Make Ahead Meals

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Beef Pot Roast

Who doesn’t love a good roast dinner?

A real oven roast dinner is a weekend treat in our house. Crispy herb-scented vegetables, a beautiful piece of meat or whole chicken and a thick gravy to pour over it all. Out of all the things I cook, a classic roast is still one of my husband’s favourite meals.

A cheats way of enjoying a roast mid week however, is by using the slow cooker.

This recipe takes about 20 minutes to chop the veggies, brown the piece of beef and pour over the ingredients that will turn into the gravy. If you can find 20 minutes earlier on in the day, then dinner time is simply carving the meat, steaming some greens and serving!

Recently, we walked in the door to this slow cooker roast after a very busy day and a chilly evening at soccer training. I was exhausted and cold, and so were the kids. This being ready to eat was an absolute blessing.

This is my version of a recipe from Slow Cooking by the Australian Women’s Weekly.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

750-1kg piece of beef blade steak

1 tablespoon of wholegrain mustard

1 spanish onion, peeled, chopped into wedges

2-3 garlic cloves, peeled, left whole

3 large carrots, peeled, cut into chunky long pieces

1/2 a large sweet potato, peeled and cut into thick rounds (or you could use wedges of pumpkin instead)

3-4 washed potatoes, skin on, cut into thick rounds

a few sprigs of fresh rosemary

1/2 cup red wine

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 cup beef stock (or 1 cup of water and 1 teaspoon vegemite)

1 tablespoon of cornflour

Method

Place all the vegetables, garlic and rosemary in the bottom of the slow cooker.

Heat olive oil in a frying pan and brown the beef on all sides.

Remove from heat, rub the mustard all over the beef and place on top of the vegetables.

Combine the red wine, balsamic vinegar and stock and pour over the beef and vegetables.

Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook for approx 4-5 hours (or low for 8, high for 4 if you have those settings)

Remove the beef and place on a board, cover with foil and let rest.

Remove the vegetables with a slotted spoon and place on a plate, cover with foil to keep warm.

Strain the gravy left in the bottom of the slow cooker into a small saucepan.

Mix the cornflour with a little cold water and pour into gravy while stirring.

Bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes until thick.

Carve the meat and serve, covered in gravy, with vegetables and some steamed greens.

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Pulled Lamb, Spinach and Feta Lasagne

It was one of those days where, unable to get to the shops, I needed to make dinner out of whatever was left in my almost bare fridge and freezer.

There are many times when I make up dinner based on a fridge and freezer clean out and not a specific recipe or meal plan. On the odd occasion it may be worthy of sharing, like this one turned out to be. But most of the time it isn’t. For every meal like this one, that my family really loved, there are more that I wouldn’t dream of photographing and sharing with you all.

On this particular day, my freezer had a boneless lamb shoulder and some leftover fresh lasagne sheets that I had thrown in a few weeks earlier.

I had 1/2 a block of feta, 1/2 a bag of baby spinach and some salami in the fridge that we’re all on their last legs.

The Pulled Lamb part of this recipe came out like a ‘ragu’, which is an Italian style meat based sauce you would serve with pasta. It is often cooked for a long time making it quite rich tasting and typically has wine and vegetables in it.  Not having wine on hand or many vegetables either, this is my version.

If you didn’t want to make this lasagne, you could just make the pulled lamb mixture and serve it over pasta with fresh parmesan cheese. It would also freeze beautifully too.

Italian Style Pulled Lamb

Ingredients

1.5kg boned lamb shoulder

750ml jar of tomato passatta

50gm sliced salami

1 leek, washed and roughly chopped

1 tablespoon of dried oregano

a few sprigs of fresh rosemary

1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes

2 garlic cloves, peeled, chopped in half

Method

Place all ingredients in a slow cooker and cook for 6 hours, removing the lid for the last hour to thicken the sauce.

Allow to cool slightly, and using 2 forks, shred the meat, discarding any fat.

Place sauce and shredded meat in a container to either freeze for later use or place in the fridge to use the next day in either this lasagne or simply over pasta.

Lamb, Spinach and Feta Lasagne

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 quantity of pulled lamb (see above recipe)

100gm of feta, crumbled

1 cup of baby spinach leaves

8-10 truss cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 – 1 packet of fresh lasagne sheets, depending on the size of dish you use. (Whatever sheets you don’t use, just place in a snap lock glad bag and freeze.)

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.

