Written by: Hannah Beaden & Sarah Fraser, Co-Founders of Slowed Community, a Creative Agency
In Conversation with Hannah Beaden and Sarah Fraser as they capture the essence of Le Puree’s newest collection for our little ones.
Our latest delicious range for Australia’s little ones draws inspiration from the Mediterranean’s slow living lifestyle and rich cultural traditions around food, family and nutrient-rich recipes. This collection aims to provide our little ones with a healthy start to life, focusing on prebiotics, healthy fats, whole foods, fresh plant forward ingredients and Omega-3s.
To capture the essence of our collection we worked with creative mother focused agency founders, Hannah Beaden and Sarah Fraser. The pair and their families embrace a Mediterranean lifestyle focused on slow living, sustainability and nutrient-rich wholefoods for their whole family.
Join us as we chat with Hannah and Sarah, exploring their journey towards a slower pace of life, the delights of motherhood, and their commitment to wholesome family dining. From treasured moments to practical insights, uncover how these friends navigate the beautiful chaos of everyday existence with intention.
Before we get started, could each of you take a moment to introduce yourselves and share a little bit about your journey as friends?
I'll go first, my name is Sarah, I have three sons who are 2 (almost 3), 5 and 7 and I’m the Aussie in the friendship haha!
I guess that makes me the American, I’m Hannah. I also have three children, 2 sons and the best little surprise Juniper. I grew up in California, but now live in Australia with my husband and our children.
We live on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland and love that we both get to enjoy the coastal lifestyle while living on land (which we both need for our wild boys and their motorbikes).
We met 5 years ago through our husbands (they had been friends for 5+ years before us). Hannah had just had her first son when the husbands thought it would be a great idea to go away for 2 nights all together (Hannah and I had only met once or twice before this), we agreed to go and got along like groups of long lost best friends and the rest is history!
Could you share some insight into your journey into motherhood and a little bit about your family?
I (Sarah) was married young at 20 and became a mother at 22 which has been a wild ride, I guess you could say I’ve grown up with my kids. I have three boys who are 3, 5 and 7 and they keep me on my toes. We love spending our days together at the beach, kicking the football or riding bikes/skateboards/motorbikes.
I (Hannah) fell pregnant only a few weeks after our wedding. I was 21 at the time. I have always wanted to have kids young and my husband being a bit older than me was also ready.
Motherhood has been such a journey, especially raising my 3 kids away from my family in a different country has brought its hardships.
My first born is a wild child and threw me right into the chaos of parenting lol. We now have 3 children, nearly 5, almost 3 and a 1 year old.
It's been nearly 5 years of so many beautiful, fun and hard moments. Also many phone calls to my mum asking if I'm screwing my kids up haha.
We spend our waking moments outside as none of us are indoor people!
Some of our favourite activities are the beach, riding dirt bikes and playing sports.
We know you have a strong focus on slow living, could you give us some more insight into what this means?
Slow living to us means making time for what is most important in our lives. This means making time to source quality food, cook wholesome meals for our families, spend more time outside and with our families and shop from small sustainable businesses.
Can you tell us a bit about how your journey into slow living began and how it's influenced your lives as young mums?
I (Hannah) have always been invested in health and wellbeing (the only books I’ve read front to back are health related) so naturally when I become a mother, the slow living lifestyle aligned with my values and how I wanted to raise my children.
I’ve (Sarah) had a slightly different journey into slow living, I’ve always been interested in sustainability, when I had my children I prioritised shopping from small businesses. My first son suffered from asthma and skin issues which made me really aware of how we were living, the toxins in our lives and what we were consuming. And so my journey into slow living and sustainability began.
Le Puree has no additives or preservatives meaning no nasties - not ever.
Some of our favourites...
Do you find inspiration in the Mediterranean culture in the way they focus on family, quality time, food and ingredients?
We both love how the Mediterranean culture does family life. It's how we both aspire to raise our kids being around good food and enjoying each others company.
How else do you incorporate these living principles into your daily routines with your kids?
Both myself Hannah's kids are raised on property so they are outdoors more than they are indoors and live a very simple life running around getting dirty and enjoying childhood.
We also try to have sit down family dinners to slow down from our busy days and have some family time.
What role does food play in your family's lifestyle?
Food has always been something we have both done a lot of research into, especially before our firstborns started solids. We both always wanted them to have good, whole foods. Now, with both of us having older kids and toddlers, we still make this a priority when doing our weekly shopping, especially when making lunchboxes for our school-aged children. This ensures they are eating well throughout the week, both at school and at home.
How do you prioritise whole foods and fresh ingredients for your children's meals?
We both make good healthy meals for the whole family that the kids are also served and don't have replacement meals. They usually have a few options they can choose to eat whatever is on their plates. Making meals and baked goods from scratch also helps knowing what they are putting into their bodies.
What do mealtimes look like for you in your family?
My (Sarah) husband is a paramedic which means it’s often just the boys and I at dinner time. So, when dad is home we make the effort to have family dinners with home cooked meals.
For my kids (Hannah) they are up early and want to eat straight away so they usually means eggs, avocado toast or porridge, lunch is usually wraps and veggies and hummus and dinners we try to sit down and eat as a family as we both grew up doing that and find it important to continue that with our kids when possible.
How do you see your commitment to slow living shaping your children's relationship with food as they grow older?
I think for all our kids seeing us have a healthy relationship with food and it being our lifestyle and not a fad diet will hopefully just be the norm for them. We always talk about what makes food good and why looking into ingredients can be so important. Also they are allowed to have "fun" food as the kids would call it because we find it important to not restrict it from them we both just try to keep good options in our homes.
Can you share some tips for other parents who are interested in incorporating slow living and fresh whole foods into their family's lifestyle, but may feel overwhelmed or unsure where to start?
We both would suggest starting slow and looking at the ingredients you're bringing into your home as that's a big eye opener.
If you can make the switch for the whole family it's so much easier and becomes a lifestyle.
Making things homemade is also a big help when trying to cut out unnecessary extra ingredients that can be snuck into your kids favourite foods. Also when shopping slow and sustainable we know it can be expensive so we suggest waiting for sales, doing clothing swaps with friends, buying second hand or only buying a few core pieces you can wear multiple times.
Before we wrap up, can you share a favourite food memory with your kids that really captures the essence of your lifestyle?
A memory for us both is we often try to take our dinner down to the beach, make it a potluck style while the kids kick the footy around and go wild!
Grab some Le Puree and take it on the go for a picnic or cosy up at home. 🫶🏼
