In this episode, Nellie and Linda go beyond the meal planning and mundane feeling so many parents get with dinner time and find the magic in it.  Linda Lederman is a genius when it comes to how to bring a family together, and actually looks forward to meals together each night, with loads of laughing, conversation, and good food!

About the Guest: 

Linda’s cooking skills were so bad, her own family banned her from cooking when she was a teen. Happily, her skills have dramatically improved. She now has over 1000 cookbooks, is a graduate of Rouxbe Cooking School and the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, and has countless cooking courses from the International Culinary Center and Natural Gourmet Institute under her belt. She is a kitchen confidence coach and owner of Balaboosta’s Secret where she helps busy moms with meal planning, prep, and cooking lessons as well as coaches them on how to serve their delicious dinners with side dishes of games and clever conversations with their family. Stress-free cooking tips for maximum flavor, fun, and yum. She can be found at BalaboostasSecret.com, on Facebook at Easy Weeknight Dinners for Busy Moms as well as on Instagram @balaboostas.secret.

About the Host: 

Nellie Harden is a wife of 20+ years, mom to 4 teen/tween daughters, dreamer, adventurer, servant, multipreneur, forever student, and a devoted teacher, but her ride-or-die passion is her work as a Family Life Coach & Mentor.  

Coming from a career background in marine mammal sciences, behavioral work, and a host of big life experiences, both great and not some not so great, she decided that designing a life of purpose and freedom was how she and her husband, along with their 4 daughters, wanted to live.  

Her work and passions exist in the realms of family and parent mentorship because she believes that a family filled with creativity, fun, laughter, challenge, adventure, problem-solving, hugs, good food, and learning can not only change a person’s life but is the best chance at positively changing the world. 

 She helps families build Self-Led Discipline™ & Leadership Into their homes, sets their children up for a wildly successful life on their terms, and elevates the family experience with big joy, palpable peace, and everyday growth!

With a lifelong passion and curiosity in thought, choice, behavior, and growth she has found incredible joy in helping families shift perspective, find answers, and a path forward.

(Nellie has been coaching families for over 10 years and has degrees in Biology, Animal Behavior, and Psychology. )  

LINKS:

6570 Family Challenge- https://www,nellieharden.com/challenge

Website- https://www.nellieharden.com

Online Community- https://www.facebook.com/groups/the6570project

Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/nellieharden/    

Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/nellie.harden/

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Hello and welcome to the 6570 family project

podcast. If you are a parent of a tween teen or somewhere on the

way, this is exactly the place for you. This is the playground

for parents who want to raise their kids with intention,

strength and joy. Come in here all the discussions, get all the

tactics and have lots of laughs along the way. We will dive into

the real challenges in raising kids today how to show up as

parents and teach your kids how to show up as members of the

family and individuals of the world. My name is Mellie Hardin,

big city girl turn small town sipping iced tea on the front

porch mama, who loves igniting transformation in the hearts and

minds of families by helping them build self love, discipline

and leadership that elevates the family experience. And sets the

kids up with a rock solid foundation they can launch their

life on all before they ever leave home. This is the 6570

family project. Let's go

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the 6570 family

project podcast. You guys I have got a gem for you today. I'm so

excited to welcome Linda Letterman to our community

today. And I'm going to get her on in just a second. But you

guys she is a kitchen confidence coach. I didn't even know those

existed. I know I could definitely use one. I tend to

just eat raw because honestly, what is the the meme? I ain't

got time for that. Right? But she brings so much truth and

honesty and fun to the conversation not just about what

you're making in the kitchen, but what you're doing with it

right at the dinner table. I can't wait for you to listen to

her. You guys. She specializes in meal planning and prep and

cooking recipe development and fun family dinner conversations.

