 

Also, if you'd like to see the full recipes, have a look at this particular blog post on familyfoodformoms.com under podcast - Episode 4.

 Hi friends, I'm Karyn and this is the Family Food for Moms podcast.  We're talking about inspiration for family cooking and dining. 

It's very inspiring thinking about how the French relate to food and to meals. In this episode, we're going to talk about what we can learn from the French about food and dining.

The French are a fascinating culture, and when it comes to food, they've got a lot of things right. First I'm going to talk about some things that I find really significant about the way the French approach food and dining. Then, in the next episode, we'll talk about how we can apply some of these principles in our own lives.

I know we don't always have a lot of time to make changes in our lives! I think the thing to do is to choose one or two things that you want to work on in your own family and then try them.

When you feel that those are working well, then you can add something else or try something new. We shouldn't feel pressure or feel overwhelmed when thinking about these things, but rather, we should feel joy in considering what ways we want to improve our family's health, wellness, and togetherness through the way we eat.

Remember you can download Conversation Starters on familyfoodformoms.com/conversation. 

Thanks for listening!

Today we're going to talk about what we can learn from Russia about food and cooking, traditions, they have..

I don't know a lot about Russia, but it's been fascinating researching this because they are such rich culinary and cultural traditions and I think there's so much we can learn from the way they do things.

It's not an easy country to live in because of the extreme cold and other factors. So they've had to learn to make the best of what they have, to adapt. And then, they have a long history of aristocratic and imperial traditions. So their cuisine is fascinating. Also, it reflects the diversity of its regions because it's such a vast country.

The Northern Coast is well known for its fish dishes. And then Siberia for the meat heavy meals. The food varies greatly depending on where you go in Russia.

Lets talk about some Russian food and traditions!

As busy moms, there's always something that needs cooking, there's always a meal that needs preparing, and so I'm sure you have found that bulk cooking helps with that - cooking more than one meal at a time, storing half of it, putting it in the freezer, and then the following time you only have to reheat it. I thought it would be fun to look at how cruise ships and restaurants do their bulk and their batch cooking, and just get some ideas and inspiration from them. So, let's think about bulk cooking from the perspective of a cruise ship and what we can learn from that. 

In order to do bulk cooking effectively, a lot of planning, consistency, and efficiency must go into it. I think the more you plan, the more effective it's going to be, no matter whether you're thinking about doing some batch cooking on a day to have meals for your freezer, or just bulk cooking if you're having a large event, large family over, or if you want to double up on a meal you're doing. There's a few principles that I think we can apply. 

 Queen Elizabeth II was an amazing lady. She lived to the age of 96, and she reigned as monarch for 70 years, which was the longest of any British monarch. She was healthy and active up until close to her death, so it's very interesting to learn about what she ate, and how she ate it.

I enjoy watching YouTube videos by Darren McGrady, who is a former royal chef for the Queen, and then for Princess Diana when William and Harry were young. He's also written some recipe books, including recipes he used to cook for the Queen. I think it's so interesting to look at her lifestyle and the way she ate. So, today I want to talk about some things that we can learn from the Queen, about food, about eating and a healthy diet, and then dining, and how things worked around her.

 Today we're going to be talking about Italy - what we can learn from the Italians about food and dining.

I've been doing quite a few “what we can learn froms” recently, and the reason for that is that I'm also currently working on my book - the Family Food for Moms Inspiration for Food and Dining - all about what we can learn from all these amazing cultures and people, and then how to practically apply those principles.

I think it's so valuable to be inspired by what others have done, and to see the ways that people do things is really helpful and really insightful, and really helps us to figure out the way we want to do things in our families. 

Today I want to talk about food in biblical times, and what can inspire us from that time, what we can learn about food from the Bible.

In the Bible, eating is a sign of rejoicing and celebrating, and eating is an opportunity to share food, and fellowship through conversations - this was more special because it was done over a meal. Eating was a sign of contentment, peace, and provision. They ate what they had produced in their gardens after planting and harvesting, and it was very satisfying...

Let's talk more about this..

 Last time we talked about school lunches in France, and this time we're going to talk about school lunches in Spain, which are also very interesting and rather healthy. As always, there'll be links in the show notes.

