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Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast. It's the podcast for the

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Speaker 1: time poor parent who just once answers now. All this

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Speaker 1: week we've been talking about the ways that we can

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Speaker 1: save time, be more what's the word, Kylie balanced. We're

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Speaker 1: trying to be more balanced in our lives. That's been

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Speaker 1: the theme of our podcast this week. On Monday, we

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Speaker 1: talked about making mornings magic. On Tuesday we talked about

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Speaker 1: creating margin. Yesterday it was all about lunchboxes and the

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Speaker 1: challenges that are associated with getting lunch right. Hopefully that

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Speaker 1: was helpful today. The most frustrating question that any parent

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Speaker 1: deals with on a day to day basis.

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Speaker 2: What's for dinner? Mom?

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Speaker 1: So frustrating. I'm the dad and I hate that question.

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Speaker 1: But the way that this really does fall to you. Now,

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Speaker 1: we're going to do something very very adventurous. I don't

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Speaker 1: know if we can do this, but we have put

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Speaker 1: our brains together and come up with eight solutions to

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Speaker 1: deal with dinner dilemmas, and we're going to try and

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Speaker 1: give them to you in eight minutes. Eight solutions for

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Speaker 1: dinner in eight minutes. Talking Man Solution number one.

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Speaker 2: Sally Fitzgibbons, she is my favorite. We bought this cookbook

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Speaker 2: about I don't know, seven or eight years ago.

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Speaker 1: Hang on a secon, I've just googled it while you're

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Speaker 1: introducing her. Sally Fitzgibbons Summer Fit all year round, that's

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Speaker 1: the name of it. We're not getting sponsored for this.

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Speaker 1: There's no plug for this one. But Sally Fitzgibbons's Summer

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Speaker 1: Fit recipe book is on sale now for anywhere between

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Speaker 1: nine dollars ninety five and twenty four ninety nine. You

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Speaker 1: can get them new or used. It's all over the internet.

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Speaker 1: Why is it your favorite cookbook ever?

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Speaker 2: This expanded our horizons in every facet of our lives

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Speaker 2: food wise.

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Speaker 1: By the way, Sally Fitzgibbons is a professional surfer who

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Speaker 1: has Australia just legendary surfer and she's written this recipe book.

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Speaker 1: How did it expand us? And why? So?

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Speaker 2: Four weeks yep, menu, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Yes, And

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Speaker 2: all I had to do was take her shopping list

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Speaker 2: to the shops, to the shops and buy it and

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Speaker 2: then just cook everything. So when I first did this,

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Speaker 2: I will admit straight up that it required a lot

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Speaker 2: of preparation for me. I'm now going through it again

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Speaker 2: like seven years later and trying to work out why

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Speaker 2: it took me so many hours to do everything, because

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Speaker 2: they're actually really really easy. But my suggestion is that

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Speaker 2: when I was in the thick of parenting seven or

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Speaker 2: eight years ago with a lot of youngsters kind.

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Speaker 1: Of at home, it was just a lot.

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Speaker 2: There was a lot going on, whereas now things are

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Speaker 2: a lot calmer and it doesn't feel half as much

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Speaker 2: and I'm not making food for as many people as well.

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Speaker 1: How funny has it been recently We've only been making

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Speaker 1: food for a couple of kids that have been home.

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Speaker 1: It's like, wow, this is what normal families feel like.

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Speaker 1: Two kids, two adults. We can do this.

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Speaker 2: I'm really enjoying cooking before.

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Speaker 1: So our number one solution, like, seriously, we love this cookbook.

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Speaker 1: The recipes in it are almost all like it's so

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Speaker 1: rare that you buy a recipe book where you like everything,

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Speaker 1: But I reckon, we like ninety percent of what's in

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Speaker 1: this book. It is so tasty. It is a little

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Speaker 1: really healthy, super healthy, a little bit exy.

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Speaker 2: It's exy because it's all fresh produce.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's right. And so every now and again

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Speaker 1: we do cheat and just have some fried eggs or

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Speaker 1: some two minute noodles because it's heavy on the budget,

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Speaker 1: but the food tastes amazing and it's all there. You

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Speaker 1: don't have to do anythinking. Everything is planned. That's our

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Speaker 1: number one. We're taking too long because I said eight

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Speaker 1: in eight minutes that okay, number two. Number two is

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Speaker 1: my favorite one. Themed nights.

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Speaker 2: We used to do meat free Mondays.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, no meat Monday or meat free Monday was a

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Speaker 1: favorite of our. So was even parco Chuesday. Some people

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Speaker 1: do Mexican Monday or something like that. We've done seafood Saturday.

