By Steph Loaiza from The Six Sisters Stuff, Authors of 30-Minute Meals
With more than 20 kids between all of us, ranging from babies all the way to college students, we’ve had our fair share of busier seasons of life where getting dinner on the table just felt like a daunting, impossible task.
You may be familiar with that chaos. Those nights when you’ve got a soccer game to get to, a crying toddler who just wants to be held, one of your kids just remembered they need a tri-fold board for a project due tomorrow, and your husband just called letting you know he was going to be home later than expected and everything feels overwhelming. You take one look at the fridge, and then another, trying to figure out what to make without going through the drive-thru (because WOW, those fast food prices are astronomical!) and realize it has to be made quickly, or you’re going to be late.
Scrolling through social media trying to get some inspiration, your feed is full of Pinterest-perfect dinners that look like they could qualify for a Michelin star. You start to feel the guilt creep in, and in the stress and chaos, it’s easy to fall into the trap that if it isn’t an over-the-top, all-day endeavor, dinner “doesn’t count.”
But here’s the truth we’ve learned after years of serving thousands of dinners, busy seasons that stretch for months (or years), and creating recipes for all sorts of occasions: the perfect dinner? The Instagram-worthy reel where everyone is seated nicely and the tablescape is beautiful and the meal would make any food critic cry tears of joy? It doesn’t exist. At least not in the way we might imagine it. The most memorable dinners we had growing up weren’t elaborate meals; they were the conversations we had around the table. The silly moments spent bonding and reconnecting with family, sometimes even over a recipe gone wrong. What really mattered wasn’t the food on the plates, but the people who sat at the table.
After all these years, instead of chasing perfection, we’ve reframed it. Now we aim for doable. We focus on meals made from simple ingredients that we don’t have to visit three different grocery stores to find. We found simple cooking methods, and we’re not afraid to use a shortcut or two with premade ingredients to save some time when we need it. And yes, sometimes that dinner looks like scrambled eggs and pancakes or mac and cheese with some dino nuggets. Honestly, our kids love that as much as they love a homemade lasagna. Now, we try to focus less on the stress of “making the perfect meal” and instead take those few minutes we have together each night to talk about the things that are important to our kids and important to us.
If you’re feeling the pressure to make dinner an aesthetic event, maybe consider what your family really needs. Chances are, it’s not a flawless, picture-perfect dinner, but some honest connection with the people they love most. Maybe letting go of that unattainable image can help us make dinnertime less stressful and more joyful, even on those chaotic, messy nights.
So, if you’re standing in front of your fridge tonight, tired and overwhelmed, give yourself permission to keep it simple and quick. Dinner isn’t meant to be perfect, it’s meant to be shared, and thirty minutes of effort is more than enough.
NEW! 30 Minute Meals: From pantry to plate in thirty minutes—Six Sisters’ Stuff makes weeknight dinners simple and delicious!
The Six Sisters—started the blog SixSistersStuff.com in 2011 as a way to keep in touch after they moved out of their house and started lives and families on their own. In just a few years, their blog has become one of the top blog sites for women with millions of visitors each month enjoying the Sisters’ family stories, recipes, and tips for running a home. The sisters live in California, Texas, and Utah.