 We'll also talk a little bit about Spanish food; their fascinating culture and how they approach food and dining. Similar to the French, mealtime is very important to Spanish culture. It's important to them that they eat slowly, and that it's a social occasion, that they enjoy their food, and don’t rush through it.

If you go to familyfoodformoms.com, episode 24, then you'll be able to find the links to the websites that I mention.

“I walked into the dining room to see tables of four already set - silverware, silver bread basket, off white ceramic plates, cloth napkins, clear glasses, and water pitchers laid out ready for lunch. I was standing inside my children's public elementary school cafeteria, or canteen as the French call it, in our local town near Annecy, France.”

This is a quote from the website mindbodygreen.com, from an article about what French kids eat for school lunch. I find it so inspiring to see the way the French have decided to do school lunches for their younger children. They have courses, usually four courses. They have real, nourishing, freshly cooked food. They sit down to enjoy it together at beautiful tables with lots of time - they have at least half an hour to sit, and they have to enjoy their meal slowly. There are so many good principles that we can learn from this! Also, it's just so inspiring to see the actual food that they are served. It’s not easy, I can imagine, to make it all happen, but the benefits are huge.

So, today we're going to talk about what French kids eat for school lunches, and we're also going to mention a few tips for picky eaters. All the websites that I reference will be linked in the show notes on familyfoodformoms.com. This episode is number 23, and if you go to that post, you'll find a link if you want to read any of the articles that I'm referencing, or look at the photos.

Learning to cook starts slowly, and then you gain momentum as you get better at the basic tasks, at multitasking, and you grow in confidence and experience. Then your knowledge and skill just increases exponentially. I think it's great for kids to learn to cook before they leave home. I couldn't cook very much at all at the beginning, and we mainly ate either frozen meals made for us by my mom, or pre-packaged meals from the supermarket with a few homemade things in the middle there. I felt very intimidated by cooking and by big chunks of meat; I wouldn't know what to do with those. I was intimidated by cooking in the oven. These days we have so many amazing tools, many more than we had then, and it's so great to know how to use those. 

I think that for somebody starting out cooking, who's going to be leaving home to start out on their own, or who are getting married, both ladies and gents, I think it's so important to learn how to cook. I'm going to talk about in a couple of different episodes how to get started with learning to cook. We're going to talk about what exactly are good things to learn first. To start with, learn some mains, sides, and sauces, or just a simple meal consisting of a main and a side and maybe a sauce to add interest. 

Once you get the basics down, then you can start to use those in different ways to mix and match. Then you start to grow exponentially in your cooking skills. Let's talk about what are good things to start with when you're learning to cook. 

Today I want to talk about Thanksgiving.

For me, one of the biggest challenges for both Christmas and Thanksgiving is to not become busy during the event, but to be present, and also to not become stressed before the event, but to be relaxed, and to enjoy the time with my children, with my family, because that's basically what it's all about. It's not about making it perfect.

This is a concept that my brain doesn't easily accept, but I really do want to be present. I want to have the mindset of being present and not the mindset of finishing, or making it just right, or making it just how I want it, but rather to enjoy that process with them. It is easier now that they're a bit older - it was more challenging when I had many young children. But either way, I really want to engage with them, connect with them, and make special family memories together. 

Today, I thought it might be fun to talk about some US presidents and their favorite meals, with Thanksgiving coming up next week, and in honor of the elections. Let's talk about some of our recent presidents and what they liked to eat. And then I'll mention some from quite long ago, and what they enjoyed. 

I find it really fascinating seeing what someone will eat when they have a chef at their disposal, and can eat whatever they want. I think the first ladies would have had a lot to do with planning menus, and even encouraging their husbands to eat healthier things. Some of the things I'll mention are from when the presidents are just on their own, and they eat whatever they feel like, and then other things would be more what they would eat if there's a White House dinner, or a small dinner party, or if they’re simply eating with their wives, but is still cooked by the chef.

Today, we're going to be talking about kitchen utensils that I find really helpful in cooking and serving food.

I don't like having a ton of stuff, especially gimmicky things, lying around the kitchen. Good utensils have got to be simple, fit into the drawers, and really be super helpful.

There are no affiliate links with these - these are just things that I have in our home that I wouldnt want to do without. See familyfoodformoms.com for photos.

Let's chat!

