Family Meal Time: A Dietitian’s Perspective

Cooking at home and eating meals together as a family at our dinner table is incredibly important to me as a dietitian and mom of two young boys.  When life gets in the way, it’s a relief to know that fast food delivery isn’t the only solution to feeding your families or yourself!  I’ve partnered with HelloFresh today to bring you some good news: it doesn’t have to be all or nothing! 

Cooking your own food and eating it in the company of others are two of the most important things we can do to nourish ourselves and teach our children about healthy eating.  Canada’s Food Guide was recently revised, and I absolutely love the changes they made!  Among many changes, the new food guide emphasizes cooking at home vs eating out and eating meals together (ie: not in front of a device or other screen or while driving etc).  And I couldn’t agree more. 

 

And to build on that, I am BIG on getting the kids in the kitchen and involving them in making food choices along with cooking our meals.  Is it messy?  Yes. Really messy.  But it’s so worth it.  I want Max and Charlie to grow up with a healthy relationship with food, understanding how to make healthy choices and how to cook a decent meal.  Simply talking to them about food isn’t enough.  Humans learn by doing!   

Of course, let’s take a second to recognize that life is just really darned crazy these days.  I think back to simpler times growing up, and can see how much more we are all putting on our plates.  It’s hard to keep up some days.  I’m a big fan of meal prepping and even enjoy grocery shopping, but there are simply times where we just can’t fit it in: maybe you can relate?   

We tried out HelloFresh last year as an introduction to my partnership with them, and truly fell in love with it.  On the days that I’m travelling or testing out 98 different types of smoothies but making nothing that would qualify as dinner, it’s an absolute life saver!  A few things I love about HelloFresh: 

• The meals are healthy and balanced with a decent amount of veggies in them 
• Everything is pre-prepped for me with clear instructions (with pictures)! 
• I don’t have to be home when it arrives: you can include specific delivery instructions 
• The packaging is all recyclable 
• Any meals with spice have a guide to flex it to make it less spicy for the kids 
• The recipes can all be prepared in around 30 minutes or less 
• You can choose your meals between the different plans: some days you can choose vegetarian, but others can include meat if you wish 
• The meals are REALLY GOOD … I actually get so much inspiration from them but I think that if you were new to cooking it would be a great way to gain some skills and confidence in the kitchen! 

 

If you’re wanting to try out HelloFresh and see how it works for yourself, click here and use code FRAICHE50 at checkout for 50% off your first order.  I’d absolutely love to hear what you think in the comments section below!   What are your mealtime struggles?  What has worked for you and your families? 

 

xo 

 

Tori