Frida Redknapp On Her Blended Family & Making Cooking Healthy Again

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1:12With five kids between G and I, we have seen a lot.

1:15Georgia Dayton: We really have. Each week, we'll be joined by some famous faces and experts, and we'll chat about the brands and products that have saved us along the way. In short, we're the parenting podcast for you. Before we get started, hit subscribe or follow so you're the first to know when each episode lands. And they're on Tuesdays and Fridays. And it really helps if you leave a rating and a review. You can also find us on Instagram. We're on at Made by Mummies. But for now, George, should we get into it? Can we talk about the slow glow, George? Oh, the slow glow. Is that what we're calling it? Welcome to our podcast, ladies and gents.

1:50Georgia Dayton: Oh, it's Tuesday. yes it is and George is doing a slow glow is that what we're calling it I thought I keep like saying I'm gonna like do you know make sure I have a proper diet and a proper workout routine and proper boundaries around like doing too much and all things like that I was like right I actually need a goal I need like an end goal so because otherwise I haven't seen your Instagram story what this is all about yeah so basically I am 40 in I think it's two and a half years so I'm 38 on my next birthday yeah so about just over two and a half years and um it's not about like losing weight or anything like that it's just about feeling good at 40 so like I just think the years are going by so quickly and every year I'm still like I still haven't like got myself into a workout routine I actually like I still like I'm just grabbing like a packet of chicken as I walk out the door rather than eating properly you know just all these things and I'm like how long does that go on for so until you drop dead yeah I'm making myself accountable and I'm gonna start trying lots of things to you know some of them will be um to do with looks and stuff and some of them won't so I love this idea George I keep it a bash quite a lot of traction on Instagram as well I was fascinated by watching it I mean it's classic you to start this two and a half years before you're 40 I'm giving myself plenty of time more of a Georgia move yeah um but also I like the slogan because it's not like you're doing it in a month it's not like no no you know 40 40 and 40 or something no you're you're you're doing it two and a half years ahead of and I think we're all on the edge of our seat to see what you will look like I'm not really sure yeah I mean it could go really wrong um yeah i mean no actually actually it really has gone wrong i i didn't i wasn't going to speak about this at all but now i've got verbal diarrhea so great great talk about it um so one thing that i'm always being really conscious about is wearing shorts i never wear shorts everyone knows this right and i'm like it's not really the size it's just like my skin texture on my legs not that happy with anyway i looked i saw on instagram this like before and after pictures of like this person who'd had this treatment on I think it was on their tummy actually and it was really improved it I thought oh yeah I'm gonna give that a go so I booked in with this lady she was quite local to me I think she's in Brentwood one day a week um and I didn't really know what it was I thought it was gonna be like lymphatic drainage or something like that you know just where you go in for like that full-on massage I love that and I thought maybe it was that anyway I hadn't thought about it as usual and I'd booked it for like lunchtime on Thursday so I literally had to run out do it hadn't thought about it got in there and on the side I can see injections and I'm like shit what have I signed myself up for here this is really not what I thought and then she's talking me through the process she's like right so it's an acid that goes into your skin blah blah blah and I was like fuck really hadn't thought this through at all classic googling like what she's talking about lying on one side no literally grasping hold of your iphone i was googling i was like i can't remember what it was called like i'll i'll post what the name of the treatment is ankle or something and then i looked it up and i was like right worst side effects like worst thing that could possibly happen and all of it wasn't that bad it was like bruising this this this and i was like oh well it didn't say like lose a leg or something no no fine if it had i probably would have walked out and i definitely should have walked out because I hadn't done my research and I definitely should have walked out anyway I did do it my legs are covered in bruises like covered in bruises and um I'm going back on Thursday for the lymphatic drainage part so I'll let you all know but that was a fail she injected all of your legs with what it's cool it's like it's meant to be like it's an acid that dissolves I don't know what I didn't do that much research you've had the treatment I have looked it up I've mainly just looked up like bad side effects you know may I just make a suggestion I'm wondering if the listeners will agree potentially we're doing a lot of research before we're booking you into these things we should be definitely doing that yes and I won't be doing that again so I've already learned on week one that you must research the things that you're doing before you do them I just I just have this it'd be good content and it would be great for the podcast but imagine if you end up having like a facelift boob jobs hair oh my god no this is gonna be unrecognizable oh god no no and that really isn't the point of this whole thing this is not the point let's see but I can see the slippery slope okay all right how are you anyway I'm all right yeah I'm okay well I've worked I worked every day last week I was we were podcasting I went to Glasgow and back I did it oh my god I did was it well I did a a quiz show on a train carriage oh which was actually quite fun and I think it could work as a tv format they were filming it all so when the when the um contestants got a wrong answer they got booted off at the next station so it's actually quite funny that's fun we had a couple of people that had quite bad travel sickness which we didn't factor in because obviously the train was moving at like high speed and i was having to read cue cards and everyone's having to look down and run around and get various and it was just like that that side of it i found quite entertaining um but not for the list not for the contestants but that was fun i dj'd at like one of the last festivals of the summer i've worked uh on the radio so i feel today's been a bit slow i've got to be honest i need a day off went to get a baking sandwich yeah to the vets and just sat on the sofa for half an hour which was yeah i think you need a day off yeah have a day off love have a day off I fancied a day off today yeah let's do it yeah well we're not having a day off actually because we're recording so didn't really work out did it I just think a note to the listeners this morning if you feel like just cancelling the day today just give yourself a break and do it yeah just do it definitely at school no one will see you anyway just like put the telly on and put a bit loose women on and just chill out I know I know that is I mean that is a dream actually that's the truth um let's get into today's conversation Georgia um we had I've never met her before actually but I know her husband quite well um and so I was aware of her but I was really really fascinated by her Swedish upbringing yeah and I found that side of the conversation today really fascinating yeah and also I didn't know quite how many children she had because she looks very relaxed and has a very relaxing and sort of I couldn't know like that sort of calm aura about her and yeah and then obviously when you find out how many kids she's got and how she juggles it all it's wild I thought she just had one with her new husband so when she said we were wrong seven between them I was like yeah I'm sorry what yeah so many children so many different ages like she's been through all of it her eldest is in their 20s so like she you know she's been through all of the stages with different kids so I find that really interesting.

