Share your tips for ways to stress less with HelloFresh - £300 voucher to be won NOW CLOSED

[JustineBMumsnet]

Modern family life can be very busy - and this might mean that otherwise simple tasks like thinking about what to have for dinner or getting out of the door in the morning can become overwhelming or stressful. HelloFresh would like to hear about the tips you have for stressing less, whether this is in the kitchen or elsewhere in your family life.

Here’s what HelloFresh has to say: “HelloFresh is on a mission to help families stress less when it comes to mealtimes with the launch of its new Family Box, offering an all new range of tailor-made family-friendly recipes designed to appeal to kids, teenagers and adults alike and bring variety to dinner time. The HelloFresh Family Box has been created to reduce stress levels and help save parents time and energy. The focus in development has been to make meal planning and preparation as easy as possible, whilst serving meals that guarantee to make family mealtimes delicious, but most importantly totally fuss and hassle-free. Want to give it a try? We've got a special offer for you with 50% off your first two boxes with the code HELLOMUMS.”

Do you have tips that mean sitting down to a family dinner in the evening is an enjoyable rather than hectic experience? Perhaps you’re a pro at making tiny changes to meals so that fussy eaters are catered for? Do you and your family cook together to reduce the stress of preparing an evening meal? Maybe you ensure you’re making time for ‘me-time’ every day so that you can wind down?

Share the ways you #StressLess with HelloFresh below to be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

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We always turn the television off, otherwise we find we all sit there just watching the television and eating with no interaction between us.

I've never had problems when it comes to food. My daughter eats a lot of things and I know what she doesn't like so I make stuff we both like and we eat together. Sometimes I get her to help with the cooking too. The only downside is she never shuts up and takes ages to eat!!

My top tip is to let the kids help prepare the meal, they are always eager to sit and eat it and get everyones opinions (about how wonderful the meal is of course)

Sometimes I just take everyone for a meal out, we all love curries so everyone wants to come if I'm paying

No mobile phones or devices at the table - children and adults.

I don't find meal planning and preparation at all stressful, but I hate supermarket shopping. Online grocery ordering makes it much easier for me to make sure I don't forget anything crucial and saves me having to do the bit I don't like.

being at work and taking the kids to afterschool clubs my evenings are hectic i like to do casseroles and stews a few times a week leave it in the slow cooker while im busy with other things and i know my family are still getting there 5 a day with all the vegtables i use and i can have 5 minutes to put my feet up x

Plan beforehand, pre-cook anything you can, and make sure that any "difficult" foods that certain people don't like are cooked separately.
A little hassle beforehand means fewer problems afterwards.

We always try a make a meal plan for the week and we all get to choose our favourite recipes that we get to have on certain days.

Oh goodness, I think I'm going to be using this thread for reference myself!! Mealtimes always seem to catch me unawares & by the time I've thought about starting to cooking something, it's well beyond the time we were meant to be sitting down eating it!!
I did find the Ella's Kitchen cookbooks really useful - quick, easy, healthy meals which appealed to all of us.
The key for me is setting the time aside to make a meal plan, a list of everything we need for the week & preparing everything in advance so if I am caught last minute (which I always am!) - it's not too much of a disaster as half the job is done already!

make sure to plan the meals for the week and have the ingredients ready

My DDs are teens and I have found that teaching them to cook simple dishes has been really helpful.
They take turns to make tea on a Wednesday so that they have eaten when I get home and I can take them straight to their club.
I also double up if I make a chilli or bolognaise and freeze half.

I have a very fussy eater and it really used to stress me out.
Rather than force new foods on my sons plate I put new things in separate bowls on the table and don't mention that he has to try anything and he sometimes has a try of the new food.
I have also used reverse psychology in the past with the new food in bowls by saying ' oh that's grown up food you won't like it' and then he wants to try a bit

We try to plan each nights meal in advance and give the kids a say on what they would like to include in the weekly shop, I'm finding that giving them a say makes them eager to help with the prepping - which does now take longer but it's a good chance to talk and have a laugh and if they help I find they eat without any fuss. Leading to calmness.. mostly

Bulk make meals - on a Sunday I batch cook two or three different healthy options, then after a few weeks I have a freezer full of yummy, nutritious stuff ready to defrost and warm through

I try and make meal times fun to be honest so there's no fussing or strops. My daughter likes to watch me when I'm cooking so I involve her and tell her what things are and what I'm doing and let her help on the bits she can, things as simple as picking up an ingredient for me at the supermarket or getting me an item in the kitchen or placing something on a baking tray, any of this she loves and it's nice to see she likes being involved. We eat together in the front room and I always point out what she has on her plate and say yum yum, majority of the time during her meal she will say yummy yummy, which is so cute! We talk, we watch a movie or TV while we're eating and so generally meal times are a pleasure for us. Don't get me wrong, she doesn't always eat a lot or everything but I think that's just all part of having a 20 month old. When she does eat a lot I always praise her and it's a lovely feeling knowing we has eaten a good meal. I try not to get too stressed or make a big deal of it when she doesn't eat much but overall she does do quite well. I just think it's nice to involve the children where you can.

I work shifts so we always eat family meals together, so that we can sit round the dinner table. My husband is an amazing cook. Because we are limited for time on my night shifts, we tend to batch cook on my days off so that we can have home made food but can prepare it quickly. I like to know what is in my meals.

DH and I try to make cooking dinner less of a chore by cooking together and using the time to catch up on each others' days, listening to music...and occasionally having a sneaky glass of wine together while cooking.

My tip at the moment is sacrificial mushrooms. When I need to cook a meal I stand my 18-month old son on a chair next to me with a punnet of mushrooms and a child's table knife and he's happy as Larry 'helping mummy' cook.

Contrary to popular belief, I think that cooking multiple meals is the key to less stress! Rather than have kids moaning that they don't like a certain meal, I find it easier to let everyone eat what they enjoy - which might mean curry for me, dp and teen son, but nuggets and chips for younger two. Far less hassle to put 2 meals in, than to argue till I'm blue in the face about why they should eat what I want them to!

I sometime mash the veg to disguise it.

I also like to batch cook when I have time so it's ready for busier weeks.

No screen are allowed at the table as I get annoyed when people stare at them instead of talking

I find that if I spend a few minutes each day doing some relaxation/mindfulness exercises, that allows me to be less stressed for the rest of the day and gives me the energy to do what I need to.

From experience the main rule is all technology is turned off so there are no disturbances... We can then discuss what has happened during the day.

We make cooking our one to one time by taking turns. Each dc gas a night helping so they get time to tell me what is happening in their life, worries, good things etc. Works brilliantly with teens because it's low pressure, the focus isn't all on them.

It also means, by the time everyone sits down, communication has been established amd people naturally join in rather than the meal being the point where everyone starts trying to think of what they want to say.

I always cook from scratch I tend to keep it simple like one pot meals. i batch cook and freeze I also have a slow cooker which is a life saver. We sit at the table and everyone has a role like laying the table, clearing it and washing up. I really don't find meal times stressful compared to other things in life.