COOKING FOR OUR LARGE FAMILY
is part of the Write 31 2017 Challenge.
Click 31 Days of Life in a Large Homeschooling Family for more posts.
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Cooking for our large family is a fulltime job. But we most certainly do not have a cook to do it for me. But yeah, a girl can dream, can’t she?
So, since people insist on being fed a minimum of three times a day every day, I have no choice but to cook. And since we have allergies to deal with, I have no choice but to cook from scratch. Bleh.
Keep it simple
Since time and energy is limited, I have no choice but to keep our meals simple. No such thing as meals that require exotic ingredients or meals that require lots of prep time. And yes, I repeat my meals all the time.
No fuss pots allowed
Sorry. I am not what is called a short order cook. Everyone eats what I cook or they can either go cook their own food or use their own money to buy their own food. If they cannot appreciate that it is hard work to feed them three times a day then they are most certainly free to not eat.
So even when we were on our strict diet, every one had to eat the same food. Except that those who are not afflicted get to eat rice and noodles as their carb portion.
Style of cooking
In one word.
SIMPLE.
I do simple one pot meals like stews or curries. Or else it is simple stir fries – vegetables or meats.
What our meals look like
I have shared in Experimenting with Different Diets to Heal Allergies a sample menu plan which you can download for free. You can see that our meals are very simple – a protein and a vegetable. And we try to eat low carb.
I know many Chinese families offer up 3 dishes and 1 soup at every dinner. Sorry. No go here. I will stir fry some vegetables like ladies fingers and then stir fry up some pork slices. Serve them with rice or quinoa for those who can eat those carbs.
Cooking tools
I love our crockpot and oven! Just chuck all the food instead, turn on the switch and forget all about it until it is time to eat.
However, I only use my crockpot for beef stew as that is the only meat the family likes cooked in the crockpot. They complain that chicken and pork tastes like canned meat. Lol!
Instead, I use our Ariston Open Space oven A LOT. For chicken, for pork chops. For bacon. I love it! I use it at least twice a week.
And then I use two big pots to cook our curries. Because some children do not like the heat but others love it.
Quantity needed makes cooking for our large family challenging
The challenge of cooking for a large family comes mostly from the quantity that needs to be cooked. I did not realise how taxing it was until the first time the big kids went for a Church camp and I only had to cook for the younger children.
It was so easy and fast!
Variation of freezer cooking
To save time, I have tried freezer cooking many times but it has not always worked out perfectly.
Imagine this: our family of 9 needs 30 chicken thighs for ONE meal. If I did freezer cooking for just 3 meals with chicken, I would need to buy 90 chicken thighs at one go!!! And that would only be for 3 dinner meals. What about the other days and the other meals?
Instead, what I prefer to do is the make one, freeze one method. Buying 60 chickens at one go (which is still a lot) does not scare my butcher as much as buying 90! It is a slower way to build up my stash of freezer food but it is way more doable for our large family. Also, I don’t have to spend so much time in the kitchen.
Try My FreezEasy
If you are keen on trying out freezer cooking, may I suggest checking out My FreezEasy?
Erin has lots of tips and tricks since she has been doing this since forever. Yes, it is an expense. So what I have done is to join for 3 months and then I take a break. Then, when I run out of ideas and motivation, I re-join! I know, I know, it is more expensive this way then just signing up for a whole year. But I know myself, I cannot stick to a programme for one whole year so this is a great compromise for me. If you do try it out, let me know!
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