9:18And mate it's going to be a great conversation Georgia let's get into it who are we talking to today?

9:22Georgia Dayton: We're chatting to Frida Redknapp. Joining us on the podcast today Swedish mother of five I like that I put that in just everyone knows the accent founder of Frud all-round legend it is Frida Redknapp. Thank you thank you. welcome yeah we always like to ask our guests how their mornings have been you mentioned you didn't sleep very well last night i think partly why i didn't sleep last night because i went to the movies with my 13 year old he's off to boarding school tomorrow and i promise him all summer to see odyssey oh yes but we sat in the everyman in an everyman cinema but we booked the seats like really close to the screens i think until i came home at 11 i think i was watching the movie I was kind of stimulated it's so it's so close as well isn't it best movie though oh I haven't seen it yet it's you have to see it incredible but I think that's why I couldn't fall asleep it's wired stimulation overload but yeah good movie still still in the cinema I was leaning back watching the screen but no it's good but after that I couldn't fall asleep it was a lot I actually dreamt about it as well but you have to see it I'm going we got we've got Georgia in a million years to go to the cinema to watch a film.

10:35No, you won't actually. She's looking going, oh, that's great. She won't go. No, I won't.

10:37Georgia Dayton: You're so right. I won't, no. Yeah. I don't even watch TV. Sometimes the TV is not on in my house for six weeks. That's so good, though. And she's got kids. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah, I don't know if it is. It's not intentional. We're not like, oh, no. I don't know. We shouldn't watch TV. It's just we literally have created, like, our timetable was so manic that we just don't get to. it's not I don't want to I do want to do you like I think we're going to talk about you now I don't want it you can sit in this seat we can put Georgia there you know let's swap no that's fascinating that's really good though that's amazing we watch a lot of sport as you can imagine so the tv's on usually I mean most of the time obviously football but we have the you know obviously rugby tennis golf so yeah the team there's at least one television on 24 7 I'm in various different rooms.

11:29Frida, before I started sort of doing a bit of a deep dive into you, I actually did not know that you had five biological children. Talk us through the ages. Yes. Talk us through the story. Yeah. So I have five children, one girl, four boys. So I had four with my first husband. And obviously then Jamie and I have a little one. I started over in my 40s again. Decided to have a little kid. Amazing. And he's been such a good addition. I can tell you a little bit about that later. but my oldest she will be 21 this year then have four sons 19 16 13 and four wow so did you always want to have a big family was having multiple kids it just happened it just happened um no I I never planned to have that many kids no I just but just you know