Place a small amount of lamb and sauce mixture in the bottom of a lasagne dish, approx

Place fresh lasagne sheets over the top, cover lasagne sheets with baby spinach leaves, then repeat layering (lamb and sauce, lasagne sheets, baby spinach, finishing with lasagne sheets.)

Spread a small amount of any remaining sauce on top to slightly moisten sheets, then place halved cherry tomatoes on the top.

Crumble the feta over the lasagne.

Bake for 30 minutes or until golden and bubbling.

 

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Chilli Con Carne with Sweet Potato Cornbread (gluten free)

Eating a big bowl of this reminds me of my childhood.

This is another one of those great meals my mum churned out on a regular basis and I am so glad that my family embrace it today too, except for one child who picks out the kidney beans….!

This is a slow cooker version of what my mum made. Anything I can make in the morning to get dinner done and dusted is always a winner in my books.

We grew up eating Chilli Con Carne with freshly baked cornbread. Some of us ate it on the side, others broke up the bread into chunks and mixed it through. Either way, it’s a delicious combination.

The original recipe was from the Women’s Weekly Slow Cooking cookbook, but I have made some small changes. If it was just my husband and I eating this, I would probably double the amount of chilli in the recipe. However, to keep this kid friendly, the amount below gives just enough heat to make it yummy, but still edible by small and sensitive taste buds.

Slow Cooker Chilli Con Carne

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 brown onion, peeled and finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1kg beef mince

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 1/2 teaspoons dried chilli flakes

1/2 cup tomato paste

2 teaspoons vegemite

2 x 420gm cans of crushed or diced tomatoes

1 x 750gm can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 tablespoon fresh oregano

chopped fresh coriander and sour cream to serve

Method

Heat olive oil in a large frying pan.

Add onion and garlic and cook until softened.

Add beef mince, cumin and chilli and cook, breaking up any clumps, until browned.

Transfer beef mixture to a slow cooker and add all other ingredients.

Fill 1 empty tomato tin with water and add it to the slow cooker.

Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook for 3-4 hours on high.

For the last 30 minutes of cooking time, take the lid off and let the sauce thicken a little.

Serve with coriander and sour cream, with steamed rice or cornbread.

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Sweet Potato Cornbread

This Sweet Potato cornbread is from Stephanie Alexanders ‘The Cook’s Companion’. One of my ‘go to’ books for food, it was gifted to me on my 21st birthday by two gorgeous food-loving friends and I have been so thankful for it over the many years since.

The sweet potato keeps this bread sweet and moist and unlike most corn bread recipes with 1-2 cups of sugar in them, this recipe uses only 1/4 cup brown sugar.

Ingredients

2 medium size sweet potato (approx 900gm), peeled, chopped and steamed, then mashed. You need 2 cups of mashed sweet potato.

125gm unsalted butter

4 eggs

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup plain greek or natural yoguhrt

2 cups fine polenta (cornmeal)

Method

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius.

Combine all ingredients, except yoghurt and polenta, in a food processor and mix until smooth and combined.

Stir through yoghurt and polenta.

Pour into a greased 20cm square cake tin.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.

Cool a little before cutting into squares.

These squares freeze really well too.

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Balsamic Ratatouille with Feta (vegetarian)

One of the most common questions I get asked is “How can I get X to eat more vegetables?”

And it’s not just children that we are talking about.

It surprises me sometimes that there are just as many fussy adult eaters walking around who have a long list of vegetables they won’t eat.

Most of us are aware that it’s good to aim for 5 serves of veggies a day and yet most of us are probably falling far short of that benchmark.

It seems like a lot doesn’t it?

As a parent of small children, it can feel overwhelming and disheartening when 6 nights out of 7, the dinner plate is pushed away by fussy eaters as they say ‘yuck’ to the array of colours and textures on their plate.

In our family, we have had the meat and carbs lover who had broccoli put on his plate every night for about 4 years until one day he just ate it without a fight.

We have had the ‘everything needs to be separate’ child, who won’t eat casseroles, soups, sauces or anything that is mixed.

We have had the raw veggies stage, where nothing was allowed to be in a cooked state and we have had the many, many nights where kids have gone to bed hungry because they have refused to eat anything put in front of them.

Sound familiar?

Well, things are definately getting easier as they get older and if I can offer encouragement to mums of young fussy eaters, then this is what I would say:

1. Persevere – nothing about raising kids is easy. They come into the world knowing nothing and bit by bit, it’s our job to guide, instruct, teach and model how to live. This includes how to care for our bodies and how to eat well. It’s not for the faint-hearted, so be kind to yourself. Leave mother guilt at the door and just keep on at it.

