Ever found yourself standing in the kitchen, spatula in hand, feeling like you’re about to lose it because your child just pushed away the dinner you spent an hour making... again?

What if I told you that the stress you’re feeling at mealtimes isn’t really about the rejected broccoli—and there’s a way to transform your dinner table from a battlefield into a place of connection without giving up on nutrition?

I recently spoke with Katie Kimball, a former teacher, two-time TEDx speaker, and mom of four who’s helped thousands of families through her Kids Cook Real Food program (recommended by the Wall Street Journal as the best online cooking class for kids). Katie specializes in helping parents navigate the exhausting world of picky eating while keeping their sanity—and their relationship with their kids—intact.

If you’ve ever felt your blood pressure rise when your child declares they “hate” everything on their plate, or wondered why mealtimes feel more like hostage negotiations than family bonding, this conversation offers a completely different approach that’s grounded in research and real family experience.

Katie’s approach centers on understanding three fundamental truths about family meals: we eat for nourishment, yes, but also for pleasure and community—and no one aspect is more important than the others. When you understand this, everything about how you approach picky eating changes.

In this eye-opening conversation, Katie shares specific strategies you can implement starting tonight.

You’ll discover:

* Why forcing the issue at dinner actually sabotages your child’s ability to develop a healthy relationship with food—and how research shows that kids who eat family dinners more than twice a week do better academically than those who spend more time on homework (yes, really)

* The “Lead with Your Ace” strategy that uses your child’s natural hunger to your advantage—putting vegetables out first with zero competition and zero pressure while maintaining what Katie calls your “poker face” (no excited cheerleading, just casual placement)

* How getting your kids in the kitchen transforms their relationship with food completely, because when they chop those carrots themselves, suddenly they’re invested—plus why teaching them to use sharp knives now prepares them for the bigger risks they’ll face as teens

* The critical difference between praising the food (”This is so good!”) and praising the effort (”You worked so hard on this recipe—I can smell the cinnamon you added”), and why one builds confidence while the other creates performance anxiety

* Why your stress at the dinner table literally affects your child’s digestion, making it harder for them to absorb nutrients even when they do eat—and how lowering the pressure paradoxically leads to better nutrition

Katie vulnerably shares how she discovered that family dinners protect kids from risky behaviors more effectively than almost any other family practice. Strong bonds with adults—the kind built over shared meals without pressure—are what keep kids safe as they navigate adolescence.

She also reveals a powerful reframe: you can’t actually force a child to eat respectfully (unlike putting their shoes on for them). Once you accept this limitation, you stop trying to control what you can’t control and start focusing on what you can—the atmosphere, the offerings, and your own emotional state.

Most importantly, she reminds us that we’re not just feeding our kids today. We’re teaching them how to have a relationship with food for their entire lives. And that relationship is built not through force or pressure, but through modeling, patience, and removing the friction that makes everyone dread coming to the table.

Ready to stop the mealtime battles and start using food as a bridge to connection rather than a source of conflict?

This conversation will show you exactly how to lower the temperature at your dinner table while still nurturing your child’s body and spirit—because it turns out, the two aren’t separate at all.

To learn more about Katie Kimball & Kitchen Stewardship:

https://www.kitchenstewardship.com/

Connect with Dajana Yoakley

Delight in Parenting

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