12:21Georgia Dayton: tell us about your upbringing are you from a big family not really no so I had um so I had two half sisters but um I they were much older than me so I grew up pretty much with my mom's my mom was a single mom so I had her you know most of her attention actually because my sister moved out when she was 19 and still with the same guy now she's in her 50s pretty amazing um so yeah no I didn't so it was more finding the person and then going through life and just having too much unprotected sex yeah yeah and I think maybe because I was so I've been here for 22 years in the UK before that I lived in the States but I've been away from Sweden for so long and it's almost like I wanted to I didn't have I never had any family Swedish family here in London maybe I just wanted to make sure I had a lot of family members around me let's have more kids let's build you know a big family um and yeah just loved it you know it became you know the first after having my first I wanted her to have a sibling and then then you know another one and then yeah just yeah life it's amazing isn't it when you think about it because I think Georgia and I both of us thought so long and hard about whether we were going to introduce another one yeah if I didn't have a stepdaughter I would have definitely definitely gone for a but I have three but I would have gone for another one but then four you're like how do you manage your four like how do you even cope with you know yeah they just it becomes it's and obviously my age and stuff but I loved the I there's a part of is there a part of you that feels that you missed out on having more yeah definitely yeah yeah it's 100 % but I think sometimes you're like oh it just happened you know I think if you don't think about it too much and you don't go because if you put a pros and cons list there would be loads of cons if you're being practical yeah but having family isn't practical no no no you stop you you know I remember when I was uh when I just had two everything was labeled in the playroom I even had tags on the toy boxes playmobile lego disney figures after a few years I mean come on you can't do that anymore you just have you know you can't be too practical like you just said you just have to you become more relaxed I think yeah I think when just you know I think when I just had two I was trying to be you know I was more of a perfectionist all the time but then the more you have you just the more chilled I got if that makes any sense yeah yeah of course you have to be otherwise you go crazy yeah yeah we say that as well that when you have kind of even if you go from one to two yeah you just that you just have to kind of just they just have to wing it you they just have to get on with it you know all that kind of like everything's perfect and there's never food down them by the second or third you're like oh son it that'll be fine I mean I don't think I was just eating dirt yeah no so we we're always fascinated when we talk to people who've got older children and have kind of been through it like talk to us about all the different phases because you've done the teenage years you've done the toddler years the baby stage the middle stage which part has been like the most surprising well I've also learned that I think every child is so different I mean I'm sure you can see that as well so it feels like every child goes through so many different stages as well and you can't really compare one to the other but when they're little you obviously need to kind of hover above them to make sure they're safe so that's you know your main thing make sure they're safe and they learn the basic skills of life but then when they become older it's different you need to guide them be there without being over overly protective so they you know learn to be independent so you go through so many different stages as a parent but also with age I was in my 20s when I had my first now I'm in my mid-40s and I think Rafa who's four yeah turning five soon he's probably getting more of a relaxed mom because I don't sweat over the little things I stand back a little bit observe him I yeah he's he's quite lucky I think because I think with the first four I was I was trying to be perfect or try to figure out what perfect was and I was you know pete-a-rapping all the time and I was a cupcake mom, you know.

16:30Oh my God, were you? Yeah, I was. What's it like being a cupcake mom? Just, you know, I wanted everything. Just I wanted to have the play dates. Every Wednesday I would have all my, I was lucky. I had a lot of Swedish friends actually at that time, but they were left after the financial crisis, 2008, 2009, they were left. But every Wednesday I would have like pancake meat, you know, Swedish pancakes is a big thing. So everyone come to the house and I was super organized with all of those things, arranging this and that, play dates religiously but you know you can't you know with so many kids and you know also at one point had five different schools you can't right yeah I don't know if that answer your question no no it totally did I really like the idea of diving in on that word perfect and where you think that came from for you yeah I think maybe because also I grew up with a single mom and she worked literally day shifts night shifts she tried so hard to make ends meet and bless her bless her she really really tried so hard so I didn't and when obviously when I moved to London different situation different living standards and stuff like that and I've seen my kids were lucky enough to go to independent schools I obviously didn't do that in Sweden I you know I just tried to fit in and in when you're in your 20s you're you know you're very young aren't you yeah so I just tried to try to understand what perfect was um put a lot of pressure on myself which you know the kids loved it probably you know having a cupcake mom I did I did but I prefer how relaxed I am now yeah you know but I think that's also interesting how you change you do evolve as a parent all the time and your kids evolve your kids change all the time so you don't have to kind of go with the flow

18:12Georgia Dayton: Yeah, it's really interesting you were saying you're like trying to fit in and be perfect and do the things that you're supposed to do. And I think some people love that and they get a lot of fulfillment from being that because if that's kind of how you pictured it, that's kind of what you wanted to be. And then some people will do that at their detriment, where they're doing it for somebody else. but it sounds like yeah you have to do it for yourself yeah family so different yeah what's right for one family it's not the right for the next we're all you know leading such different lives I think it's so important just to stop yourself sometimes in your tracks and just hang on is does this work for me yeah yes it's so important you know of course get inspired there's some amazing people out there you know so get inspired and listen have your eyes open but in the end of the day too what's right for your family Georgia has been an inspiration to me for many many reasons right but there was we're very very very different people Georgia and I have of our values and our morals are probably the same but we are we are definitely better at some things than the other person and I think I've always shied away from that kind of like cooking mum you know like oh I'm not the mum that cooks like they just get beige food at you know five nights a week and that worked for me for a while and that's fine that's how I grew up with my but really of late I can't believe I'm saying this on the podcast I've really tried to lean into cooking and preparing more meals thinking about I know it sounds ridiculous but this is complete opposite of how I've been living my life because even though I love my fresh food and for myself it was more of a convenience thing with the kids like and I've been placing orders on Okada and looking at recipes and crying last night and my son ate it and I'm like okay he picked through all the peppers and the onions and the mushrooms but at least he ate the broth that I'd created with the noodles and the chicken and I thought god wow like I I'm really enjoying this that's what I want to ask you yeah are you enjoying it yes but that's the main thing exactly yes then it's the right time for you to do that yes so keep doing it until you stop enjoying it or you might become a you know master chef who knows when I think wasn't when I first met you it must have been when you were moving at some point and you said to me I was talking I said like you asked me how to do something like cooking wise and I said well like get a baking tray I don't know you're a baking tray and I was like yeah I don't have one I was sorry what you don't have one and then she showed me like the utensils that she had in the kitchen and I was honestly like shocked what how do you not have like all of these things it's mental but that that is you're just not interested but then also it's great because then you knew what to give her for her next birthday oh my god that's what i'm doing no no don't encourage them to send me utensils but i've got all the utensils now oh you got it all but i just think what i wanted to sort of say is that like feeling of not maybe perfection but my sort of anti-perfection was leaning away from being that sort of mum yeah and i almost thought it was something that i could never achieve i never judge mums that did it because actually I was quietly kind of wishing I was like them but my response was to go not for me thanks yeah even though I know I can be a good good cook I think that's healthy being like that we'll be right back after this short break

