One-pot tuna pasta

When you need a quick meal with just what you have in the pantry, this one is excellent. 

Ingredients

2 cups pasta (if you're using small sized pasta, just use 1 1/2 cups)

1 heaped tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon butter

1 cup milk

1 cup water

1 can tuna with water

1/2 - 1 cup grated cheese (to taste)

Veggies of your choice (optional; peas, green onions and spinach are good options)

Seasoning of your choice

Melt the butter in your pot and add the milk and flour. Whisk briskly to get a smooth white sauce. Keep whisking until the sauce has thickened.

Add the rest of the ingredients and stir. Cover the pot and simmer for 10 min, stirring once in a while. If it becomes dry, add more water. If it is too runny after 10 min, take the lid off and simmer for 5 more minutes. 

Add the cheese and stir through. 

Put (or leave) the lid on, remove from the heat and let it sit for 5-10min. The pasta should be perfectly cooked now with a nice sauce. 

Enjoy!

Chilli

This is so quick and easy when you have cooked mince meat in your freezer. You can also make a large batch chilli from scratch and freeze in portions and just thaw and heat when ready to eat. There are many lovely recipes online. Today I'll give you my recipe using cooked mince meat.

Ingredients
1kg cooked mince meat (click for recipe)
8 fresh tomatoes or 4-5 cups canned tomatoes
2 cans of beans (I like using mixed bean medleys, but any beans you like will do)
1 package taco seasoning or your own taco seasoning mix (many recipes online)
You can make it hotter by adding fresh chopped chillies or dried chilli flakes if you like

If you're using fresh tomatoes, chop them up and toss in a pot over medium heat and let them cook until tender.
Mix all of the ingredients together in a pot, bring to a boil and let it simmer for 30min to develop the flavours. And that's it! Serve with fresh buns, cheese and salad.

Homemade Muesli / Granola

Cereals have always been a quick breakfast and perfect for rushed mornings, but they don't fit my whole foods philosophy, so I've had to make a new plan. That plan is homemade muesli. It's so easy to make and adjust the ingredients to become a new favourite.

Basically it is just toasted oats, nuts, seeds and dried fruit. You can adjust the quantities to suit your taste.

The hardest part of this recipe is toasting the oats and that is really easy. You need a large pan, oil or fat of your choice and sweetener of your choice (optional). Large flake oats work best, but is not essential. I like using organic coconut oil and honey.

Heat your oil in a large pan and add honey to taste. Mix and add the oats. Keep stirring the oats until it starts to change colour. Now add your nuts and/or seeds (I like using chopped pecans, slivered almonds, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds). Keep stirring, toasting the oats and the nuts, until the oats are crispy and fragrant. Add bite-size dried fruits (I like pears, apricots and raisins) and mix together. Let it cool and keep in an air tight container. Serve with milk or yoghurt.

Ideas for your muesli:
Walnuts
Peanuts
Cashew nuts
Flax
Sesame seeds
Desiccated coconut
Dried apple
Dried banana chips

Roast Chicken Stock

Fresh chicken stock is a staple in my freezer, because the store bought stock powders have so many strange ingredients and doesn't taste nearly as good. I use stock for a whole range of things, including seasoning mince meat (cook it down so that the liquid boils down), soups, stews, casseroles and risotto (a favourite of mine).

Stock is extremely easy to make and if you're not picky, you can basically make it from whatever you have in your fridge and cupboard.

The easiest stock is plain vegetable stock which contains whatever vegetables you like, although I recommend onions, celery and carrots as a base. You can even make stock with vegetable peelings. Just dump the veggies in a large pot and top up with water, bring to the boil and simmer for an hour. Done.

But I like a richer stock and my favourite is chicken stock. I used to make it with just leftover chicken bones or a carcass and veggies (and there's nothing wrong with that), but now I've found a flavourful recipe.

Ingredients:

6 - 12 chicken wings (more means more flavour)

2 onions

2 - 5 garlic cloves, bruised

1 leftover chicken carcass (optional)

1 carrot, chopped

1 celery stick, chopped

Season and roast the chicken wings in the oven. Meanwhile sauté the onion in a large pot until it starts to caramelize. Add the garlic, carrot and celery and continue to sauté until the vegetables are soft.

Add the chicken carcass (if using) and roasted wings to the pot. 

Deglaze* the roasting pan with water or simply scrape out as much of the sauces and bits into the pot and top up the pot with more water.

Bring the stock to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and leave to simmer for up to 2 hours.

