If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed in the kitchen or wondered how to balance feeding your family with the chaos of everyday life, this episode is for you!
In this week’s episode of The Science of Motherhood, Dr. Renee White is joined by the incredible Justine Schofield, MasterChef alum and author of Cook Ahead. Together, they dive into the world of family meals, freezer-friendly recipes, and the real-life journey of cooking while juggling motherhood.
Justine opens up about how her freezer became her secret weapon while caring for her baby and how it empowered her to provide nourishing meals for her family. From the importance of batch cooking to the joy of sharing family traditions through food, Justine shares tips and stories that will make you rethink your approach to mealtime.
You’ll Hear About:
Whether you’re overwhelmed by the demands of family life or looking for ways to make mealtime easier and more meaningful, this episode is filled with tips and heartwarming insights to inspire you.
Join us for a conversation that celebrates the power of food, family, and finding balance in the kitchen and at home. You’ll walk away feeling more confident in your ability to nourish your family without the stress!
Resources and Links:
Learn more about Dr Renee White and Explore Fill Your Cup Doula Services
Want to be nurtured and nourished after the birth of your baby, have a peek at our doula offerings.
If you want to gobble up our famous Chocolate + Goji lactation cookies, look no further!
Follow Us on Instagram: @fillyourcup_
Follow Justine Schofield on Instagram: @justineschofield
Disclaimer: The information on this podcast presented by the Fill Your Cup is not a substitute for independent professional advice.
Nothing contained in this podcast is intended to be used as medical advice and it is not intended to be used to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, nor should it be used for therapeutic purposes or as a substitute for your own health professional's advice.
[00:00:27] I'm Dr. Renee White, and this is The Science of Motherhood. Hello and welcome to episode 159 of the Science of Motherhood. I am your host, Dr. Renee White. Thank you so much for joining me today. We have got a very special episode. Now, if you are a longtime listener, you'll probably be thinking, uh, this is supposed to be a check in Tuesday episode, Renee.
[:[00:01:28] And so I kind of had to try to keep it together, but it was such a beautiful interview because We kind of bonded a bit over like being mums and what that looks like, and I guess, you know, motherhood journeys and influence, um, on our motherhood. You will hear in this episode how Justine has just got some beautiful role models in her life with her mum and her grandma, not only with cooking, but also with how she spends her time and mothers her beautiful two year old, Louis.
[:[00:02:37] That is how I like to cook in our house, because if you're going to chop one onion, you may as well chop two. And if you're going to do one batch of spaghetti bolognese, I make four and I just freeze it away because times are busy, right? And sometimes you want to be reaching for a delicious quick and easy meal out of the freezer instead of calling up that Uber Eats again because food's expensive, right?
[:[00:03:30] And this is not her first rodeo guys, Justine is the author of four bestselling cookbooks, Dinner with Justine, Simple Every Day, The Weeknight cookbook and the Slow Cook, and you will hear that the inspiration behind this latest book is literally being a mum. Like, she's just like, we need to utilise our freezers better.
[:[00:04:18] So jump over to our Instagram @fillyourcup_ and you can have a sneak peek at a couple of those recipes. All right. Until further ado, here is Justine Schofield. Hello and welcome to the podcast.
[:[00:04:39] Dr Renee White: Oh, thank you. So we, obviously everyone would know from the introduction that they would have just heard that we are here celebrating the launch of your amazing new cookbook, Cook Ahead, which we briefly chatted about offline, I guess about the inspiration and things like that.
[:[00:05:18] Justine Schofield: Yes, he's just over two now. And you know, a lot of people have, I mean, everyone has their own story. And for me, it just, I think you could prepare as much as you like, but you actually just, you can't prepare at all. And I actually was very, uh, it was important for me not to read all those books and all. I just, I just stayed away from all of that and just went on experiences through my friends and saw what they did and what they didn't do and then even then I still didn't know until you're actually in it. Right?
[:[00:05:55] Justine Schofield: And at the beginning, it was confronting. I just remember and I'm sure you've heard this story over and over again, just leaving the hospital and getting in the car and not even knowing how to put Louis into a car seat, let alone drive. We didn't have to drive far. And I just was, you know, Just so sad.