You're gonna love it. Her story is so funny, and you'll hear her

talk a little bit more about it. But she was actually so bad at

cooking that her own family banned her when she was a

teenager. And happily, her skills have dramatically

improved and she now has over 1000 cookbooks. Every time I

hear something like that I'm like where do you put them all

right, but she has over 1000 cookbooks. She is a graduate of

a prestigious cooking school and the Institute of Integrative

Nutrition and has countless cooking courses through the

International Culinary Center and national gourmet Institute

under her belt. She is like I said a kitchen confidence coach

and the owner of get this fun name. Bella boost does secret

where she helps busy moms with meal planning prep and cooking

lessons as well as coaching them on how to serve the delicious

dinners with side dishes of games, clever conversations with

their family. So many great gems you are going to get out of this

you guys. It is stress free cooking, maximum flavor, fun and

just yum factor, which I could always do with some fun and

young factor myself. So without further ado, let's go ahead and

get started. Hello, everyone. Welcome to the 6570 family

project Podcast. I'm so excited to have this incredible guest on

today. Linda Letterman. She is so amazing. I know I already

told you all about her. But welcome to the show, Linda.

Oh, thanks so much. I'm thrilled to be here.

Oh, yay.

Well, you guys like I said before she is a

foodie right. And then all the absolutely confidence. I love

those words together because frankly, I don't have very much

kitchen confidence. My kids have a lot more than I do. So I often

snack off of their creations and I wish I had a little bit more

of that myself. But we you know the kitchen is the main focus of

so many homes so many families I know it is for us even though I

will you know probably raw broccoli before I make anything.

But my kids make a lot of stuff. And but we still we hang out in

the kitchen. And that's where a lot of our dance parties and you

know a lot of our conversations, all of the stuff at the end of

the day. It always starts and ends in the kitchen. So tell me

a little bit Linda. So you're obviously a food and family

leader when it comes to this space. Can you tell me kind of

your road in order to get here and how did this all transpire

for you?

Absolutely. When I started my cooking career, I was

in high school and did not start off very well. I told my mom she

was the most boring cook I had ever met. And she was I mean

there was It wasn't debatable. I probably have that title. Right?

Okay, smart out, you know what you're gonna do better. And she

bought me at the time, a book called The Joy of Cooking, which

is huge, almost like an encyclopedia of recipes, but no

pictures, which was really a drawback. And she said, once a

week, you're gonna pick a recipe, tell me the ingredients

we need. I'll get them for you. And you cook, you think you can

do better? You're on. So now the pressure was there because I had

to do something that wasn't boring. And I knew nothing,

literally nothing about cooking, because my mom wasn't really

very good teacher. So I would pick out what I would think

would be the most exotic recipes. And the first one I

tried was something called Swedish meatballs. What on earth

do I know from Swedish meatballs? I know nothing.

That's my favorite dish.

No kidding. It is. I'm gonna take lesson for you on

this one. So I said, Okay, I'm gonna make Swedish meatballs.

Well, needless to say, it came out awful. I made a huge mess in

the kitchen. And I had no idea what I was doing. And my family

tried to be tolerant, tried to be nice, but you know that we're

gonna go out and eat ice cream or something afterwards to fill

themselves up. So the next week, I said, All right, I'll do

something else. And I tried veal cord on blue. I don't know what

it was. I didn't even know how to say it. I still don't know

how to say it. But it sounded different. So I was gonna try

it. Well, the reviews were even worse. By the third week when I

was making dinner, my family said enough. You are now

officially banned from making dinner. And that's how my

cooking career started. I was banned from cooking in my house.