2. Variety is the spice of life – if you are stuck in a rut of what is on offer in your house, that’s okay. Go for small changes, like aiming to try one new recipe a month. Next time you walk through the fruit and veggie store, make yourself buy one vegetable you’ve never bought before and go home and google what to do with it!

3. Partner the new with the old – if your child loves sausages, and you are wanting to try a new vegetable, offer both at the same meal. They will sit to eat what they know and love and then chat about trying a mouthful of something new at the same time.

4. Never say Never – kids tastes change over time, as do ours. Just because they wouldn’t eat avocado at 3 doesn’t mean you never try again. By the time they are 5, they might be ready to give it another try.

5.  Try a new method of cooking the same old vegetable – everyone gets tired of the same old thing over and over again eventually. If you only ever boil carrots, try roasting them instead? If you only ever steam cabbage, keep it raw and use each leaf as a wrap for some mince?

6. See Tip 1 again – Persevere. A bit like most things in life of any value, it takes time and effort and isn’t always easy. Hang in there.

Ratatouille, is not just a PIXAR movie that kids love, but it’s a french provincial dish of mixed stewed vegetables. It’s a perfect winter dish and only requires some chopping on your part, the oven does the rest of the work for you.

If you use the recipe below as a side dish, you will probably get 2 meals out of it. It freezes really well, just freeze without the cheese added at the end.

I can eat a big steaming bowl of this on it’s own for dinner, maybe with a piece of toasted sourdough. It will serve approx 4 if you make it a meal in itself.

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Ingredients

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 spanish onion, peeled and chopped into wedges

2 cloves garlic, peeled and squashed with a back of a knife, but kept whole

2 medium zucchini, cut into chunks

1 red capsicum, de-seeded and cut into chunks

1/2 medium eggplant, cut into chunks

2 sticks celery, including leaves, cut into chunks

A large handful of fresh oregano (dried is fine, use a tablespoon)

800gm diced tomatoes

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Pepper to season

Feta or Goats cheese and chopped parsley to serve

Method

Preheat oven to 150 degrees celsius.

Heat olive oil in an oven proof pan over a gentle heat on the stove.

Add onion and garlic and gently sauté until soft.

Add all of the other ingredients, except the cheese and parsley, and place a lid on the pan.

Place in the oven and cook for 1 1/2 hours.

Garnish with cheese and parsley and serve with toasted sourdough or alongside your protein of choice.

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Slow cooked Chicken Cacciatore

It’s funny how some recipes come about.

This one does not have a very spectacular story.

It was a very normal day. I was feeling a little rushed, a bit tired and not overly motivated to think about dinner… AGAIN.

Yep, I have those days.

I was cleaning out the bottom of the fridge, you know, where you find 1/2 a zucchini that had seen better days, some slightly floppy celery and other bits and pieces that we’re too good to throw away but didn’t seem enough to make a special meal on their own.

I threw those bits and pieces into the slow cooker with a whole chicken and hoped that come dinner time, there wouldn’t be too many complaints.

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What turned out was a very simple and humble meal of moist chicken, softly cooked vegetables and a nice chicken broth that we used some crusty bread to soak up.  I placed the dish with the whole chicken, veggies and broth in the middle of the table with some tongs, a loaf of warm crusty bread on a board and told the family to help themselves.

Whole chooks are such a good way to feed a family. They are not expensive, and often there is some meat left over for lunches the next day.  Our family love a Roast Chicken dinner (which will end up on the blog some day) but I do often throw a whole chook in the slow cooker for an easy make-ahead meal.

I have a few other favourite recipes for slow cooked whole chickens that I will post soon.

Ingredients

1 whole raw chicken, excess skin removed from around the neck area. Give the inside of the chicken a good rinse.

1/2 a lemon

2 carrots, roughly chopped (don’t even bother peeling them)

1 spanish onion, peeled and roughly chopped

2 sticks celery, roughly chopped

1 zucchini, roughly chopped

1 400gm can diced tomatoes

3 tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 bay leaves

a handful of fresh oregano leaves (or a few teaspoons of dried)

1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives

Flat leaf parsley to serve

Method

Place the lemon half inside the cavity of the chicken.

Throw all of the other above ingredients in the slow cooker and cook for approximately 4 hours. (Low for 6 hours or High for 3-4)

Serve in a big dish, garnished with chopped parsley, straight to the table with some warm crusty bread to soak up all the juices.