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23:43Welcome back to this episode of Made by Mamas. Now where were we?

23:46Georgia Dayton: You must have seen I guess with different like you've got five children you must have met so many different types of parents of course you must see like how there are so many different types of families and I'm the same as you like the PTA mum I'm like oh my god no I will never be that but I probably would like it if I did it but I think you get in your head who you are who you want to be yeah and then you can close off to things yeah it's exactly right yeah but then also yeah so it worked for me when I like I said when I was in my 20s I loved it yeah kind of stuck in and no one told the meetings and this and that but also I wasn't working then now you know many years later working and I don't think I could like I couldn't physically go to all of these meetings and things like that but one thing I did enjoy when I was like that was actually I got to know the school system quite well and things like that because that's another difference from the Swedish school system so I think maybe that was actually looking back just popped into my head now maybe was a good thing because I understood the English system better and which I didn't grow up with.

24:52It's so different in Sweden. It's just you learn through play until you're like, you know, 20. No, I'm sorry. Until you're nine. It starts early here. So, yeah, maybe it's a good thing I was stuck in, got stuck in. The Swedish schools, I love this, by the way. They're all, I mean, you tell me, but from what we've read and the things that people that we've had the conversations with, it's all about play. You know, they don't start learning to read. The children don't start learning to read until they're eight. They're all outdoors. It's very Montessori, touch-filled play. Very much so. So talk to us about that.

25:20Yeah. So obviously it's changed a lot since I went to school. And, but it's, yeah, you're outdoors all the time. And we have a thing and we don't have, it doesn't rhyme in English, sadly, but we have, there's no bad weather, only bad clothing. Yes. It rhymes. And so, you know, on every peg you have, you have the welly boots, you have the raincoat and, you know, the kind of. Like the trousers. Yeah. You have that brand in the UK called, Swedish brand called Poulan and Pyrrhus. oh we're we're not mad exactly um so you know most kids have have that whole that kind of outfit it you know ready to go at school on the outside and um it doesn't really start getting serious until yeah around eight nine um so yeah but you know it works in sweden yeah i think it should be brought in here a little bit more to be honest yeah how do you find the uk school system I'm so used to it now though.

26:13Yeah. Yeah. By now, I just dropped my youngest. It's his first day at reception today. I can't, you know. Rafa's first day at reception. I dropped him off. He had an early day, finished at 12. Hence why, yeah, I just made it here. I want to see his little face when he came out. But it's, yeah, it's, like I said, you know, every kid is so different. You just have to make sure that, I don't know, they get the right support, they have the right friendships and things like that. You know, I mean, he's, I'm so lucky. Rafa is such an easy child. I had one kid when he was little, he cried every day for the first six months of reception.

26:48Wow. You know, it depends kid to kid, right? But it starts earlier. It does. But I don't know if what's better, you know. Horses for courses, we say. Yeah, exactly. Jamie's described Rafa as the glue that's brought your blended family together. Yeah, I say the same thing. Do you? Yeah, he really, he's been amazing. he's he literally makes it everyone wants to come wants to come home and see rafa so he's and i don't think he realizes how much attention he gets he's so used now um but you know he he's been the best addition it's really helped us as a blended family it's helped you 100 a little bit of an insight into obviously no blended family is perfect but i imagine that having that really kind of young energy again because we get so complicated don't don't we as grown-ups and adults we bring in so much and and as we should sometimes but then you've got a little baby there who's like this is a combination of all of you of all of us oh yeah and he yeah he has a little bit of everyone and then he's has the most you know like such a strong character that we don't see in any of the others as well you know he's such a character he's so funny um but I think it's really helped to have Rafa um because you know blending a family and having a lot of teenagers in a house you know even if it's not a blended family having you know teenage years can be challenging for many families but um no he supports so much joy so lucky

28:16Georgia Dayton: talk to us the talk to us about the challenges of a blended family well I think I think any you know going through like divorces in general it's a tough for families you know um but I think and also you know there are teenagers and everyone's trying to find their place and things like that But I must say, we've been so lucky. We've been really lucky how everything has, you know, turned out. It was, you know, the kind of, not arguments, but the discussions between the boys would be more about sport. Whose school had the best rugby team or football team and things like that. Because we had, boys are quite good.