[:[00:06:32] I didn't have him for the first night because I had to test if he was okay because it was a bit of a stressful birth. So all of that was just building up and I was like, yep, I'm very happy. I'm very happy. I've got a new baby, but deep down, I I think it's called baby blues that nobody, and I have a lot of girlfriends that have a babies.
[:[00:06:52] Dr Renee White: Really?
[:[00:07:07] Dr Renee White: No, I think this is really important though because it's like as as challenging as is and it's your personal experience unfortunately it's actually quite normal to have all of those feelings crop up and I think any opportunity where we can discuss that and normalise it.
[:[00:07:53] Justine Schofield: Exactly. And it's really hard for a partner to understand. And so naturally that causes some issues there too. It's just, Really hard to explain the feeling and, um, of course, you know, that was just, it didn't last for long because, you know, once you get into a rhythm at home and it was just pure joy and bliss and he's just the most delightful thing, but it was that shock of having a baby and then you bring it home and then your life is different and that's that and you know I spent all this time preparing my freezer and making sure everything's all ready to go when I get home. So I don't have to worry about that aspect. I can focus on the baby and it was difficult, but lucky I had a lot of support around me, so much support around me and it was just, it was good. But yeah, the hospital part was a little scary, definitely scary. And getting in that car, getting home was. It was scary. It was scary.
[:[00:08:56] Justine Schofield: Yeah. And just, it was the, my biggest thing was the temperature of, Is he cold? Is he hot? Is that, is that warm enough? What, I mean, how many layers like they say, but do you really know? So all of this information, these tiny things that no one can prepare you for until you're in it, but yeah, wouldn't change it for the world because I have my baby Louis and he's just perfection. And he's just, he's delicious. Like every day, it just gets more and more, such a good baby boy.
[:[00:09:25] Justine Schofield: It really is. It really is. And he's just the vocabulary and just the way he talks and just the way he's growing. He's just turning into this gorgeous little man.
[:[00:10:09] Are you happy to share like some of those imprints that you got from each of those and maybe not only how it's affected your cooking, but like as a mum as well?
[:[00:10:41] With another child who was around roughly the same age and we would go, she would be, you know, the French community quite tight in Sydney. Yeah. And um, they would send us with a little thing around our neck to make sure we're, we're labelled. We'd never do that with kids these days, but we did it. We did it. And I just remember fond memories, not feeling homesick or anything like that, but because I was going to see my maternal grandmother who was pretty much an extension of my mother. Um, and I think that's why we're so close and, you know, we're spending weeks there and then mum would join later on because she was obviously working and dad too. But it was, I, I just remember her, even being so little, I just remember her so much. Just everything from the necklace, she'd have a black pearl, to her cooking in the kitchen, the smell of her apartment, you know, walking down, just doing our regular walks and picking you know, when I was there in summer, the raspberries were just incredible.
[:[00:11:57] And they remind him of home cause you can look at as many pictures as you like, but that feeling that you get, I almost get goosebumps thinking of it when I smell the dish that is so family orientated, like my ma mère's dish or my mum Francoise's dish. It just brings back so many memories. Yeah. And mum's like, mum's been a massive, just mum and dad, but you know, naturally as a mum and I'm the only daughter, we are extremely close. Sometimes you wouldn't tell because, you know, she's French and she screams and she's very loud and, you know, she's got a very stern face and, you know, very, quite strong and stoic.
[:[00:12:53] Don't get me wrong, when I was a teenager, I was an absolute pain and put my mum through the wringer. But now being a mother, I think we've become very, very close in everything in life.
[:[00:13:13] Justine Schofield: Look, there's so many and I, you know, it'd be nice to say, oh, a little creme brulee or, um, tart au pomme, you know, apple tart. But it's actually a really old school dish that we, I just love it. It's, it's veal dish. It's called a blanquette de veau, which is, it translates, a weird name, um, blanket of veal. What it is, is poached veal stew.
