5 things to do when you dont have time to cook

It seems like such a nice idea, wholesome food cooked from scratch with love. What better way to nurture your young family? The trouble is, even if you love cooking some days you want to go to a toddler group, or school run is at exactly the wrong time, or you are just too busy. So how can you provide a nutritious, home cooked meal when you simply don't have time to cook?

1. Use a slow cooker

Slow cookers are great, and not just for stews! You can put all the ingredients in before you go out and come home to a hot meal that just needs to be served up. Some have a cooking time of just two or three hours, which will be perfect for lunchtime and others cook all day while you are out on adventures. You could do jacket potatoes or soup for a light lunch, bolognaise sauce that just needs some quickly cooked pasta or a lightly spiced tagine style stew. Yum! If you have an aga you can use the slow oven in exactly the same way, bringing the food to a boil before putting it in. I've been know to start a stew in the aga 24 hours before we needed to eat it!

 

2. Use the oven timer

A lot of ovens these days come with timers and can be set to turn themselves on and off at certain times. This is perfect if you know you'll be in at an exact time, after the school run or a class for example. Just put the food in the oven before you go out and program it to turn on half an hour before you get home. Obviously you will want to be careful of putting things like raw fish in the oven at room temperature for hours so this method might be best for vegetarian dishes or times when you wont be out of the house for too long. I tend to program it to be ready ten minutes after I plan to get home, and to turn off automatically, just incase we get delayed.

 

3. Use leftovers

If you know you have a busy day coming up why not cook extra the night before and just have leftovers? Lots of leftovers can be turned into new dishes too, especially things like plain cooked meat and vegetables, which can become a stir fry, a frittata or a pie in next to no time. Bolognaise can become a lasagne (which you can then put in the slow cooker or in the oven on a timer) or add a few beans and spices for chilli.

 

4. Use quick cook foods

On busy days you don't have to produce a roast dinner or cheese soufflé (you never have to produce soufflé unless you want to!) There is nothing wrong with having a few quick meals on hand for when you want to go out, or to pull out when plans go wrong. Scrambles eggs on toast served with fruit and yogurt covers all the food groups and will be ready in minutes. 

 

5. Use your freezer

Ok, so this won't help you much if your freezer only contains icecream, but it is a useful tool to combine with the other tools. Why not make an extra pasta bake next time and freeze it? Then cook it using the oven timer? Slow cooker meal kits (or "dump bags") are so quick and easy to do, and home made chicken nuggets can be cooked from frozen. It takes a little bit of planning but you'll be so grateful on busy days, sometimes I manage to only cook once a week! 

PS

I'm not saying every meal has be cooked from scratch, everyone has different ideas about using packets, tins and ready made food. You might be happy with opening a tin most days, or occasionally, or not at all. That's fine by me, you know what's best for your family!

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If you are struggling to find time to cook delicious food every day then my new course is perfect for you. Easy Family Food is all about letting dinner make itself while you get out of the kitchen and get on with life! 

Top tips for eating out with Toddlers

Do you take your toddler out to eat in public? Some parents seem to manage reasonably civilised meals while others spend the time trying to persuade a wayward child to sit down, stop shouting and please try just one mouthful! If you would like to enjoy the odd meal out, these tips may help.

1. Time the meal carefully

If your child normally eats at 12 then it would be wise to arrive at a restaurant at around that time, or even a little earlier. An over-hungry or tired child is unlikely to sit calmly and wait while your order is cooked, and if you keep them quiet with breadsticks or other snacks they may not eat when the food does arrive. It might also be worth considering places with a self serve salad bar or buffet since you wont have to wait.

2. Choose your table

Even if your are seated by a server you can always ask for a specific table, or a table in a particular area. A good choice might be near a window, where your toddler can watch passing traffic, or near the kitchen if you can watch the chef. At self serve places it's a good idea to sit near the buffet if you are on your own. That way you can fetch food much more easily.

3. Bring supplies

If your baby is still quite small it would be a good idea to bring a bib with you, and perhaps his usual cutlery and sippy cup as well. Older toddlers will enjoy using the adult versions of course. You might also want to bring some small, quiet toys to keep them occupied before or after eating. A toy car or two, some drawing paper or little toy animals can all be good options. Really you want things that engage your child's imagination so they can play independently for an unspecified length of time.

