Mealtime Hacks
Food Hacks – Making meals simple, one tip at a time
The internet is cluttered with information about every facet of cooking, whether it be purchasing, planning or plating up food.
Honestly? Most of this advice is overwhelming!
With too much detail, a shopping list of ingredients you’ve never heard of (or will never use again), and complicated methods, many resources out there today just don’t hit the mark for real families who lead busy lives.
Every home cook knows that the best tips are those passed along by a real person – scribbled in the margins of a cookbook found in an op-shop, or a helpful suggestion from a grandmother or sister who has called to share their tried and true knowledge.
I want to be that person for you. I want to share with you my best, easy, actionable tips about pulling together delicious family meals. I want to encourage you to try something new, while gently reminding you of the beauty of keeping things simple.
Think of Mealtime Hacks as Family Meals 101 – Making Meals Simple, One Tip at a Time. In my Mealtime Hacks, you’ll discover an abundance of tools and tips that really build your confidence in the kitchen. As you learn, you’ll rediscover the joy of preparing and sharing meals together, and develop a toolkit of your own to pass onto your children and girlfriends.
Forget the feeling of dread as you head towards the kitchen! These tips will banish avoidance and have you looking forward to the inspiration that you’ll enjoy as you prepare nutritious, love-filled meals for your family.
Practical tips that are exclusive for Workshop Participants and Members
I’ve done the work for you and identified the 5 most common areas that frequently cause overwhelm in the kitchen.
Each colour-coded area contains easy-to-implement solutions to popular questions or problems. I call these tips HACKS.
Each hack can be read in less than 1 minute (no more lengthy, complicated how-to’s) and can potentially save you significant time, money and frustration. This means you can quickly focus in on where you need help and start seeing and experiencing an immediate difference in your approach to mealtimes.
Download 5 Mealtime Hacks
You Won’t Find in any Recipe
Discover clever ways to save time and reduce stress in your kitchen.
These hacks work for busy Mums, yet are incredibly simple to do.
So, ditch the overwhelm, and start enjoying cooking for your family.
Mealtime Hacks. Bite-sized, practical, minimal-effort tips that make cooking a breeze.
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Why Mealtime Hacks?
You may already know that I’m a Mum of 7 children. Just like you, we’re a busy family that fit a lot into each day. But we also choose to make time to prepare and enjoy wholesome meals. Because, realistically, left to chance, I’d never find the time if I wasn’t intentional!
While I do love cooking and experimenting with new recipes, I don’t like spending my every moment in the kitchen. You may be wondering then how I manage to feed our family with food (mostly) made from scratch every day?
I’ll let you in on a little secret. It’s not by relying on amazing recipes (although I have more than enough of those to last my lifetime). Neither is it due to using fancy equipment (is a slow cooker counted?). It’s not because we have small appetites (have you seen how much free-range farm kids can eat?). And it’s not because I have a cute meal planner displayed in our kitchen (although that certainly does help).
I’m able to keep up with the demands of feeding our family by using kitchen shortcuts.
Ever since I was a little girl, I would beg to read the hand-me-down Women’s Weekly magazines we were given, purely to cut out and pore over the Home Hints sections. And many years later, I’m still keen to learn anything to make my job in the kitchen easier and more enjoyable.
Whenever I chat with other Mums, the topic of food, meal prep and the cost of groceries comes up. Swiftly followed by disclosures of feeling overwhelmed, experiencing a severe lack of mo-jo, or just feeling plain tired. This saddens me greatly, especially because one of the greatest ways we can nurture our families is through real food.
Now, perhaps you get a feel for why I’m so enthusiastic about sharing these shortcuts I use in our kitchen with you.
I know you don’t have time or the headspace to take on another thing. I can identify with this! That’s why I’ve made my Mealtime Hacks:
✓ quick to read (taking you less than 1 minute and in turn saving you 20)
✓ easy-to-implement
✓ requiring no special equipment or knowledge
✓ they’ll give you a quick win.
Our Mealtime Hacks are available exclusively through my workshops and my Membership – Border Park Kitchen Collective .
Each bite-sized hack is uncomplicated, practical and actionable. By using them, it’s my hope that you’re inspired to continue nourishing your family with homemade food with zero guilt, or expectation to add it to your ‘to-do’ list. These tips are about transitioning from mere survival to savouring your time in the kitchen.
So, come and join me among the cobwebs and the occasional chaos in our kitchen to learn ways to be resourceful with your time and money. I’d be glad of the company!