[:[00:13:54] Like it's just so old school. Peasant style food. Yeah. I just love it because it was a dish that would just, I would just crave to eat. And I do cook it for Louis sometimes. Sometimes I do it with fish instead of the veal or do it with chicken. But, uh, it's just a stunning dish that again, just smells, I can smell it right now.
[:[00:14:26] Dr Renee White: I love that. And I think I interviewed, um, what her actual title is, but her name is Dr. Deborah McNamara. She's from the U. S. and she talks about how food is not just food, but it is about the connection with the you know, the meal and the people around you and the environment. And as you say, the smell, it's all those things that are kind of coming together that, you know, it's the, it's the family table, you know, that we sit at and we do feast style and all those things. Um, because we, yeah, we were talking about like, quote unquote, picky eaters as children.
[:[00:15:20] Justine Schofield: Yeah. I mean, in the French culture, eating at the table is just non negotiable. Eating at the table is not an annoyance. It is part of life, like brushing your teeth. You sit at the table, you eat, whether there's one person or there's 20. The table is set, we don't go and plate up and bring it to the table. Food is on the table and people help themselves. That's how we eat. And that's where you connect.
[:[00:16:12] Oh, my goodness. Milk at the table. Like sacrilegious, you know, and I'm like, why can't we have it? And I remember like, mum's like, fine, if you don't want water, you can have wine, you know, as a kid. These are your options. And there's nothing, and it makes sense because it wasn't even just about having a sugary drink.
[:[00:16:34] Dr Renee White: Yes. Oh my goodness. I love French cooking. My husband and I actually eloped to France. So yeah, it's a, it's a kind of mainstay with us and we recently went back to Paris and we took my daughter for the first time.
[:[00:17:12] Justine Schofield: And it's only in France that you can have a croissant a day and not feel guilty about it.
[:[00:17:19] Justine Schofield: But in France, it's like, oh just a croissant. It's just one croissant.
[:[00:17:36] Justine Schofield: God, I remember this so vividly when, because I hadn't written a book for a while, I think a couple of years, and you know, there was a few knocks on the door, my publisher's like, my agent's like, come on. And I'm like, Oh, cause it's. It's so hard to write a book, like you need so much time and there's a lot of testing and writing, writing, writing, and I'll write 300 recipes for everyday gourmets.
[:[00:18:20] So it was really hard to get out of it I was like, yeah, I'm committed And of course I committed before I had the baby then had the baby and had that full mum guilt of leaving him and it was serious mum guilt and I had high anxiety, which just never had just this, I can't do it. I can't leave him like he's, especially I was breastfeeding.
[:[00:19:04] And I'm like, oh, that freezer came in so much handy with freezing that much breast milk for 10 days. And he was just going on solids. I was just teaching on solids. And I can't tell you, the freezer was a rainbow because there was broccoli purees, there was apple and blackberry purees, there was carrot and cheddar purees, there was all sorts of purees, and I really just took it in my stride to make these purees.
[:[00:19:52] And I'm like, I'm going to change that around because the lead up to Louis, I had done that. I've cleared it out. And like most mums out there, they freeze batch, batches of food, but it was that moment where it was like giving me empowerment. The freezer was giving me empowerment to go and there was some nourishing, delicious food in the wholesome food for him, not from the packet, but I've cooked.
[:[00:20:33] And let's see this as an opportunity, particularly in a time where, you know, we have to be budget friendly, because it's just, food is expensive. Let's face it, food is really expensive. Let's be nifty with things that we have in our freezer, in our pantry, in our fridge, and, you know, snap lock it so we can, um, nourish ourselves.
[:[00:21:06] Dr Renee White: But I love that though, because I love the fact that you were so self aware that you were like, okay, I really want to do this as a mum. This is my career. This is, you know, part of me. And I can't control that part because I still want to do it. But what are the things that I can control? And that is the fact that you're like, let's just fill that freezer to the brim. And then it just kind of offsets, as you said, offsets that anxiety and that you can kind of, you can still do it.
[:[00:22:00] That's like my perfect opportunity there. And as you say, you want it to be, you want it to be wholesome, nourishing food for your kids because we've, we've kind of always taken this tact of like whole foods as close as we can get to whole foods, the better, because it, it, it has a real impact. We have in our family, it has a real impact on gut health.