I'm not wanting to take no for an answer. So to me, I viewed it

as a game on now I have to be really good at this. And so I

studied cookbooks, I went to cooking classes. In between, I

became a lawyer and had a very different career. But during

that time, I really want to improve my cooking. And my

parents were great entertainers. They didn't always cook the

food. But always, always, always had people at the house. It was

filled with laughter and camaraderie. And to me, that's

the way a house should be. And so I really wanted to recreate

that I didn't have the wherewithal to have things

catered. So I had to learn how to cook. And I did take all

kinds of lessons. And I got to be not to be modest or immodest,

but I got to be really good at it. When I had kids, um, you

know, you'd go to after school activities, kids would come to

your house and have dinner or we'd have sleepovers. And we'd

have homemade dinners. We play games at the dinner table. And

their friends would say, My mom doesn't do this. We don't we

don't have food like this. We don't have fun at the dinner

table. You know, we're eating a Subway sandwich in the car going

to the next Soccer Soccer game. And it occurred to me that

that's not really the way things should be. And there's a lot of

studies that talk about the importance of family meal time,

and how your kids do better in school, they're better

socialized, and less likely to abuse drugs. I mean, the list is

tremendous. And I said, you know, I think there's a real

need here. And so my business is valuables to secret kitchen

confidence coach blossomed.

So where does that name come from? I love it.

So Bella

booster is an old fashioned Yiddish term. And it

means a woman who makes a fine home. And my definition of a

fine home is the anti Martha Stewart, I you know, you have to

be able to put your feet up, you have to be able to eat with your

finger sometimes. But you want your guests to be comfortable

you want them to be you want that laughter in your house, you

want that conversation, you want that abundance of warmth, and

camaraderie. And to me, that's what a good home is. So I teach

people the secrets and how to do that with ease and speed. And a

whole lot of human fun.

Oh, I love that. So when it comes to your own

kids, and before we started recording, we're talking so you

have two kids that are both teens, right? Yes. Okay. So when

it comes to them and your family home, how has this kind of

transpired and and made a new generation of what food is and

what kitchen time is for the next generation?

You know? That's a great question. Because one of

the reasons I do what I do is, I think it's so important for you

as an individual to learn this skill so you can provide this

for your family. But while you do that, you're modeling it for

your family, so they'll know how to recreate it for theirs. And

if you're giving your family just fast food and takeout and

frozen food, where are they learning the skills where are

they what do they see is the right way to feed their family

or even themselves as they grow up. So I have always

incorporated my kids and my cooking since they could stand

on a stool to reach accountant and I'm at this point I had my

daughter who is 16 is enrolled in a culinary program in high

school. And my son is a wrestler, and he likes to make a

lot of his meals because obviously, weight is a very

important factor when you're a wrestler, and he's learned all

about nutrition. And he makes dinners for us in the kitchen.

And so it's really a wonderful family affair.