And if you’ve got a kitchen hack that you wish you’d known sooner, get in touch so I can give it a go and credit it to you.
I didn’t just read about these tips, and assume they’d be useful to know. That’s just not my style.
Most of these hacks I discovered by accident – through trial and error, because I was missing a vital ingredient, or following a (mini) kitchen disaster. A few I’ve learned through conversations with girlfriends and online forums.
Of course, I won’t ever know all the kitchen tips (even though that would be amazing, wouldn’t it?!). I ‘discover’ more every week – because I love learning, and who doesn’t want to be more efficient with their time and resources when food preparation is something we have to do til we go to heaven 😉 You won’t necessarily see this type of information discussed in a professional cooking class or a glamorous recipe book, but that doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly useful to know.
You can be confident in the tips I share because I’ve tested every single one (unlike other lists you might find online). I only post those I feel are truly useful for busy Mums, because no one has time for hit and miss advice, especially when you’ve got a hungry family waiting for dinner.
I use these Mealtime Hacks in our kitchen every single day. Truly.
There’s not a day that I don’t put at least one into action. And just quietly, the thing that I’m most excited about is that now I notice our kids use them too 😊
Most of these are now automatic for me, so I don’t have to consciously ‘remember’ them. But when you’re just starting out, you’ll be relieved to know that each hack is quick to read and simple to implement. Happily, there’s no test at the end – just a growing confidence in your kitchen skills. And a transforming of knowledge into action.
Each hack has purposefully designed to focus on just one area – to solve just one problem, or give you another way to try something. You may be tempted to think therefore, that simple means ineffective or not useful, but nothing could be further from the truth.
It’s my opinion that these types of tips should be part of a school curriculum!
I liken knowing and using these hacks to having access to water when you’re doing a water-colour drawing, or a pencil when you’re doing a Sudoku puzzle (wow – it can be hard to remember back before children when we had hobbies, isn’t it?!). Neither of these ‘tools’ are glamorous or celebrated on their own, but they can mean the difference between creating and being purposeful, or not.
Even though most of us have access to an unlimited number of recipes on Google, and pretty menu planners and shopping lists, these resources alone don’t help solve the dinner dilemma. Because of the many demands Mums face, overwhelm can become an almost constant companion, and we are left a little dazed without a clue what to feed our family. For me, this is when the adage ‘simple food prepared simply’ becomes like a breath of fresh air after rain.
I believe knowing and using these hacks will help build your confidence in your cooking ability. It’s my prayer that they’ll help restore (or even kindle) your joy in the kitchen, so that you can continue to nurture your family with real food.
I don’t have any formal training in food science and I’m a not professional chef.
But I do have a hungry family (including 4 growing boys, and 3 girls who keep their brothers in line).
Due to home-educating and farm commitments, I’m continually on the lookout for ways to be more time-efficient in the kitchen. And even though I enjoy cooking, I get pretty giddy when I find a new fuss-free way to prepare food!
Much of what I share has been learned through mistakes, of wanting to extract every bit of goodness out of our ingredients, or out of sheer desperation for a quicker way to get a meal on the table.
In the process, I discovered smarter ways to work in the kitchen. And consequently, my time in the kitchen has been more rewarding.
So, I’ve launched Mealtime Hacks, a collection of quick tips that will land in the members area every month.
I’m confident these ideas will save you time, money and frustration (just as they have for me).
Are you ready to build your cooking confidence and enjoy your time in the kitchen?
I can’t wait to hear how these Mealtime Hacks are revolutionising the way you purchase, prepare, and cook meals for your family.
Let me guide you
Border Park Kitchen empowers Mums with easy-to-implement kitchen strategies, systems and recipes to transform your time in the kitchen.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed and that you don’t have time to cook, you’ll love my introductory workshop.
Inside, you’ll discover:
- Why Mums frequently struggle with cooking dinner (you might be surprised!)
- The 2-minute rule that could change the way you cook
- How Mealtime Hacks can help you fight kitchen overwhelm
- The simple 4-step system for finding time to cook (without exhausting yourself)
Join the workshop waiting list
Subscribe and receive early access to Find Time to Cook,
plus an exclusive discount code, only for people on the waiting list!
By submitting your details above, you accept that I may send you promotional and transactional emails occasionally. You may unsubscribe from these emails at any time.
By submitting your details above, you accept that I may send you promotional and transactional emails occasionally. You may unsubscribe from these emails at any time.
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