It's a fun one today. We're going to talk about what we can learn from Masterchef.  I'm sure you all know the show Masterchef, Masterchef USA. There's Masterchef Australia.  We like to watch Masterchef USA and Masterchef Junior.  And it's always so inspiring to me even what the young kids can cook and how  elegantly they do it and how much variety.

They seem to know how to cook all these obscure ingredients that I have never tried to eat before, let alone cook.  But it's very exciting and inspiring. So I thought I would just mention for fun 10 things that I've learnt from watching Masterchef. 

 Today we're going to talk about how to arrange a special dinner for your family on short notice. Lately I've been feeling like I'm missing all those wonderful Christmas meals that we had in December. We had some graduation meals for our kids. There were the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals. There were other celebrations. There was a birthday, and another birthday in January. There was so much slowing down during that time, and making things special - having a special meal where we enjoyed each other's company. We relaxed, we played games, we did stuff that we hadn't done before, and we ate good food and made memories together. 

Suddenly things were very busy in January. Homeschool was going on, and work, and lots of cooking for various things, plus some extra challenges on top of that. Then it felt like we hadn't spent as much time with our kids, and we hadn't spent enough family time together enjoying each other, so on the spur of the moment, I decided to have a special meal that evening. I had the day to plan it, though I did have other stuff going on during the day, so I kind of did it in between. I didn’t have a lot of preparation time, so I wanted to talk to you about how that worked and how I was able to put that together in a short time. 

So, we're going to go through some steps to help you get there if you want to do this. Hopefully this will make it easy and practical. We'll talk about the food, but also the activities and ambience, and all those things.

Today we're going to be talking about ways to foster and grow family closeness and connection at your dinner table, making dinner time meaningful and special. This can really transform a simple meal into a chance to be close as a family, connect with each other, reflect together on how your days' went, and to relax after the craziness of the day.

Join me as we chat about family closeness at dinner time.

Today I want to talk about things that we prep in our kitchen for the week. Now I'm not talking about meals, not meal prep.  Other things, so snacks,  protein maybe to add to breakfast,  sauces, salad dressings,  bone broth,  sides maybe for family members who don't eat wheat or who are gluten free and then I want to replace them with something. 

And then the meat and veg that I cook through the week. So,  I'm mainly going to be talking about all the things that we prep at the beginning of the week. But I may just mention some of the others. So this really helps me because  then I've got snacks organized, I've got a good breakfast supplement organized when the kids make their own breakfast. 

We've got homemade sauces and we've got all the things that really help with the health and with the flavor and the yumminess. 

Today we're going to be talking about what we can learn from our grandparents and great grandparents about food and dining; our grandmothers and our mother's past generations. I asked one of my daughters what she thinks of when she thinks of granny's food, and she said that the food is very solid and simple whenever we go to visit. It's meat and vegetables, and it's not complicated and difficult. I like that. I think we can learn so much from past generations about food and about how to cook.  

There are always special things that are passed down from our moms and grandmothers. In our case, it's things like homemade ice cream, which I'll give you the recipe for. There's a wonderful British fruitcake that my mom makes, a Christmas cake with the icing and all, and there are crunchies made with syrup. Good, hearty fare comes to mind.  

Previously we spoke about five ways to save money in your kitchen,  and we talked about some unusual and controversial things you can do while trying to keep your food nourishing and delicious. 

It's not easy to do that when you have to cut costs, because often the healthiest things are expensive. But it's definitely possible to eat healthy food and nourish your family while spending less.  Today we're going to talk about five more unusual ways to save money in your kitchen.

Hi friends! I'm Karyn, and this is the Family Food for Moms podcast. We're talking about inspiration for family cooking and dining. 

Today, I want to talk about ways to save money in the kitchen. It's so easy to feel overwhelmed these days, and a bit discouraged. I want to feed my family healthy meals and delicious meals, but everything is so expensive. We're just going to talk about a few ways to save on money, save on time and keep the health and the yumminess there. I know it's not easy, but we can do hard things, right? The more we practice hard things, the better we get at doing them.  

I hope these five unusual ways to save money inspire you and help your grocery budget!

Hi friends! I'm Karyn and this is the Family Food for Moms podcast. We're talking about inspiration for family cooking and dining. Check out our website on familyfoodformoms.com!