Oh, I love that. So it's interesting. So with

with myself, it was just my mom and I growing up and then so it

was like the frozen dinners, right and choosing a mama's you

know, all we could do McDonald's, Denny's, and frozen

Salsbury steak like those and Oh, mac and cheese. Can't forget

the mac and cheese like those were my staples, and I still

crave those today. Sometimes even though so I've been a

vegetarian since 1996. I still sometimes crave frozen cells

very stick with those like dice cubed, or those tiny cube

dungeons on top. It's so funny. But anyway, when I had kids,

then I really had no idea what to do with food. And I just tend

to eat raw a lot of time, just raw veggies and things like

that. But my kids I homeschooled them. I still am. I'm in my

seventh year now. And my oldest was with us for four years. And

then I still have the three youngest at home now. And when

they they have to take care of their own lunches they always

have since day one. And so they just got really creative. And

they started just getting recipes. And they would just

grab things. And sometimes those concoctions work and sometimes

they don't but I think it's so cool that they can they've just

been able to have free reign over the kitchen. And whatever

you want to do do Just please don't set it on fire. I've been

through one kitchen fire before when I was little, which might

be why we did frozen cells very steaks, I don't know. But yeah,

just giving them free rein over that has exploded their create

their food creativity. You know, especially a couple of them. My

16 year old one of my 14 year olds, they make these elaborate

dishes. And they're like got like three burners going or what

have you. And I'm like, What are you doing? And they're like, Oh,

I'm we're just making this or I'm just doing this? And I'm

like, great. Can I have some

you want your kids to have those skills. And a lot of

the women that I work with say that their kids are picky

eaters. And one of the things that I suggest is, well take

your kids grocery shopping and have them pick out something and

get them invest in what the meal is going to be. And if the meal

flops, and we all have had meals that tanked Sure. I don't say

Oh, I'm sorry, that was terrible. I'm a horrible cook. I

say things like, Okay, would you rate this a thumbs up or thumbs

down? And if it's a thumbs down or thumbs in the middle of say,

Okay, well, what should I do differently next time when I

make it, so I'm not giving up? I'm not telling them Okay, you

win. I'll never make broccoli again. I'm making them think

about what tastes they like, right, what tastes they don't

like, and I get them thinking in a very creative way. And it

helps me out how to make a meal that they might like better next

time.

Yeah, absolutely. And food is so it's so cultural.

It is so socio economic to you know, it's so funny because I

don't I grew up in, you know, just with my salisbury steak and

Kraft mac and cheese. And then today as an adult to go out with

some friends that might have had a higher socio socio economic

state or whatever, and they're eating fancy food. And I'm like,

I don't even know what I'm eating what this fancy food is.

And it's like, got a little drizzle on it. And I'm like, I

Where's my food, food, you know, and it's just so funny, but it's

worth always exploring, right? Because you never know if

there's going to be something there that you love. So, anyway,

I just I find that I find food so fascinating in so many

different regards. spiciness, non spiciness, you know, you're

going past a house and you're like, Whoa, that smells good. I

wonder what's in there, you know?

And I actually stopped and it's interesting. You said

that you're a vegetarian. I don't eat meat. I eat fish, but

I don't eat me. But my family eats meat. They eat every thing

under the sun. I have somebody in my family who's gluten free

somebody who's lactose intolerant all over the board.

And I don't need 50 Different dinners at night cooks. I don't

really believe in that. But if you learn how to use your

flavors, and you ask people, even if you're in a restaurant,

you can say, Wow, can you tell me as a chef how he made that or

what he put in it? So you start getting familiar of ingredients.

Or if you're traveling to a different location, whether it's

another country or another part of this country, go into markets

that you're not familiar with, you can ask a butcher, you can

ask the fruit monger. Now, tell me something here, that's

unusual. And what would you do with it? You go to a farmers

market, I do it all the time and say, What is this? And how would

I cook it? Yeah. And that's how you can easily expand your

repertoire from people who actually know what they're

doing.

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And that goes along

with. So in the 6570. Family Project, we really talked about

the one thing being self discipline leadership. And that

comes down to discipline of vulnerability, having vision,

right and building resilience in there. And it really is kind of

the one umbrella for everything we need in life. And that

includes having that vision of what you want to go into in the

kitchen. Right? And putting things in the pot having the

resilience in case it does flop. Like you said, we've all done

that. And my my kids love to make crepes. Well, it took them

like, I don't even know 20, not 20, probably 10 tries before it

was, you know, edible and good. Eggs. Yeah. And so. So yeah,

just having that resilience of not giving up in the

vulnerability of trying something new and the discipline

to keep going. So

I'm trying to figure out what went long to Yes. You

know, yes, it's, and that's a lesson that you use in every

part of your life. You know, you just don't say, Oh, I failed,

and never try again. You know, you become a success by

analyzing what you did, what you could have done better, what

maybe went wrong, and what needs some tweaking? I mean, that's a

formula for success in anything you do.

Yes, I completely agree. So in your specialty, and

what you do, first, let me ask, how do you help your clients in

I love the idea of kitchen confidence, and you're just

really helping them? Get in there and how and build that,

you know, discovery and vision and resilience, right?