Once done, strain through a sieve lined with cheesecloth or muslin and discard solids. 

Let the stock cool before placing it in the refrigerator. The fat with solidify on top and make it easy to scoop out before transferring to freezer bags or containers. Remember to mark the containers clearly.

To make beef stock, substitute the chicken wings and carcass with beef soup bones or bone-in stewing beef.

The great thing about stock is that you can play around with the ingredients until you find a combination that you love, but you can also whip it up with whatever you have on hand, making it cheap and easy to make and always have fresh stock on hand.

You can also season stock the way you like: salt, pepper, bay leaves, rosemary, oregano, etc. Some people prefer not to season stock at all so that they can play around with the seasoning of the dish they use it in eventually. I always season mine with salt and pepper.

*Deglazing: heat the pan and add some liquid (water, wine, etc) while stirring and scraping to loosen all the fragrant pieces and juices left in the pan.

Bolognese Sauce

This is a lovely sauce that is used in a lot of Italian dishes. You can use it for just about any pasta dish. Or toss it with pasta as it is and it's a meal. So easy! That's why (and because my husband loves it) I keep lots of it in my freezer.

Recently Bolognese sauce evolved to be a tomato based meat sauce, while if you look at its history, you'll learn that it is a meat sauce that is supposed to be flavoured with some tomato. We all know it as a red sauce, but in fact it's not supposed to have that much tomato in it at all. That's if you want it to be authentic, of course.
I've adapted my old tomato-packed recipe so that it more closely resembles the authentic recipe.

Ingredients
olive oil (for frying)
1 cup chopped bacon
4 cups chopped onion
3 cups grated carrot
2 cups chopped celery
6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2kg mince meat (preferably beef)
4 bay leaves
3 cans tomato or about 10 large tomatoes
1 cup red wine
Salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a large pot and fry the bacon until cooked through. Turn the heat down to medium low and add the onions, carrots and celery. Sauté until the onions are soft. Add the tomatoes. If you are using fresh tomatoes, let them soften, otherwise just let them heat through before blending it until smooth. Set aside.
Using the same pot, add cooking fat of your choice and the mince meat. Stir-fry until the meat starts to brown and add the tomato base back into the pot. Add the wine, bay leaves, salt and pepper and stir.
Turn the heat down to low and simmer for two hours, stirring occasionally.
Check the seasoning and adjust f needed before you leave it to cool for freezing.

And there you have it! (Almost) Authentic bolognese sauce! Use it with just about any pasta dish you can imagine, like layering a lovely lasagna. It's perfect for those days when you really don't know what to cook: just thaw, cook some pasta, mix and serve.

Marinara Sauce

Marinara sauce is a tomato based sauce from southern Italy. It is lovely just as is with pasta and parmesan or it can dress up numerous other dishes.

Tip: to make cheat's Bolognese sauce, mix some of the freezer mince with marinara sauce.

Ingredients
4kg tomatoes (fresh (chopped) or canned)
4 cups diced onions
2 cups grated carrots
2 cups diced celery
4-8 cloves of garlic, chopped
Salt, pepper and other seasonings to taste

Sauté the onions, carrots and celery in a large pot, adding the garlic once they start to soften. Once the onion mix is soft and fragrant, add the tomatoes and seasoning, put the lid on and let the tomatoes simmer on low-medium heat. If you're using canned tomatoes, just let everything heat through. When the tomatoes are soft (about 10-20min), transfer the mixture to a blender in batches, or blitz with a stick blender until smooth.
Return to the pot and simmer on low heat with the lid on for 30-60min. This just intensifies the flavour and softens the texture even more. Remove form the heat and let cool to room temperature before dividing into containers to freeze. I like storing my marinara sauce in 1 cup containers.

Note: You can spice up your marinara sauce by adding some wine (red or white), italian herbs, olives, red peppers, chillis, beetroot and other veggies you may find on sale or have in the fridge. Just keep in mind that the colour of the vegetables will effect the colour of your sauce. I recommend sticking to reds, oranges and purples and avoiding greens.

Meatballs

Another staple in my freezer. Meatballs can be frozen raw or cooked first and then frozen. Either way, they are easy and quick for any meal. I like putting raw meatballs in the slow cooker with whatever sauce I want and the meatballs turn out delicious, juicy and very soft.

Ingredients
3kg mince meat
2 cups grated carrots
3 cups diced onions
2 cups diced celery
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 eggs, beaten
6t salt
pepper and other seasonings to taste

You'll notice that this recipe is just about the same as my mince meat recipe, it only adds eggs. For this reason I sometimes mix everything together, except the eggs, and split into two: one for meatballs, one for the meatballs and add the eggs to the meatball mix. This significantly cuts down on my preparation time and makes it all easier to handle.