28:53I mean, it's usually about things like that.

28:58So, no, it's been good. Yeah, which is great. Yeah, it's been good. And then Rafa was introduced at such an early stage as well. So, so much focus was put on him and bringing, you know, calm and, you know, nurture, like a nurturing environment around him. And everyone really stepped in. And because they were a little bit older, the kids were older, they were more mature about that as well. I think if our kids had been much younger and throwing in another baby in there, maybe it would have been a different situation. But it's been, it's been, it's been really good to have him. Everyone is, you know, he's so lucky.

29:32So many eyes on him. Yeah. So many cuddles. Yeah, exactly. It's more like who's going to get the next cuddle. When you sort of take on, but when you, let's say take on children, you become a step-parent when the kids are slightly older. My experience with it was that I met Isla when she was a baby. So I have had to rewire myself slightly to the stage that we're at now where she's a teenager. And my role as one of her parents has slightly, I'm not, it's not devalued because I know how much she loves me and how much I love her. But it's very much like we're figuring out what that step-parent, step-daughter role now looks like, whereas it wasn't the same maybe three, four, five years ago.

30:15When you take on children who are older, do you see yourself as a step-parent or do you see yourself as one of their friends? I think one piece of advice as a step-parent, I think just to actually take a few steps back, you know, and just let them figure it out. Don't try to force yourself to be, you know, a parent for them. Like be their support, be there in the background so they know you're there if they need you. But leave it to, you know, your partner and their, you know, mom or dad. So you never step on anyone's toes, you know, really respect what they are trying to do. So I think just being there, I mean, they know, my step-sons know if they need me for something or, you know, I'm there, I'm there.

31:00but I never try to you know be their parent I'm not the parents you know I'm just I'm there as a as a hopefully some support you know and how do you manage like different rules in different houses

31:13Georgia Dayton: because I can imagine you know like when when you when the kids are little you might think oh you know in one house they have a really strict bedtime they have a really strict routine and in another they might not but as they get older I guess that must be more difficult because we can all have really different like big differences in opinions as they you know as kids get older oh yeah you do and then you know for example obviously I have I share four with my ex-husband you know my kids would go to you know we shared custody so they would go to his house then come back and say but dad let us stay maybe up you know half an hour later or whatever but you just have to stick what works in your house of course it's great if you can communicate and co-parents and have like five basic rules about bedtime and certain things you know or electronics and things like that which we actually really did initially but then they get older I mean obviously my daughter's 20 I couldn't tell her now like you can only have it um but I think having just a few basic rules but you can't you know you can't have the same rule book at each house you know it's difficult isn't it when they start pushing back on that and they start saying you know well x y and z when we're there yeah you know they're clever kids too right yeah because the thing is you don't it's not even just like with another parent you have that with parents of friendship groups as well you know like even now like my son's 10 there's different rules in different houses that he goes to yeah and I'm like oh like I don't know how I feel about you going to that house with those rules yeah I can't imagine when it's two like two parents and you're trying to navigate because neither is right or wrong it's just a difference isn't it sometimes we get the whole like oh yeah well you know they're just they're like wow they love you know they have a few drinks they stout and we all dance around in the kitchen and I'm like 9.30 I'm like I'm not gonna go to bed now I know maybe more fun I'm boring I think I'm a boring like I love to go to bed early turn the house alarm on really early the kids like mom I want to go down to the kitchen no just bring everything up now let's go to sleep no but um yeah they're probably they're probably lots there a bit later at dad's house but hey ho they still love me I think yeah do you and Jamie have the big conversations around how you raise the kids together or is it kind of an unspoken um commonality between the two of you well i'm first of all i'm so lucky that obviously we both you know we have previous marriages and we are co-parenting both of us so the support you get this is amazing so we always we can always talk to one another and you know support one another um so i always feel like i have a shoulder to lean on yeah but again you know of course asking for advice especially with the boys you know because he has such great experience with his two older sons so yeah it's been actually really helpful that we have six boys in between us so we can always do the boy chat and obviously as a mom you need to understand boys a bit better sometimes uh so that's been really really helpful yeah he obviously doesn't have a daughter from before so he's you know that he leaves that one to me and my daughter um but you know um we do support one another um and yeah so grateful for that that's great it's it's it's wonderful to hear it when it works like that I love it um let's talk about um you've you've spoken about your mum and you know she was a single mum and stuff let's talk about how important food was for you in the home with her and what sort of a cook she was I think your food's a big part of your life oh it's such a big part of my life and so my mom as mentioned before so my parents ever when I was two so I've stayed with my dad but not as much I would really want to be with my mom mainly and she worked like I said night shifts day shifts and I often would come home from school at an early age and I had to kind of whip things up for myself that's kind of where I start cooking just opening the fridge and experimenting and improvising but also spending a lot of time with my grandparents they had tiny garden but they grew it on vegetables and fruits and we would go down pick things go into the kitchen and you know helped you know I would help them to cook you know very typical Swedish traditional foods and things like that very simple simple food simple home cooked food um but so yeah I started very early on I mean my mom she would cook she would do a lot of batch cooking because she worked so much so I think I often lived on leftovers or a lot of toasted bread I remember I was like at one point my mom said you know I would come home and have like a liter of milk I grew up I drank so much milk as a kid why you're so tall yeah but then uh yeah cooking I could start cooking really really early yeah and my mom she loved to kind of she would take like Thai cooking courses or learn you know learn different experiment different cuisines and then obviously I started modeling at a very early age so I started traveling when I was 15 that obviously introduced me to so many different kinds of foods from yeah all over the world basically wow yeah and what so so was that really and did she teach you how to cook was that was her or at least kind of the maybe the traditions the swedish traditions did that filter into your cooking yeah absolutely i'm a visual learner as well so i always used to just sit with her in the kitchen and watch her cook same with my dad actually my dad was also very he cooked more than his he remarried cooked way more than his uh his wife so he you know he i have very strong memories of like two three of his dishes that still stays with me today um so yeah that i'm quite nostalgic about but even my grandparents as you go on little road trips for me the sun when i say road trip there were sometimes only 45 minutes i would always stop midway somewhere on the side of a road and have a picnic so even like you know my grandma made tons of different cookies and sandwiches open sandwiches which is a big thing in sweden open sandwiches open sandwiches these are just sandwiches without the lid right yeah yeah it's a big thing in sweden every cafe you go in you have open sandwiches this meatball sandwiches, salmon, this cheese, this, you know.

