“If cooking becomes an art form rather than a means of providing a reasonable diet, then something is clearly wrong.”
– Tom Jaine
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Hello!
If you’re new to my blog, then welcome.
And if not, then welcome back!
How are you? How’s life treating you?
Me, I’m doing good. After starting Matthew on solids and attempting to meal prep my own food, I thought I’d create a series where I share some of the quick meal ideas I use to keep up with the demands of motherhood.
I’ll let you in on a little secret. Between you me and the internet, I hate cooking. *gasp*. What? A woman who hates cooking? Say it isn’t so! But yes it is. I absolutely hate cooking. What I do love is eating and judging by the way Matthew has taken to solid food, so does he. Bottom line is we both love to eat. It’s the part that comes before the eating (and sometimes after) that I have an issue with.
Having a baby is hard work and trying to find the time to cook as well as eat is even harder when you have to clean, feed, entertain and soothe a 5 month old on minus 100 hours of sleep. As a mum and a normal human being I don’t ask for much.
All I want is to be able to eat a home cooked meal at least three times a day whilst it’s still hot and I still have the energy and time to eat it. Is that too much to ask? Unfortunately hiring a personal chef isn’t an option right now and no one (including myself) is able to keep up with the amount of food I need to eat in a day to function. So the next best thing is to meal prep.
And to do just that, I created a set of meals that use less than ten ingredients and take less than 30 minutes to prepare. Now my idea of meal prepping is not fancy or special or anything like that so all you master chefs and come diners please relax on the judgment. My meal prepping is for one reason and one reason only: to keep me alive.
Aside from helping me be more efficient with my time, meal prepping has become a very important means of providing for my son. As a breastfeeding mum, meal prepping means I’m able to keep up with the amount of food intake I need daily to ensure that my son and I are getting all the nutrition we need. That to me is the most important reason for meal prepping. And t’s easier on the wallet too.
But the aim of this post isn’t to convince you about the benefits of meal prepping, Google has that covered. This post is just me sharing an easy fool-proof recipe for those days where you’re feeling too lazy to cook, too broke to eat-out or too busy to stand over a cooker for hours. And for the days where you’re feeling all three at once.
So without further waffle, here is the first recipe from my Lydia’s Lazy Lunch series.
Creamy Bacon & Vegetable Pasta
Serving: 2 portions
Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
– 200g bacon lardons
– 2 cloves of diced garlic
– 1 teaspoon of mild curry powder
– 1 chopped pepper
– Chopped mushrooms
– Tin sweetcorn (drain water)
– Double cream
– Pasta
– Pinch of salt (optional)
Tools:
– 2 Pots
– Cooking spoon
– Oil
Instructions:
- Cook pasta in a pot with boiling water and a little bit of salt to your liking.
- Heat oil in another pot and fry bacon, garlic and curry powder for 10 minutes
- Add mushrooms, peppers and other vegetables and cook them for 5 minuets
- Add the cooked pasta and sweetcorn and mix it all together for 2 minutes
- Add double cream and mix for 3 minutes. If you don’t have double cream you can use Philadelphia cheese cream or butter and milk as a substitute (see how here)
Serve and enjoy!
That’s it. The idea for this lazy lunch series is to keep these meals easy when you have a little human to entertain and no extra pair of hands. The ingredients are simple, the steps are short and the food tastes good! At least I think so.
This recipe usually gives me two servings which is enough for me to have for lunch and dinner. Increasing the measurements will obviously increase the portions so it’s all depending on how often you want to cook. I meal prep 3 times a week (Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday) and prepare 2 different meals each time. You could meal prep on one day and just freeze them for the week if you don’t want to cook so frequently. I’ll probably start doing that once I return to work.
However you do it, I hope that you find this meal quick, easy and tasty whether or not you have a little human to look after.
Now that Matthew is 5 months and keen to eat grown up food I’ll need to start prepping his meals too. Stay tuned for more on that and other Lazy Lunch recipes!
Your Turn…
What do you think of this recipe? Would you try it? Do you have any lazy lunch ideas you’d like to share?
Let me know in the comments below or on my Twitter, Instagram and Pintrest.
Also, don’t forget to follow the blog too! And why not add yourself to the mailing list for updates whilst you’re at it?
I post once a week so stay tuned for the next one.
Till next time!
Love always,
Lydia x
LYDIA ON LIFE 