Cooking tips & tricks with a baby( or two) in tow
by Lisa Seltzer
know the feeling – after a day that’ s
I dictated by your baby’ s nap and feeding times, a day where you may have been covered in Vegemite-smeared hands, been accidentally head butted in the face by your toddler, and also not managed to get a single item of washing dry because of the incessant rain, the last thing you feel like doing is cooking.
But it’ s impossible to exist on toast seven days a week, take away food is expensive and actually, cooking can be quite fun sometimes( usually when everyone in the family actually eats what you’ ve cooked!).
Here are some useful tips for cooking and preparing food while you’ re at home with the kids.
Use nap times for food prep When you’ re a new mum, people often say“ sleep when the baby sleeps”. To these people I say – are you kidding?! I was blessed( hmm …) with two babies who after the first few weeks rarely napped for longer than 20 minutes at a time and so napping wasn’ t an option for me. Instead, I would throw on a load of washing, chop some vegies for a stir fry and bang them in the fridge for later, then down a cup of tea and we’ re off again. If your baby sleeps for several hours at a time, you’ ve got time to do some food preparation AND have a nap. Lucky you! Now my 4 year-old watches ABC for Kids while the baby naps and I can food prep.
Make preparing food and cooking an activity you can do with the kids If you do actually nap when your baby naps, well … try not to brag about it at mother’ s group. When everyone’ s awake, put the baby in a bouncer or a high chair, give them a toy or something to stare at and you can get to it. I now involve my 4 year-old in cooking – he pours and stirs( with supervision obviously) and loves
to help. As babies get older and wander around more, I find the plastics drawer is amazing – it’ s like heaven to babies and toddlers. Open it and see them examine and‘ play’ with all your Tupperware!
Chop necessary ingredients in the morning I am an avid fan of this strategy and food prep any other time is almost impossible( witching hour at 4.30pm anyone?). I prepare the pre-schooler’ s lunch, toddler’ s lunch and prepare as much for dinner as I can all at the same time. As my toddler wakes at 5am, I have plenty of time in the morning, but if your kids sleep in it’ s well worth getting up 30 mins before they’ re up to do this. I’ ve got a good system going now, and it feels pretty normal to chop carrots, zucchinis and chicken at 6.30am. Never thought I’ d ever say those words.
Use a slow cooker The slow cooker has been a revelation to me. Mine sat in the back of the cupboard until I was pregnant and everyone was telling me once I used it I’ d never look back, so I blew off the dust and tried making a chilli con carne. Success! Then I tried a beef and red wine casserole. Success! In fact, nothing I’ ve done in the slow cooker has ever been a failure. The concept is perfect for busy mums – throw the ingredients in in the morning, 8-10hrs later come home to a house smelling of amazingness and you have a delicious home-cooked meal. There are some awesome websites entirely devoted to slow cooker recipes, so find your favourites and embrace it.
Be realistic about what you cook You’ ve got kids, so it’ s probably not going to be possible to make a complicated risotto mid-week. Save the elaborate meals for weekends. Stick to vegies( frozen are great and so convenient) and a protein, soups, stews or pastas that can be made in big batches so you’ ve got something in the freezer for crazy days.
Find extremely generous family & friends who invite you over for dinner Everyone’ s super helpful when you first give birth, bringing food with them when they visit( well, the good visitors do anyway), but weeks and months afterwards, the freezer supplies start drying up and you’ re faced with having to learn how to multi-task, babe in arms. Why not forego this entirely and cosy up to your parents every Sunday for a roast, or start raving about how you LOVE your best friend’ s homemade quiche. It may work for a while!
And if in doubt, there’ s always eggs on toast.
Lisa is a freelance social media manager, working with clients to engage customers via social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Lisa has a degree in Marketing and a Diploma of Counselling, with a background in marketing for the publishing industry. She started freelancing in social media in 2015 after having her first child.
36 KIDZ ON THE COAST