Description
Let’s face it, all our families are a little bit flawed and a lot of awesome: we’re flawsome, and so is this book.
The mealbook is called that because it’s far more than just recipes. It’s 200 big pages of hard-earned wisdom, gorgeous illustrations and practical activities for anyone who wants to look forward to dinner for more than just the food.
This is tried and tested wisdom from a not perfect mum-of-three (who just wanted to enjoy her own damn dinner).
Bec Lloyd’s 20 years of feeding a family of five taught her a lot about getting tasty, quick meals to a table full of fusspots and health issues, but the biggest thing she learned? Food is the least important part of the meal.
Follow Bec’s mind-flip journey and yes, you’ll get recipes and meal planning tips and dinner games for kids of any age, but you’ll also get a new way of thinking about family meals that means less anxiety for you and more fun (and eating!) from everyone else.
Bec walks you through the five key stages of every family meal – because no one ever talks about the clean up!
- Plan – advice, activities, stories and thought-provoking reasons for meal planning in your own style (and shopping lists, too!)
- Prepare – a life-changing way to read a recipe, as well as how to get kids in the kitchen safely and happily, and a go-to list of kitchen essentials
- Serve – covers the three main ways we can serve meals and the scientific reasons to choose ‘family style’
- Enjoy – how and why you should stop talking about food if you want kids to eat, 10 great dinner games that cut down fights, a simple guide to conversation, and why it’s at least as important to feed children’s brains and hearts as it is their bellies
- Clean – why are you still doing all the cooking and all the cleaning? Maybe you’re happy that way! But if you’re not, this chapter gives you the reassurance you need to change things and help the future adults your children will become.
- Recipes – this section includes meals from real family kitchens as well as quick ‘fakeaways’ like butter chicken, and a focus on cooking methods – including Soup Chemistry and Hurry Curry – because methods make meals!
Bec Lloyd originally trained as a journalist and became Australia’s leading communication expert in early childhood education. Along the way she had three children in four years (yep, twins), cooked in kitchens both divine and appalling, and followed a variety of both exciting and excruciating career choices.
She combines a love of writing about, and for, families with her love of food and cooking, an unexpected joy given her childhood exposure to grey lamb, grey potatoes, and grey tinned peas.
With her kids now charging through their teens and into young adulthood, Bec finds herself with a rare chance to look back over what she’s learned – and is still learning – about feeding a family. Her biggest revelation? It’s not about the food.
$1 from every sale goes directly to Foodbank Australia to support their outstanding programs to fight hunger.
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