4. Be there with your child

It can be tempting to treat a meal out as an opportunity to chat with other adults and hope your toddler just sits quietly and lets you have some peace! While that is totally understandable, and you should be able to have some adult conversation, it rarely works well. Your child is a part of the group and she will respond much better if she feels included. Ask her what she would like to order (perhaps giving just two or three options) and include her in the conversation where you can. Then, while she is busy drawing a picture, you can grab a minute to chat to your friend.

5. Prepare at home

A child who has never learnt table manners at home wont suddenly behave differently when out and about. Expect your toddler to sit up at the table, use cutlery and eat a wide variety of foods everyday and those things wont come as a surprise. It's also a good idea to have a toddler sit at the table for a few minutes after they have finished eating, gradually lengthening that time. Again, if they are used to jumping down and running about the moment they have had the last bite then they will expect to do the same in a café. If your child is a fussy eater then these tips may help you avoid daily battles over a spoonful of peas.

Nutrition for Toddlers

Recently a few people have asked me about nutrition for toddlers, do they need different foods (or a different balance of foods) to adults? Obviously babies have all their needs met through breast milk or formula and during weaning they will have a combination of both. But what about toddlers and pre-schoolers, what do they need?

Growth

Protein is especially important for children since it's needed for both physical and brain growth, so they need a bit more than most adults do. Meats provide a complete protein, but if your family avoids meat you will need to be sure to eat a wide variety of beans, pulses etc to get all the different amino acids needed for growth and repair. This is especially true during growth spurts.

Calcium is important for growing strong and healthy bones, and for most families it is found in milk. A child under five needs about a pint of milk a day, but this includes milk in yoghurts, cheese, served on breakfast cereals, mashed into potatoes etc. so they may not need to drink very much at all. Because children need a full fat diet (see energy, below) this should be whole milk until they are at least two. If the child has a good diet they can have semi-skimmed milk after that but it would be preferable to keep to whole milk until they are five. Children who can't drink milk from cows/goats etc should be given breast milk or formula until they are two so that they don't miss out on any of those nutrients. After that there are many vegan sources of calcium, although it's a good idea to take a B12 supplement as well.

Energy

Children need a lot of calories for energy, both for growth and for all that running about. Most of that energy comes from carbohydrates and fat, if they don't get enough from those sources protein will be used for energy instead of growth.

Children need a full fat diet, which means things like whole milk, full fat yoghurts, avocados, oily fish and oil used in normal cooking. It doesn't mean a lot of fried foods and those should be kept to a minimum. If you follow a low fat diet make sure that there are full fat options available for your toddler.

Starchy carbohydrates are also important, things like bread, pasta and potatoes. Generally you don't want to offer these in overly large portions as a lot of children will fill up on them and not eat much of anything else. Follow the link to see what a portion size actually is, most parents are very surprised. It's a good idea to include wholegrain versions of these foods, but don't go overboard with fibre. Unlike adults children don't need much fibre and it can fill them up too much and stop them absorbing all the nutrients they need from their other foods. So go ahead and serve wholemeal bread or brown pasta, but keep the bran flakes for adults only.

Vitamins and Minerals

When talking about feeding children the mineral that always gets a mention is salt. The salt that naturally occurs in various foods is fine but avoid adding any salt during cooking or at the table. If adults like extra salt it would be better to add it away from the table so the child doesn't see, since they will inevitably want to copy. Avoid large quantities of high salt foods like bacon, cheese or gravy but a small amount wont do any harm.

Other vitamins and minerals are found in fruit and vegetables and it is important to eat a wide variety of those since each one contains different nutrients. As a general guide you will get the widest variety if you eat fruits and vegetables of different colours so try to make sure that your "five a day" aren't all green! Since vitamins can easily be destroyed during cooking it is best to include some raw vegetables as well as the cooked ones. Things like carrot and cucumber sticks make ideal snacks.

What does that look like?

So, how does this all translate into an actual meal? Lets say you are making spaghetti bolognaise for your family. You might choose to use a mince that has a moderate fat content, perhaps 15%, and include several different vegetables in the sauce. You would serve your child a proportionally bigger helping of sauce compared to the amount of pasta they have and might put some cheese on the top. The meal would be followed by a full fat yoghurt and a piece of fruit.

For information on what a portion size looks like this table by the infant and toddler forum is an excellent resource. Since all children are different I would consider these pictures to show a minimum amount, so long as your child eats this much there is no need to encourage them to have more. However some children are growing fast and have big appetites so it's much better to give them larger portions than to restrict their meals and end up giving less healthy snacks later on.