Natural Family Recipes Blog

Busy days can lead to frustration when it comes to making dinner. Who has time to fix a meal when they don’t get home until 6pm or later? Better yet, who feels like cooking a meal after a hard day’s work?  So, what’s a girl to do in order to avoid frozen dinners or worse yet, fast food?  Use your weekends off to prepare all your meals for the upcoming week.

We’ve all been there at least once and if you’re like me, more times than we wish to admit.  We go to the grocery store and spend a ton of money so that there will be food in the house. We then make a promise to cook each and every night since the food is already there and ready to be consumed.

But, guess what happens? I come home from work late and I am tired. Everyone else is tired from work and school and no one wants to cook. It falls on me to cook so I suggest that we order take-out food. We spend twenty or thirty dollars on food for one meal when we have a freezer full of food. Have you been there, too?  Not a very good choice when we’re trying hard to save money, right?

One way I’ve found to stop this endless cycle is to pick one day on the weekend and have a cooking party. Yes, you read that right - a cooking party. I make a menu for the week and thaw out the food on Friday. Then, on Saturday morning I get to work. The kids can help me if they choose and when they do, they get a say in what we will be eating.

For your weekend cooking party, decide on the menu early. This ensures that everything needed is present and accounted for. Start with the meats. They will take the longest to cook so get that going and try to have a variety so you’re not bored with the same meats all week long.

Side dishes should be prepared, too. It seems like such a small thing to cook the main part of the meal and save the rest for later. What usually happens is no one feels like cooking anything. Avoid the drama by cooking everything at the same time.

Cooking that much food for later requires containers to hold it all. There are two ways this can be done. One way is to use containers that are large enough for each side dish and the main meat courses. Each day, take a meat and two sides out of the fridge and heat it up for dinner.

The second way gives the family a little more of a choice each day of what they want to eat. When the food cools (everything needs to cool before placing it in containers), have each person scoop what they want to eat into a serving container. Have one meat and two sides per container. In the absence of the family you can do it yourself. Label each with what is inside. During the week, everyone can pick from a variety of dinner combinations.

Each works, but it is up to you to decide which is better for your family. Cooking on the weekend saves time and money because you’ll be less tempted to go out when you’re tired from working all day.  Not to mention, for once you’re sure to use the leftovers!

If your food makes more meals than you could eat in a week, freeze several of them for another time. Simply thaw each meal the day you plan to serve it.  Yes, you will have to make an investment in dinner size containers, but it pays off the more you use them.  Once you see how much stress you relieve and healthier your family is eating it will be well worth the initial cost.

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1 lb. split peas
1 onion, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
1 potato, diced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 bay leaf
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1 ts sea salt
pepper to taste
8 cups water, chicken or vegetable broth

Combine all ingredients in the crock of your slow cooker. Cook for 8 hours or more on low, or 4 hours on high.
You can also add a slice or two of natural, nitrite free bacon for flavor, or chopped leftover meat.
 

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This recipe can be used as a topping for nachos or as a stew depending on how much liquid ingredients you add.

Step One - Combine the following ingredients in a slow cooker crock:

2 Cups Chopped Sweet Peppers (Red or Green or combination)
1 Cup Lentils (Dry - rinse and drain first)
1 Cup Chopped Onion
1/2 Cup Brown Rice (Dry)
4 Cloves Garlic
2 Tsp. Chili Powder
1 Tsp. Sea Salt
4 Cups Chicken or Vegetable Broth

Cook for 8 hours on low or 5 hours on high.

In last 30 minutes of cooking time, add:

1 Summer Squash, sliced thin

Serve on top of organic corn tortilla chips along with traditional Mexican side dishes such as cheese, salsa,
sour cream and lettuce.

Or, add more broth to make stew.

Serves 8.

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In the crock of your slow cooker, mix the following ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds organic stew meat
1 1/2 pounds butternut squash (peeled, seeded and chopped - you can also buy frozen chopped squash)
2 small onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups organic beef broth
1 small can tomato sauce
2 T. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. dry mustard
1/4 tsp. black pepper
Cook for 8 to 10 hours on low or 4 to 5 hours on high.

In last 15 minutes of cooking, turn to high heat setting. In a small bowl mix:

1/2 cup cold water
4 tsp. cornstarch

Stir into slow cooker. Add one package of frozen green beans at this time too.

Serves 6.

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Soak overnight in water:

2/3 cup each kidney and red beans
1/3 cup each pinto, black, lima, and garbanzo beans
1/3 cup each lentils
1/3 cup split and black eye peas

The next day, place beans in the crock of a slow cooker along with:

2 diced carrots
2 stalks diced celery
1 large chopped onion
1 bay leaf
2 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. minced garlic
5-6 cups water

Cook for 8 hours on low or 5 hours on high.

When beans are soft, add:

Sea salt and pepper to taste
1 can diced tomatoes
(do not add these ingredients before beans are soft or they will take much longer to cook)

Can also be flavored with a beef bone or a slice of all natural bacon (add to start of cooking).

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If you or someone in your family has a wheat allergy or intolerance, you know how challenging it can be having to learn how to bake from scratch without wheat. Wheat free and gluten free mixes like this one from Bob’s Red Mill can be very convenient, especially when you’re just learning how to replace wheat with other grains.

Bob’s Red Mill products are more reasonably priced than some other gluten/wheat free mixes, which gives them a real thumbs up in my book. When I saw this mix in my local grocery store (it was a large chain not a small health food store), I cooked up a batch of cornbread to go along with my beans. I was very pleased with the flavor.

The finished product was a little “wetter” than the cornbread I’m accustomed to, but I’ll have to experiment to see if perhaps using a wider or a different pan yields different results. Also, the cornbread is a little sweet which is fine if that’s how you’re used to eating cornbread. I’m from the South and we don’t eat our cornbread sweet, but I still liked the taste.

The next day I made the leftovers into cornbread dressing, which was also very tasty although again a little on the moist side. Overall it’s a very good product for the price, and very convenient to use too. The Bob’s Red Mill website is a nice source of wheat and gluten free recipes so you can expand your repertoire of wheat/gluten free
baking.

Bob’s Red Mill flours and baking mixes are available at amazon.com

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In the crock of a slow cooker, mix the following:

1/2 cup tamari
1/3 cup Sucanat or Rapadura (can substitute pure maple syrup)
1 tsp. minced garlic (or more to taste)
1 can tomato sauce

Stir to combine. Add:

8 chicken legs (drumsticks with thigh)

Cook on low for 5 hours. Serves 6.

Goes great with brown rice and steamed vegetables.

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