Absolutely. So I take a client, where they are some

people I work with are really good cooks, but they're tired of

the same routine they have. They're limited in their recipes

are limited in their seasonings they use, or the techniques and

they say, help me expand. Other people say, I don't know how to

boil water. So, you know, I take them where they are. And I

started the basics, you know, let's see what you have in your

pantry. Let's see what kind of seasonings you have. What do you

have in your refrigerator? What do you have in your freezer,

because, you know, you don't want somebody to have to go out

and spend hundreds of dollars on things that they may or may not

use. But let's learn what you have first, and see what we can

expand it. So we start there. We start with how to meal plan. And

everybody's definition of meal planning is different. And

everybody's lifestyle is different. Some people love to

meal, plan everything for the weekend on Sunday and cook

everything. Personally, I can't do that. But I can help you if

that's what your lifestyle wants, you know, and needs.

Other people say, I just need to know two days. Fine. I can I can

teach you how to do that. I even do meal plans for people with

recipes and shopping lists for people who just say, just give

it to me. I don't want to learn, right. But if you learn how to

cook, you learn how to do things like batch cooking, because

nobody wants to be cooking from scratch every day, you don't

have the time. There's other things you'd rather be doing

with your time and life is pulling you in a million

directions. So one thing I teach people is how to batch cook. And

an example of that is making more of something than you need

at any one given meal, but that you can use another time. Now if

your family is like my family, they don't want to be eating

that same excess meal for the rest of the week. Because you

just have to shoot yourself you'd be bored out of your mind.

So what I do is I teach people how to repurpose that leftover.

So I'll give you an example of that. You said you don't eat

meat, so I'm going to give you a non meat. So for my meat eating

kids, I would make agent spicy turkey meatballs for you. You'd

make Asian spicy tofu meatballs, okay, and it takes maybe 15

minutes to prep. And I baked them in the oven on a sheet pan

so there's no grease splattering anywhere and they're healthy.

And then I would put them with let's say a pad tightening and a

pad time goes on. Wow, that's really exotic. It's a rice

newbie to buy in the grocery store to cook it you pour

boiling water over it. Not hard. And then if you want to make a

peanut sauce, you can take whatever peanut butter you like

a little orange juice and fresh ginger garlic soy sauce. If

you're gluten free a little tomorrow Boom, you got a peanut

sauce, you got your noodles, and you've got your tofu meatballs

to go on it. Now that's dinner number one. Dinner number two

later on in the week is you can take those tofu people's

crumbled them up, take some poison sauce, you can buy that

in any grocery store or Sriracha or whatever kind of even

barbecue sauce, whatever you have put it on the lettuce leaf,

but the crumbled tofu meatballs on it. And now you have a

lettuce taco. With your toppings you're not cooking again, you're

just reusing it and because you're using a different

seasoning or sauce on it, it doesn't taste like you're eating

leftovers anymore. You can make if I like to make a my kids like

a chicken tikka masala, you can make it with tofu, you can make

it with 10 pay. And if you don't want to cook from scratch, you

can buy Tikki Masala sauce from Trader Joe's for pennies. And so

I'll tell you your your protein at some onion, garlic, ginger at

the sauce, 15 minutes, your dinners done, and you're gonna

make a big thing of rice to go with it. You can even put

spinach in the dish, you know, and just have your a one pot

meal with your side of rice. So if you have a big thing of rice,

and you have leftover rice, the next day, you can take that

already cooked rice stuff some peppers with it. You can add

whatever protein you want you to stuffed peppers, you can take

that same leftover rice and make fried rice because the secret to

making fried rice is the rice is going to be a day old. So

instead of saying, Oh, I'll never remember to make rice the

day before. No, make a big batch. And you use the leftovers

for totally different meal the next day. So now your cooking

time has been reduced tremendously. Your family's

thinking you're a genius. You're kind of like so proud of

yourself, because you've saved yourself all this working time.

Wow. I love that. That's ingenious. Yeah, that's

ingenious, because we do get into these meal ruts, you know,

where we have the same thing every single week, the same day.

