What’s for dinner (and why we need to hold onto the family meal)
Eating together every night is the way kids learn best to get along in the wider world. And adults.
The question ‘what’s for dinner’ is really threefold: what’s for dinner, where will you eat it and who will you eat it with.
what’s for dinner
Clients love to confess their food crimes to me. And then proceed to ‘need’ a meal plan written out so they cannot ‘stray’. And don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t care, but I don’t really care? We’re here to ask ‘why’ not ‘what’ we should eat. Eating thoughtlessly is one of the biggest problems we have. And if we’re not thinking ‘they’ can get us to eat sorts of stuff - the more thoughtful we are, the healthier we’ll be. Simple!
Nutrition in our society has become like a dietary cult. Everyone has a different opinion on how you should eat, what foods you should avoid and which latest biohack will be the magic solution for all your problems. I'm all for self-experimenting and finding what works for each individual, but the majority of people would benefit greatly by simplifying their nutrition, eating enough calories for their goals and not demonising foods or food groups.
You know you better than anyone. You spend your whole life with you! Start moving more, control your calories, prioritise your protein and live a little when you feel like it!
where will you eat it
Personally I’m all for the eating on balcony in the sun. But what if it’s raining? Inside, but where there’s the most natural light. Or candles. Lots of candles. (There are no lights in our house at night for the best nutrient of all, sleep!)
But I’ve also an 8yo boy. So we often eat under the table - dress it up with a green towel over the top, a tray in the middle foot stool, imagining we’re eating in our tree house. Or we set our table like a restaurant, from designing the menus to origami napkins for our Japanese night. Themed dinners are the best.
And if warmth and light allows with the season, a picnic at the beach. Yeah, I know all that sand! But like all dinners with my family, dinner is our shared days coming together in one last adventure for that day.
who will you eat it with
I would also add to this question, who will you cook it with too! Cos often that’s the same people. Cooking is too important to be left to any one member of the family. Our kitchen is for three people who like to hang out together and cook.
I feel fewer people cook anymore. When we come into the kitchen then, it’s no wonder we’re conflicted nor that we can always think of something else we should be doing.
But let yourself be in the kitchen. It’s legit potion making for kids, science experiments for the whole family, a place of marvelous mistakes and legendary wins the results of which are shared at the family table to go into the record books of best memories of childhood forevermore.
