Mak - no choice but to be organised - my DH lives in a truck so we do a lot of precooking and freezing (usually have three slow cookers on the go when he's home for a weekend every month) - but we had a freezer (or two) FULL of food before Black Saturday (and the fires that hit our town the weekend before) and the power outages meant we lost all of it. this weekend is my opportunity to finally catch us up on all of the cooking and get ourselves ahead again. esp seeing i won't be doing much cooking after Gremlin arrives!
my aunt doesn't consider baked beans a meal (cos my grandparents didn't) so she won't eat them. i've talked to her about omelettes, quiche, scrambled eggs (i've survived on stuff like that while pg cos it's so easy) but she's not a big fan of eggs. i'd love to get her to cook a zuchinni slice with a heap of veg in it and freeze some for alter, but she isn't interested in that kinda thing (fussy wench!)
she was seeing a dietician but wouldn't tell us what they were telling her, but i KNOW it wouldn't be to have takeaway coffee and vanilla slice every few days, so we've decided to take it on ourselves again. fun fun fun
She is really lucky to have people around her that care so much - I had GD so pretty much lived on eggs and tuna with heaps of veges - but sounds like you have a bit more of a challenge on your hands. The dietician I saw was a big fan of beans!!! Some other snacks I used were Diet yoghurt, nuts (almonds especially) and peanut butter or cheese on 9 grain vitaweets. But a bit of a change from vanilla slices....We also made homemade pizzas on pita bread as a quickie also!
didn't get it all done - i love my mum, but her and her sister are damn hopeless at large scale stuff - what would take DH and I about 2 hours to get everything on the go took maybe 6 with them dilly dallying around. no matter how much i tried to say "hey, let's do it this way" it just didn't sink in! so i'm heading back to mum's today. i guess the fact that mum said "yeah, i have plenty of room" and then couldn't have more than four slow cookers on the go at once... grrrrrr
i left home at half 8 yesterday morning, got home just on midnight (crashed big time) - told her i'd be back around lunch time today so there goes another half day
BUT - having said that - there was not a single flop out of what we made (and it actually sunk in with my aunt!). yesterday we managed to cook:
potato soup
meatballs
chicken bolognaise
spaghetti bolognaise
braised lamb
braised beef
cottage pie base (will top with mash today and put them in the freezer)
today we're just doing the meal sized portions of all of that and cooking vegie soup and chicken stirfry
am exhausted, but it's not too hard to get these things done and mum's couch is comfy enough for me and Gremlin to have a break (cos Gremlin is kinda over mummy cooking i think!)
next mass cook up is at MY house, MY set up, MY rules - we'll get it all done really quickly!
BG - even though it was slower than your normal pace I would like to say congrats - it is still a fair effort!
It was a super long day for you - hope you were ok today! So glad that it sunk in with your aunt and she enjoys the yummy meals you have prepared together.
ok - final tally for the weekend and then i'm heading home for a much earlier night in bed tonight
potato soup - 7 serves eaten, more left (which mum will keep) - ingredients mum had at home so no cost
meatballs - 5 serves - none for the freezer (was lunch yesterday)
chicken bolognaise - 16 meals for the freezer
spaghetti bolognaise - 6 meals with white sauce as pasta bake, 9 meals for the freezer
braised lamb - 8 meals for the freezer
braised beef - 8 meals for the freezer
cottage pie base (will top with mash today and put them in the freezer) - meal for 4 today, and 4 for the freezer
chicken stirfry - 8 meals for the freezer
vegie soup (pumpkin bought spesh, but everything else was left over veg) - 20 meals for the freezer
now, including buying basics for my aunt's place (gravox, chicken stock powder, beef stock powder, vege stock powder, pepper etc) it cost us around $240 between the three of us
so $240, essentially 88 meals, so under $3 a meal - and three freezers looking a whole lot healthier!
Fantastic job!!! I am very inspired by your cook-a-thon....also seems like a great plan for the family budget too. I agree with tk1999 - looks like a slow cooker is a must have.
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