You've been doing your absolute best to feed your kids a variety of nutritious foods.
But you're exhausted.
What should you cook tonight?
Do your kids have a balanced diet?
What even is a balanced diet?
And how do you know if they are building a healthy relationship with food?
These questions swirl around and around in your brain, multiple times a day, day after day, leaving you overwhelmed.
Then you open up Instagram, screenshot yet another recipe you'll probably never cook (or that your kids would never eat), and you start to question: "Am I doing enough?".
You're growing tired of mealtimes feeling like a hot mess. And you're starting to wonder if all the time, energy, blood, sweat and tears you put into feeding your family is even making a difference. Your child’s endless request for carbs isn’t offering you much reassurance and their inability to eat a vegetable has you doubting what it’s going to take to see some progress.
If you find yourself nodding along to the above, I want to remind you that you're doing the best you can with what you have.
You're not a bad mom for being too exhausted to cook a healthy meal at the end of the day. You simply haven't had the tools to set you up for success.
Books for new moms showed you how to introduce solids, but where was all the training in new parent classes about how to feed your child 5-7 times a day?
Pediatrician appointments swirl with all the most pressing topics of parenting while wrangling a child who is wondering if they are about to have a shot, so you search social for your answers and try to piecemeal together a plan to prevent picky eating.
While preset meal plans and premade meals were fine when in the workplace, now you have a family to feed and that includes so many varying unsolicited opinions about what is being offered.
You have a fridge full of food and a phone full of ideas, examples, and influencers telling us what to do.
And yet, you don’t have the energy to do the mental gymnastics required to make sense of it all.
You don’t need another meal plan, more recipe inspiration, or one more person telling you to meal prep on sundays
If all the Pinterest recipes for picky eaters worked, you wouldn't be struggling to come up with meal ideas to feed your family.
If the constant scrolling for feeding tips on Instagram was your one stop shop, you wouldn't be looking for a better way.
If all the free advice actually fixed all your problems, you wouldn’t be coming to me.
These things only make you feel even more overwhelmed, frustrated, and unsure of yourself.
Instead of adding more to your plate, there's an easier way to diffuse power struggles and encourage kids to explore new foods.
Developing the right skills, systems and strategies can make feeding feel simple and sustainable—even when you can barely keep your eyes open after a long day or another sleepless night.
If you're ready to feel organized and calm around mealtimes, I'd love to invite you to join me inside my signature course.
Mealtimes Made Easy Method will help you transform stressful mealtimes into enjoyable family moments using simple strategies that stop power struggles and encourage kids to explore new foods. Together, we create a happier and healthier approach to eating that makes everyone feel good at the table.
Here’s your 6-step plan to add variety without the overwhelm:
In Step 1, you will:
Address your past, present, and future triggers in your own relationship with food so that you can help foster a healthy relationship with food for your child(ren).
Communicate with your spouse and/or other key caretakers so that you are unified in your approach, rather than in opposition at the table, and are no longer in conflict with partner or child.
Redefine what “healthy” looks like for your family so that you can overcome harmful generational cycles with feeding and rewrite your family’s script around food.
In Step 2, you will:
Add age-appropriate structure that trains your child to practice self-regulation of the foods being offered and to tap into their internal cues for hunger and fullness.
Establish a routine that serves your family best so that your children aren’t endlessly snacking but rather show up at meals ready to eat.
Find a rhythm so that meals and snacks aren’t the most stressful part of your day, but instead a seamless time to be nourished inside and out as a family.
In Step 3, you will:
Overcome common challenges that prevent children from sitting and eating well at meals.
Create a new normal for family meals that diffuses power struggles and promotes a more peaceful feeding environment.
Navigate challenging feeding situations so that you can enjoy social functions, family gatherings, and holidays without the stress of how to handle picky eating amidst other people’s opinions.
In Step 4, you will:
Add simple weekday meal and snack ideas to your arsenal so you always have ideas to pull from without ever scrolling on social or pulling up Pinterest.
Silence all the noise of what your child “should” eat and identify which new foods to expose them to next, so that offering your child to new foods becomes less overwhelming and more opportunistic.
Leverage the foods your family already loves into improved and expanded on menu ideas, so you can offer fan favorites without feeling stuck in a rut.
In Step 5, you will:
Define clear action steps that will move your child from apprehensive to adventurous in what they are willing to eat.
Adopt a new way for talking about food with your child that builds a healthy relationship with food and an excitement around trying new foods.
Match your child’s age and unique developmental stage with the feeding techniques that will help to most effectively and easily improve their picky eating.
In Step 6, you will:
Confront limiting beliefs and lies from diet culture that impact how you feed your child, so that your child can begin to trust their bodies around food and build the eating skills necessary to live a healthy lifestyle.
Visualize appropriate portion sizes for different feeding personalities and body types, so that you know how to handle your child’s requests for “more” without shaming them nor vilifying a given food.
Identify what nutritional needs your child has and how their current diet is meeting those needs (or not), so that you can intervene as needed to support their overall health and wellness.
Hey mama, I'm Ashley!
I'm a pediatric dietitian who has helped hundreds of moms improve their child's eating habits. I'm also a fellow busy mom of three who knows how exhausting mealtimes can be— when you don't have the right systems in place.
I know what it's like to have kids who prefer goldfish and gummy snacks more than the kale and quinoa you cook and a husband who is the last person to get excited about a meatless meal.
I know that, amidst each day's hustle, deciding on any menu and actually executing it (especially one that includes anything new) is a big job. I get the frustration of trying so hard and yet the lingering fear of wondering if you’re to blame for your child’s picky eating. I know how unattainable it can all feel, and yet, like it or not, how feeding our family is a job we have to do day after day.