37:03Meatballs. They're a big deal. Ikea. I was going to say Ikea. Yeah, yeah. Ikea's not a true reflection on the Swedish meatball sandwich, is it? Let's be honest. You know what? No offence. I mean, I do respect Ikea. I mean, they've really spread the word, right? Word, word. Meatballs are globally famous because of Ikea and in a good way. I mean, people even go to Ikea, apparently. Just because? Yeah, they do. They buy a couple of tea towels and they sit in the cafe.

37:27Georgia Dayton: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, why not? A day out. A day out of freedom. I know. I mean, a day out for me was actually going to Ikea when I was little to drive to Gothenburg an hour away and go and spend a day at Ikea. So I grew up eating them too, but to my grandma's meatballs were the best. They're the best, right? Yeah, of course. We'll be right back after this short break.

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40:36Welcome back to this episode of Made by Mamas. Now, where were we?

40:40Georgia Dayton: When did you decide you wanted to turn food into a job? uh it was just one of those things that just happened overnight literally so i uh i posted content food content for about a year or two for fun swedish food healthy foods just had fun with it um and then i had one conversation with a mom who said to me i have a very busy life three kids i have no time to cook in the evening uh work full time can you come up with a solution so that planted a seed and then that was 2024 a few months later two three months later woke up in the middle of night and I thought because it obviously I've been thinking about some that really triggered my thinking um so yeah just popped into my head how can I turn my family's go-to recipes into like blends or a product to help people create meals faster um such as focusing on Swedish meatballs and the curry, the bolognese, the Mexican, and several others.

41:40I've created like 40, 50 recipes, around 40, yeah, almost 50 recipes over the course after that. It literally happened overnight. So for about, yeah, several months, I created lots of different recipes. I started drying vegetables, fruits, anything you can possibly imagine. Drying them, huh? Or dehydrators on Amazon. Yeah. uh and yeah so it just just the coin dropped and then I couldn't stop myself making recipes tell people about fruit if they haven't yeah yeah it's it's so fruit is a very we're almost creating a new category because nothing really exists out there like it so that's obviously a challenge it's that educational piece because people look at and look at it and wonder what is this yes um so as a mom I'm sure you do the same you try to sneak in vegetables here and there whenever you cook um so when i started thinking about these products i wanted to have that same volume of vegetables but obviously i wanted to be shelf stable if you buy a pasta sauce or something like that it's perishable within three days i wanted to create a product that would last a bit longer and that you could be creative with so you can add it to any kind of protein you wish if you're vegan or carnivore whatever you know um so let's say let's focus on the bolognese for example the bolognese i make at home has so many different kinds of vegetables bell peppers um onion uh onion onion carrots celery um garlic lots of different tomatoes obviously so i start drying all of those vegetables and then adding the dried herbs that i would add in and the seasoning and a bit of cinnamon smoked paprika and things like that so i start blending kind of figuring out the same kind of ratio of vegetables but in dry form um and yeah so i created these blends and obviously then i tested on the family and and yeah that's how that's just one out of these many products that i um if that answers the question no so no it did answer the question but just just treat me like i'm a toddler let's just learn to speak okay i've got them in my cupboard i've got yeah i haven't used me i don't know what to do with them what do i do with it do you remember