[:[00:22:35] Justine Schofield: Yeah. And there's more and more education out there. My, my best friend, not to, to change the subject too much, but my, my beautiful best friend, Beth passed away this year from stage four bowel cancer. And you spend your time going, why did this happen to her? Why, why, why? We don't know still, right? That's why we need to raise money around this. Cause it's not just the genes. We don't know, like is it ourselves. Early onset bowel cancer is massive it's funny. Why? And a lot of doctors say this has got to be something with what we've been eating with our age group. So I'm going to be 40 next year.
[:[00:23:29] And that comes, stems from my family upbringing, you know, with my mother and my father, just making sure we eat whole foods. It can be simple, but eating whole foods will always be better for you. No matter what.
[:[00:23:47] Justine Schofield: Oh, sorry.
[:[00:23:57] Justine Schofield: Oh, yeah. I start getting very emotional about her, but she was an amazing person and she would always love when my cookbooks came out. She's actually one of, in my third cookbook.
[:[00:24:17] Dr Renee White: Yeah.
[:[00:24:34] So I miss that. Yeah.
[:[00:24:38] Justine Schofield: Sure is. Yeah. People sometimes don't get my love language, you're just so much gentler. I'm like, mate, if you want to know that I really love you, I'll cook for you. Once I do that, you know, I really love you. If I bring freezer food for you, if I've cooked you a batch of meatballs in a lovely container labeled and dated for your freezer, You know that you're one of my favourites.
[:[00:25:17] Justine Schofield: Look, I'm going to have to, I have so many in there because, and you know, I changed this book so many times with the recipes, what to add in there.
[:[00:25:48] Right? So this is my opportunity to inject a tiny bit of spice to make it a bit more interesting. I add zucchini, carrot. onions and you can go even further adding other vegetables to it but I inject it with loads of vegetables they're soft and fluffy and serving it with couscous I just it's a dish that I grew up with and and having a double batch so you know you'll see that I add you know, a kilo of mince in it because you can have 500 grams of that.
[:[00:26:35] Everything fresh is going to be the best, of course, but it needs to defrost and still taste bang on as these meatballs time and time again are fantastic. And, you know, it's just about, um, bringing it, making sure that you bring it out the night before when you're defrosting food too, you will get. The best of it. So rapid, rapid defrost yep sure. But if you think ahead and train yourself differently to use that freezer, well, as in right, I'm going to eat this tomorrow. Let's bring it out tonight before bed. Yeah. It's great. There's one more that one dish.
[:[00:27:09] Justine Schofield: Oh, there's so many. So we could talk forever, but I love sweet and sour pork from takeaway Chinese, right?
[:[00:27:16] Justine Schofield: A very rare occasion that I have it, I would say once a year. Takeaway Chinese and it's really weird because I love it so much, but just because it's just highly salty and all, but I don't mind it once a year. Okay. So I wanted to replicate that, but I did a slow cook version where you use pork scotch fillet, which is neck.
[:[00:28:01] You've made it from scratch, make a big batch of it. And it is to die for. It's got that lovely, like I said, the Chinese five spice. It's got the sugar and vinegar
[:[00:28:15] Justine Schofield: And you can change it. You can put chicken if you like, instead of pork, you know, there's so many different things that you can add to it. And I just, I just love that dish because it's sort of, it's a play on a takeaway. And I talk a lot about in the book of convenience, right? Because naturally you want to, sometimes when you're so busy, Oh, look, let's just, let's just call the local takeaway and get it where I'm wanting to celebrate having your takeaways at home.
[:[00:28:54] Dr Renee White: A hundred percent. I think this is the key also, like we talk about this with the mums that we help and support through our doula services and it's just kind of like we appreciate that everyone is so time poor, like any opportunity where you can cook once, eat twice, you just go for it. Cause if you're at, if you're in the kitchen, just do it. Cause I think we, I'm kind of in two minds. Like I see these people on social media and stuff and they're like, I meal prep on Sunday.
