Welcome to The Sunday Reset, our new series brought to you by the legends at My Food Bag where well-known Kiwi women tell us how they actually spend their Sundays. The fridge clean-outs, the wellness rituals, the shortcuts they swear by, and the stuff they happily ignore – it’s all up for a yarn. Some are wildly organised, some are running on vibes and dry shampoo, but all of them are real, candid and a fab insight into how Kiwi women prepare for the week ahead.
This month we chat to the OG herself, Nadia Lim – My Food Bag co-founder, cookbook author and mum of three. Living rurally in Queenstown with her husband Carlos and her three boys, Nadia’s Sundays are built around slow cooking, big clean-ups and the non-negotiable goal of getting dinner on the table by 5:30… or else chaos well and truly ensues!
In this chat, Nadia gets candid about the reality behind her picture-perfect life – because, like us all, there are times where even the most well-intentioned week can turn to, well, custard!
Capsule x My Food Bag
Kia ora Nadia! So tell us, what does a normal Sunday look like for you? We have to assume there is a My Food Bag in there somewhere!?
[Laughs] Yes! I get my My Food Bag delivered for two or three nights, and we generally use it at the beginning of the week. Then I like to freestyle the rest of the week using whatever ingredients and leftovers we have, and make use of any meals I’ve pre-cooked on the weekend.
What about the rest of the day, beyond food?
Very often, if we’re not out as a family, on Sunday mornings I will do a slow-cooked meat casserole curry or something pre-cooked, because I just find it so handy. It really, really does save me during the week.
Ooh, what’s the go-to?
Just before I left home I did a chipotle beef stew. I chopped some onions, sauteed them off with garlic, chucked the meat in (I don’t bother browning it, I used beef shin on the bone – it’s a cheaper cut perfect for slow cooking), poured in beef stock, a can of chipotle sauce, one tablespoon of brown sugar, a tablespoon of soy sauce. Put the lid on, chuck it in the oven. The preparation time is, I’m not exaggerating, 10 minutes. Then it slow cooks for four to five hours until the meat’s really tender. I put it on auto cook so we can go out and do stuff, and when you get home you just take it out, let it cool down, portion it into containers and put them in the freezer, and maybe one in the fridge for a few nights’ time.
That’s so smart, because the applications for that are endless. You can make tacos, have it on rice…
We often do tacos – with a simple cabbage slaw and guacamole. Or on roast veggies, in a burrito bowl, on mashed potato or mashed kūmara. I’ll even sometimes put it into a beef noodle soup, Asian style. It just goes so far. It really is a hack.
What else do you do on a Sunday?
We’ll always try and get out of the house with the kids. You just have to get them some fresh air and sunlight, because I think it makes them sleep a lot better. So we’ll try and get them out for a walk. Over winter the older boys are skiing every weekend so we’re very likely to be up the mountain.
You live in such a beautiful part of the country as well.
We do, we’re incredibly lucky to be surrounded by these majestic mountains. So we’ll do that, it’s pretty simple. And I definitely do a big cleanup on Sunday, so I go into the week feeling like the house is a bit more organised – otherwise all the washing and mess just builds and builds!
Is it a blend between family time and admin time on a Sunday, especially with three kids?
Yeah, I’ll probably do a couple of hours of tidying, and that’s about all I can do before I start getting over it as I don’t want my whole Sunday to be wasted on domestic duties! When it starts tipping over the 2-2.5 hour mark I start getting a bit mad…my husband teases me that I’m not cut out for being a domestic goddess….and I bark back at him that’s damn right!
My God yes – there’s so much else you’d rather be doing! But then again Sundays, for a lot of people, are a time where you can lessen the mental load for the week ahead. Is there any hack you employ, especially with the kids, to make sure they’re sorted?
Definitely. Number one, making sure they get to bed at a decent time, by 7:30, because we’re pretty lax on Friday and Saturday nights. But I honestly think the biggest thing for us is if we can get dinner on the table by 5:30, the rest of our night is going to be fine. But if we don’t, it’s a domino effect.
That’s your marker for success?
That’s our marker. Everyone’s aiming for that point. Dinner on the table by 5:30, 5:45, and then we know the rest of the night will go okay. There might be a few curve balls, but we’ll still be all good! That’s why having My Food Bag every week is such a game changer – it gives you a head start on the evening. Dinner’s sorted, the ingredients are there, and that’s one less decision to make in a day already full of them.
