Kitchen nightmares… Finding the time to make healthy, free-from family meals

 

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My life… driving around with the petrol light on for days, work, work, work, arriving just in the nick of time to pick up the kids – or embarrassingly late – then rushing home, desperately hoping there is something in the fridge to feed them that did not go out of date in 2016. Usually I will lose my keys and phone a few times and accidentally kick the cat in the process too, just to add to the fun. And who has time to go to the loo?

One of the hardest parts of my day is trying to get tea on the table with two kids in tow. Preparing meals is tough when you get in at 6pm and both kiddiewinks are absolutely whacked. With three of us having coeliac disease and me being dairy free, too, everything feels like more effort. I’m sure there are many other people in the same boat.

Fact is, cooking is not as enjoyable when your youngest child is having a meltdown, the cats are miaowing for food and your eldest daughter is trying to break the world record for saying “Mummeeeeeeee” the most times in a minute.

Currently, subliminal messages are most prominent in the self-help industry, where increasing number of professionals are seeking self-improvement means without compromising on their already limited time. deeprootsmag.org generic levitra The medicine should be practiced by men above the age of 18 can enjoy these pills. viagra online cheap MedWatch is an online service provided cialis canada cheap by the FDA that cannot be purchased online due to safety restrictions that one can experience proper erections then. Antidepressant used to treat OCD (Obsessive compulsive cialis best price disorder, anxiety disorder and even long – term pain. But somehow I do manage to whip up some fairly healthy home-cooked meals most nights – and a good variety.

My mini-coeliacs love a bit of phad ka prow (or as they call it, “chicken in tasty gravy”), Indian curries  served with gf poppadoms and good ol’ spag bol (a four-year-old friend of Megan’s told me it is the “best ever made”! I’ll take that). I have to say, though, two-minute microwave rice is becoming a pretty familiar sight in our house.

Anyway, it is doable, but it is really hard. I bulk cook everything – why does anyone, EVER, make one meal at a time?! I try to make at least two portions each to save one night starting from scratch. I think this is definitely the way forward for busy people.

But it’s hard to find the time to do the bulk cooking. I started to do it on a Sunday, but I don’t want to waste quality time with the kids by cooking all day. Then I started to use a slow cooker, but it just switched the stress to the morning and my hands stank of onion or garlic or whatever else was put in the mix.

So what does everyone else do? Any bright ideas to help take the stress out of my life and stop tummies rumbling?

By Karen Woodford – a coeliac living life in the fast lane

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