43:47Georgia Dayton: jamie proof i was just yeah you might know the sachets though are they like coleman sachets do you know them it's like a version of that but a step on because you can describe the process so inside so in the side is inside a sachet so a sachet serves four okay so um it's a concentrated blend a dry blend so what you do let's say the bolognese for example you buy five and five hundred grams of mince yeah um it can be chicken turkey beef whatever you fancy so you brown your mince for two three minutes in oil or butter if you want but oil i usually use oil yeah and then two three minutes and then you add empty the whole sachet into the mince stir it a little bit and then you add 500 mils of water and let it simmer for about 15 minutes and it's done that's your pasta and inside and all the vegetables come alive because yeah that's it yeah yeah and when you and when you gently dehydrate vegetables it keeps a lot of the nutrients especially the minerals and the fiber hence why we can be a high fiber um brand which is what was one of my aims uh obviously we have no preservatives or nasties in there as well so it's you know i want to keep all the ingredients but it's such a simple way and it's that bolognese recipe is based on arthur my 13 year old's favorite recipe and as you can imagine being a mom the last 20 years the amount of bolognese recipes i've been like fine tuning so i wanted really to nail that one then obviously then you have this blend you make it at home then to replicate it and manufacture it and you know try to make that exact copy with a factory that also takes a long time so I've spent a lot of time in the innovation kitchen with my manufacturers I'm so lucky because I have the most like the rolls royce kind of innovation kitchen so I will spend days or hours there days um several days throughout the year and to perfect the copy like make replicate basically so i so without trying to like blow smoke up your ass too much i think you might have just cracked every single parent who's listening to this that cannot feed their child and is constantly blending and trying to hide vegetables with fussy eaters you might have just solved that issue well i hope so that was the plan because i want to have i mean i am incredibly busy you know some days you know yes we all try to plan ahead but come on doesn't always happen right We try to, you know, do the weekly shop and all that stuff.

46:07Great. Love that. But to have a few sashes of food in your cupboard, it's really helpful. Amazing. You know, and we have some new SKUs coming out. We have a breakfast range coming out next year with really like great breakfast cookies, pancakes, porridge and stuff like that too. Same concept. You whip things up, you know, around 15 minutes. Which I want to redefine convenience food to make it easier for busy people and families to create meals without compromise faster.

46:33Georgia Dayton: faster I can imagine as well like you've got older kids like sending them off to college or uni that must be really good to have those sachets exactly exactly obviously I had families in mind with them when I created these products but yes I have uni kids the amount of parents friends of mine who had kids going off to uni and they say love this yeah I'm gonna send tons of them with my kids you can send them in the post as well exactly yeah my my auntie actually when um my My cousin went to uni, sent a whole chicken in the post. A whole chicken? Yeah. A whole chicken. Your auntie's wild, though.

47:07Georgia Dayton: Because she was so worried about him not eating properly that she sent a whole chicken in the post. Obviously, it was disgusting by the time it arrived. She put it all like, you know, like the freezer packs, all the way around it. And then, obviously, he was like a boy at uni, 18 years old. We didn't collect it from the post office for two weeks. And then opened it up and it was a chicken. That's a much better sleep. I think food might win safely. Yeah, I actually think it's a better idea. We grew up on, do you remember pasta and sauce? I don't know if you had this in Sweden. It's called pasta and sauce.

47:41You're probably a bit too young. I don't remember. Essentially, it was like eating the most processed, like salty, horrible. And we used to eat it every day when we were at boarding school. Yeah. If we'd had a fruit in the cupboard or essentially anything that wasn't pot noodle or super noodle or anything like that. this you know and that's the problem if you've got a fussy eater at home forget about uni kids age but if you've got a fussy eater at home that will not eat any fruit or vegetables this is what you need and I know people keep saying and it really frustrates me when people say it to me give it to them 10 times I must have given my son over I mean we're coming up to maybe 500 million thousand trillion times and he just refused all of it yeah all of it and he refuses all of it and that is my reality yeah that is really hard you know it is I'm not I don't want a violin out but like if there's a solution that could help me with it that's fantastic and also depending obviously how old your kids are but you can even cook food with them it's such a simple way so you know there it's like three steps right so you can just do we put up together and the kids they feel proud because they cooked it it's easy for you to do so you know that's another way of getting the kids to connect with the food as well should they still be cutting and interacting with vegetables so fucking weird thing to say but you know what i mean morning pepper hello cucumber should they still be sort of handling and identifying foods because the danger is the danger that if they don't ever see it they won't ever like it i think maybe you know we said before about ordering a lot of food.