And Taco Tuesdays, you know, we have Taco Tuesday, every single

Tuesday. But we all look forward to it for now. But it during the

pandemic. I know a lot of people got into some big food ruts too.

And even especially with going out when the pandemic first

started, we were ordering Papa John's on Friday nights ordering

some pizza. And little did we know we would be doing that a

year later because everything was still going on. We're like

Okay, wait, no, that's 50 times. We need to not do this.

So here's her here's, here's some some help with those

routine Taco Tuesdays. So I said you know, sometimes it's very

easy. If you want to make a plan to have theme nights. So Taco

Tuesday would be a really great theme. But instead of making

that same taco every Tuesday, one night you can make poke, not

for you necessarily but a pulled pork taco, or chicken taco, or

tilapia or shrimp taco. So it's still Taco Tuesday. But you're

jazzing up the proteins and the proteins or you can change it

and make your taco Tuesday the way you like, but maybe you'll

make a Mexican Coslada put on the tacos instead of salsa and

guacamole. So there's little things you can do to keep within

your comfort zone. But make something very different.

Something with your pizzas or Pappajohn pizzas. One thing that

I would suggest is and this is my family loves to do this. I

buy pizza dough, you can buy pizza dough, or you can even

make a buy a pizza crust, whatever you want. And we make

make your own pizzas and I have all the fixings on my counter.

And everybody rolls out their pizza dough or whatever crust

they're using a cauliflower crust, it doesn't matter. And

then they put it on a sheet pan with your own toppings bake it,

they make crazy shapes. And nobody says it's got to be

round. And everything's individualized. So somebody

wants pepperoni and you just want mushrooms and onions. Go

for it. You know, now you're not spending a minute on 50

different pizzas, and you're having your kids participate in

the kitchen. And you can make it into a contest who can make the

funniest shape. Who can guess what shape you're trying to

make? You know, there's a million things you can do to

make it fun.

Yeah, no, I agree. And we've done that one

before. And it is so fun in order to everyone can just make

whatever they want. And yeah, we've had some pretty

interesting creations happen before. Okay, so the importance

you touched on it a little bit earlier and about the family

dinner table and what that looks like and how it's made a

priority and why it should be such a priority to at least have

this time every day. And a lot of people find meal time because

you usually sit down in order to eat. That is an easy time to

pick that everyone can get together but Tell me a little

bit about how you work with families with the dinner table.

Sure, you know, oftentimes by the time you sit

down for dinner, you as a parent, your spent, you know,

you've done whatever you had to do during the day, whether

you're working, volunteering, doing things in the house,

flipping your kids, whatever you're doing. And then you said,

Oh, my God, now I got to figure out what to make for dinner, and

then you make the dinner. And the last thing you want to do is

be nice. Sometimes you just want to I. So that's not a really

good way to have a successful dinner, I just have to say. So

you could think in advance what you can do to have a successful

dinner, you know, I always tell my kids, if you're going to have

company over, if you're going to go over somebody's house, it's

always a good social skill to think of things you want to talk

about, or games you want to play or do something like that. So I

give that same advice to the people that I work with. And I

say, there's so many ways that you can have a conversation that

doesn't start with, how was your day? What did you learn in

school? Because inevitably, your kids are going to say, it was

fine. What did you learn? Nothing? What did you do?

Nothing. Eight hours, my tax dollars that work? Nothing, you

know, it's not a good way to have a meal at any stretch,

imagine. So I teach parents how to play games at the table. And

there's tons of games you can play that people of any age can

play. I also tell them that you can tie in a food theme to your

meal. An example of that is there used to be a marketing

agency in California. And on top of their building, they had this

hideous, huge, maybe 1050 foot tall statue, the body of a human

like a lumberjack body. And the top was a chicken head from

miles around, you can see just as it is that well, the town

eventually started to really like it because it was so

hideous. And then one day, you know, the marketing company

there moved or went belly up and somebody bought the building.

