Cutting down time in the kitchen

Ok, so I often get asked the question of whether I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. And  people seemed surprised when I answer with a resounding "NO!" Really. I'm not kidding. I love cooking and eating orgasmically delicious food but I don't want to spend all bloody day making a meal. I've got loads of other things I want to and have to do as well. So I how do I juggle making 3 wholesome nourishing meals a day plus snacks and run a small business on the side (plus look after 2 kids, exercise, and run a household and blah blah blah??????). Here are some of my time-saving tricks of the trade:

1. make casseroles a staple meal- these one pot wonders are ridiculously quick, easy and convenient to make. You literally throw everything in the pot at once - meat on the bone, stock, veggies and spices, put on the lid, whack it in the oven on low temp (80-120 degrees) and forget about it until your next meal. A casserole takes me about 3-4 minutes to prepare  (if you don't believe me ask one of the Roosters boys- they timed me the other day during a cooking class!) and that included taking the meat out of the plastic wrapping and chopping any veggies. You can throw it together before you leave for work to come home to a dinner already made. Or make it in the evening for dinner the folioing night. Think a day or half a day ahead.

2. stretch a casserole over several meals by keeping it in the oven on super low heat (e.g. 80 degrees) over the course of a couple of days. e.g. consume some of the casserole for dinner, leave the rest in the oven overnight and in the morning I put some of it in the kids' and Grant's Thermos containers for them to take to school/work for lunch, then I leave the remainder in the oven for me to have later that day for my lunch. This saves you from sticking it the fridge and dirtying pots to reheat it. The longer a casserole stays in the oven the more tender the meat becomes and the more concentrated the flavour. No down side and less cleaning up in between.

2. make time consuming things in bulk. e.g. stock, pate, rissoles, sauerkraut. I make about 15 litres of stock at a time in a big stock pot and spend about an hour once every fortnight straining the stock,  pouring into smaller containers for freezing, and picking meat off the bones. You don't want to be making stock every second day.

3. cook most vegetables by steaming. Its much faster than frying and roasting and it retains more nutrients than boiling. To steam super efficiently boil water in the kettle, add unwashed  veggies in the  steamer, pour boiling water from the kettle onto steamed veggies which washes them at the same time as pouring boiling water into the bottom of the  steamer. Kills 2 birds with one stone......

4. I'm not fastidious about peeling or washing organic veggies unless they obviously look really dirty or mangey or covered with clumps of dirt. We live in too sterile an environment. A bit of soil or bacteria here and there from a chemical free organic farm is just the ticket to building our ailing immunity and diversifying our gut flora. And while we're talking veggies,  I know different veggies cook at different speeds e.g. carrots takes much longer than zucchinis....but damed if I'm going to stand around in the kitchen and add different vegetables to the pot/steamer at different times. The way around this is to cut the veggies into different sizes to take account of their cooking time. e.g. chop a whole zucchini in half or thirds but chop a carrot more finely, so they end up cooking at the same time. Get it?! Same rule applies when I add veggies to casseroles. Sweet potato and carrots take the longest to cook so cut these smaller than say potatoes or green veggies.

5. Throw left over meat into salads for lunch the next day. I add left over veggies and left over meat into a saucepan with home made stock to make a quick soup. This is my typical week day lunch.

6. I buy meat in bulk every week or fortnight- some I keep in the fridge to consume fresh and the rest I freeze. This saves me from going to the butcher frequently. I defrost meat when the fresh meat is about to run out. I take turns with fish, chicken, pork, beef and lamb but eat more of the latter 2 meats (for better omega 3/6 balance). Yes in an ideal world we would consume everything fresh and not freeze, but hey, its not a perfect world and unless you are fortunate enough to live walking distance from a great butcher or you happen to drive past one frequently, only eating fresh (not frozen) meat is a lofty aspiration.

