Feeding a healthy diet to your large family takes coordination, time, and resources, but it’s not as difficult as you may think. With a little creativity and grace, you can easily feed your family healthy meals that don’t take all your time, energy, and money!
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In this episode:
- How to avoid an “all or nothing” approach to healthy eating.
- Ways to simplify your meal rotation so you don’t end up with decision fatigue.
- Stocking your pantry and refrigerator for easier meal planning.
Resources mentioned:
- Home Management for the Homeschool Mom
- Sidetracked Sarah Freezer to Slow Cooker meal plan (aff)
- Master Grocery List & Once a Month Shopping series

Alison says
Amen!!! Been there done that! I totally appreciated your rant ??. In the early days of our large family (when I had 3-5 kids I tried so hard to make everything from scratch and worked my way through Nuritiousing Traditions (which takes lots of time). I tried to source local meat & raw milk. It was so exhausting, though a great education. When the Paleo craze came along, I realized I could never feed my family “perfectly” without killing myself & our budget.
I still struggle with good enough vs the perfect diet,but now I have a set meal plan every week (chicken on Monday, Tuesday weekend leftovers, Wed soup, Thru sausage, Friday pizza…. I mix up all the sides so there is always variety. Also, one hot tip- before dinner I will often put out a veggie & dip tray so I don’t worry if I didn’t get to the veggie side on the dinner plate. Also, I do use frozen veggies.
Alison says
Also, I went back to my mother’s simple way of doing dinner: a meat (smallest item on the plate), a carb (potatoes, rice, yes even bread, and pasta), and the vegetables (that can be apples or carrot sticks if that is all I have)
Savannah says
I tried to prepare everything, especially grains, according to Nourishing Traditions as well – everything soaked, sprouted, or soured (fermented). Even had the sourdough starter to feed everyday! While I do believe it is a very good way to eat, I was literally spending all day in the kitchen. So we do the best we can, but don’t worry if it’s not perfect. I buy sprouted rice in bulk. We do drink raw grassfed milk (this is important to me – nutritionally and to support our local family dairy farm) and use some local eggs and local grassfed beef when we can afford it. Grassfed butter as well. I buy organic fruits and vegetables when available, but totally agree conventional veggies are better than no veggies. Costco has great options for bulk frozen organic fruits and vegetables. Azure has very high quality organic flours. We are by no means perfect, but these are a few of the things that we are able to do that work for us.
Amy says
This is really great advice, Savannah – thank you for sharing!
Amy says
I think we all go through this – especially in this day and age where the internet is so fond of telling us how to eat. But it truly is exhausting and time and money consuming. We can do a good job without being “perfect.” Besides, in another 10 years there will be another perfect way of eating! 😉
Diana says
I loved this podcast, Amy!
I so agree with what you said about settling for good enough, rather than chasing perfection. Like the other commenters above have stated, I’ve been there, done that. And – somewhat fortunately, somewhat unfortunately – since one of my primary hobbies is researching how food can heal health conditions, it is easy to fall into an endless black hole of SEEKING ULTIMATE DIETARY PERFECTION, in which nothing but the absolute best (pastured! grass-fed! organic! non-GMO!) is okay. The people who write these books never seem to realize that one will be dead from starvation/stress/bankruptcy before one can achieve the dietary perfection that they demand. So, on the one hand, I’ve seen how diet can heal health problems; but on the other, I have seen how it can devolve into an absolute hate-relationship with food, because you can’t find anything that your family can eat that is perfect enough. And, as others have stated, it can turn into an I-never-leave-my-kitchen-because-hundreds-of-lactofermented-foods-have-to-be-fed kind of nightmare (been there).
All that said, I loved your podcast! And I have several new ideas to try – thank you!
Amy says
Hi Diana! It is such a difficult balance at times and we can so easily be sucked in! I want to feed everyone as healthy as I can (myself included!), BUT the food shouldn’t consume me (pun intended!). Thank you for your insight into this battle!