The Good Enough Dinner Method
You don't need more recipes, you need fewer decisions.
I’m going to let you in on a liiiiittle secret: dinner isn’t hard because you’re low on inspo. It’s hard for the very opposite reason.
Dinner is hard because you’re overwhelmed. And much of that overwhelm stems from those thousands of recipes you’ve saved on IG and Pinterest. Add TikTok (which I don’t have) and a stack of earmarked cookbooks (I do have) to the mix, and suddenly dinner becomes another overwhelming decision after an already full day.
As a nutrition consultant and mom of two, I’ve spent almost a decade helping women untangle their relationship with food. And what I’ve learned, both professionally and personally, is this: dinner doesn’t need more inspo. It needs fewer decisions.
In other words, more recipes don’t solve dinner stress. Simpler systems do. We don’t need a 10-step gourmet meal or more recipes saved to our phones. We just need to get a balanced meal on the table.
Enter: The Good Enough Dinner Method
This is my go-to formula that removes the pressure we’ve piled onto dinner and replaces it with a system that works when a) you’re hungry, b) out of mental bandwidth and c) your kids are hungry too.
Why Dinner Feels Hard
By the end of the day, most of us can’t be bothered to make another decision. We’ve managed morningtime chaos, done a house chore or five, navigated work, hopefully moved our bodies, remembered to drink water, picked up said children, and then poof, everyone’s hangry. And it arrives at the exact moment when mental bandwidth is lowest.
Inevitably, dinner becomes one more thing to figure out. As a mom, I feel this deeply! By dinnertime, it’s not that I’m lacking nutrition knowledge. More than anything, I’m lacking capacity. Which is why, over the years, I’ve stopped asking What should I make for dinner? and started asking a much more helpful question:
What’s the simplest way to get a nourishing meal on the table tonight?
That question is what eventually became my Good Enough Dinner Method.
Why This Method Exists
It came from watching women (myself included) burn out trying to do dinner “right.” The Good Enough Dinner Method essentially replaces cooking with assembling. It gives your brain something to grab onto when you’re tired, hungry, and staring into the fridge at 5:57pm (or in my case, 4:57pm). It lowers the bar just enough to make consistency possible.
A Dinner Formula That Always Works
Under the paywall, I’m sharing:
The exact building blocks of The Good Enough Method, with specific examples for each category (complete with a grocery list!). I.e. 4 oz rotisserie chicken + 1 cup sautéed summer squash + 3/4 cup egg noodles + drizzle of balsamic glaze.
How I use The Good Enough Dinner Method.
What I do on nights I have zero desire to cook (because, yes, it happens a lot).
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