Mix all the ingredients together and roll into balls. You can decide how big they should be.
Place the balls onto a baking tray. You can either put them in the oven now to cook or place them in the freezer until frozen. Once frozen, transfer to freezer bags. This helps to only pick out the few meatballs you need instead of thawing the whole batch at once.
If you decide to bake, place the meatballs in the oven at 180 C (350 F) for 25-45 min (depending on how big the meatballs are). Let them cool completely before freezing.

Notes: Play around with the recipe. You can add more vegetables, add parmesan, maybe roll the meatballs around a block of mozzarella for a gooey, cheesy centre, and so on. Be creative! Cooking could be or become a chore if you don't make it fun for yourself.
Kids can help rolling the meatballs - get them involved in the cooking process and help them learn how fun and delicious it is to make your own food.

Mince Meat - updated

My first freezer staple is cooked mince. I use this for a whole range of dishes like lasagna, bobotie, chilli con carne, pasta, stuffed peppers, spanish rice, and so on. It's perfect for those quick cooking days. See my quick meals at the bottom of the post.
For my mince I use beef and sometimes add 1/3 pork, but you can use chicken, lamb, turkey or any other mince you like.

Ingredients
2kg mince meat
2 cups grated carrots
2 chopped onions
2-3 celery stalks, chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped (optional)
3t salt
pepper & other seasonings to taste
olive oil or cooking fat of your choice
2-3 cups broth (optional)

I like to make the veggies almost undetectable since I have a picky one-year-old. There are two ways to do this: either chop the veggies really finely beforehand (use a food processor) or sauté roughly chopped veggies and dump in a blender afterwards.

Heat a large pan on medium heat and add the oil or fat and vegetables. Sauté the vegetables until tender and fragrant. Scoop out into a large bowl and return the pan to the heat. Brown the meat in batches, making sure to season every batch. Finally, mix the cooked meat and vegetables together and taste it to make sure that it is seasoned to your liking. Adjust seasoning if necessary.

I found that broth really makes the meat moist, tender and taste incredible, but it is up to you if you want to go through the extra trouble (which is not difficult or hands on, it just takes time). Add the broth to the meat and veggie mixture in a large stockpot, stir to combine and leave on med-high heat to reduce. It is ready when the liquid no longer pools on top and when there is no runny liquid when stirring through.
I try to make all my at-hand food to be as nutritionally dense as possible, because my one-year-old eats very little. That is why all my food is packed with veggies and the broth I use is homemade bone broth.

Let the mixture cool to room temperature before dividing it into freezer bags or bowls. I like storing mine in 500g portions for ease of use later.

To use later, pull the amount you need out of the freezer and thaw (it can be defrosted in the microwave). That's it! Easy!

Notes: You can add any other vegetables as well. Onions, carrots and celery give an amazing flavour to the meat and it also makes it moist. Check your refrigerator for vegetables that will go bad before you can use it or buy some on special. Good choices include spinach, peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, eggplant, grated potatoes, etc.
If you're on a tight budget, you can also stretch the meat further with oatmeal. I recommend using about  half a cup per 500g meat. If you use more, it could take over.

Quick meals using the mince meat
Bolognaise Sauce: Add a can of chopped tomatoes and some balsamic vinegar if you want.
Shephard's Pie: Add some peas to the mince, place in a baking dish and top with mashed potatoes. Bake in the oven if you like.
Chilli Con Carne: Add a can of mixed beans (and/or corn or chickpeas), dried or fresh chillies to taste and taco seasoning. Serve with tortilla chips, sour cream or greek yoghurt, spring onions and cheddar cheese.
Spanish Rice: Add cooked rice, bacon bits and spring onions.

Step 1: The Plan

The first thing you need to do is to make a plan. Sure, you can surf recipes and just make them on the fly and there's nothing wrong with that, but it's way easier on you if you have a fixed plan. You don't need to cook everything at once, but have something to work towards.

