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 cook together at the weekends, but plan quicker meals for mid-week when different family members are dashing off to different clubs.

Packed lunches are always made the night before to avoid stress in the mornings.

We meal plan as we do monthly shops (as well as the odd fresh bits each week). It means it's easier choose meals, the ingredients are already in and I can cook what I feel depending on how I am feeling (foods with longer cooking times for the days I have more time and more energy).

When cooking my 3 year old lays the table (he says he is decorating the table) this means I don't have to stress about laying the table whilst stirring dishes etc.

We eat together as a family so it encourages our sons to eat well definitely means less stress.

well its always nice to get a takeaway so that we can spend more time together without cooking

Don't stress about everything being perfect all the time. It doesn't matter if you sometimes just have a jacket potato with cheese and beans.

i find it quite hard in my house , i have a 4 yr old , 17 and 18 yr old. My 17 yr old is vegetarian and then hubby works and isnt ready for tea until 7.30. So ive started feeding the kids all together and making food where meat / fish can be added to some of it so i dont have to make several lots of food. Then once the kids are sorted me and hubby have tea at 8

Lots of meals where the various dislikes can be accommodated. Greek salads or, as tonight, assembled Mexican style wraps.

My family all cook and set the table

Meal planning
Online food shopping, and using the App like a shopping list
Knowing what's in the cupboards/ freezer

Allowing sandwich/ cereal option if the toddler doesn't like (the sound of ) what's on offer, but not another whole meal!

I do an online food shop that is delivered Sunday night (for all the packed lunches /etc_ ) and have another one delivered mid week with all the extra bits.
I do a meal plan for the week and this is a great help both financially and knowing exactly what we are eating - less moaning and fussing from the kids!
We also have a quick tea once a week, beans on toast or jacket pots.
Batch cooking is also a great help - god send to have this in the freezer for nights where we are all over the place with the children

I love my slow cooker. Knowing the evening meal is dealt with seems to relax me for the rest of the day! I also batch cook and I do cheat sometimes and buy ready prepared fruit and vegetables. I also use a lot of frozen veg which are nutritious, there's no prep and no waste.

Tips!! That is a hard one for me. I have 5 Children. The two older ones will eat almost anything but the three younger ones are a little more tricky when it comes to sitting down and eating the same meal. I do love to cook homemade meals so I make it a lot harder by putting different side dishes with meal - at least I know they are all eating something. It does get easier as they get older - they get less fussy!! As long as I have the menu for the week planned I get by ok.

set 'no thank you' meal for the kids each day. if you don't want the grown up food then it's tuesday you get beans on toast

From as early on as possible, we got my son to eat what we were eating and not cater to separate "fussy" tastes. This now means we can cook just one family meal for all of us to enjoy and it isn't a crazy/hectic time of the day. We all sit down together at the table with the TV off and eat together. Then everyone escapes to their own corners of the house!

I don't find evening meals stressful at all

We meal plan, and we have "quick" nights when dh is working late, where we either have a takeaway or something that's easy and quick to cook so we can still all eat together without any fuss or worry

I try to call everyone in to the kitchen five minutes before dinner is ready so they can help, lay the table, get drinks ready and generally help with the dishing up then after dinner everyone needs to do something to help with the clearing away, either loading the dishwasher, putting things away or simply making a cuppa as I flop in the armchair

Meal plan and keep a well stocked store cupboard.

We've also started growing our own herbs.

Hubby and I cook the meal and then the kids clear the table and stack the dishwasher, it just gives me and hubby a break to chill before homework, baths and bedtime story time. At the end of all this we are just ready to fall into bed, so that 10/15 mins is a godsend

We have a what's app group for our meal planning and all have the app for our online shop on our phones linked to the same account. That way everyone knows what we're eating and each person can add what they want to the online shop.
We also usually make enough to dinner for 2 nights to save effort the following evening

One meal sitting with all of family eating same things at the same time. Eat it or leave it no choices.

I have a protein/ carb formula for my weekly meal plan :
1 chicken, 1 pork or bacon, 1 beef, 1 fish, 1 veggie, 1 lucky dip
1 rice, 2 potato, 1 pasta, 1 pastry, 1 bread, 1 lucky dip

I have a spreadsheet with all my usual recipes by protein and carb.

It looks a bit sad now I see it written down!

we also batch cook or use slow cooker. DCs are not too fussy anymore, although DD is now vegan and DS1 has taken against onions at the moment.

Marry someone who LOVES cooking!

My hubby really enjoys cooking for the family and as he works 6am until 2pm, he has time in the afternoon to prepare meals which we all love and he loves cooking for us :)

We plan the weekly meals and shopping lists.

My favourite tip for enjoying a meal together and getting everyone to sit down together is to just relax, play some relaxing music, not allow any of the kids into the kitchen.. then for meals I serve most things as a buffet so everyone gets to pick and choose exactly what they want rather than having a plate full of unwanted food! Everyone loves that and the little ones feel really independent with that approach, works for our four children!