We’ve had some very peaceful time periods. But if I’m honest, more often than not life has seemed very busy, hectic, and at times, stressful too. During the midst of stressful times, it can be hard to rip your eyes off of your own situation and share and serve others. I know it is for me.
But I want to share food with others (and serve them in other ways too). Why? Because people have done that for me. For example: When I was 16, I was in charge of my younger siblings while my mother recovered from a serious surgery and my dad helped take care of her and worked regular long hours. Our community rallied around us by bringing us dinners for weeks on end. To this day, I remember the support and help that brought us during a stressful time and am thankful for it. Years later I was pregnant with my second child and went through premature labor. I was hospitalized for two weeks until I stabilized. Friends brought me dinner every night so that I wouldn’t have to live off of hospital food. Once again, I still remember and am thankful for that tangible support.
That’s why for my very first Periscope, I shared on the topic of Sharing Food with Others During Busy Times. It’s a topic dear to my heart not because I am a rockstar in this area (I’m not), but because I have been greatly blessed when others have done that for me.
I loved sharing these tips on Periscope, so I wanted to share them here too!
(You can follow me here to watch future scopes! For those who aren’t familiar, it’s an app that allows you to broadcast live stream videos, and it allows you to respond in the text box in real time too! It’s very fun.)
Don’t be a perfectionist when sharing food
It can be easy to allow fears to derail our good intentions. We may wonder if others will like our cooking, or whether they will think our food is good enough, for example. When you are known as a “good cook” or (the horror of it) are a food blogger and cookbook author, expectations can be high, and that can put a lot of pressure on you. Once we invited a couple over for dinner, and when the husband walked through the door he said, “I feel like I’m in a dream. I can’t believe I am eating dinner with The Nourishing Gourmet.” I just about died right there and hoped that dinner was especially good. (I think it was a success, or perhaps my guests were just very good actors as they talked about how yummy it was!).
Sometimes that pressure has held me back, because, in all honesty, we eat plain and simple food most of the time! Nothing fancy! But then I realized that it was my pride holding me back. I don’t have a responsibility for people’s reactions to my actions, but I do have the responsibility to share and serve those around me. And you know what I’ve found? People are always thankful for you sharing food with them. I think our fears are unfounded. Even if they don’t love the food you brought to them, they will love the heart behind it.
Sometimes it takes a small amount of courage to share with others, and that’s okay. It’s worth the bravery to share life and love with others.
All you need is one meal
Some of the people who are the best at bringing food to others during times of need have one meal they always bring. It’s delicious, they know the meal so well they could make it in their sleep, and it’s generally frugal and family-friendly. For example, one lady I know cooks up a pot of rice, steams some vegetables, and bakes teriyaki chicken. She then layers the cooked rice, vegetables and chicken in a casserole dish to bring to someone. It’s delicious! Another brings makings for a healthy taco salad, and that’s always popular too. Another brings a big pot of hearty soup and homemade bread. Homemade pizza is popular as well.
The point is this, if you just figure out just one meal that is well-liked and that you can fit in your budget, it won’t be stressful at all to share that meal with others – whether they are coming over for dinner, or you are bringing them a meal.
Bonus points if the meal is allergen-friendly, as then you can serve it to a wider base of people. For example, it’s easy to make gluten-free teriyaki and even soy-free and gluten-free teriyaki!
Make it serve you (and your family) too
My sister recently had a baby, and although my life seemed very chaotic at the time, it was important to me that I offer help and support. While I wasn’t able to do all that I wished to do (I also have a nine-month-old baby, and she had a runny nose at the time, so we didn’t want to expose her newborn), I at least wanted to help provide meals for her during that happy, but fragile newborn stage.
So this is what I did. I set aside a couple of hours and got in a good cooking rhythm. I whipped up some hearty soups from my cookbook, Ladled: Nourishing Soups for all Seasons. I made a homemade marinara sauce with Italian sausage, and bought some nice organic noodles for her husband to cook up to go with it. I made teriyaki chicken and rice. I made granola and bought a whole milk organic yogurt to go with it for breakfast or snacks. I picked up some fruit too. My sister-in-law made another soup to add to the box, and then I was able to send over a whole box of food for her.
But here’s the deal. While I was doing all of that cooking, I doubled everything so that my family also had plenty of food for the upcoming week. It was heavenly to have all of the food already prepared and ready to be enjoyed. I was able to serve not only her but my family as well.
If you deal with health issues, or just have a busy lifestyle, being able to kill two birds with one stone will be very helpful.
Finally, this list of gluten-free freezer meals may come in handy as well when sharing food with others. I often share freezer meals with others. This allows me to cook when I am able and then share when a need comes up.
What meals do you like to share with others? Has there been a time when people brought you meals? I’d love to hear about it!
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I am so glad you wrote a blog about this topic bc I am not on periscope and I wanted to know what you said!
What a selfless thought of providing for other even while you are going through struggles. I am also going
through some health struggles so this was quite a reminder to look past your own circumstances to help
and bless others! Thank you Keep doing posts to encourage us like this!
So glad I was able to share it here then! I am planning Periscopes because they take less time than writing, and gives me another way to connect to readers, but I’m also hoping/planning on turning my best Periscope topics into blog posts, or videos to share here. 🙂 (Also, you don’t have to download the app to watch Periscopes, or sign up, I don’t think. You can watch here on your computer! https://www.periscope.tv/thenourishinggourmet)
I also wanted to tell you how I loved the way you said “you had to rip your eyes of your own situation!!
That is so true and I need to remember that! Thank you again for sharing!
Thanks for the comment, Karen! I appreciate it. <3
I just came back to this to jog my memory. Love the rice/steamed veg/teriyaki chicken idea. I’ll be mixing up 3 batches tomorrow! (And I know what you mean about the perfectionism. I once fretted for days because I didn’t include salsa in my fajita meal for a family! Not very constructive.)
life is becoming so congested with technology and we are getting separated so fast, nice thought shared and I really loved this post. We should start breaking the ice and do not feel awkward at the thought of sharing simple things with our neighbour and friends.
Hi, right now we are living in a hospital room. Because my husband has a cancer. We live with 5 other roommates in the hospital. We are very careful on how we spend our money. Since my husband and I do not have a job and are living with whatever savings and other financial help we get from friends and local government. It is very essential that he takes fruit snacks. However, it has been difficult for him to do so, because he is shy eating alone. I do not eat the fruit since I am not sick. I manage to put a poker face sometimes, and make him eat a fruit. But sometimes, when I have the courage and the spirit of charity I divide that one apple and give it to the other patient. I am Catholic. I pray the rosary everyday. But my faith is still very young. Thanks for sharing this post. I will try to reach out and give whatever I can also to other patients whatever I am giving to my husband.