[:[00:29:26] Dr Renee White: And I'm just like, I hear you. I'm like, that's great. But doesn't that take you like 3000 years to do? And I'm like, I want to enjoy my Sunday.
[:[00:29:50] Like I don't want to do that on my Sunday. My time's precious.
[:[00:29:54] Justine Schofield: My whole idea about the book, cause I really want to emphasise it because naturally people go, Oh, we'll just cook all in one day. It's not, it's tonight we're going to make meatballs, whether it's mine or not, instead of using 500 grams of beef mince use a kilo or 1. 5. If you're going to grate one carrot to put into the meatballs, just grate two.
[:[00:30:12] Justine Schofield: Get two cans of, of tomatoes or, you know, a whole jar of passata. You're going to make it anyway. So see the opportunities when they arise and slowly feed the freezer and then you'll see, you'll reap the benefits.
[:[00:30:40] Dr Renee White: I want to talk to you about that because my freezer is currently a mess. Like, you know, you would just like, and you're going to go open it and be like, ah, what is that? When did we put that in? Uh, yeah. I looked at my freezer the other day. We're quite lucky. We've got. A dedicated freezer in the garage, as well as like a small one, obviously, in our kitchen. But I was looking at the, you know, the deep freeze the other day and I thought, she's going to need a clean out soon because I don't even know when I put that in.
[:[00:31:22] So
[:[00:31:40] Dr Renee White: Yeah.
[:[00:31:50] And there's also a lot of hungry people out there. So let's just be a bit conscious about that. And there are so many times where you do just go, oh, look, I'm going to remember that. Obviously, like, it's, it's red. It's going to be a Bolognese it's definitely, i'll remember that. But after a while, you can't see what it is.
[:[00:32:30] So it's always the reset. Just clear that out, eat it. Or if you don't really don't know what it is, it scares you. Okay, get rid of it. Start by doing that. So do a reset and rotate also. So just think about how you are in a grocery store where things are rotated. The oldest comes to the front, so you use that.
[:[00:33:07] And also you can do, you can, um, categorise, like, so you can divide your freezer into, into different spaces. So I've got, for example, three shelves, one thin, one medium, one, and a large one. So. You know, all the big chunks of meat go in one section, the bread goes in one section, and my pastries, and then my ready made meals, as in that I have cooked, go in another section.
[:[00:33:29] Justine Schofield: So, you know, even when you just go straight away to your freezer, you know where you're going, so you're not scurrying around and looking for it. And also using freezer, um, space friendly containers, even like plastic bags.
[:[00:33:45] Justine Schofield: So, sometimes I put my bolognese , once it's cooled, put it in Ziploc bags.
[:[00:33:53] Justine Schofield: That's a secret weapon. It's so, because they just flatten it and then you can just pile them up really easily and categorise it because you just label it. It's so easy to see.
[:[00:34:03] Justine Schofield: Is great. And I, I try to stay away from plastic, but we just can't. Right. So that's just, I say we can't. I'm sure there's people out there that can. I'm not up to that stage yet, but I use a lot of glass where I can and, um, just really good quality containers that are all shapes and sizes. Like, I mean, we could talk forever. There are just different things, but the Ziploc bags work a real treat when you want to stack correctly.
[:[00:34:44] You can bring that out and be ready in a couple of hours, not even, because sometimes you just need that one batch while you're going out to dinner or you're going out to dinner. Boil some pasta, put that bolognese in, a bit of cheese, bobs your uncle faster than any delivery that you're going to get.
[:[00:35:30] Yeah. Did you use things like that as well?
[:[00:35:34] Um, those, they work so well, you know, you do little pestos and then you freeze it in the containers and pop them out and put them in a Ziploc bag. So you can store them so they don't get frostbite. And sometimes, even just for me, so when I'm just eating one for one person.
[:[00:35:50] Justine Schofield: You don't have to be a mum to do that or whatever. Just sometimes you just want a quick. Pesto pasta.