I want to help you with the inspiration, the perspiration, and the celebration of food in your family.

Today, we're going to talk about a fun topic, and that is what we can learn about food from children's and young adults’ literature.

There are such beautiful descriptions of food and dining in books. And it comes from other eras, other countries, or other times that are very different from the way that we live now.

I love to look at that, reflect on it, and see what we can learn from it.  So let's chat about it!

Hi friends! I'm Karyn, and this is the Family Food for Moms podcast. We're talking about inspiration for family cooking and dining. 

In this episode we're going to be talking about more ways to make your dining table special.  Last time in episode 3, I mentioned five things - we talked about decorative underplates, lighting, fancy napkin folding, personalized place names and music for ambience. 

We all love a beautiful view and any kind of beauty enhances the meal experience. As a family, it helps make wonderful memories and feel connected to each other. So,let's consider more ways to make a dining table special for a family or fellowship meal.

 In this episode, we're going to talk more about family fun nights. Last time we talked about a whole lot of ideas for events you can have together in your family. A lot of those were for large families, so today I'm going to give you ideas for how to have a family fun night when you have a smaller family, even if it's just mom or dad and a child. 

The reason I'm talking about family fun nights is because I feel like they're such a big part of family closeness and togetherness. Plus, a lot of them use food, or are to do with food, and include a way to eat that's different to the norm, and that's lots of fun. So, today we're going to talk about some more ideas for family fun nights, and how to do them when you have a smaller family. 

Somehow, when you're focused on time with a particular child, even if you're together for most of the day. During that special time, you focus on them more than usual, you talk about stuff that you have in common. You ask them specific questions. You kind of really build a relationship, and work on that relationship by having good chats and a good time together. 

So, in the same way, a family fun night can be something that a small family, or a mom and child, or a dad and child can do together. It can just be something really easy that you both enjoy, like playing some board games or playing some kind of sports games, indoor or outdoors. Or it can be more involved - listen for a ton of ideas!

In this episode, we're going to talk a bit more about the food go bag, and the best ways to go about using the list.

Then we're going to talk about some easy meals that can be made when you have a few more supplies than the absolute minimum, but still not many - or perhaps no power, or limited power from a generator.

But before I give you some ideas for those, I want to talk more about the emergency food go-bag. If you haven’t downloaded the printable with the list of items that you can select from for the food go bag, (you can also add your own) and then plan your meals for your bag, you can find that on familyfoodformoms.com/foodgobag. 

It's important to know that not all the items on this list are meant to be packed into your food go bag. You need to choose some of them, so as to have enough supplies for two or three days. That's what we're aiming for. So, you want to have enough food for two breakfasts or three breakfasts. You decide how many days - two or three, or if you want to do more days, that's fine. But remember that you obviously are going to need to carry all this. 

Say you have two to three days of breakfasts, lunches, snacks, dinners, and perhaps desserts, which are always good for cheering you up when things are hard, and are also needed for extra energy boost if you're staying up late trying to figure things out. Once you've decided how many meals you need, then you can go about planning them.

The lists in the printable are arranged so that you can decide what meals you're going to make, tick off what you want to add to your GO-BAG, and then add how many of each thing you'll need. 

Download your Food Go-Bag Printables on Familyfoodformoms.com/foodgobag

The world feels very serious right now. There’s so much going on! So many people are affected by conflicts, and by Hurricane Helene. They have to either move, or figure out their lives without power or water. Now with the new hurricane Milton coming, there’s so many people in the world who live in ways that we can't even imagine - they have so little. 

So, my prayers go out to all of you who are affected by the hurricanes or whatever other things in life that are very hard.  So today was supposed to be my second family fun night episode but I'm going to postpone that till next week, and do an episode about about  an emergency food go bag that you can build up and then ways to cook simple nutritious meals if you don't have power, and if you have really limited supplies, (like no fresh food) using the food from the GO BAG. 

I also have a new printable for you, which will be a list of supplies for the emergency go bag. So don't worry if I mention Odd things to add to the bag at various times through the episode. I've compiled them all into a categorized list for you to download so that you can have that and you don't have to worry to write down as you listen. 

