Guest post by Lisa Mullen, author of the recently-released “The Every Mom’s Meal Solution Handbook,” available now!
There are many challenging parts of being a wife, mom, and homemaker, but one of the most difficult can be figuring out what in the world to feed them day after day after day. And feeding them isn’t one of those things you can put off for a few days (or weeks) like laundry or windows, either. Oh no, they’ll hunt you down if you forget for even a few hours!
And it really doesn’t matter if you’re a stay-at-home mom or you work outside the home. I’ve done both, and they both present their own set of challenges. It’s hard to get dinner on the table when you’re at work for 8-9 hours. It’s also hard, however, when you chase little people around all day. No matter what your situation is, planning and cooking meals every day can be just plain hard.
But feeding our families a balanced diet of nourishing food is something we’re called to do. For several important reasons — to support their health, to strengthen and fuel their bodies for their God-given purposes, to steward well the bodies we’ve been entrusted, and to serve and love our families.
That being said, feeding our families well doesn’t have to look the same for every family. And it definitely doesn’t mean we have to cook fancy gourmet meals every night!
“It doesn’t have to be that way!”
Whenever I hear moms talk about how stressful cooking is or how they just can’t do it with their schedules, I want to shout, “It doesn’t have to be that way!”
I believe with the right systems, any mom can feed her family well regardless of schedules, budgets, or lifestyle, and I made it my mission to prove it.
That pursuit eventually led me to create an ebook called The Every Mom’s Meal Solution Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Feeding Your Family Well in Any Season, Budget, or Lifestyle. And it is for any mom (or homemaker, in general) who ever struggles to get dinner on the table.
Let me be clear right off the bat — this is not a prescriptive manual. There are no set meal plans and I don’t tell you what or how you should cook. Because what works well for one family doesn’t work at all for another.
Rather, this book takes a more “teach a man to fish” approach and is full of tips, tricks, hacks, and methods to help you create a system that works for your family. That’s the beauty of this book. You’re the real hero of this story — I simply guide you into becoming the master of your own meals.
What’s in the book?
We start by finding your “why” and creating goals and objectives for what you want for your meals and your family. This is an extremely important first step because it will connect your efforts to your overall vision as a wife, mom, and homemaker. It will also motivate you on the days when you feel like phoning it in.
Rather than doing things because you feel you “should” (or feeling guilty because you aren’t), you will figure out what goals are actually important to you and which ones you can release.
Next, we dive into the practical steps of how to feed your family well. In this section, we cover what I call the Basic 4 — meal plans, recipe repertoires, well-stocked pantries, and back-up meals. We also talk extensively about freezer meals, and I give you all of my best tips!
In the final section of the book, I answer the five most common objections I hear to meal planning and cooking at home. I also provide ideas for super simple meals and my best money-saving tips.
At the end of the book are appendices that provide bonus information and some cute printables to help you as you put it all into practice.
Could you use a mealtime makeover?
I am excited about what this book can do because it’s all inspired by what has worked wonders in my own life. Not the specific methods themselves, necessarily (because again, every homemaker is different, and not everything in the book works for me), but the overall strategies of planning, preparation, and simplification.
Those are the real secrets to how I feed my family well as a busy mom of littles.
Even as a stay-at-home mom, there is no way I could serve home-cooked meals every night, keep my sanity, do it all on a budget, and still have time to be with my family if I hadn’t learned how to effectively plan ahead, prepare for the unexpected, and simplify, simplify, simplify.
And that is what I hope to show other moms. Moms who feel defeated or discouraged. Who feel like a failure in the kitchen or guilty about their meals. Who don’t believe it’s possible for their season or simply don’t know what to do about it.
Feeding our families well is possible in any season, budget, or lifestyle, and I want to be part of showing you how.
If you would like to learn more about the book, you can do that here. You can see the topics covered and even get a free sample chapter!
My hope is that after reading The Every Mom’s Meal Solution Handbook, you walk away feeling encouraged and empowered to become the master of your meals. Because you can do this!
About Lisa:
Lisa is a wife, mom, and blogger at themerrymomma.com, a blog devoted to helping moms be the joyful, peaceful, and intentional moms they want to be. When she’s not chasing after pint-sized people, you can usually find her writing her heart out, whipping up tasty goodies in the kitchen, or reading as much as possible (preferably while sipping coffee and nibbling chocolate). You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.
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