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Speaker 1: We've done a free for all Friday, which is kind

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Speaker 1: of like what we might call it yoyo night, where

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Speaker 1: the kids can just have whatever they want that's in

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Speaker 1: the fridge whatever Wednesday, which is kind of the left overnight.

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Speaker 1: Susie Burrell, who I've spoken to a couple of times

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Speaker 1: on the podcast, very very well known dietitian, said that

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Speaker 1: in her family with her young kids, she just found

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Speaker 1: that it was easiest to have a two week rotating roster.

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Speaker 1: So every Monday night was salmon, and every Tuesday night

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Speaker 1: was tacos, and every Wednesday night and she just made

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Speaker 1: sure that seven nights a week. There were simple meals,

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Speaker 1: really simple meals that the kids liked to eat, and.

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Speaker 2: When our kids were younger, that's exactly what we did.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so every fourteen days, just go back to the

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Speaker 1: beginning and try again. So that's right, that's.

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Speaker 2: How I feel about it after twenty four years of cooking.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's it.

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Speaker 2: I can't even say it but beaghetty.

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Speaker 1: But the idea here is you don't have to do

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Speaker 1: the cogn it's not cognitively taxing when you've got fourteen

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Speaker 1: meals on rotation every two weeks. Shopping is easy, Cooking

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Speaker 1: is easy, doesn't require any thought. And then when you

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Speaker 1: do do something different because you feel inspired to do it,

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Speaker 1: you really get to enjoy it. So that's our second idea.

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Speaker 1: Number one, Sally, if it's given. Number two, go with

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Speaker 1: a themed night or have some sort of a regular

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Speaker 1: roster for your meal so you don't have to think

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Speaker 1: about it.

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Speaker 2: Number three, Involve your kids. We've got fussy eaters. Get

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Speaker 2: them looking through the cookbooks and find things that they're

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Speaker 2: interested in. That's the first one. But secondly, get them

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Speaker 2: involved in actually cooking the meals.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, they're usually pretty happy to eat what they've prepared.

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Speaker 1: Not always. We have had one or two kids that

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Speaker 1: have said, I'm happy to cook it, but don't ask

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Speaker 1: me to eat this. It doesn't look nice at all.

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Speaker 1: But usually, especially when they're younger, they're pretty happy to

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Speaker 1: try whatever they've been involved with eating. Okay, this next

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Speaker 1: one is mine. You don't even know where I'm going

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Speaker 1: with this one. There's only one word that I've written

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Speaker 1: down for it.

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Speaker 2: It's a Facebook answer.

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Speaker 1: Facebook answer. So I've got to confess I haven't done this,

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Speaker 1: but I've got really good intentions, and i think in

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Speaker 1: the next couple of weeks I'm going to do it

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Speaker 1: one night when you don't feel like doing a sally.

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Speaker 1: If it's Gibben Meal. I just jumped onto Facebook a

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Speaker 1: couple of months ago and started following Adam. I don't

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Speaker 1: even know how to say his last name, Law, Adam Leo,

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Speaker 1: Adam Law. I don't know exactly how it's said. He's

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Speaker 1: a Malaysian born Asie cook. He won Master Chef back

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Speaker 1: in the second year of Mastership, so we're going back

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Speaker 1: a long time now. But on his Facebook page, he's

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Speaker 1: got a public profile and he just posts amazing recipes

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Speaker 1: and even though I've never cooked one. I'm so sorry,

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Speaker 1: but I've been following them and they look incredible and

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Speaker 1: really simple. Here's an example. He posted this one back

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Speaker 1: on the third of August, and it just came up

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Speaker 1: in my feed today for some reason. Tonight's dinner, we're

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Speaker 1: part of it. Twice roasted potatoes. This is a game changer,

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Speaker 1: and I really don't know why I never did it before.

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Speaker 1: No peeling, no boiling, hardly any work at all for

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Speaker 1: super crisp potatoes. Potatoes dry roasted first for about an hour,

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Speaker 1: hole and in their skins, cool, then chopped up and

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Speaker 1: roasted again with your oil of choice for about forty

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Speaker 1: five minutes until they're perfectly crisped. And then he said

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Speaker 1: before recipes to come soon, but they were too good

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Speaker 1: to not share immediately, and they look amazing. And I'm

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Speaker 1: just looking at this and going, there's so much inspiration,

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Speaker 1: so much easy access to so many recipes on Facebook

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Speaker 1: if you just know who to follow. And I'm following

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Speaker 1: Adam le Or with two hundred and twenty thousand other people,

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Speaker 1: and I think we should do the twice roasted potatoes

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Speaker 1: this Sunday for our roast. It just looks amazing.

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Speaker 2: Well it's your answer. So you're cooking. Okay, five number five.

