Feed Your Family Tonight Podcast

None of us want to work hard to fix a new recipe only to be met with a bunch of complaints and food that is basically untouched. In this episode Marie has 4 tips to choose new recipes that your family will actually eat.

1- Identify foods your family already likes.

Pay attention to what they like to eat. Look at the ingredients and the flavors. Look at foods they order in restaurants. This gives you clues as to foods they will likely try.

2-Identify common threads in meals your make that they like.

Will your family eat anything with pasta? Maybe they really like Mexican or Italian flavors. Will they eat foods with sauces like mashed potatoes and gravy, beef stroganoff and spaghetti, or do they like dry foods like grilled meats and roasted veggies?

3-Look for recipes that match as many common threads as possible.

Find recipes with ingredients and flavors that are mostly familiar.

4-Examine what is different in a new recipe from things you already make.

Don't try to change too many things at once. It is much easier to go from spaghetti with meat sauce to spaghetti with sausage, than it is to go from spaghetti to a chickpea veggie curry. Take gradual steps to expand their palettes.

In the episode I walk through how I got my family to start eating chicken enchiladas. It was a process.

For full show notes and a transcript click here.

One of the biggest challenges most families face with getting dinner on the table is time. In my years of working with families I have found that dinner success has so much to do with time management.

In this episode I take a deep dive into time. To get dinner on the table you have to plan, prep, physically cook, and then clean up. We are going to break down some of these steps to help you find the time to get dinner on the table.

For full show notes, links, and transcript, click here.

Happy August Friends! My kids still have two blissful weeks of summer, but I know many of you have already started school. Today's podcast has 4 Steps to help you get ready for the routine of the school year.

Step 1 Asses where you are now at the end of the summer.

Step 2 Think about what things will look like once school starts.

Step 3 Look at dinnertime.

Step 4 Think about your time.

I am looking for someone to come and talk with me on-air for an upcoming episode. If you would like to join me, fill out this simple application. If you want to hear what it is like to be on air with me, check out Episode 116 or Episode 141.

For a transcript click here.

If you want your food to taste delicious, you are going to need to use salt.

In episode 13, I took a deep dive into salt and talked about all the different kinds of salt, where they are harvested and how they are processed. This episode is more about how to use salt to make your food taste better.

I keep more than a dozen salts in my cabinet, but the two I must have are:

Table Salt and Celtic Sea Salt.

For full show notes and transcript click here.

It is late July and my brain is mush. There is something about the end of July that squashes out any motivation which means I don't feel like cooking. If you are in the same boat, I have 4 ways to help you get dinner on the table with minimal effort from you.

For full show notes and a transcript click here.

In this on air coaching call, Marie helps her guest, Emily, brainstorm strategies for getting dinner on the table faster after she picks up her four kids from daycare.

They talk about looking at the amount of time it takes to make a meal, freezer prep, deep-dive grocery shopping, and expanding cooking skills.

For full show notes, links, and a transcript, click here.

It is July in Kansas and that means an abundance of summer produce. I haven’t had a garden in several years, but I still have access to lots of fresh tomatoes, zucchini and other summer produce either from friends or farmer’s markets.

This week’s podcast is for the people who use recipes as suggestions. I hope to give you lots of ideas to spark your creativity and get you thinking about how you can use summer veggies.

For full show notes and a transcript click here.

It's the end of June and most of us are settling into our summer rhythm. This podcast has 5 tips for planning meals in the summer.

1-Your Meal Plan Serves You

2-Be Kind to Yourself

3-Balance Easy Meals with Project Cooking

4- It's Okay to Break the "Rules"

5- Use Summer Produce

For full show notes and a transcript, click here.

If you are like me, you are feeling the "busy" creep back into daily life. The pandemic had a little silver lining and that was that we all slowed down.

I don't miss the fear, uncertainty, isolation, and brain fog of the early pandemic, but I do miss the slow pace.

Our family created deep connection last summer and one of the big reasons was because we had no expectations. We didn't feel like staying home was "missing out" on opportunities. Everything was canceled. The spaciousness created connection.

Many people are wanting to keep a little of the slower pace we had last year. One great way to preserve family culture is to eat together. Creating spaciousness and large blocks of unstructured time for family meals is an important way to make space for your children to bring up tender topics. In our family that is Sunday brunch. You may have Friday night pizza or Saturday morning pancakes. The key is to have a regular meal in a large block of time.

For full show notes and transcript click here.

Weeknight dinners are much more about time management than they are about recipes. Often people think having the right recipes are the key to successful dinners, but if you don't factor in time, even the best recipe is not going to help you. Be honest with yourself about your time and choose meals that work with your schedule.

Full show notes and a transcript can be found here.