New Year, New Blog
Only a few days into 2017, kids home from school and it seems like a good time to Take Chances, Get Messy and Make Mistakes.
Our kids might have received the entire season of Magic School Bus DVDs at Christmas so if that line seems familiar now you know where you remember it from.
New Years brings reflection on the past year and setting new goals for the year ahead. This year, while on maternity leave, I want to make a renewed commitment to writing blog articles from a list I’ve intended to post for a while.
My goal is to give a realistic view of how a dietitian mom feeds her three growing boys. I can only imagine the little giant men appetites we will encounter!
I am no chef, but I am a mom who loves to cook, tries far too many new recipes, new ingredients and I love to find ways to include our whole family in the preparation. Most are an overall success, but I have my failures (or disasters!) but I keep on cooking, baking and trying new recipes. My goal is to feed healthy food to my children and husband, promote a healthy relationship with food and specifically develop a healthy feeding relationship with our children.
Each day brings new challenges with a 4 year old, 20 month old and 8 week old with varying appetites. By the time 4:30pm rolls around my husband is getting home from work, the baby is clustering and our two oldest boys are hangry (hungry + angry) searching the kitchen for any morsel or crumb they can find.
Long before the epic meltdowns occur I’ve already reached for my most favourite, ever present, never leaves the counter kitchen appliance; the slow cooker! You know, that one device that cooks food all day making it hot and ready when needed to feed hungry mouths (and me!)
In pregnancy I was lucky enough to batch cook a large collection of freezer meals for the slow cooker but recently those have run critically low. I saw a post on Super Healthy Kids titled 10 Quick and Healthy Freezer to Slow Cooker Meals (No Prep Cooking Needed) that included ingredients, instructions and a shopping list!
You mean everything included? Sounds perfect for a sleep deprived mom and hard working dad of three!
After my husband returned with the shopping list completed we set out as a family to complete the task of prep, packaging and freezing.
Our oldest helped me chop vegetables (mushrooms and green beans with a cut safe knife), my husband put our middle son on his back in a carrier as he prepped the meat and other veggies and our youngest slept, nursed, nursed some more and then nursed again. Did I mention we have 3 hungry growing boys?
Each meal will definitely be a supper and lunch with possibly more leftovers for some of them. This list makes 20+ meals for our family, which is a huge win in my books for the prep needed. I hope they taste as good as they look! With the hardest part completed now all we have to do is get them in the slow cooker and supper will be ready and waiting!
Oh…and did I mention we got an Instant Pot during Boxing Week deals? More posts to come on that lovely machine!
Do you have a favourite slow cooker or Instant Pot recipes?
Share below in the comments or on my facebook page at www.facebook.com/JessicaFerrisRD
In our house the slow cooker is key as well. Would love to try new recipes and hear aboyt this instant pot. Everyone in my house (including a picky eater husband) loves stuffed peppers which are easy to make, pork tenderloin as well as my favorite from childhood lazy chicken.