Slow food in a hurry

I got talking to some other mums again the other day and mentioned how I like to cook a lot of my own things from scratch now to avoid highly processed foods full of additives. One sniffed and said "That's alright for you, you don't have to work!". Whilst my head was full of things I wanted to shout at her (like "Yeah, I just sit around drinking cups of tea and reading trashy romance novels all day!!"), I can fully sympathise with the difficulty in preparing nourishing, additive-free meals, in a hurry. There's nothing like having been up all night with a sick child, followed by a day full of clingy whinging from said 3 year old, accompanied by a bossy 1 year old demanding my full time attention - and then having to help another child with homework before dinner - to send me running to the freezer or pantry for whatever will get food on the table the fastest, come dinner time! Fortunately my kids like baked beans ;-)

For a non-cook like me, there's no denying that cutting out the processed stuff (and most meat dishes!) left a big hole in my limited culinary repertoire, so it's been a slow process over the past year, working through new styles of cooking, looking for every short-cut I can find, and trying to find new recipes that the kids will eat. Very fortunately for me, I quickly discovered that my kids like pulses (chick peas, kidney beans etc) more than meat, so that helped me immensely. Anyway, I thought it might be helpful to share some of my successes here - and I am of course, VERY open to suggestions for what works for you!

* I am in love with my slow cooker (also known as a crock pot). These are having a resurgence in popularity since their heyday in the 70's, and for good reason. So easy to use, just throw in the ingredients in the morning, whack it on low, and wait for delicious smells to start wafting through your house :-) If I'm really pressed for time and haven't organised a recipe, I just throw in whatever fresh vegetables I have on hand, roughly chopped, and tip a couple of tins of diced tomatoes over the top with some dried herbs mixed in. Just before dinner I add a tin of chick peas or other pulse and cook some wholemeal pasta, and serve the sauce over the top with grated cheese. This simple dish has a multitude of variations, and of course adding chopped meat with the veggies for non-vegetarians, really bulks it up.

* It took me a while to come to terms with dried beans, since, for the most part, they require pre-soaking and cooking. A good 90% of the time I'd forget to pre-soak them overnight and would have to resort to cooking something else for dinner (I blame it on "nappy-brain"). However, I then discovered that you can freeze them at the pre-soaked or pre-cooked stage! So that means when I have the time, I soak and cook bulk lots of dried beans such as chick peas, and freeze them in individual portions, ready for later use.

* On the subject of pre-soaked beans and lentils, I cook mine in the rice cooker. Set and forget! Generally 1 cup of beans or lentils to 2 cups of water or stock. I also do porridge in the rice cooker, sometimes with sultanas, yum.

* Stir frys are so quick and easy, but I used to rely fairly heavily on packets of frozen veggies, even though the taste/ texture was always inferior to fresh vegetables. I find it difficult to do much cutting of veggies with littlies underfoot during arsenic hour at night, so I pre-chop the veg either in the morning (I don't like TV much, but I love Playschool), or even the night before, and pop them in a sealed container in the fridge covered with damp paper towel or a damp (clean) cotton dishcloth , which keeps them crisp.

* I'm not always successful, but I try really hard to do meal plans a week in advance. This not only helps with my grocery shopping (faster, no wasted food), but it stops episodes of it's-5pm-what's-in-the-fridge-it-must-be-takeaway-night.

* Homemade pizza is a firm favourite here. I make the dough (wholemeal or wholegrain) in the breadmaker (it takes less than 5 minutes to measure out the ingredients), then we roll it out onto pizza trays and the kids decorate their own. You can make the dough earlier in the day and leave it in the fridge until you need it, or roll it out onto the pizza trays and freeze it. Us adults love homemade pesto that I make with my basil when in season, and then freeze in ice cube trays. *Way* nicer than Pizza Hut ;-)

* I have invested in a pressure cooker, although I am yet to use it for anything more than a trial run, LOL. Any tips are welcome! In theory this should save a huge amount of time for many slow cooking dishes such as curries, that are nicer on the stovetop than in the slow cooker. They are also terrific for cooking dried pulses and grains such as rice, in a short time. Of course, this should also save on energy (natural gas in my case).

* I am blessed with a lovely mother in law who minds my two youngest children one day a week, which gives me a chance to do cooking and cleaning without any "help" from the girls. I use this chance to try and cook and freeze some after school/ work snacks such as date slice or fruit muffins, amongst other things. Muffins in particular are so quick to make and freeze really well. There are so many low-fat, low-sugar recipes on the 'net too, my faves are sweetened with applesauce instead of sugar, which also makes them nice and moist.

* My DH doesn't have time to pack his lunch for work in the morning, so he makes the most of the fridge available at his work. Periodically he buys butter, a loaf of bread and basic, healthy sandwich fillings from the local supermarket and stores them in the work fridge. He can then make a fresh salad sandwich at lunch time (no soggy bread, no wrapping and stacks cheaper than takeaway).

There are probably other things I do but they evade me at the moment (see above, up all night with a sick child), and as I said, any other hints will be gratefully accepted :-)