You can find the printable on FamilyFoodForMoms.com/FOODGOBAG (one word)

 Today we're going to be talking about what we can learn from the Amish about food and eating and dining. The Amish are a very healthy community because they eat very simply from food that they cultivate on their land and they have a huge amount of physical exercise having to look after their farms, grow their food and do a lot of manual labor that we would use machines for they're good at working as a community and helping each other buying from each other. 

But today we're going to talk about what they eat and the healthy lifestyle that they live. 

In this episode I'm going to talk about family fun nights. Family fun nights can be as simple as takeaway pizza in front of a movie or an episode of Masterchef, or they can be something that takes a bit more preparation.  There are many different seasons of having children at home, and we found that no matter what the kids’ ages are, there are family fun nights that everyone can enjoy. 

So, I'm going to mention some of the ones that we love to do. I'll do more in future episodes, but I'm going to tell you about some of our favorites. Family fun nights are such a great way to wind down, even as mom and dad, after a long week. They’re a great way to relax, have fun, and connect with each other and with the kids, and to really enjoy each other's company. 

Hi friends, I'm Karyn and this is the Family Food for Moms podcast.  We're talking about inspiration for family cooking and dining. 

It's very inspiring thinking about how the French approach food and dining.  Last time we spoke about what we can learn from the French about dining and meals. In this episode we're going to talk about how we can apply the principles and hacks we've learned from the French about food!

Today I'm going to talk about some ways you can balance your blood sugar throughout the day. It's something I try to be aware of, and it's not easy for me to remember to do things the right way, but it makes a big difference to how I feel, and how much energy I have. 

Making sure your blood sugar is balanced in the morning is the best way to have it balanced throughout the day.

Today, we're going to talk about date nights at home. My hubby and I often enjoy having our date nights at home. And for many years, we weren't really able to go out because our children were young and we didn't have babysitters that we wanted to use. And so we had date nights at home and they've been so amazing.

Nowadays, we have older children, adult children. And so. We try to go out once a month to a place, but it is more expensive. So we still like to have three out of the month at home. So today I'm going to tell you how they, how we do that, how they work and give you some ideas for what you can do for date nights at home.

 Today we're going to talk about some things we can learn from elegant restaurants about food and dining - things that we can apply at home without making it a huge big effort, but still making our dinnertime more special, more meaningful, and more nutritious. 

Certainly there are fast food restaurants and things that we wouldn't want to emulate. And, we're not going to be able to create a restaurant at home - that's a lot more work than we have time and ability for. You'd need all the waiters and waitresses and all the chefs. But I just want to think about ways that we can apply some of the principles to make our own mealtime special. 

Thanks for joining me on the Family Food for Moms podcast!

Today we're going to be talking about simple health tips for your kitchen. These are some unusual health ideas, ones that I find important, and that I like to do in our family. I thought that you might enjoy hearing them - you haven’t heard some of these before!

Sometimes things just get stuck, often around the holidays and other busy times of year. There's so much to catch up with, and things kind of get stuck when it comes to food and cooking. I found this out recently, when there was so much going on, and I didn't even realize that I didn't have a proper food plan.

Every day I would be like; whoa, I have no idea what we're doing for lunch or dinner today. Then I would have to make a last minute plan, like doing some quick online shopping for something like quiche or pie, or chicken breasts that I could cook quickly. This just kept happening day after day. 

That's not usually the case, because we usually have stuff that we've cooked that week. We like to do a lot of cooking on Tuesday and Wednesday - our kids each help on different days. We also do quite a bit of cooking for our church family, so we have to be doing a lot of cooking, but sometimes there's just a lot going on, and things don't happen. That's what happened to me last week, and I had about four days where I just realized: oh, I don't have a plan for this. 

Now I want to tell you what I did to kind of correct that, because it got to the point where I felt overwhelmed, and it wasn't working, and I just never had the energy to cook.

Lets chat!

The Chinese are a fascinating culture when it comes to food. They have a unique approch to eating and there is a ton we can learn from them. Everybody loves a good chinese takeout, and its great to learn to cook chiniese broth, noodles, stir fry, etc at home.

So today, Lets talk about what we can learn from the Chinese about Food and Cooking!

This is the last episode for 2024. I'll be back on Monday 6th January! Have a blessed Christmas, friends!

