What’s for dinner, Mum?
Four words that have the power to send even the calmest of mums into a tailspin.
Although we usually have the best intentions when it comes to preparing healthy and delicious dinners for our families, sometimes life gets in the way.
You walk in the door after a full day of work/school/play/extra-curricular activities and put the frozen chicken nuggets in the oven before collapsing in a heap.
But I’m here to let you in on a little secret. It doesn’t have to be this way.
I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the occasional take-away pizza or sneaky drive-through meal on the way home, but with some clever hacks, you can become one of those smug mums who’s always getting her kids to eat their veg.
Make friends with your freezer
For years I lived with only the small freezer that came atop my moderately sized little fridge. It had barely enough room for a box of fish fingers, tub of ice cream and a bag of frozen peas. Seriously. But recently I was gifted a stand alone freezer by a friend who didn’t need it anymore, and it has changed my meal prep life.
- Freeze leftovers: Whenever I have leftover portions I can now put them in the freezer for a rainy day, rather than having to get bored with the same meal for the rest of the week.
- Reduce your fruit and veg waste: Brown bananas taking over your fruit bowl? Sad looking pumpkin languishing in the veg crisper? Chop up fruit and veg and pop it in the freezer to use later for baking banana cake, tossing into soups and stews or blitzing up in smoothies.
- Make ahead meals: If you’ve got the time then making meals ahead to specifically stock up your freezer will make you feel all the good feels about your organised life. Even if you haven’t crossed a single thing of your day’s to do list, pulling out a meal that needs nothing but reheating is a WIN.
A woman with a plan
Do you plan ahead, or are you constantly chasing your tail when it comes to meal prep? Meal planning can be seriously life changing - not only does it reduce the mental load for your daily dinners, it also helps reduce the amount you’re spending on groceries.
- Be realistic: Do you really need to plan for seven dinners every week, or do you sometimes eat out, or have a few nights of leftovers or scrambled eggs? In my family we usually plan for three or four dinners, and these recipes then inform our shopping list.
- Get the family involved: If your kids aren’t excited about eating their dinner, give them an option to choose one of the meals on the plan each week. To avoid every choice being ‘beige food with tomato sauce’, I suggest you create a list you can show them each week to choose from. This might be things you know they like, or new recipes you think would appeal to them.
- Remember your favourites: If you make a new recipe and everyone loves it, be sure to keep it somewhere safe. A list of the family’s favourite recipes somewhere (on the fridge, on your phone, on a list in a drawer) will give you some inspiration each week when you're doing your planning.
Chop, chop!
Often the most labour intensive part of making a meal is chopping the veg. But you can get ahead by doing a big chop-up every few days, or even just earlier in the day when you’re already in the kitchen making school lunches or breakfast.
- Having a stir fry for dinner? Chop up all the veg so that all you need to do when you get home is stirfry your meat or tofu, add your ready to use veg, splash in some sauces and you're done.
- Using the same veg for a few meals? If you bulk-bought zucchini on special then chop it all up in one go so it’s ready for your meals throughout the week - whether you’re roasting it up in a tray bake, throwing it into a pasta sauce or cooking it into a frittata.
- Throw pre-chopped vegetables like broccoli in to cook with your pasta - just remember not to overcook it. Broccoli only needs to be in or the last two minutes of cooking time.
Do you like it fast or slow?
Slow cookers and pressure cookers can be worth their weight in gold.
Slow cookers are great if you’re going to be out of the house all day and want to get things prepped in the morning (or even the night before). They’re especially great for soups, casseroles and meaty stews. Most recipes recommend a cooking time of six or eight hours, but on the low setting it doesn’t usually matter if you go over this. Low and slow usually means meltingly tender meat and intense flavours.
Pressure cookers use pressurised heat and steam to cook things really quickly, while not losing any of the intense flavours and juicy goodness. As well as being super efficient, they also usually come with a sear function, so you can brown off meat and veg before cooking it under pressure. My favourite pressure cooker discovery of 2020 so far? Pressure cooker risotto. Ready in 20 minutes and no stirring required!
Take a shortcut
It’s OK to take short-cuts when you’re cooking. You absolutely have my permission. We might aspire to wholesome ‘everything from scratch’ meals, but they’re just not that realistic day in, day out.
Prepped ingredients such as ready to use noodles, marinated tofu, pre-made chicken kebabs and pre-chopped vegetables are all really helpful when you’re time poor. Frozen vegetables and dumplings in the freezer are also great for instant dinners.
Undercover veg
Mums have been sneaking vegetables into dinners since long before sliced bread. The most popular secret vegetable recipe has got to be spaghetti bolognaise - you can grate in carrots, onions, zucchinis, beetroot, pumpkin - whatever you’ve got to hand, and it will all cook down into a delicious red sauce which the kids will devour.
One of our favourite discoveries is a vegetable mac n cheese - where vegetables are cooked and pureed into the white cheesy sauce before baking. Cauliflower, pumpkin and zucchini are all great for this.
Get creative and grate or puree veg into any recipes you’re making. Top tip: grating, pureeing, processing or very finely chopping means the veg are pretty much impossible to pick out.
Jars are your friend
Who has time to make curry pastes and sauces from scratch?
- Keep a few jars in the pantry for speedy dinners - ready made curry sauces are actually pretty tasty, and you only need to add meat and veg to make it a meal.
- Up the flavour stakes by also adding in extra fresh herbs if you have some to hand, or pan fry some chickpeas to stir through for added flavour and texture.
- Curry pastes are also great flavour additions - a spoonful of green curry paste into a pumpkin soup is heavenly.
Tray bakes for busy mums
I don’t know why, but for some reason almost everything tastes better when roasted in the oven. Tray bakes are ideal for busy mums - chop up whatever veg you have to hand, toss through some olive oil and dried herbs and put it on a tray in the oven.
Throw in chicken thighs, sausages or cubes of halloumi to add protein and make it a meal. Tinned beans like chickpeas and cannellini beans are also delicious roasted.
Top tip: Line your roasting trays with baking paper to avoid any of those hard to clean roasted-on bits of food.
Even better the second time round
When it comes to a family friendly meal which is low-effort and low-cost, a roast chicken or BBQ chook from the supermarket is a great option.
It’s the gift that keeps on giving too - once you’re done with your chicken, remove leftover meat from the carcass for sandwiches the next day and pop your chicken bones into a saucepan. Cover with water and bring to a simmer for about 30 minutes. Your reward? A pot of the most delicious chicken stock ever - perfect for a speedy risotto or using as a base for delicious soup. You’re welcome.
So there you go, hopefully these will help you create cheap, healthy and speedy dinners for your family.
Do you have any great hacks for family cooking?
Author bio:
Erin Huckle runs Chuckle Communications in Wollongong, and loves working with her clients to find the right words for their business. When she’s not working on PR and copywriting projects, she’s wrangling her three young boys, running, reading or watching a classic Agatha Christie whodunnit.
www.chucklecommunications.com.au