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Speaker 2: This is a fun one meal swaps. So you can

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Speaker 2: do this one of two ways. You can get together

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Speaker 2: with a whole heap of friends and say let's do

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Speaker 2: dinner at your house one week and then dinner at

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Speaker 2: my house the next week. It just gives you a

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Speaker 2: night off. It means you're cooking a bigger meal, but

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Speaker 2: you're only doing one meal as opposed to having to

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Speaker 2: do too. Or the other way you could do this

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Speaker 2: is you and your three other friends determined that you'll

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Speaker 2: make a double, triples, quadruple batch of a particular meal,

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Speaker 2: and then everybody gets one of those meals. So you

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Speaker 2: do the cooking of one meal, but you'll actually end

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Speaker 2: up with four meals. Does that make sense?

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Speaker 1: And we've got three more to go, and we've got

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Speaker 1: one minute to get all three of them done because

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Speaker 1: I promised we would be fast on this one.

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Speaker 2: Well, take out Thursday, Yeah, take.

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Speaker 1: Out any day, just to do take out, depending on

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Speaker 1: how your budget's looking. It's a reasonable option now. And

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Speaker 1: then the thing with take out is you can either

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Speaker 1: go and eat it somewhere else, or you can just

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Speaker 1: get somebody to deliver it to you, and you can

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Speaker 1: eat in with the takeout, or you can go and

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Speaker 1: pick it up. But that is a I think it's

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Speaker 1: a legitimate option every now and again. Obviously budgets have

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Speaker 1: got to be able to stretch. But I'm putting it

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Speaker 1: out there as option number six, takeout option.

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Speaker 2: Number seven, yep, cooking days now. I've talked a lot

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Speaker 2: about this, but I have never organized my life enough

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Speaker 2: to do it. But I have talked about it so

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Speaker 2: much that our eldest daughter, when she moved out of

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Speaker 2: home and got married, she would do this every week, yeah,

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Speaker 2: to prepare the week for her and her husband because

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Speaker 2: they both worked full time. And it was just brilliant.

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Speaker 2: She loved it so much so that the other night,

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Speaker 2: after she's had a baby, mind you, she recognized that

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Speaker 2: you and I were just struggling after the accident, and

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Speaker 2: she was the one who pulled out a couple of

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Speaker 2: freeze meals out of her fridge and sit here, mum,

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Speaker 2: you don't need to cook tonight.

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Speaker 1: Here's the lasagna. How good was that? For those of

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Speaker 1: you whom missed the news the act than we talked

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Speaker 1: about last Friday, And I'll do better tomorrow. I had

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Speaker 1: an accident where I damaged myself so badly that we

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Speaker 1: needed our daughter to dinner for us. Our married just

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Speaker 1: had a brand new baby daughter. Okay, last one, last one.

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Speaker 1: I just think we should eat outdoors more. If you're

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Speaker 1: stuck for what's for dinner, just decide that tonight we're

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Speaker 1: going to eat outdoors. And that might mean that, I

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Speaker 1: don't know. The rules are different when you eat outside.

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Speaker 1: Whether you're eating out on the balcony or you go

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Speaker 1: into a park or the beach or something like that,

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Speaker 1: the rules kind of change, and eating outside it just

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Speaker 1: feels awesome. So sometimes you might buy the meal. Other times,

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Speaker 1: I don't know. You can kind of just cook anything light, simple, cheap.

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Speaker 1: You can kind of cheat with dinner when you eat outside.

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Speaker 2: So I know you said that we were only going

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Speaker 2: to do eight, but I actually saw a Facebook post

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Speaker 2: recently and I thought it was brilliant and it works

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Speaker 2: in really nicely with your outdoors. It was kind of

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Speaker 2: clean out your fridgin night before shopping day the next day,

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Speaker 2: and so they just used muff and tins for their kids.

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Speaker 2: Each little muffin hole had a different thing, so that

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Speaker 2: might have been carrot sticks or you know, slices of cheese,

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Speaker 2: just a whole heap of different things. And the kids

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Speaker 2: loved it, and I thought that would be a great

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Speaker 2: idea to.

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Speaker 1: Clean out the fridge night. Let's do it well. There's

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Speaker 1: nine ideas to help to deal with the question what's

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Speaker 1: for dinner, Mum a little bit more effectively. We really

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Speaker 1: hope that it helps to make your home a little

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Speaker 1: calmer and run a little more efficiently. The Happy Family's

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Speaker 1: podcast is produced by Justin Rawan from Bridge Media. Craig

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Speaker 1: Bruce is our executive producer. If you would like more

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Speaker 1: information about making your family happier, we'd love for you

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Speaker 1: to visit us at happy families dot com dot au

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Speaker 1: or our Facebook page Doctor Justin Colson's Happy Families