Oh my goodness! I'm totally loving this episode with Jennifer Stringer of @mamawithnotime. She has this amazing practical approach to wellness and self-care. Here are some of the gems she shares:'If I can get all three of my kids to eat the sam...

Oh my goodness! I'm totally loving this episode with Jennifer Stringer of @mamawithnotime. She has this amazing practical approach to wellness and self-care. Here are some of the gems she shares:

'If I can get all three of my kids to eat the same meal without complaining, it’s a real win around here'

'When you find these tools to help you feel better it’s something you wanna keep investing in, it’s just an investment in yourself'

'We’re just trying to empower (the kids) to make the right choices as they get older'

'I feel like I have a different definition of self-care every year'

Takeaways

You can meal prep ingredients and have them available to make a variety of options during the week

Building a portfolio of recipes the family likes

Eat with an 80/20 balance; 80% really healthy and 20% less healthy

Self-care fluctuates from year to year, currently the focus on mental health and how to put us in the right place

When we give we receive self-fulfillment

Transcript of this Episode

Andrea Heyman 00:00 Adentures in feeding my family is a weekly podcast discussing the challenges and fun around feeding your family healthy meals. I'm Andrea Heyman, and I've been a registered dietitian for over 25 years. So I know the importance of good nutrition. But I'm also a mom of three, so I understand the challenges and tumor that comes along with trying to make this happen. In this podcast, I'll share my tips, tricks and menus, but also share the stories and food prep failures that come along the way to interview guests. We'll discuss family food traditions, how to strengthen bonds around the family table, as well as their favorite family recipes. There isn't one right way to feed your family. But there are countless stories, you can take bits and pieces and learn from all of them. Welcome friends to another episode of adventures and feeding my fam. Today we've got Jen, who is mama with no time on Instagram. And she says she started that Instagram handle when at a point in her life, when that's how she felt her life was. So if you check her out, she has got so many great, quick, easy food recipes. And definitely they're healthy. So I really like a lot of what she says this episode. And conversation was so fantastic for me. And I think you're really gonna enjoy it. She talks about quick and easy meal prep, how to get her kids to cook. And she has an interesting way of organizing herself and her family, they really prepare ingredients. And then during the week, they kind of assemble everything into a variety of different meals. So it's interesting to to listen in, hear how they do that. She also has a really strong wellness approach and kind of personal awareness that has really evolved over time. She talks about her definition of self care, which she says is always evolving. And I really love that part of conversation. So without further ado, here's Jen. Welcome,

2:18 I'm so happy we're able to make it for today's podcast episode. I really appreciate you coming.

Yeah, thank you for having me.

Andrea Heyman 02:28 You're welcome. So usually I like to start by asking folks what their house looked like when they were growing up as it relates to food. Who did the meal planning? Did you have family meals, that type of thing? How was it for you growing up.

Jen S So I was raised in a split family, my parents were divorced. And I had two very different experiences at each household. I primarily lived with my mother and she was a it was just her and I write so there were no big family meals it was just the two of us sitting down at the table. But it was very important to her that we sat down at the table even if it was just the two of us to sit down and talk about our day and she was a pretty clean eater she was the parent that forced me to eat my vegetables and forced me to eat the foods that I did not want to eat the poor thing had to sit there and watch me plug my nose as I you know chomps down the the vegetables that I didn't like and then my dad's was honestly kind of the opposite when we were over there his my grandmother his mom was a phenomenal cook and but she was really big on those those comfort foods. So there was a lot of fried chicken and mashed potatoes and steak and you know kind of more comfort foods on that side of the table so I got a good blend between the two households on the types of meals and diets and things of that nature.

Andrea Back then when you're growing up did you have a preference not necessarily which house you liked better but which food style you liked better?

Jen S 04:14 I would say there was a healthy blend between the two right because I'm a I'm a meat and mashed potatoes kind of girl all day long. I love it and that's definitely from my dad but I also do tend to lean on the healthier side especially as I've gotten older but but even back then I you find yourself craving fruits or salads or, you know, trail mix or you know, something along those lines. And so I don't know that I could say I really prefer one over the other. I think I had a nice kind of blend between the two. That's good. And how do you compare your the way you do things in your household now? You know, I probably brought that whole blend over here too. Our table, and we are, we're big meal preppers I work 40 hours a week, my husband works full time as well. We have three children that you know are balancing school and working full time and, and all that good stuff. So, for us, we have to really focus on what's kind of quick and easy sometimes. And then other nights, we have time to make really wonderful meals, I will say that I do try to lean on the healthier side of the meals, I try to have balanced meals, we try to do more vegetables, salads, you know, etc. But we are we're pretty balanced over here too. You know, we'll throw we'll throw a comfort meal on the table every once in a while as well. So it's, I'd say we get a we're probably 80% healthy 20% bad.

