Of all the demands made on parents (and heaven knows there are many), feeding the family has to be the biggest. And when healthy, tasty and fast are part of the equation, the obstacles can seem insurmountable. Or so it felt to me.

Before launching Yourfamily.kitchen, I spent a lot of time wondering what the heck to feed my family. In search of an answer, I’d typically…
• Surf the internet. And surf and surf.
• Settle on a recipe and jot down a (usually long) list of (non-available) ingredients.
• Meander up and down the supermarket aisles, wondering what to buy.
• Serve dinner and suck it up when the kids whined – because, let’s face it, the recipe didn’t quite deliver.
• Throw away a lot of food.

I wasn’t happy. The system was rife with inefficiency. As a mother, I wanted to do better. As a working parent, I wanted to streamline my life. As someone who cares about sustainability, I wanted to waste less. As a tech professional, I wanted to solve the problem.

And so I did. And now I’m happy to bring you Yourfamily.Kitchen – welcome!

My name is Susanna Hasenoehrl and I’m married with two girls, aged two and five. Our family is part-Finnish, part-Austrian, and we live in Singapore. Before the launch of this website, my answer to what’s for dinner? was invariably a dish from our trusty list of seven. These seven rotating meals were proven to work and were reasonably healthy, but I was bored with them. It was time to spice up my family’s meal repertoire. Time for a new menu.

Meal planning – feel my pain
Have you ever creating a meal plan? I did – once. It took two days, and I was only able to carve out the time because the grandparents were in town, and they took the kids.

Quite simply, I have neither the time nor the inclination for meal plans. And though I’m attracted to dishes made from whole, raw ingredients, low in sugar and processed ingredients, I do not want to spend hours in the kitchen hunched over complicated recipes.

I’m convinced a parent can truly have it all – tasty, healthy food, delivered to the table fast. Anyone who’s lived or travelled in Asia should know this.

I no longer believe I need to. I’m convinced a parent can truly have it all – tasty, healthy food, delivered to the table fast. Anyone who’s lived or travelled in Asia should know this. Think of all those delicious, super-speedy, veggie-rich stir-fries whipped up on the streets of Thailand.

Salmon cooked 9,300,000 ways
A big issue for me is the time it takes to find a single golden recipe online. A search on Google for a ‘healthy salmon recipe’ yields 9,300,000 results, when all you want is one. A really good one, guaranteed to work. Something the kids will eat. Simple as that.

It seems strange that my straightforward needs have not catered for till now. I hope Yourfamily.kitchen fills this gap in your life. With this in mind, I’ve made it my mission to create a website that understands busy parents. It’s a website led by people who embrace a healthy, active lifestyle – a website for parents wishing to raise healthy eaters.

To give you all the benefits of food that’s both healthy and practical to prepare, I’ve assembled a wonderful team of chefs, nutritionists and dietitians. Together we’re committed to keeping our offering delicious, nutritious and simple. Every week, we send our community of parents three new recipes. Just three. Enough new ideas, in other words, to add variety to your meal repertoire without drowning you in options. With these fresh-yet-practical ideas, you won’t need to look anywhere else for inspiration.

Bring on the picky eaters
Our meals are all tested on families in Singapore – including our own. We only share them with you if they’re given the green light by all our testers (and trust me, there are plenty of fussy eaters in the mix). So you can be confident that your family will ask for seconds – and that they’ll request the same dish next week too. What’s more, our recipes are so simple, we can guarantee you won’t be spending more than 30 minutes in the kitchen.

As a passionate advocate of a healthy lifestyle, I’d like to invite your kids to join you in the kitchen. Why? Because kids who cook at home will develop healthy eating habits for life – and that’s been proven. Please don’t be daunted. We promise to offer plenty of tips to make the experience both fun for your kids and manageable for you.

Please make yourself comfortable in Yourfamily.Kitchen and browse our recipes at your leisure. Or perhaps you’d like us send our recipes directly to you through our weekly newsletter?

We look forward to making your family’s food journey as healthy and easy as possible. And do let us know how you get along with our recipes – we’d love to hear from you.

Susanna Hasenoehrl