Have you ever wished you could dine out at a fancy restaurant with your hubby or with one of your children, but you can't leave home, maybe because it's just one of you at home, or you have a baby or kids that you can't leave, and no babysitter? Today we're going to talk about how to bring the fancy restaurant to you.

This works great for a date night with your hubby, or for if you want to have a date night with one of your kids. We've done this often where it's mom and dad and one of the children. It’s a special night for them, and they get to choose the menu. Today I'm going to talk about some ideas of food you can make that's fancy; how to bring the fancy restaurant to you when you can't go to it, and a couple of other ideas to make the whole evening fancy. 

Sometimes we just need a break, a refreshing time, a reprieve, and we just need some good food, and some relaxed conversation without having to jump up every five minutes, or make a complicated meal. A restaurant's so great for this. It's a change in atmosphere, a new place with delicious food that you don't have to cook. So, how can we bring some of those elements home without it being a huge effort with a huge amount of cooking and preparation before? I'm going to talk about some ideas for how to do that easily and in a way so that you can also relax and enjoy the evening.

 Today I wanna talk about packed lunches - how to plan them, how to make them healthy using whole foods, and I’ll mention a few different ideas for them. This could be for your kids' lunches at school. It could be for your husband's packed lunch if you do that for him when he goes off to work. It could be for your own packed lunch if you go out to work or to anywhere else during the day, maybe for when you’re sitting in the car waiting for your kids from ballet or whatever it might be.

It can even be for at home - sometimes it helps to have meals prepared in advance, although those would more likely be something you're going to heat up at home, and that you've prepared beforehand. A packed lunch, however, would be something that can be eaten cold, and would generally be very hearty, nutritious, and delicious. 

We recently got a heatable lunch box for my husband and son who go to the office once a week. It’s very useful, because it gives you so many more options for things to do, and it's just like a steamer. You add your food to little stainless steel dishes, and then you put a little water in the bottom of the box, and you let it steam for half an hour to an hour to heat up the food. That way, there's no need to use a microwave or whatever else might be there. You can just warm it at your desk. This is useful because then you can pack any cooked ingredient that just needs heating. For today, though, I want to talk about items that you can put in a lunchbox that will be eaten cold. 

Today I’m going to be doing the second half of the year of fun food days to celebrate.

I'm working from a website called timeanddate.com. I’m going to mention some ideas for ways to celebrate days involving food from July to December.

I hope you have fun with some of these days! Choose which ones you want to celebrate.

 Today, we're going to talk some more about what we can learn from World War Two about food and nutrition. One of the biggest takeaways for me is realizing how resourceful people became when they had to be. They grew the victory gardens. They substituted certain foods for other foods. When things were rationed or not available, they made their meals simpler. They cooked more from scratch. If ingredients weren’t available, they learned how to adapt and edit recipes. For example, they made cakes without eggs if eggs weren't available. They were really rising to the challenge, and I admire that. 

Often today, we have many challenges with our shopping and our cooking, and having time to do those things in our families. It's amazing if we can figure out how to be adaptable; how to edit recipes when needed, how to be able to cook on a cheaper budget, and how to be able to use certain ingredients when others aren't available. We can learn not to have to pop to the grocery store for the smallest thing, but learn how to do without it, and to change and be adaptable in our cooking.

It’s also good to learn how to eat more simply, in ways that cost us money and time, like having a meal of simple meat with a side vegetable, and not always needing the fancy. We should balance the fancy with the simple and wholesome food. 

I'm going to talk a bit about rationing, and about what people did if a food was rationed, or it was not available. Then I'm going to talk about the kind of things that the soldiers and the people ate during that time.

Our Grandmothers, Grandfathers, and Great Grandparents can teach us so much about food!

The way our grandparents ate is a fascinating subject. It’s inspiring to learn from our grandmothers in the way they cooked food to bring good health to their families. Today I want to do the second part of What We Can Learn from our Grandmothers about Food and Cooking. 

Our grandparents’ diets were shaped by where and when they lived; the era, the region, and the availability of ingredients, but in general, they ate simple, wholesome food. It was home cooked food with seasonal ingredients, and it often tied to family traditions and recipes that were passed down the generations. They cooked with love from scratch, and they enjoyed their food in good company. 