49:11I think I love, obviously, avocado. Thank God we have avocado. But going into stores and buy food, even if it's buying the pasta or buying the vegetable, buying the bananas, just actually see where, obviously, it's not really where it comes from, but at least that step. So I think sometimes, even if it's every two weeks, just go into a grocery store and check things out. Yeah. Because we're so used to everything just arriving at the door. so um but yes i think mindful eating and you know connecting with your food and all that stuff is actually quite you know it is important yeah um but yeah not just eating fish fingers off the floor then no like i did for a very long time i did you yeah that's cool no just like as an adult like if they dropped on the floor oh i didn't want them to waste just no but you know don't you have i mean there's a few germs it's good right yeah exactly i'm all right come on I'm off you know it's fine five second rule isn't it yeah exactly fish finger if five seconds on the floor a fish finger it's fine it's fine better than a chicken in the post at least exactly exactly um Frida um we are running out of time which just absolutely breaks my heart but could you please give us your top five products they can be beauty products products that you use for the kids um having your kitchen having your kitchen food food food food food Food.

50:34There you go. No, I'm joking. No, I'm joking. Well, not joking. Number one is food. Everyone needs to get some food. I'm joking. Okay. Favorite things I have at home? More for me or for the family? Doesn't matter. Okay. Kefir. I keep saying kefir, but I have kefir religiously every day. I know some people don't have dairy, but even if you have a slightly sensitive tummy, I think kefir is really good for you. So I actually started buying it from a farm recently. so they send it to the house and cottage cheese love cottage cheese so good do so much with it

51:09Georgia Dayton: yeah yeah i put it in scrambled eggs i don't like it on its own at all no but i put it in pancakes i put it in i put it in um even like meatballs yeah i put in tons of different things i think it's fantastic i grew up with it my mom used to put on crisp bread um yeah yeah sliced um sliced kiwi on it yeah amazing then a great olive oil olive oil is so important i put olive oil in everything baking i put on my skin i put in my cooking obviously salads so i think that's a really a lot of people just go for the cheap option or i think that's one of those things if you can spend a little bit a few extra pounds get a good quality olive oil um for my skin at the moment i use three no you can you can say them okay so i love quarterly which is great because they work with um a scientist from harvard or they develop a lot of their kind of formulas with harvard and they come out they have really clean ingredients yeah but equally like skin suticals um and um um lms as well like you know but i i don't have a very complicated skin routine I think just keep it simple, very simple, quick.

52:22When you've got a canvas like that. I know. I don't know. You're just saying. Beautiful. Everyone's thinking they're saying. I know. And what else? Are we talking about everything? That's lots of different things.

52:31Georgia Dayton: Absolutely anything, but that is great. Yeah, and workout gear, come on. I don't leave. I mean, 99 % of the time, thank God. What's your favorite workout gear brand? Ooh. Well, I am working quite a lot with M &S, so they're a good move. great but also I do I love aloe I mean aloe is amazing isn't it you've got to check out their new gym in central London as well have you been down there no they've got a new gym I heard about it oh yeah they just opened a store next to me as well so but yeah I'm always I'm always in in well not today yeah I'm wearing my leggings under this no I'm joking

53:09Georgia Dayton: and just before we finish up what would be the piece of advice that you would give to a new parent or like the best piece of advice you've been given oh um the best piece of advice i've been i'm gonna give some advice i think yeah i think just just shut out if there's a lot of noise around you shut it out and like i said earlier in the conversation to what's right for you you know good trust your instinct a lot of parents forget to trust the instinct because they listen to everything and so much stuff all the time but at the end of the day we have to trust that we know what's right for our kids and our family.

53:46So just be nice to yourself and you got it. You can handle it. I love that. Frida, thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Frida Reddup, everyone. Thank you for having me. Yay.

53:59Georgia Dayton: So have you tried food yet is what I want to know. I was going to lie and say yes, but I still haven't. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to. I've got a whole week this week, so I'm going to give it a whirl. Give it a bash. I love the idea of it just becoming so much more convenient because it was so busy. And when my ears like pricked up, I could tell how excited I was when she said, oh, you know, the spaghetti bolognese one, it's got all these vegetables that have just been air dried. Yeah. And they're all in there. And it's like, oh, brilliant. Okay. Well, he'll be eating vegetables and he won't know.

54:29Georgia Dayton: He won't know. And also because it's all chopped so, so, so small, it just almost, I don't know, just dissolves into the sauce. I said before I'd use like the Mexican one and I thought it was really good. And she's also really into her health and fitness and nutrition. So you know it's going to be decent. Yeah. Loved it. It's very good. Yeah. Massive thank you to Frida Redknapp for coming on the podcast today. As always, we'd love you to rate, review, subscribe and please give our podcast a follow. Yeah. And if you've got any feedback on this episode or guests you'd like to hear from, drop us a DM on Instagram.

55:01Georgia Dayton: We're on at Made by Mamas and we'll be back on Friday.

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