The Unique And Time-Consuming Way Blake Lively Cooks For Her Kids

We often see Blake Lively gracing the red carpet of Hollywood events and covers of magazines, but away from the limelight, the celebrity mom of four is just like many of us. She's also preoccupied with parental duties, especially when it comes to preparing food for the family. In an interview with Delish, the "Gossip Girl" alum got candid about what it's like feeding her kids with husband Ryan Reynolds. According to her, before having kids, she always thought of being practical and making only one meal for everyone. Unfortunately, that's impossible because her children like different things. "They have such different palates," she said.

In order to cater to her kids' needs, Lively joked that she's like a restaurant herself, preparing multiple dishes to satisfy everyone's unique cravings. Then, there's also the challenge of keeping up with the changes in their preferences. "Their palates change. They try a lot when they're little, then they just wanna go into beige foods. Then they start trying things again." Fortunately, she still finds joy in the chaos, even though it's tricky finding the right way to cook for a house of picky eaters. "I do really love to cook so I do end up making different things for different kids," she explained to the outlet. "It's fun. I love cooking."

If your daily kitchen routine is similarly chaotic, you're not alone. More than 50% of parents of preschool-aged kids are busy managing their children's selective food preferences, according to one study. And, in households with more than one child, parents are likely exhausted from regularly dealing with this eating behavior. So what's the fix? Meal prepping is one solution that provides a systematic way of creating familiar and kid-approved meals without scrambling on the daily. By cooking in bulk and organizing a variety of base ingredients, you can mix and match meals throughout the week without starting from scratch every time. You can speed up meal prep with ingredient shortcuts, like frozen veggie mixes, to further cut down on cooking time.

For families with multiple kids and evolving tastes, a solution could be offering familiar foods with a new one and encouraging everyone to try the latter. Not only can this approach gently expand kids' food preferences, but it also ensures that everyone will have something to eat — just in case the new item isn't an instant hit. Alternatively, rotating favorite meals across the week allows each child to feel seen and catered to, while teaching them the value of making compromises. Sometimes, "rebranding" food for picky eaters — like calling broccoli "little trees" — may help encourage younger children to try new things.