After the many kind words and questions about my post on eating at our table, I thought I would give you a few tips on how I get everyone in the family sitting up and ready to enjoy their dinner together. I would also like to point out that I am definitely no expert! This is just what I have found works for our little tribe x

– Above all, don’t put too much pressure on yourself! Some meals are always going to be a disaster no matter what you serve your children.

– Make sure everyone is coming to the table hungry- if your children have been snacking all day they are less likely to eat their meal.

– Try and eat the same thing all together as a family. Although this can be difficult in our fast paced lives, it can become such a special part of your daily ritual. Put your children in charge of setting the table nicely- younger ones can put around napkins, older ones can fill water glasses or write menus. Light a candle or collect flowers to put in the middle of the table to show it is a special time for the family to come together at the end of the day.

– Try starting the meal with a salad or vegetables. This can be accompanied by a dressing or dip they can dunk their food into. It is amazing what will be eaten when you’re really hungry and there is nothing else to choose! 

– You don’t need to enforce old school rules of finishing everything on your plate. Encourage your children to try everything, but they don’t have to finish anything. You don’t want meal times to become a battle of who is most stubborn in the family! Trying a little of everything will help them get used to new foods. To start with you might get a nibble, but over time they will learn to like most things. For some children textures are what puts them off, for others it is flavour. If they don’t like boiled carrots, try them grated in a salad, roasted with seeds, or cut into sticks for dunking in hummus. 

– Just as some children are more adventurous playing, some are more adventurous with eating. Make sure there is something on their plate that they know and like so a hesitant eater isn’t too overwhelmed with a plate full of unknown food.

– Try not to label food as good or bad. Just talk about enjoying food and how it makes you feel. These green fritters make us so strong, we will be able to play at the playground for ages! Eating ice cream for every meal would give us a sore tummy, but how delicious does an ice cream cone at the beach on a sunny day taste?

– Never assume what your children may like or not like. One of mine loves nothing more than a pickle but won’t go near a cream filled donut! 

– For dessert, chia pudding or greek yoghurt with some honey or fruit is a great way to fill up any gaps and keep everyone sleeping through the night. 

 What a gift to give your children. A love of good food shared with those they love.

When I found out I was pregnant with my fourth baby, the first thing I thought was HOW MUCH FOOD WILL I NEED TO MAKE WHEN THERE ARE FOUR TEENAGERS IN THE HOUSE!? Perhaps moments like this don’t bring out the most rational thoughts, my husband’s main concern was whether we were going to have to sell our car and buy a mini van, but this is a thought I come back to a lot. Already I feel like all I do is buy food, cook food, clean up after eating food. Luckily there is that golden moment in amongst this that is the eating food.

I love that meal times act as an anchor in our days. Now that we have two at school as well as a preschooler and a baby in the house, life can feel a little manic. There is always a sock that needs finding, a question being asked, a baby with a marble in her mouth, a boy who needs you to find the specific small dolphin toy immediately.

Breakfast, lunch (during the weekend when there’s no work and school) and dinner we sit up together at the table as a family. We try to never snack between meals, but come to the table hungry and ready to eat. We try to set the table nicely every evening with napkins and candles and water in a jug. We try to have a dessert every night, even if it is generally some greek yogurt with a drizzle of honey and some stewed fruit. We try not to go completely crazy dealing with our four year old. We try not to drink the whole bottle of wine on a Tuesday. This moment, when we come together as a family and talk about our days and gossip and share food together is everything to me.

I hope that one day they all look back and remember at least one of the hundreds of banana breads I made for afternoon teas that we ate on autumn afternoons after school, the bowls of spaghetti alla puttanesca we ate on Friday evenings as we made plans for the weekend, the scrape of the knife across a piece of toasted sourdough as the butter was spread on thick and the smell of coffee in the air, the pop of a pea jumping from its pod as the first sun of spring warms our skin.

Although I feel like the time that isn’t spent in the car driving everyone to different activities is spent in the kitchen, these are the small moments that make up a life and there is nothing better than sitting round the table with family or friends that I love. And it is because of this that I thought I would get back on the blog and start sharing some of these recipes that I come back to time and time again a little further beyond our table.

So, what shall I start with?

It’s been almost nine years since I sat at a borrowed apartment table in a San Francisco airbnb and wrote the first post for Flowers in my Hair,. Today I find myself sitting with my computer open at a slightly bigger table in our home in New Zealand. Four children, a move across the world, and many, many meals later.

I didn’t think this would be a place I would come back to. But I received the email saying my domain had expired and it stirred something in me. A desire to write, to documet the chaos of our kitchen with so many little mouths to feed, the desire to take a snapshot of this stage in life that is flying past so fast that I am sure to blink and miss it. I am finding that the fast paced scrolling through recipes and snapshots into people’s lives on instagram isn’t doing it for me anymore. I am getting recipe books out of the library and finding a moment here and there to actually sit and read and immerse myself in thoughtful stories and photos of food. Perhaps this blog could be an extension of that? Perhaps only my husband will read it and that’s ok too.

I’m here.

I’m ready to write again.