Andrea Heyman 05:52 That's a good balance. Yeah. You mentioned your quick and easy meals, can you name one that you have, that's kind of a go to, you know, one that is a family favorite.

Jen S 06:07 And I think the reason it's become one of my favorites is because my 13 year old now knows how to make it without me. And that's always a win. And we will do a very quick and I call it kid friendly chicken casserole. If it was my husband and I would probably add a few more ingredients and a little more spice, but I need my kids to eat it too. So it's not as exciting. But we'll do like a layer of enchilada sauce, and then corn tortillas. And then I'll either if I'm out of time, I'll buy a premade rotisserie chicken and shred it up. Or we'll make a whole chicken on our Pellet Grill. Either way, and you just shred it all up and make that layer and then you do a layer of corn, black beans, cheese, and then you do it all over again, right, then you do the tortilla again, the enchilada sauce, you know, keep on going. And then you just throw it in the oven for about 20 minutes or so. And it's done. And it's delicious, and the kids devour it. And if I can get my all three of my kids to eat the same meal without complaining, it's a real win around here. I agree. Those are the ones that definitely go into the rotation regularly. And then another thing that we do, and this isn't a meal, and I think we approach meal prepping different than most people, we meal prep ingredients, not meals. And so what we'll do on the weekends is we have a favorite butcher out here that we go to and we'll kind of bulk buy chicken, whatever red meat, we kind of feel like doing that week. And we bring it back. And like I said earlier, we have a smoker, a pellet grill. And we'll throw a bunch of meat on there. We cook it all on, you know, Sunday, and then we'll chop it up, we'll put it into boilers. And then throughout the week, I kind of have a rule of the kids, right? If it's a really busy week, then you're on your own right, I want you to eat a healthy meal, but I can't make every single thing for you. And so they know that there's a Tupperware of chicken on a Tupperware of steak and there's vegetables that we cut up as well on the weekends, and we chop up lettuce to make salads and they're all in their containers. So the entire family can have a kind of a big option of their freedom of what they want to make. So you're not locked into a specific meal with meal prep, but you've got the ingredients to make your own things. So for example, the kids will make or I will make like spinach wraps you know, we get like this spinach tortillas and just fill it with ever whatever ingredients we had prepped in the refrigerator, so the chicken or cheese or carrots and whatever that might be in wrap it up and boom, eat it or making a salad or making like the kids love to make toast data's you know, so they'll get the test data shells and the ingredients like the everything's chopped up and ready for them. So it's really just assembling things throughout the week. And of course, we also make meals right from from scratch when we've got time and all that good during the week as well. Everyone So yeah, I would say so it depends on the workload of that day, right? So if I have a super busy day at work, then we're gonna find something and grab something from the ingredients. But if we have time, then we'll put a lot of effort into a meal. But the kids also like cooking too. So it becomes a bit of a bonding moment as well.

Andrea Heyman 09:33 Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that. It sounds like you've gotten your kids involved at a really early age.