7. I don't eat grains and legumes so I am now saving a stack of time on not having to properly prepare those time consuming little suckers!!  Grains and legumes are a relatively recent addition to the human diet (they were only introduced 10,000 years ago as part of the agricultural revolution which is a tiny blip in the context of human evolution when you consider that our genes were set 2.6 million years ago on a hunter gatherer diet). Grains and legumes are nutritionally unnecessary (esp if you are consuming meat or dairy), contain toxins in the outer husk which lead to digestive issues and gut problems (e.g. leaky gut, autoimmune diseases) and leach vitamins and minerals out of the body, esp in children. The bottom line is that they do more harm than good and not only that it is really time consuming to properly prepare them by soaking or sprouting in a bid to remove some (but alas not all) of the phytates (toxins) contained in the outer husk. I shudder at the thought of all those wasted hours and hours I spent as a vegetarian soaking, rinsing, sprouting, stirring while cooking to prevent sticking and burning etc etc.

8. keep it super simple with a meat and 3 veg meal. e.g. lamb cutlets or steak plus a salad or some steamed veggies. This is really quick to make, no fuss and never disappoints.

9. when you have NOTHING prepared for lunch or dinner (or when you've just stepped in the door from a week holiday to a fridge devoid of fresh produce or meat as I did this week) then you cant go wrong with a cup of broth, a chunk of cheese, some sauerkraut and an egg. This is the advantage of having the following staples in my fridge at all times: stock, eggs, cheese, sauerkraut. They have longevity, nutrient-density and convenience.

So what do you think- do these ideas help? What are some of  your time-saving tricks??

Growing healthy babies…naturally Workshop!

I am excited to announce that I will be running a new 2 part workshop series on growing healthy babies naturally. I will be co-presenting with Dr Chloe Baxter, paediatric doctor at the Sydney Children’s Hospital, and mother of 2 young children. Chloe embraces the importance of nourishing traditional wholefoods for prospective parents and children, and is a living and breathing advocate of attachment parenting, breastfeeding and co-sleeping.

Also co-presenting on various topics will be close friend and mother of 2 children Roni Rutland – baby carrier expert and a wealth of information especially on Aware Parenting practices.

As mothers of young children, Chloe, Roni and I will be talking from personal and practical experience.

Topics to be covered include:

Part 1 (pre-childbirth):

• Nutrition for prospective parents and pregnant mothers
• Conception (detoxification from contraceptive pill, ovulation cycle, natural fertility management)
• The role of supplements during pregnancy
• Nausea / morning sickness (causes and treatment)
• Preparing for labour (vaginal preparation, hypnobirthing, yoga and other physical activity)
• Birthing options (hospital, home birth, birthing centre, role of doulas)
• Child spacing and relevance of mothers’ age

Part 2 (post-childbirth):

• Breastfeeding vs formula
• Babywearing and baby carriers
• Co-sleeping – should you do it and how?
• Crying – what it means and how to deal with it
• Introducing solids (what and when)
• Lotions, potions and the world of baby product marketing
• Baby equipment – what’s necessary and what’s not? (prams, cots, breastfeeding pillows, high chairs, nappies)
• Immunisation - are vaccines necessary?
• Child-proofing - is it necessary?
• Additional support (ABA, mothers groups, playgroups, health care professions eg dentists, osteopaths, psychologists)
• Discussion of highly recommended books and websites

This workshop will be run in a very casual and relaxed manner with opportunities to ask plenty of questions and provide comments. We will demonstrate the practical application of various baby carriers and other pregnancy/parenting aids. You will be given handouts of topics covered and a listing of highly recommended parenting books and resources.

I appreciate that everyone has a different view on pregnancy and parenting– few topics can generate such heated debate! Even Chloe, Roni and I have slightly different views on various topics. This shows that there is plenty of room for differences of opinion and what works for one parent (or child) may not work for another. And that’s OK!

This workshop is ideal for:

• Prospective parents
• Parents who already have children and are contemplating having another
• Parents who wish to meet and connect with other like-minded parents.

Workshop details set out below:

Date: Saturday 16 June 2012 and Saturday 23 June 2012

Time: 10am-12pm

Venue: 77A Hewlett Street Bronte 2024.

Cost:  $90 for both sessions (4 hours in total) or $50 for a single session. Special price of $55 for both sessions (a 40% discount!) for those who have booked or plan to book into my October Blue Mountains retreat.

