Dinner with Brooke Forry!
An interview with the podcast co-host of Good Enough-ish
Most of our days are made up of the little things. Brewing coffee. Getting out the door on time. Keeping up with constant emails and texts. And of course, making dinner. While the bigger events obviously impact our lives, so do these little ones.
On the Good Enough-ish podcast, co-hosts Brooke Forry and Amanda Jefferson give weight to the spectrum of things we do to manage a day, or season, with thoughtfulness and humor. Described as “two organization-loving friends sharing tips, strategies, and real-life experiences (and fails!) of trying to be good enough-ish at all the things we juggle in life,” this podcast has clued me in on everything from new snacks (Perfect Bars!) to how I think about my time (my top episode, Good Enough-ish University). Brooke and Amanda’s balance of relatability and optimistic, practical advice is exactly what makes them some of my favorite people to have in my ears as I run errands or take a walk.
So, I am thrilled and grateful to be featuring Brooke Forry in this newsletter! In addition to her role as a podcaster, Brooke is a graphic designer, entrepreneur, and mom of two kids. She is the co-founder and Creative Director of Curious & Co. Creative, a boutique branding design firm. She also launched Balance Bound, a line of planners and paper products that help busy people get organized and prioritize self-care.
In this interview, Brooke shares what dinner actually looks like in her house, why a good enough-ish dinner is perfectly fine, and some very helpful tips (there will be index cards)!
Dinner with Brooke Forry
Let’s kick it off with a simple question. What did you have for dinner last night?
Honestly… pizza! My kids were both invited to birthday parties at our pool and I was also offered a slice… so dinner was taken care of and it made my life super easy.
Can you share a little about what dinner typically looks like in your house on a weeknight?
It changes so much depending on the season, and I’d say we have 3 standard seasons:
Regular level of activity during school year: I usually cook 2-3 nights a week, we have “charcuterie” every Friday night (basically a tray of snacks, fruits, veggies, and some sort of protein while we watch a movie together), and Wednesday is our standard pizza night. Any others are filled in with leftovers.
Super busy level of activity during school year (usually April through June!): I probably cook 1-2 nights a week, we have one pizza night, and the rest are sandwiches on-the-go, leftovers or something from the freezer (like chicken fingers or veggie burgers) after games or dance class, or snack bar dinners. We are at the baseball field a lot in the spring, the snack bar grill is really inexpensive, and my kids feel like it’s a huge treat, so it’s a win for everyone.
Summer: I still cook maybe 1-2 real dinners a week and we have one pizza night. We spend many summer nights at the pool (where I’m either suckered into a snack bar dinner or I bring sandwiches and a ton of fruit & snacks that everyone complains about, since I won’t let them have another snack bar dinner). We also socialize with neighborhood friends a lot, which usually means someone is grilling or we’re potlucking.
In terms of what we’re eating when I do cook, my standard easy weeknight go-tos are:
Burrito bowls/tacos: I sauté an onion, green pepper, and diced chicken breast with taco seasoning, and also cook a pot of white rice. I serve those along with soft tortillas, hard taco shells, sour cream, shredded cheese, black beans, salsa, and guacamole so we can each put together our own meal.
Crockpot lasagna: My Italian ancestors are rolling over in their graves because this is not “real” lasagna, but it’s a total crowd pleaser, easy for me to throw together in the early afternoon while I’m working from home, and includes ingredients that I can keep on-hand.
Pork tenderloin, couscous, and broccoli: This is a quick and easy one. The pork tenderloins at Trader Joe’s are great and I always have one in the freezer, as well as a bag of broccoli that I roast on the same pan as the tenderloin with a little olive oil and salt & pepper; and we always have Near East couscous.
Trader Joe’s orange chicken, broccoli, and rice: Everyone loves this, and I can pull it together when I’ve forgotten to plan something ahead of time!
Turkey meatloaf, egg noodles, and broccoli: If you haven’t noticed, broccoli is the only green vegetable my kids will (barely) eat, so we eat it a ton.
Breakfast for dinner!
Considering all parts of the process (e.g. planning, shopping, cooking, eating together, etc.), what do you think is the hardest part about dinner?
The planning has always been the most challenging for me, because you’re not just planning WHAT everyone is going to eat… but also which ingredients need to be fresh/thawed or on-hand, when I need to start making dinner in order to eat at a certain time, when we need to eat before leaving for an activity, how much time I need to build in for cleanup, etc. There are so many moving parts to our lives, which is why our go-to dinners are fairly simple — but having them on autopilot is what allows them to happen at all!
Organization plays a big role in your work. Not only is it a key part of your podcast, but you also created the Balance Bound Planner. How do you get organized around meal planning and cooking?
I write our weeknight dinner plans in my handy Balance Bound Planner, of course ;) But I also add them to our kitchen whiteboard for everyone to see. I have our standard favorites or go-to dinners written on small index cards, with the ingredients needed for each meal listed on the back. I fill in the whiteboard each Sunday for the upcoming week. There’s a column for every day, with a magnet at the bottom to hold each night’s dinner card.
I do it this way so that if our plans inevitably change, it’s super easy to move things around, AND having the ingredients written on the back gives me a quick way to see if there’s anything that needs to be added to the grocery list.
Your podcast talks about being “good enough-ish at everything we juggle in life.” I can relate to this and (I think I can safely say) my readers can, too. What does “good enough-ish” mean to you when it comes to dinner?
When my oldest was a newborn and I was struggling to breastfeed after putting so much pressure on myself to do so, I remember supportive friends repeating that “fed is best” when I needed to supplement with formula. And honestly, “fed is best” has really become my philosophy for feeding my kids now, at ages 11 and 8, as well as the simple fact that meals are valuable time that we can spend together.
Whether our time around the table is spent eating a gourmet meal or the breakfast-for-dinner that I threw together, it’s really not what is on our plates that matters. Sure, I try to make sure they get protein, veggies, and nutrients as much as possible, but I’ve taken the pressure off of myself to be an amazing cook or introduce new dishes all the time. Having a few standard go-tos that I can pull together quickly and easily so everyone has a full, happy belly is totally good enough-ish for me.
Food for Thought
Brooke’s go-to Crockpot Lasagna, from The Recipe Rebel. (She also adds a bag of frozen zucchini to the meat mixture.)
The Best Frozen Pizzas, from Eater