Here's part II of What We Can Learn from Our Grandmothers about Food and Cooking. Part 1 was Episode 15.

 Today we're going to talk about what we can learn from Enland about food and dining.

England is quite fascinating. I always think of the famous five books by Enid Blyton and picture the children riding on their bicycles through the fields, having a picnic in the sunshine, enjoying the outdoors. Their picnic would have been packed by their cook at home and have things like meat pie, fruit cake, ginger, pop, or they would eat at an old farmhouse where they were staying. And the kitchen table would be piled with goodness from the farm, raw milk from the cows, clotted cream, a ham, again, meat pie made by the farmer's wife and many more wonderful fruit tarts and things that they so enjoyed.

When thinking about British cuisine, it's inspiring to think of hearty food from scratch that nourishes your family, and to try things that are going to help you to sit down together, enjoy a long, slow meal, and be well nourished.

It's fascinating to think about nutrition and what food was available both during the World Wars and in the time after them, and about what our grandparents and great grandparents did to be able to feed their families nutritious food during those difficult times.

Today we're going to talk about food and nutrition in World War II.

 I'm going to be starting a new series, although it won't be consecutive. I'll just do an episode now and then on an ingredient that I think is very significant and is worth learning more about. Today we're going to talk about Parmigiano Reggiano, which is a wonderful cheese, and so valuable to our health. I want to talk more about its history, what it is, exactly how it's made, and what you can use it for, as using it in your food makes it truly delicious. 

So, let's get started. I love this cheese because it's a raw milk cheese - it’s made from raw milk. It's well aged, so it's got all the good stuff in it, and it's very delicious. I used to buy finely grated Parmesan cheese instead. It was just easier to have a jar of that in the fridge, and grab it whenever I needed to for pasta or other cooking. But then I realized that all you need is a tiny little grater and a block of Parmigiano Reggiano, and then you can get that good stuff very easily. You just use one of those small, fine graters to grate it over whatever you’re working with...

Today, I thought it would be fun to talk about some kitchen hacks. These are all just quick, simple hacks that you may know about and some you may not, but it's always good to be reminded!

I'll do another few hacks in a different episode, but I hope there are some things that you can apply.

Send me your ideas if you have some. You can do that at karyn@familyfoodformoms.com. I hope you have a great cooking week!

Just to let you know I'll not be on next week, but I'll be back the following week!

 Today we're going to talk about all kinds of different meals that you can make from ground beef, (or beef mince as some people call it). Bolognese on pizza is one of my favorite - with pineapple and feta (shocking, I know!)

I'm sure many of these are familiar to you, but others you may not have heard of or tried before. I'm going to get creative myself, and try one of these that I haven't tried before, because ground beef is a good cheap meat to be able to buy. Let's get into it!

 I've always been fascinated by dining cars on trains. When I was a little girl, we used to travel on a train quite often overnight. And the best part was getting to go to the dining car. And it was always so beautiful with this wood paneling and like velvet and the tables would be set with a big white tablecloth and a flower in a vase.

And then you could order just like you in a restaurant. And I always found this so amazing. Like you look out the window and there's a beautiful view going by while you eat your dinner. So I think it's the best place to have a meal, in my opinion, is on a train, in the dining car, especially when it's fancy.

So today for fun, I thought it would be great to look at what kinds of food you can get on a train. It's not particularly for us to learn from, although. There's definitely principles that we can draw from it, but it's more just for fun to get some ideas of what chefs cook on trains.

 Today we're going to have a bit of fun with an episode on the fun days that involve food each month. I'm working from a website called timeanddate.com, f you want to look it up there, but I'm going to give you some of my ideas for each of the days.

So let's start with January. I'm going to do January to June today, and then I'll do July to December another time.

 Today we're going to be talking about how to get your kids to eat more vegetables, and to enjoy them. Vegetables can be delicious, and I think that as adults we know when they aren't. We know when they're dry, chewy, or bitter - they're not good.

The goal is to make vegetables that we enjoy, and to help our kids to enjoy them too. We don't have to hide them away. Sometimes that works, but it's also good to know that they taste good and that we can enjoy them. It’s also different for different ages - you may need a different strategy for your young kids than for your teenagers. It's a good thing to start as early as possible with making vegetables a normal part of life, a food that your kids like just as much as any other food.