66: Healthy Family Meals Without Cooking Two Dinners

In this solo episode, I’m taking you behind the scenes of a recent client case that’s so relatable. This mom of three is trying to reclaim her hormones and feel better in her body—without cooking a separate “healthy” meal while her family eats something else.

Sound familiar?
 We’re talking about the emotional and logistical tug-of-war between nourishing your body and feeding your (often picky) family. I share how I personally navigate this in my own home with a husband who won’t touch a vegetable and a toddler who only recently started eating meat again.

You’ll hear:

• Why I don’t believe in cooking two different dinners
• The mindset shift that makes nutrition feel more doable (and less all-or-nothing)
• How to upgrade your meals without a total overhaul
• My go-to strategy for balancing family food preferences with hormone health goals

This episode is practical, judgment-free, and full of realistic tips for busy women who want to feel better without becoming a short-order cook.

👉 Plus, I’ll share how to get your hands on my free Hormones 101 private podcast series if you’re ready to start feeling like yourself again.

Click here to learn how we can work together!
Follow me on IG @wellness.with.vanda

Free Resources:

Hormones 101 Secret Podcast

Minerals for Mamas Guide

Hormone Reboot

Transcript

Hey, hey, welcome back to the podcast. After two weeks of guest episodes because I was on vacation, I’m back today with a solo episode. Today, I’m taking you behind the scenes of a recent client intake I did.

I actually did the review just yesterday, and I’ll likely bring this client’s full case back for a future case study episode—but I want to wait until she’s had time to implement the care plan I gave her and report back with her results. So more on that later.

For now, I want to zoom in on something she said in her intake form because I think it’s so relatable, and I know many of you will connect with it.

This client and I have worked together before. Since our last session, she had another baby, breastfed, weaned, and now she’s trying to reclaim her energy, her body, and her hormones. She’s just not feeling great. So we ran another HTMA test to get updated data since so much has changed in her life. And that’s key—creating a plan that’s tailored to her current body, not just based on symptoms alone.

She also has diagnoses of PCOS and Hashimoto’s, so we already knew from the start that we’d be looking at thyroid and metabolic function more closely.

Now, I won’t dive into all her test results yet, but what really stuck out to me was something she wrote in her intake form. She said nutrition feels like the hardest piece for her—not just knowing what her body needs, but being consistent with it. And then she added: “I’m not going to cook a separate meal from what my family eats.”

Yes. This. 🙌

So many women, especially moms, feel this way. You’re doing everything already—cooking, cleaning, laundry, keeping everyone alive. The last thing you want to do is cook a second dinner for yourself. And honestly, sitting down together as a family for dinner is a core value in my own home. I believe in it, and I think it’s a valuable practice—for connection and for your health.

But I also think if you’re always eating something different from your family, that can send a message to your kids, especially as they get older. It can create that “good food/bad food” dynamic that we want to avoid. I believe all foods can fit—unless there’s a true allergy or major sensitivity, we shouldn’t be saying, “I can’t eat that.”

So here’s the advice I gave her—and what I do myself:

1. Use meals you eat alone to optimize your nutrition.
   In our house, we don’t eat breakfast or lunch together Monday through Friday. I use those meals to eat foods my family won’t touch—like Greek yogurt bowls, smoothies, or batch-cooked Greek chicken bowls with cucumbers, tomatoes, and tzatziki. I’ll also do things like egg roll in a bowl—quick meals that work for me.
2. At family dinners, don’t overcomplicate it.
   A lot of women think healthy meals have to be elaborate. But simple works! We do spaghetti all the time—yep, carbs and all. I just add meat to the sauce and serve it with roasted veggies or a salad. I’ll swap in whole wheat noodles sometimes too.
3. Add to the meal rather than restrict.
   Don’t start with “What do I have to cut out?” Start with, “What can I add?” I often make a veggie side just for me or for me and my daughter. It’s no extra work and still adds fiber and nutrients without making an entirely separate meal.
4. Remember: it’s not all or nothing.
   You don’t need to overhaul your whole menu. You can slowly improve the meals you’re already making with a few upgrades—more protein, more color, a veggie side, a better carb. That’s still a win.

So if you’ve been feeling like nutrition is impossible because of your family’s preferences—know that you’re not alone. This is real life. And you don’t need to be perfect to make progress.

If you’re new here and need a place to start, check out my free resource, Hormones 101. It’s a private podcast series—8 episodes you can binge in less than 24 minutes. You’ll get a solid foundation to start supporting your hormones right now. Link is in the show notes!

I hope this episode helped, and I’ll talk to you next week!