Home Made Take Away

Time Time Time

"I never have time for that......"

We all have the same 24 hours in a day. I read an interesting quote once that said something along the lines of ' never say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same time every day as Mother Theresa, Gandhi' etc etc ( must try and find the exact quote one day).

The truth is instead of people saying "I don't have enough time" they should say " I choose not to do that" or be totally honest and say " I usually waste my time watching television instead" or " I spend so much time on the telephone/ internet/ reading trash that I don't have the time to do things that may be more important".

So if we all have the same 24 hours - what do YOU choose to put into them. I choose, amongst other things, cooking from scratch because the benefits to my family are tremendous. My children are calmer, my budget is better and I have a sense of tremendous satisfaction from the efforts I put in.

I choose not to watch commercial television. I have never seen an episode of All Saints, ER, CSI, Grey's Anatomy or any other TV show that I hear people talking about. I can remember when Australian Idol was on and there was a picture in the Newspaper of Guy Sebastian and Shannon Noll - ready for the big night and I had no idea who they were! I thought they must have been sports stars of some kind.

I guess it is always a case of Prior Preparation and Planning Prevents Poor Performance ( the six p's). I work four days per week and I work long hours. Weekends are often taken up with activities for my sons, like sports or outings. In the summertime we usually water ski from early morning until sundown. Therefore, as my Grandmother says, " when you have time, you do things for times when you don't have any time". This means that when you make a batch of biscuits you double or triple the amounts and freeze the leftover dough. I always do this on Mondays so if the biscuits run out mid week it is a five minute job to throw some more in the oven. Or you may have a 'cook up' and have some meals ready to go in the freezer to just heat up for times when you are too busy or too late home to cook.

Another important thing is to menu plan the week before, around your schedule. Have more involved meals on nights where you are home earlier in the day and quick meals like stir fries on the busy days. Sit down and make a really good list of all the meals your family likes. If you are stuck, go to the library and look at the food magazines and get some ideas to try. You may be surprised what you find.

My Baking Centre

This is one shelf in my baking centre.

Cooking things from scratch means you must have all your ingredients easily accessible all of the time. My baking centre is a cupboard right next to my stove. It is at eye height.

When I am cooking I can reach in for one thing at a time, use it and then put it back. This helps with the cleaning up process as well. I would like to have nice glass jars, but I don't have a lot of space and circular jars don't tessellate so I had to opt for rectangular containers instead.

Chicken Soup for the Family's Soul

This recipe for chicken and sweet corn soup is an absolute favourite with our family.

I used one litre of chicken stock and a can of creamed sweet corn.

 I then use about 400g of chicken breast which I mix with grated fresh ginger and 4 whisked eggs and a tablespoon of cornflour mixed into a paste.

I brew it for quite a while, at least 2 hours, adding water as required to it doesn't boil dry.

The smell of the ginger is so lovely!

To turn it into a hearty meal, I add spiral pasta and some more water to make a chunky style soup. You could really add anything you like.

When it's ready to serve I top it with fresh coriander and cracked pepper.

It really does warm the family soul !