Jen S 09:40 We did and part of it was actually more than than me, um, for a while I was trying to keep them out of the kitchen. And you know, I just felt like, Oh gosh, you know, this is hot that sharp, or I really just want to get this done and you're kind of in my way, you know, and my daughter specifically was The one that was really interested in cooking and really wanted to help, and she kind of forced her way in there, which now I'm so grateful she did. And now she knows how to do everything like we took, we taught them safety with knives, you know, an early age, and we, you know, they know how to store things correctly, they know how to prep things correctly, it's, it's actually been really cool. And I think it's, it's important for us to teach our kids how to be as independent as we can and allow them to have freedom and choices. And they get a lot of pride out of their work in the kitchen. Right? They're very proud of themselves, when they've when they've completed whatever task it was that I've asked them to do so. So yeah, they're very involved when it comes to meal prep or, or just helping cook a meal together. Like I said, My daughter, she made dinner last night, she made that casserole last night, and I didn't have him tested. Yeah, I didn't have to do anything, you find yourself really falling into your comfort zone with cooking. Right? And and especially when you have a family, especially when you work, you go, you tend to lean towards what's easy. Instead of Oh, I want to try this, I want to try that you you go with what you know, and especially and I think most parents can relate with kids, it's hard to make all of them happy at once, right, they all have different taste buds. And so to try new recipes is always a nerve racking event, you know, because it's like, well, we're gonna try this, but we have a rule at the house. And I tell everybody, I want honest because we're trying to build a portfolio of recipes over here that I know people will eat. So I want honest feedback. And you know, I'll give you just a little bit to start, you do have to eat the amount that I give you. But it's usually two or three bites, it's nothing crazy, you know, and then make a decision, either you like it, and you're gonna keep eating it, or you don't like it. And this one's just, this one's out the window, right? And then they can go make a bowl of cereal that day or something to you know, something else to eat, if that didn't work out. But um, I think we will always have them try. I do. That's the rule around here, you've got to if someone takes the time and effort to make you a meal, the least you can do is give it a few bites, give it a chance. Try it out. Right be appreciative, be grateful. The kids are pretty good at letting me down softly so you know, when they say thank you so much for making this mom. But I just don't think that this is the kind of food I like or you know, they're we're trying to teach them to be kind in their criticism, right? But, but yeah, it's it's interesting, when you try something with a new ingredient or something new there's, I do and the kids still don't know this. I do like swaps of things that they just don't know. So I'll take a recipe that I know that they would like, but I will swap certain ingredients out. Like for example, for the first couple years of their life I used to make like, true Southern fried chicken, right, I mean, all the oils and flour and just you name it, it's in it super unhealthy. But I made it. And over time I slowly was started swapping ingredients. And the first thing I did is I took away the flour and I coat them in, depending on what I have either in almond flour or a coconut flour. Yeah, and then I will still put the same seasonings in, right because we do like garlic and paprika, salt, pepper, you know, whatever seasoning sound good that day. And then I start frying it and I started baking it instead. And so I took our traditional fried chicken and over, you know, the course of a few iterations, switched it into a bait, you know, either almond flour, coconut flour, dusted chicken, and they love it. And they didn't realize that I had made the change, you know, so it worked out just fine. But to me, it's delicious. And it's really my preference. I don't really like greasy foods. And again, I lean more towards the healthy side because I realized how I feel after I eat certain things, right. And I think it's important to pay attention to how your body responds to what you're eating. And so the more that I can switch us on to those healthier ingredients. I know that if I can tell the difference, even though my kiddos might not be able to tell the difference. I can see the change, you can adjust their behavior or you know their energy levels or whatever that might be. So anytime I can make something healthier, I will. I'm really interested in you know, tuning people into how their bodies feel when they eat certain foods.

Andrea Heyman 14:49 So, did you have like a gradual progression of this or just kind of as you aged or tell me more about how you tuned into Kind of those body cues.

Jen S 15:02 It was definitely as I started to age, I was lucky when I was young, I had a great metabolism, I could eat whatever I wanted, when I didn't realize, you know, I have problems skin when I was younger. And I just figured it was something that was just passed down to me from my dad, because he had it too. And I never stopped to think about what I was putting in my body and how that was probably coming out through my skin. And as I got older, I realized, okay, well the more water I drink, the better I'm feeling. And the better I'm looking and I look more hydrated, but also as I stopped eating the jack in the box, and you know, and I started eating the healthier meals and, and finding quick healthy snacks and, and things like that. I just noticed how I felt, you know, and it wasn't even so much how I how I looked, it was truly this, do I have energy at the end of the day, right and my crashing at any certain point. And then I started noticing that I don't have it necessarily a food sensitivity to anything in particular. But if I eat, you know, a lot of something like pasta, or what even if I make a healthier pasta dish, right, I crash afterwards. And so I have to be really cautious about what I'm eating. And when, you know, I'm in my mid 30s now, and I would say I probably didn't start realizing the effects on food of food on my body until I was I don't know, maybe was the first time that I really started paying attention and realizing how I actually felt after I ate something. And then you kind of become a little obsessed, right? Like when you when you feel good. It's it's something that's you don't want to lose, right. And so when you find these tools to help you feel better at something, you want to keep investing, and it's just an investment in yourself.

Andrea Heyman 17:00 So you made a really good point when you said that certain foods make you crash and that you don't have enough energy. And trust me as moms and working moms, we definitely need to keep our energy levels up. So any trick or any advantage we can give ourselves, hey, I'm all for that.

