Healthy Easy Dinners for Busy Mums

Since my gastric bypass surgery I’ve had to adapt how I feed my family. Our diet was not too bad before surgery but there were some things that have had to change to suit me better. I don’t have the time to cook a meal that is appropriate for me and something different for my family so finding meals that are reasonably easy to make, don’t take forever to cook and we can all eat makes my life easier.

I had heard of Dr Julie Bhosale before as she is a friend of a couple of friends of mine and she had an amazing blog post about her post partum body that went viral, you can check that post out here. Julie is a working mum, she is a qualified nutritionist and she very recently got the Dr part having just finished her doctorate. As if doing all of this at once was enough she also wrote her first cookbook. I say first because I can’t wait for the next one and Julie is already working on it!

I was invited along to the launch of Julie’s first book Healthy, Easy Dinners for Busy Mums and was given a copy of the cookbook. I wasn’t necessarily expecting the dinners to be bariatric friendly but I was pleasantly surprised. All of the meals have a big protein component and aren’t too heavy on carbs. All of the recipes are, of course, as healthy as they could be and Julie manages to get as many vegetables as possible in.

I have made two of the 14 dinner recipes from the book so far. The Salmon Quiche was first up. This could not be easier to make, you literally mix everything up, put it in a dish and cook it. I did some steamed veggies to serve on the side too. This quiche was really yummy and beause it made so much it did us for dinner and I got lunches for a few days for us out of it as well. There is no pastry on the outside of this quiche so it is a protein packed really good meal option for those of us with tiny tummies.

This was my attempt at the Salmon Quiche!

The next recipe I’ve cooked was “The Works” Mince Pasta Bake. Once again it was a really simple recipe to follow and it was quick to put together. Since there were so many veggies in this pasta bake I didn’t do any on the side because it really was all you needed in the one dish. Since I can’t tolerate carrots and no one in our house likes mushrooms I substituted them with peas and chopped capsicum instead. My boys loved this and because the mince to pasta ratio was pretty good I managed to get myself a portion with only a few bits of pasta in it.

This was my attempt at “The Works” Mince Pasta Bake!

I am going to work my way through this book because all of the recipes look great. Next on my list to make are Moroccan Chicken Pie, Spiced Meatloaf and the Quick Chicken Curry. I’ll try and fit these in over the next couple of weeks and you will be able to see how I go over on Instagram and Facebook. Julie has made it really easy to use this book. It has 14 recipes and she has made two shopping lists at the back so you can shop for a week with one of her lists and have everything you need for dinners for a week.

If you would like a copy of Healthy, Easy Dinners for Busy Mums for yourself you can order one from Julie’s website here. Even if you don’t have children that you are feeding (why do they need dinner every single day!) it’s a really great recipe book so don’t think it wouldn’t be useful if you’re not cooking for any little people. The recipes are suitable for post-op bariatric people and because we eat so little you’re going to have some left over for lunch for a couple of days. Next week I will be attending a Winter Wellness Workshop with Julie where she is covering topics like meal planning, recipe ideas and she will be doing demos too. The workshop is on the 19th of May at 7.00pm and is on the North Shore in Auckland. Here’s a link to the event details if you’re interested in attending

Have you tried any of Julie’s recipes? What did you think of my attempts above? Comment below and let me know!

The photo at the top of the post was taken by Kerry at Kerry Howard Photography on the night of Julie’s book launch!