If you're on your own like me, I'm sure you'll have had moments where you wish you had more arms/time/room or a live in chef or nanny. Not really possible though. You could get up at 5am and work into the early hours after little one is asleep? Or if you value sleep and sanity, try these little time savers that have made my life run much smoother!
As briefly discussed here making dinners in bulk and freezing them not only saves money, but saves on time.
It will take a few hours one day to cook a nice roast that can last you and your little one for over a week. Make a large amount of meat (for me it's usually 400g mince meat or three quarters of a medium chicken with gravy), a slightly larger amount of potato (boiled, mashed, roasted..), and don't forget veggies (carrots, peas, brocolli, curly cale).
Taking Tesco as a price guide for this just to show how affordable and worthwhile this is (this does not include prices for the end of day sales- try to get to them if you can. Reductions go very low. 10p for a baguette kind of low ^~^):
- 500g Mince £3.60
- 1.2kg Carrots £1.00
- 2.5kg Potatoes £2.49
- 300g Bisto £1.67
£8.64 for a wholesome, filling and tasty meal that will last for a week for you and your little one. This is just an example as there are many many meals you can make; chicken made in a nice fruit sauce perhaps? Duck, beef, steak. The possibilities are endless. Just be sure that it meets the nurtritional needs of your children.
So, let's say your little one is down for a nap/at playgroup/nursery/nana's or just even watching some prerecorded In The Night Garden in her comfy highchair in the kitchen while you're doing this (that tv thing is a huge timesaver in itself). The wonder of slow cooking meat is that you have time to do things while you wait' laundry, cleaning, organising, play time.
When your various different things are done, (if you want to know how I time my food to get it right, just drop a note here and I'll be sure to add it here), you want to let them cool. More time to do things. Once they're body temperature, divide finished products into plastic air-tight containers so you can freeze them. You want about 50% potato 25% veggies and 25% meat.
Every morning put out a new few tubs (lunch; soup, dinner; roast) into the fridge to defrost as usually overnight isn't quite enough. Providing the containers are microwave safe- stick on for 3 minutes (or more depending how chunky the food is ^^;).
There you have it. A briefly detailed way on how to spare yourself the hasstle of oven dinners and how to ensure the healthiest food for your little one.
When your various different things are done, (if you want to know how I time my food to get it right, just drop a note here and I'll be sure to add it here), you want to let them cool. More time to do things. Once they're body temperature, divide finished products into plastic air-tight containers so you can freeze them. You want about 50% potato 25% veggies and 25% meat.
Every morning put out a new few tubs (lunch; soup, dinner; roast) into the fridge to defrost as usually overnight isn't quite enough. Providing the containers are microwave safe- stick on for 3 minutes (or more depending how chunky the food is ^^;).
There you have it. A briefly detailed way on how to spare yourself the hasstle of oven dinners and how to ensure the healthiest food for your little one.
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