I know.
But somewhere in between my failed attempts at breastfeeding, journey with postpartum anxiety, and pandemic parenting with three small children, I found freedom and flexibility from bad habits and experienced breakthroughs in my relationship with food and those of my own picky eaters.
I found the systems to make healthy habits happen in our everyday life and the strategies needed to make meals enjoyable again.
And while the proof isn’t always in an empty plate, I know we are setting the table to truly harness what God has for our family - in the kitchen and around the table.
And you can too.
Because as your family’s dietitian, a fellow Christian mom, and may I say, a friend, I don’t want you to struggle with another meal or stress out about another snack. Instead, let me show you the method you need to experience ease with all things eating again.
It’s the Mealtimes Made Easy Method.
Yes, I will help improve your child’s eating habits (I am a dietitian, after all). But just as much on my heart is to equip you in the many hats you wear at home as a caregiver, meal planner, grocery-getter, snack keeper, spill-cleaner-upper, messy-mouth-wiper, and bib-washer.
I see the work you are doing… I know it’s hard… That’s why I am here to help!
Together, we can make meals feel easy again.
What’s waiting for you inside the Mealtimes Made Easy Method
When you purchase the Mealtimes Made Easy Method, you’ll get:
🥦 Lifetime access to the course so that you can work through at your own pace and put into practice right away
🥦 Short, Actionable Video Trainings that teach you not just what to do but walk you through step-by-step how to do it
🥦 Digital copies of Ashley’s Combination Cards so you and your kids have healthy, easy ideas for breakfast, lunch, and snacks to reference anytime you are in a rut or want a new idea to try
🥦 Exclusive Workbooks, Templates, and Cheatsheets so that you can work through each step with efficiency and impact
🥦 A 70-page Improving Picky Eating with Food Play ebook so that you have tools at your fingertips to invite more food exploration
🥦 Personal Access to Ask Ashley Anything so that you can get the support you need and expert advice you’re after without the added cost of private consultations
If you are ready to FINALLY simplify feeding your family and consistently offer crowd pleasers with the confidence that you aren’t compromising nutrition... this is for you!
If you are ready to finally step into your role of nutritional gatekeeper, to help yourself and your kids find freedom with food now and as the future generation, and get rid of the overwhelm, uncertainty, and internal anxiety that makes feeding your family an ongoing trigger,
THIS IS FOR YOU!
You’ve got questions, I’ve got answers!
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The course is made up of 18 training videos that are on average 15-25 minutes in length. Each includes complimentary downloads, worksheets, and cheatsheets to help you apply the lessons learned.
If a family wanted to start from the beginning and work through one training a week, they could expect to graduate the program within 4 months time. However, with lifetime access to this course content, you can pace yourself in whatever way feels right for the season you are in.
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Yes! One of our greatest commodities as moms is time, and we rarely seem to have enough of it. Whether you have a newborn or are playing taxi cab to take older kids to all of their activities, this reality remains the same. As moms, we have to learn how to get organized and find efficiencies that create added time for us. That’s why Mealtimes Made Easy offers you lifetime access. You sign up today and have this resource at your fingertips forever more - rather than waiting for a unicorn “slow season” to start feeding your family better.
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This course covers the lifespan of kids within the home AND offers lifetime access to course materials. So, whether you are a first-time mom seemingly learning how to feed your toddler “all over again” (as table foods are introduced), or you have older kids who you just wish you could go back and “do differently with,” this course is for you.
Please note: this course does not go into the details of what to introduce to infants just starting solids. However, the course material will cover how a responsive feeding approach adapts from infancy through adolescence.
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Yes! Having food intolerances in our home as well, I know the time, energy, and intricacies this adds to the already exhausting process of feeding a family. That’s why the Mealtimes Made Easy Method gives you the tools to customize what you are offering with clear ideas and yet customizable options. You only have to include the foods that are safe and/or preferrable to your family, and in doing so, will still get every value from the course materials that any member without allergies or intolerances would get.
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This course is your one stop shop to no longer piecemeal together your feeding approach.
While other courses on the market may give you an intro to feeding your family, this course is the most comprehensive of its kind. Combining the evidenced-based advice from leading research, institutions, and experts, I have put everything you need to know in a step-by-step plan so that you can stop wasting your time and money attempting to figure it out on your own or hopping from one resource to another.
Plus, after years working one on one with families, I have created a process that saves you the thousands of dollars on private sessions so that you can get the ultimate impact in the most economical way.
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While some changes will take longer to implement and see results with, you should notice improvements in your stress-level, overall enjoyment at meals, and child’s temperament towards new foods within the first 1-2 weeks.
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I believe if you do the work, you will see results. But if you feel unsure about making this investment in your family’s health and future, try out Mealtimes Made Easy Method for yourself with my 14-day, money-back guarantee.
If within 14 days, you have done the work and still don't think it's getting you the results you want, I'll refund you in full.
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First, welcome back! Be sure to email me for a special Academy-member-only discount code to join.
That said, the Mealtimes Made Easy Method is entirely new, freshly created, and does not include the same slide decks, schedule, nor steps that the Academy did. You may notice some overlap with content, but this course has added efficiencies in place to expedite impact without sacrificing need-to-know information from the former Academy program.
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First, welcome! So glad to have you enrolled. Once you sign up, you will receive an email with login information. If you need another email sent, please reach out to info@veggiesandvirtue.com and we can resend you your login info.