And they wanted to take down that statute of the Chicken Boy,

and the town was incense you can't do that. That's our

beloved Chicken Boy. And they actually rallied to get the

funds to take it off the building and put it in a park, a

local park, so it could be celebrated. And they made

Chicken Boy day an official local holiday, like September

five Chicken Boy day. So one of the things I do with my clients

is I find out what interesting holidays are coming up for the

week. And they're all stupid, you know, they're fun. That's

the whole idea is to have fun. And so let's say was Chicken Boy

coming up and say, okay, chicken boys coming up. Let's think of

like two or three chicken recipes you want to make. And

now let's think about the conversations you could have

about Chicken Boy day. And you know, you're going to explain

what Chicken Boy day is. And then you could have

conversations like, well, if you are half boy or girl, whatever

you are, and half animal, what would that other half be? Hmm.

And why would you have any superpowers? What could you do

that you couldn't do as a kid? Now you're sparking creativity

of thought process, you're making dinner really, really

interesting, because nobody's talking about what they learned

in school. But you're learning about your kid, and how they

think and what they aspire to. You could change the

conversation, you could say, well, these people just saved

their money to donate to get this as part of a park. What in

your childhood is so precious, that you'd never want to part

with? And why? And it may not be the obvious in today think it

is. So now you again you're talking about conversations,

you're getting things going. So I when I when we talk about

things to do with the table, in addition to games, I give

examples of what they could be talking about. It could be food

related. It could be current events related.

April is National Poetry Month. And so one day I told my family

you know, April's National Poetry Month, and you know,

grown because you've got teenagers less than they ever

want to hear about was National Poetry Month, even my husband

Oh, please, she's added again. But you know, the human me

because it always ends up fun. So you know, they have to

participate. So I said, so when you come down to dinner tonight,

I want you to bring a poem. Oh my god, you could have heard the

groaning in Peoria. So it's like, don't be so limited in

your thinking. A poem doesn't have to be Roses are red,

violets are blue or Shakespeare sonnet. A poem could be rap

lyrics. Yeah, it could be any jingle. It could be anything

songs to whatever you like. It's all poetry. If you come down and

think about it. I said, you can write your own. You can bring

down whatever you want. Just please come down to dinner with

a poem. So my son came down on my I wrote my own phone. It was

a poem on I hate poetry and cracking up It was hysterical.

My daughter came with some silly little jingle because you know,

she couldn't be bothered. But she came down with something. My

husband wrote a rap song that was so hideously obnoxious and

funny that when people come over and says, Hey, did you know I

wrote a rap song? Can I sing it for you when he takes out a

sheet of paper, and he's still proud of it? Oh, you never know

what comes out of these kinds of things. And it makes dinner

memorable. You know, my son bought a girlfriend home for

dinner recently. And I said to her, did Max tell you that we

play games at the dinner table? And she said, Yes, he did. And I

said, Did he tell you that we expect you to play too? And she

said, Yes. So we played these games, and it broke the ice. And

it wasn't like looking at her and saying, and what do you want

to be when you grow? It was a great way to laugh and get to

know somebody and feel comfortable. And my kids always

say, even, you know, the teenagers now and they still

say, what are we gonna play at dinner tonight? Can I pick the

game. So they want to come they want to be part of the meal,

they want to be part of the family experience. It gets rid

of all the stress you have during the day. Now, sometimes

you want to talk about serious things. And they obviously feel

more comfortable doing it at a dinner table, because it's a

safe place. And everybody needs a place where they can vent

where they can feel relaxed, where they can be themselves,

whether it's being foolish, or being serious, and the dinner

table is an ideal place for that.

Yeah. Wow. I think that is a tremendous

takeaway are games at the dinner table? I think that's fantastic.

Well, is before we get going, because I think you've shared so

much wisdom on here today. But before you get going, is there

any like quick tips or meal prep ideas that you have that our

listeners can go ahead and take from this right away? Besides,

I'm going to go find a game for the dinner table tonight?