A light morning tea will be provided. Babes in arms welcome but please leave crawlers and older children with loved ones.

Due to space constraints, numbers will be limited. To secure a space you will need to pre-pay by direct deposit into my bank account (details provided in due course after you email me confirmation of attendance).

Liquid Gold: How to incorporate bone broths into meals

Recently someone asked me how they can incorporate bone broths into more of their meals. Great question!! Here are 8 suggestions:

1. add some broth to bottom of saucepan in place of water when re-heating food to prevent food from sticking

2. add 1-2 tablespoons of gelatinous beef broth in your smoothies (you wont taste it!)

3. add broth instead of water to cover or partly cover food when making a casserole

4. use broth as the base of soups instead of water (eg use chicken stock as the base for making pumpkin soup, throw in some steamed veggies to any type of broth for a vegetable soup)

5. use ready made bovine gelatin to make jelly for kids’ parties. This can be purchased for $39.50 on line at GPA Wholefoods. This product contains one ingredient- ground up beef bones. This is one of the very few packaged products that I buy/recommend. I used this to make a fabulous watermelon jelly for my daughter’s birthday party earlier this year using only 3 ingredients – bovine gelatin, boiling water to dissolve the gelatin and watermelon. There was NO ADDED SWEETENER!! I added 1 tablespoon of beef gelatin (dissolved in a little boiling water) for every 1 cup of watermelon. I reckon you might be able to do the same thing with home made gelatinous beef broth - I haven’t tried it but would be very interested to see how this turned out. I would try mixingbeef broth with mango flesh and refrigerating to make a mango jelly in summer…… I’ll try next summer and report back! It sounds bizarre, I know, but beef broth is rather tasteless when cold so adding it to fruit to make a jelly might work a treat.

6. adding a few tablespoons of beef or chicken broth to the food processor when making pate, especially if you want to thin down your mixture.

7. for the brave-hearted - eating cold gelatinous beef broth straight off the spoon –my daughter loves eating it like this. A good bone broth should have a jelly consistency when cold so scoop it out of your jar from the fridge and watch it giggle on a spoon stright into little ones mouths…..just 1 mouthful is like medicine!

8. serve ½ - 1 cup of broth as an entrée to at least one meal a day (eg dinner). My family knows the drill well- if you don’t drink your broth you don’t get your main meal. Broth is served as an entrée in many traditional cultures. And for good reason- the gelatin in the broth aids in digesting your meal especially meats. The broth can be served plain or you can jazz it up a bit by:

• adding a squeeze of lemon and salt to chicken broth (very Cypriot),

• blending an egg and parmeson cheese into beef broth when heating it (if adding the whole egg make sure that the broth heats up the egg white enough to cook it otherwise just add the yolk – egg whites should never be consumed raw. As to why- refer to one of my previous posts)

• adding caramelised onion and garlic and some sage and thyme to beef broth to make a quick French onion soup

• adding some lemon, butter and paprika to fish stock.

Bone-Broth image

If you have any further suggestions I'd love to hear them.

What’s so special about bone broths? When making broth the water molecules tug apart the connective tissue in skin, ligaments, cartilage and even bone releasing a special family of joint-building molecules called glycosaminoglycans (part of the collagen family of biomolecules). The 3 most famous members of this family are glucosamine, chondriotin sulfate and hyaluronic acid. These are often found in nutritional supplements but these processed supplements are not a patch on gelatinous stocks which house the entire extended family of glycosaminoglycans.

Glucosamine is somehow able to resist normal digestive processes and pass through the intestinal wall intact. Once it gets into your bloodstream it targets cartilage.  It stimulates the growth of new healthy collagen and helps repair damaged joints. Collagen is not just in our joints but in bone, skin, arteries, hair and just about everything in between! This means bone broth is a kind of youth serum capable of rejuvenating your body no matter what your age. It is especially important for athletes and anyone with osteo-skeletal issues. Recently a beautician friend asked me if I had botox. Ha! She looked a bit puzzled when I told her that a long time ago I replaced expensive face creams and body lotions with $5 bags of bones from my butcher and watched my skin glow!