Jen S 17:22 Right and, and I think you're right, like food does have an impact, I definitely don't want to portray us as a perfect eating family, we, we definitely have that 20% of fun. But I would say that the majority of the time, we're just trying to empower them with the knowledge that you know, will help them make the right choices as they get older. Yeah, and going back to the Word Perfect. Like the thing with food habits is that it's so much more than just nourishment, its taste and flavor and enjoyment and culture and family gatherings and, and all these things. So when we say like what really is perfect eating. To me, I don't think it is like never having sugar or never this or never that I think like you said, it's just learning a good healthy balance, understanding your body, and how food affects you and having a good relationship with all of those things. So one of the things that I've loved about doing this podcast is that I have discovered that every family has their own system. And they figured out how it works for them. And it just goes to show you that there are so many different ways to do things. Even the meal prep situation like there are seemingly countless ways that families balanced this to work for them. And I think that's fantastic.

Andrea Heyman 18:59 So I think your your system seems to work really, really well for you.

Jen S 19:04 And I love it. Yeah, absolutely. And another thing that I forgot to mention is, and really, my daughter is the only one that's interested in this. She knows that during the weekend, that's when we're you know, prepping stuff for the week. And so she comes to us with that, hey, I really want to make such and such. I do I try to do all my grocery shopping on the weekends. And so I'll make sure that we'll have those ingredients printed out and I'll go pick that up. And same for me right? Like there's there's certain things that I just know I want to have during the week and I won't necessarily say okay, this is going to be Monday, Tuesday or I won't pick a day. But I will know Okay, at some point during the week, this week, I want to make this meal so I'm going to buy the ingredients today on Saturday or Sunday or whatever that might be. And then I just know on the day that it works for us right on the day that we don't have a ton of homework or we didn't work late or whatever that is we are going to make this meal. So that's kind of another way We handle the grocery shopping and the prepping. Sorry about that.That's another way that we handle the grocery shopping and prepping. Andrea Heyman 20:08 Now you've mentioned self care a couple of times, what does self care mean to you? So I think I am still on my own path of discovering what self care means to me, I feel like I have a different definition of self care every year. So I just feel like it's an ever changing thing as you learn about yourself. But at this point in time, I will say that self care for me is definitely self awareness, knowing what triggers me from a stress perspective, and focusing on my mental health, I think that's a huge one for everyone this year, mental health is is so important. And so that's been a big one for me this year is mentally Where do I need to be? And what can I do to put myself in that place, right. And I think that that's food, I think that what we put in our body is going to help our body respond to the stressors in our life in different ways. If I'm eating really, really poorly, I'm going to respond to the stress and the things that are going on in the world a lot worse than if I'm on a good healthy diet, and I'm getting some exercise in there as well. I think that self care also is finding a purpose, you know, and and really knowing what you think your contribution to the world is to your family, to your neighborhood, whatever that is, I think just feeling like you're you're giving back. I think that's a part of self care. And I think it's a delicate balance. Right? I think that you have to make sure that you're not just giving, giving, giving and never taking care of yourself. But I do feel like when we give we receive self fulfillment and purpose, and it's something that really makes people happy and feel good about themselves. So I think that's really important. I guess if I could summarize it, boil it down, it would be what am I putting into my body? Am I taking time for myself? Am I fulfilling a some sort of purpose, something that makes me feel good about myself? And how do I how do I treat myself mentally? What am I telling myself? You know, and I think those are, those are definitely been my biggest focuses this year in terms of self care. Yes, me next year. And I don't know what my answer will be. Because we're always evolving.

Andrea Heyman And that is, I just love your answer. Thank you so so much for that response. It was very thoughtful, I can tell without a doubt that you are putting work into this because you had such a thoughtful response for that. And I really appreciate it.

Jen S 23:01 Thank you.

Andrea Heyman 23:02 Thank you so so much for joining us today. I have really appreciated your stories. I've loved hearing how you coordinate meal planning and prep in your life, how you get your kids involved, and also how you take care of yourself. Don't you guys just love her. One of the great things about starting this podcast is that I've had these incredible conversation with so many people that I might not have ever met otherwise. So I'm so so grateful for that if you enjoyed this please subscribe share it with a friend and review. So something new that's happened in the last week is that I started my website so I'm really proud of that.I feel like I'm making all these baby steps and progress and I'm here to really continue to help you to make eating your family in a healthy easy simple way. That is that's why I do this really. So if you ever have questions you can find me on the website now but you can also find me on Instagram at adventuresome feeding my fam you and you can also email me at adventures in feeding my fam calm Take care, everybody.