Some weeks life just feels like too much.
The kids are loud, the laundry somehow multiplies overnight, work never really ends, and living in another country can feel exciting and exhausting at the same time. Especially when your family, your language, and all the little familiar things are far away. And honestly? On those days, I don’t want to make a fancy dinner.
I don’t want a complicated recipe with 17 ingredients I have to buy at three different stores. I don’t want to spend an hour cooking while my kids are already hungry and pulling on my shirt. I just want food that feels safe. Familiar. Filling. Food that calms your nervous system a little and gives you this soothing little hug from inside.
So today I wanted to share the three simple German meals I always come back to when life feels overwhelming. Two of them are meals my mom made for me as a child, and one is something my grandma used to cook whenever I visited her.
None of them are fancy.
None of them are trendy.
But they make life feel a little softer.
Why I Love “Grandma Meals”
One thing I’ve noticed since moving to the US is how much modern cooking can start to feel like another performance.
Protein hacks and superfoods. Complicated meal prep systems. Perfect Pinterest dinners.
And meanwhile people are exhausted. My grandma never thought about “optimizing” food. She just cooked simple meals from simple ingredients and fed people and that was enough.
A pot of soup simmering on the stove. Rice pudding on cold days and a pasta salad sitting in the fridge so nobody had to think about lunch tomorrow. There was something deeply calming and comforting about that kind of food, because it wasn´t perfect and it made our everyday (and especially my mums and Grandmas life) much easier.
1. Milchreis — German Rice Pudding
“Milchreis” is probably the most ultimate German comfort food. Every German kid knows “Milchreis” or “Milchnudeln”.
My mom used to make it when I was sad, sick, tired, or just having a bad day. Even now, as an adult with two kids and a completely different life on another continent, it still instantly feels like home. And it´s absolutely ridiculously simple, I even feel a little bit embarassed to even show it here, haha 😀
You basically throw milk, rice, a little sugar, and a pinch of salt into a pot and let it simmer slowly and that´s it. No complicated steps and no standing in the kitchen for an hour. The nicest part is that while it cooks, you can actually sit down for a second. Read a book. Drink tea. Fold laundry. Or just stare out the window and breathe.
I usually top it with cinnamon and sugar because that’s how my mom made it. Some people add cherries or raspberries and my kids love banana slices on top. And yes, technically it takes about 45 minutes of cooking time. But your actual working time is maybe one minute (awesome, right?). Which, as a tired parent, is a very important difference.
Here is the recipe for Milchreis (rice pudding):
Combine 250g rice, 1 liter almond milk (or dairy milk), a pinch of salt, and a bit of sugar. Cook until creamy and soft. For the topping, mix 4 tablespoons of sugar with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and sprinkle generously over the warm rice pudding. Optionally, add fresh cherries or other fresh fruits on top for extra flavor.
2. Cauliflower Potato Soup
This is one of those meals that proves cheap food does not have to feel depressing. This potatoe soup is warm, filling, cozy, and made from very basic ingredients:
potatoes, cauliflower, onions, broth, salt, pepper.
That’s basically it. You fry everything for a few minutes, pour broth over it, let it cook until soft, and blend it. I love meals like this because they don’t overstimulate me, only take a couple of minutes and my family loves it. That sounds dramatic for soup, but I mean it. Modern life already gives us too many decisions, too much noise, too much information. Sometimes having food that is simple and predictable feels incredibly grounding.
And one little habit that genuinely changed my stress levels: I clean while the soup cooks, because then I only got one thing off of my ToDo-List and can concentrate on the food later and not on the mess I Created in the kitchen. So while the soup cooks you can wipe the counter, load the dishwasher or put ingredients away.
My grandma did this automatically. The kitchen never became a disaster because she cleaned in tiny steps throughout the day instead of letting chaos pile up. That habit alone makes my evenings feel calmer. I still eat this soup with a little splash of Maggi sometimes, which Germans will understand immediately.
A German friend brought us a huge bottle when we were homesick and now every soup tastes a little more like home.
Recipe for a comforting cauliflower potato soup:
Combine 400g cauliflower florets, 250g potatoes, and 1 liter of milk (or almond milk) with a pinch of nutmeg. Add 1 finely chopped onion and 1 vegetable stock cube for depth of flavor. Let everything simmer until the vegetables are soft, then thicken slightly with a bit of flour if needed. Blend until smooth and creamy. Serve with crispy bread or croutons on top for a cozy, budget-friendly comfort meal.
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3. German Pasta Salad
This is my dad’s favorite food! My mom made it constantly growing up whenever my dad had a stressful week. And I have to admit that I absolutely hated it as a child, especially the pickles. Ew. But now that I am an adult I sometimes really crave it. Isn´t it funny how our taste changes when we grow older?
Maybe adulthood is just slowly turning into your parents. The nice thing about this pasta salad is that it lasts for days. And I think one of the biggest modern stressors is not even cooking itself — it’s constantly having to decide what to eat. Three meals a day.
Every single day, and it has to be at least decently healthy! And that is forever because we as humans unevitably HAVE to eat.
No wonder everyone feels mentally exhausted. That’s why I love foods that sit in the fridge waiting for you, you make one big bowl and suddenly tomorrow’s lunch already exists. So you have less decisions and less stress and less tempation to order expensive takeout because everyone is tired.
Our version has pasta, pickles, boiled eggs, mayo, peas, and little veggie meatballs. My dad used to eat it with bacon, but I’m vegetarian, so I skip that part. Some Germans even add mandarins to it, which sounds strange but is actually surprisingly good.
Recipe for my mom’s classic pasta salad:
Cook 400g spiral pasta (rotini), then mix in 4–5 large tablespoons of mayonnaise. Add two cans of soft carrots, one jar of chopped pickled cucumbers, and three hard-boiled eggs, chopped. Season with salt and pepper, then mix everything well in a bowl until fully combined. This is a simple, nostalgic, and budget-friendly comfort dish that’s perfect for gatherings or easy meal prep.
Simple Food Can Feel Like Freedom
I think a lot of us secretly believe life has to look exciting all the time.
Fancy meals.
Constant variety.
New restaurants.
Perfect aesthetics.
But honestly some of the happiest moments in my childhood were incredibly ordinary.
Soup on the stove.
Fresh bread with butter.
Rice pudding on rainy days.
Watching my grandma peel potatoes while telling stories about the neighbors.
There was less choice.
Less comparison.
Less overstimulation.
These meals won’t magically solve burnout.
But they remove friction from everyday life and they save money, energy and decision fatigue, which is way more important (in my opinion).
Especially in stressful seasons of life, I think that matters more than we realize. So if you’ve had one of those weeks where everything feels loud and exhausting, maybe skip the complicated recipe tonight.
Make something simple. Your nervous system might need that more than another “healthy life hack.”