What’s your dream Sunday?
To not be woken up by the kids, which they’re pretty good at now. I leave the TV remote out on Saturdays and Sundays so they don’t wake us up. They just go and help themselves and put the telly on and I’m FINE with that.
Saturday morning cartoons! They were wicked when we were kids.
Totally – so generally that’s what happens, and then getting out of bed about 7:30 to 8.And then just having a slower morning that’s not so rushed. School mornings are quite full-on: you’ve got to have this done by this time to get them on the school bus. Whereas Sunday mornings, there isn’t that. So it’s nice to actually be able to sit down. I always start with a couple of mugs of warm water and lemon to hydrate. During the week I’m standing while I drink it. On a Sunday it’s nice to actually sit down and have that!
I love that this is your dream Sunday. Anyone else would say a facial or a massage or something, and you’re like, ‘I’d just love to sit down!’.
[Laughs] Yeah, and just look out at the view on a beautiful sunny morning. Just being able to enjoy the simple pleasures. I mean, a massage would be amazing if we’re talking dream… maybe someone comes to the house to give me a massage. Oh, and I don’t have to cook or clean at all. And I’d do a massive hike, a three or four hour walk up one of the mountains. And then I don’t have to plan for the school week starting from the next day… And then maybe someone surprised me with, “Guess what, we’re going to Fiji.”
Ok now we’re talking! So essentially, removing all responsibilities from a Sunday is the dream! But I love that your real dream was just to sit down and finish a hot drink.
It’s so true, though. It’s actually a treat to be able to sit down to finish a hot drink. How lame is that?!
Do you look forward to Sundays, or has that changed for you?
I’ve kind of changed a bit over the last 18 to 24 months. It used to be very much every Monday to Friday, as soon as kids are dropped off, I was straight into work mode, right up until picking them up from school. But I’ve changed that. I’m very lucky, dare I say it, to be in a position where I’ve got flexibility, because I understand that not everyone does.
A couple of years ago I started thinking, ‘why do I have to do everything in this time period?’ ‘Why can’t I just do things more on my time?’ So it’s a bit more fluid now throughout the week. During so-called work hours I might actually go for a one-and-a-half-hour walk, or do a gym session. You would never catch me having a nap, or watching TV, or reading a book or sitting on the couch. But exercise is something I would put into my day now, whereas I didn’t before. I used to feel like I couldn’t do that.
Because work was the priority?
It just felt like work was always the priority. Work and kids were always the priority, not me.
What changed that thinking?
Two years ago, March 2024, was my very low point. Arlo, my youngest, was a year old. Carlos was travelling internationally for weeks and months at a time on a farming scholarship, and business was pretty tough at the time. There were a lot of staff to manage, a lot of new things going on, a lot of pressure. It’s a typical, boring story, but you get to breaking point. I was on the kitchen floor, crying, going, “I just don’t have the energy to get up and do all of this.” There was almost a bit of anger around it, and resentment, but I channelled that physically. That’s when I started getting more into exercise. I’d always gently exercised, but never done weights or anything like that. I started channeling that feeling of, ‘how come as women we’ve got to do all the mental household admin as well as do a normal working job?’ into working out.
That’s the key, and it’s the hard part for a lot of women, to channel that resentment into something healthy!
Yeah. More hardcore exercise, like lifting weights and boxing, rowing. And that was cool, because then it was a feedback cycle. I had to prioritise it, at least two or three times a week, and it just gave me more energy for everything else. I had something for myself. It turned the day around, so I didn’t have that resentment or anger.
You turned something that could be a negative into a positive.
You can always turn it around!
Is there anything nostalgic to you about Sundays?
Growing up, my family was always very good at eating dinner together, but Sundays we’d often go out to dinner. Dad loved eating out. My family has always loved food, and my dad always wanted us to experience different cuisines and eating out. So generally, when I was a kid, Sundays we would go out for dinner. Often yum cha.
That’s such a big thing on a Sunday in New Zealand, right?
Yeah, in Auckland it is, but there aren’t any good places for yum cha in Queenstown unfortunately!
Is there not? Business opportunity, Nadia? Dare I say it?
[Laughs] I was just going to say that!
Wanting to refine your own Sunday reset? Check out myfoodbag.co.nz to find the perfect bag for your whānau!
