Hints & Tips

Equipment and organization.

1. Plan your meals for the week. Do a “big” shop once a week, with a top up for fresh fruit, veg and dairy produce,  mid week, as needed.
2. Have a hand mixer and food processor readily available for use. When you are really tired, it’s just too much effort to get them out of the cupboard each time you need them.
3.  I am not a big fan of microwaves, but one is useful for making sauces, reheating, thawing out frozen food, as well as baking potatoes etc 
4. Study the instruction booklet for your cooker and learn how to use the automatic timer. If you know you will be getting home from work late and you have thought and planned ahead, the lovely smell of a hot meal can greet you! If mornings in your house are hectic, check if there instructions for oven cooked porridge in the recipe booklet. There may be other breakfast recipes as well - oven cooked poached eggs on toast were very successful when my girls were at home.It took seconds to prepare the night before, and saved so much time in the mornings.
5.  Keep your freezer well stocked with varieties  of frozen veg - peas, various beans, mixed veg, sweetcorn etc 
6. Where possible, double or treble recipes and pop the extra in the freezer for when you really are too busy to cook. This works particularly well with casseroles, fruit crumbles and cakes etc. I will indicate on recipes where I have found this to be particularly successful.

Puddings.

I love puddings! The more cream and chocolate they have in them, the happier I am! However, I do try to eat sensibly most of the time, so those puddings are a very special treat. For “every day” puddings:

1. Packets of frozen summer fruits are very useful for a quick pudding - thaw and serve with honey and creme fraiche.
2. Fresh fruits are fantastic for quick puddings and easily made into fruit salads etc. This summer, I gave up buying fresh pears. They seemed to be rock hard for days and by the time they were soft enough to use, they were rotten in the middle.I now keep a can of pears in juice in the cupboard, also pineapple and mandarin oranges.Small cartons of fruit juice are useful for adding moisture to fruit salads, if you don’t want to add fresh. A couple of cans of pitted cherries in juice (Sainsbury’s) are a useful stand by for a quick pud and look very pretty with a swirl of cream on the top.(Expect children to count them to see that they have been fairly divided!).
3. Bananas are such a useful fruit! Sliced up with brown sugar and cream they make a wonderful quick pud. With  a little bit of raspberry or strawberry jam at the bottom of the dish, sliced banana topped with custard, you have yet another simple pud. If you make the custard in the microwave, it will be made in about 4 minutes and you’ll only have a measuring jug and spoon to wash up! (I’ve never tried the “dead” custard you can buy ready made. I’d rather use fresh milk and get some goodness. Proper custard made with eggs?Much better again, but I don’t have the energy to make it when I’ve been working all day! ). Bananas too ripe? Banana bread is delicious!
4. Yoghurt is a great stand by for quick puds. It can be served for adults with honey and flaked almonds. Children (and big kids!) may enjoy it with jam. I think blackcurrant and raspberry are particularly tasty. Some children will reject plain yoghurt, but stir in a little honey and encourage them to make patterns or faces with fruits etc and watch them eat it! Think of the calcium they are getting!