The broadcaster says it’s made the decision-making around dinner time, one of the daily pressures of family life, considerably easier.
“What’s for dinner?”
It’s a simple question, but for busy families, it can be one more decision at the end of an already full day.
For broadcaster, MC and presenter Laura McGoldrick, finding an answer has become considerably easier thanks to a dinner routine she’s relied on for the past nine years.
In the latest episode of Dinner with Nadia, McGoldrick sits down with My Food Bag co-founder Nadia Lim to talk about the reality of juggling work and family – and how taking the planning out of dinner has made a difference to her busy household.
With two children, Harley, eight, and Teddy, five, McGoldrick’s days involve a work schedule that changes week to week, and the everyday demands of family life: “juggling the pickup, after-school activities, dealing with dinner and bedtime, and getting ready for the next day”.
“You just have to make it work,” says McGoldrick. “You have got to find a way.”
The dinner decision made easier
McGoldrick has relied on My Food Bag for nine years and says it’s made the decision-making around dinner time, one of the daily pressures of family life, considerably easier.“The decision-making is not a problem now,” she says. “It’s not something I have to spend a lot of time thinking about, because it’s all done for me. If I can help myself by using My Food Bag, it makes all the difference.”For McGoldrick, having five nights’ worth of ingredients arrive on Sunday means there’s no last-minute supermarket run or standing in front of the fridge wondering what to cook.
The family chooses the meals they know they’ll enjoy, meaning the key decision is which recipe suits the evening.
“The thought process behind what’s for dinner is, ‘what have we got on after school?’.
“If it’s a late-night game of netball, I might make the fastest meal. If I’ve got a bit more time, I’ll make the meal that takes slightly longer.”
The mental load behind dinner
For many busy families, cooking is only one part of getting dinner on the table.
There’s deciding what everyone will eat, checking what’s in the fridge, remembering to buy ingredients and fitting the meal in around the rest of the evening’s activities.
A significant amount of invisible work goes into this seemingly simple task.
For McGoldrick, that’s where My Food Bag has made the biggest change. Rather than having to consider dinner each afternoon, she already has a week’s worth of meals and ingredients sorted.
“All of the ingredients arrive on Sunday. It’s in my fridge no matter what I’ve got on in the day,” she says.
“My Food Bag became so much more attractive after having kids because it just took that mental load of having to worry about dinners. It’s the ease of it all, it’s the simplicity.”
Convenience, without giving up cooking
My Food Bag removes the planning, shopping and guesswork, but it doesn’t remove the pleasure of making dinner. And for McGoldrick, that distinction matters.
“My Food Bag still means you cook the dinner for yourself, which I like. I love having home-cooked meals. I think it’s really important,” she says.
“The routine of My Food Bag allows you to still enjoy cooking, which is awesome.”That added structure has changed who does the cooking in her household.
Her husband, former Black Caps cricketer Martin Guptill, has become increasingly confident in the kitchen, helped by recipes that are straightforward to follow and ingredients that are already there.
“He’s become a very, very sound cook as a consequence,” says McGoldrick.
More present at the end of the day
With modern life increasingly requiring us to be “always on”, freeing up some mental space at the end of the day can make a real difference.
McGoldrick reckons people are increasingly looking for ways to reduce the everyday decision-making and admin that comes with juggling work, family and everything else.
Taking dinner off that list leaves room for the things that feel more important.
“It absolutely saves time. It takes weight off in terms of a mental load because it’s all there for me delivered on a Sunday, and I don’t have to think about it again,” she says.
“[It allows you to] relax and enjoy that back end of the day when there are so many things happening all at once with the kids and the house is busy.
“It’s one less thing to worry about – it allows you to be a bit more present.”