[:[00:35:56] Justine Schofield: So throw two of those in and some pasta and it just works treat. Even marinades. I sometimes do cause I'm like, Oh, I don't peel more garlic and you know, I do my marinades and put them in the blocks and there's some that just need my quick honey soy recipe for that.
[:[00:36:19] Dr Renee White: Oh really?
[:[00:36:29] Dr Renee White: Before we jump into our rapid fire, I want to know, we have a lot of listeners who are obviously mum's parents. Do you have any recommendations about returning to work? You know, anything that you could kind of give as a tip or anything apart from obviously stocking your freezer? Was there anything else that kind of helped you along the way?
[:[00:37:20] And that was my thing being prepared. So I knew I had to go back at five and a half months, Louis five and a half months. So I started early so I didn't feel scared when it came up, I was prepared. So I had the daycare in place and my freezer in place had mum. What dates is she going to be in Sydney? So I can use her here and there.
[:[00:37:52] Dr Renee White: Yes,
[:[00:38:23] It's just different. And it's just the brain is always constantly thinking who's going to be doing that washing. Well, what about clean? How are we going to clean house? That's an insight into my brain, but then having little things that will empower you in that way, having control of what you can control and letting everything else go is the best.
[:[00:38:53] Justine Schofield: Top tips for mums. Fill your freezer up with great delicious wholesome food. You'll thank me later.
[:[00:39:16] Justine Schofield: Oh, you will just go oh that. Justine, she knows what she's talking about.
[:[00:39:36] Or even once you became a mum, you know, I've, I've, I've had. for example, people say a book or a workshop or even like some poetry or something like that, was there anything that kind of stands out for you?
[:[00:39:53] Dr Renee White: Wow. Okay.
[:[00:39:56] Dr Renee White: Okay.
[:[00:40:18] But just watching and being around. I was helping out with the triplets a lot and that was a savior and it didn't come back to me because they're much older but back then the things that I helped with learned about babies then really helped me as a mum so being around other little babies and holding them like I didn't know how to hold a baby like I struggled with the little ones like even Louis like I don't want to break his little neck or things like that but so being around them when the girls were were first born Actually, I held onto those little tools that I learned, you know, when you see them accidentally kind of choking, but they're not actually choking.
[:[00:41:15] So that class was really important just to settle the mind on and just learn a few little things. If something happens, when do you take your baby to hospital? When do you give your baby a Panadol? When do you not? Those things really did help me. Um, it was more when I had the baby that helped, it helped me.
[:[00:41:45] Dr Renee White: Yeah. That's so interesting. Cause, um, There's a study that showed that there was kind of four pivotal pillars for mums to thrive. And one of those things was sharing of experiences with other mums.
[:[00:42:02] Dr Renee White: And so I think it's such an important message.
[:[00:42:05] Dr Renee White: To share that, you know, being around other mums and I think we've kind of lost that, you know, we're all kind of in insular families and in some circumstances away from our families. And so, yeah, that's really interesting that you found that as kind of like a ping core memory.
[:[00:42:45] All of these little things really, oh, okay. It came back into force when I needed it.
[:[00:43:01] Justine Schofield: What I keep on my glasses. Oh, that's boring, isn't it?
[:[00:43:08] Justine Schofield: Dust. That is brilliant. I know. I was like,
[:[00:43:15] Justine Schofield: Do you know, at the moment, I have my cookbook and it's so boring, but I'm just so in love with it that I'm just making sure that I've made no mistakes in it. So, yeah. at the moment is on the side of my table. Cook Ahead I'm still quite chuffed.
[:[00:43:38] Dr Renee White: Oh, you should. Be very proud. It's an amazing cookbook. Justine, thank you so much for joining us today. It's been so lovely to hear, like, I guess the personal perspective and how your upbringing has really influenced this book.
[:[00:44:08] Justine Schofield: Exactly. That's the message. That's the strong message with that. Um, and it's, you know, thank you for having me on. It's actually really, I never talk about my birth journey and me being a mum. I just, don't talk about it much. So yeah, it's been really nice chatting with you.
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[:[00:45:15] Ensuring you feel nurtured, informed and empowered so you can fully embrace the joy of motherhood with confidence. Until next time, bye!