Oh, absolutely. My big advice is stop putting so much

pressure on yourself. It's only food. You know, it's really only

food. And instead of feeling bad about a meal that you make, if

it doesn't come out, right, make a family story about it. It's

okay to be the butt of the joke, if you're willing to have fun

with it. So if you take the pressure off of preparing family

meals, now you feel more empowered to be creative. Start

small, nobody says you have to make those Swedish meatballs,

because God knows what I was thinking. But you could take a

piece of chicken and you could say, How can I flavor it a

little differently. You could learn the trips are cooking that

chicken faster. So instead of cooking a whole chicken breast

and waiting your 3540 minutes, if you slice it will cook much

faster. And dinner will be done in 15. So if you can learn the

tricks to make it faster and more enjoyable, learn some new

seasonings, learn how to make spice blends in advance. So you

just have to take it out of your pantry and put it on your main

dish instead of where's that garlic and where's no oh my god,

I bought 70 Things have uninstalled because I keep

forgetting I own it. You know, when you add a little bit of

organization, a little planning, life becomes easier cooking

becomes more of an adventurous fun thing to look forward to

instead of the don't ask you what's for dinner time kind of

attitude. So start small, start little little changes and get

your confidence. And as you get more confidence. You can

experiment, experiment, a little bit more things will come

quicker to you because you start to know what you're doing that

become easier for you. And they'll become more delicious

and more fun.

Oh, I love it. All right. Well, thank you so

much for being on here. And before you leave, I want to I

want you to be able to tell the listeners where we can find you.

Sure. I have a Facebook group called easy weeknight

dinners for busy moms. And I share recipes and humor and all

kinds of wonderful things that everybody needs to have as part

of their routine. I have a Facebook page Malibu's to

secrets I have a website valuables to secret calm. You

can reach out to me if you have any kind of cooking questions,

either notes to this podcast or send me an email at Linda at

balluta secret.com. And I do have an offer for those who are

listening. There is a an e book you can get called. I'm drawing

a blank. It's been a long day. Something like time, Saturday

saving tips for busy moms. So in that you'll get some sample

pantry lists to have some simple quick games to play at your

table. And a couple of quick tips, cooking tips and wonderful

and All of that will be in the show notes. But

for someone listening, I just want to hear you spell Bala.

boosa real quick.

Sure. BALAB o s t, a apostrophe s secret.

All right. All right. Well, thank you so much

for being here, Linda, this was amazing.

A lot of fun. I wish everybody happy cooking. And

please send me pictures of what you cook in and join my groups.

And you're not alone. Let's make it a nice community and have a

lot of fun. Oh,

absolutely. All right. Thank you so much. Bye,

bye. Thank you so much for listening today. And I hope

you're able to take something from our discussion that you can

use to build the foundation of self love leadership in your own

family. If you are a parent with children, 17 or younger, and

especially those around nine and up, I would love to extend an

invitation to you to the best club in town. The family

architects Club is a private club where intentional parents

go that want to love support, connect or reconnect, and really

truly help guide their kids and teach them how to self lead in

discipline and leadership. This is an online community and the

you are welcome to it. Parenting is a project and you are the

architect of this one. You plan you design and oversee the

construction of the beginning of someone else's life. And that's

what goes into these first 6570 days. And it will be the

foundation for the rest of their lives. So come join the club.

You can find your invitation on the front page of my website,

Nelly hardened.com. That is ne ll ie H AR D n.com. Thank you

again for being a part of this conversation today. And if

something really resonated with you, or if you have a question,

please don't hesitate to connect with me. You can find me on

Instagram at Nellie Hardin. And lastly, if you love the

information, please please leave a five star review and a comment

so more and more families can be impacted by harnessing the

strength of these ideas and tools in their own families. So

thank you so much. Happy building you guys and I'll see