For us, I made the following list:

• Mince meat (cooked)
• Meatballs
• Beef stock
• Chicken stock
• Marinara sauce
• Bolognese sauce
• Breakfast muesli bars
• Yoghurt
• Carrot Apple Nut Muffins
• Pear Streusel Muffins

Meals:

• Basil Eggplant Parmesan
• Butternut Macaroni & Cheese
• Sweet & Sour Meatballs
• Stuffed Pasta Shells
• Quiche
• Chicken Alfredo Casserole
• Chicken & Bean Enchiladas
• Beef Stew
• Lasagna

I will add more meals as I go along and as we eat the rest :-)

For now, this is my starting point. All of these dishes get loads of vegetables, so I try to buy in bulk and whatever is on special or I go to the farmer's market.

My basic shopping list will include:

• Mince meat (I use beef, but sometimes I add pork as well. Buy whatever your family likes)
• Chicken pieces, both with bones and boneless
• Stewing beef
• Soup bones (beef)
• Whole chicken (for roasting. Save the carcass for chicken stock)
• Bacon
• Carrots
• Onions
• Celery
• Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Potatoes
• Mushrooms
• Garlic
• Any other veggies that are on sale
• Apples
• Pears
• Eggs
• Milk
• Cheddar or Gouda Cheese
• Mozzarella
• Parmesan
• Pasta (Since we're on whole foods, I buy whole wheat. If you want true whole wheat pasta, though, you'll have to make it from scratch)
• Canned beans
• Whole wheat flour
• Variety of nuts
• Variety of dried fruits, including raisins and dates
• Whole wheat tortillas
• Honey

I'll need most of these ingredients in bulk, so I watch for sales and go to large stores or the farmer's market. I usually don't get all my ingredients at once, but what I do get the first time is lots of onions, carrots and celery, since these will be the base of a lot of my dishes.

The first thing I do is to chop the onions, carrots and celery and keep them in airtight containers. These can be frozen and pulled out whenever needed. To make this step easier, I grate and chop with my food processor. You can do it all by hand, but I try to make the work as little as possible. The containers I use are 1, 2 and 4 cup sizes, so if I need only 1 cup, I'll pull that out and defrost.

This saves a lot of time later when I actually start cooking.

Another thing I recommend to make things easier, tastier and cheaper, is to have a few herb plants. If you can't plant them in the garden, they work well in pots on a windowsill. I love using Rosemary, Thyme, Basil, Parsley, Chives, etc. Pick whatever you prefer. Just one plant will put a punch of flavour in your dishes and save you money in the long run.

Note: These dishes are what my family loves and things we eat/use regularly, so feel free to tweak your list to suit your family's needs and tastes.
There are loads of wonderful recipes out there that can be frozen. Surf the web and gather some recipes you like to help your list along. Check out http://onceamonthmom.com for ideas.

What it's all about

Hi there and welcome to Hungry Family blog!
I just want to introduce myself and what this blog is all about so you know what to expect.

I am a new mom to a beautiful 5 month old boy and I've recently jumped on the whole foods band wagon. After two and a half years abroad, we've returned to South Africa and moved into a new house a month ago so we're busy fixing and customizing the house to our own style. Between a baby and renovations, things can get a bit hectic and mealtimes come as an afterthought.
When I was pregnant, I started thinking about the best way to feed my new family. With obesity, malnourishment and so many other health problems out there, I really started to research what the best diet is out there. Of course I'm not talking about a weight loss diet, but a lifestyle diet that my whole family can follow every day.

With so many schools of thought out there on the "real" human diet, I've come to my own conclusion which is: if it is possible to make it from scratch (like they did 5 generations ago), then I can eat it. Roughly. This doesn't mean that I am going to get a milk cow and make my own cheese and butcher my own meat. No. But if someone can make it without industrial processes and weird chemicals, then I can eat it.

This posed a problem for me, because I love food. And I love sweets. I've never really had a taste for vegetables. Hmmm, it seemed as if my journey was going to end before it began! Because sugar is refined (and refined food is a no-no) and veggies should be part of just about every meal I eat... Nevertheless, I was sure that this was the way to go and I was just going to have to give up sugar and swap them for veggies.
Yes, I cheat sometimes, but I try to stick to this as much as possible and hopefully in the near future I won't want those naughty treats anymore and I'll be eating 100% whole food. That's the goal anyway.

With my food philosophy out of the way, I've also found a way to make cooking easier on me. Don't get me wrong, I love to cook! But when there's no inspiration, I'm not in the mood, or I don't have the ingredients at hand, things can get a bit sticky when my husband asks and hour before dinner "What's for dinner?"
And so I stumbled onto once a month cooking or freezer cooking, whatever you like to call it. I am now in the process of getting my freezer cooking as streamlined as possible. And that's what I hope to share with you: organised freezer cooking, the whole foods way. I hope you enjoy the journey with me! :-)