About Me

This is me, The Rat...partner since 2001 to Concrete_Man, mum to Rat_Girl (born 13.12.05) and Rat_Boy (born 14.05.09). Co-inhabiting our nest are 2 rather large fury 4 legged rats, Boxer_Dog and Black_Dog. We run a business from the nest with Concrete_Man doing the manly physical work while I stay at home and do the 'other' stuff. This means we are often busy, often stressed and often very tired...but then again who isn't! Anyway that's enough for now. As time goes by you will learn a bit more about the family that is "MummaRat's Nest"
Showing posts with label vegetables. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vegetables. Show all posts

March 03, 2010

How many serves of vegies do you eat??

Vegetables are a very important part of our diet, full or fibre, nutrients and water and they are low in calories so you can eat more for less.

There are a couple things I do here to help make sure we eat enough vegies.

First thing I do is, peel (if needed) and cut them up as soon as I get them home that way they are ready to go and only a small amount of preparation is required at meal time.  I know a lot of people do this now and it's exteremly helpful.



I've taken it a step further now and I cut up my ham along with any other cold meats, rockmelon, watermelon and also my cheese.  I've stopped buying grated cheese after I actually looked at the price and realised it's dearer per kilo and when I found out they put extra things it it to stop it sticking together etc.  So I now buy a big 1kg block and grate a third of it and cut the rest into pieces for Rat_girls lunch and stacks.

This doesn't just make it easier at meal times for me, it means that Rat_girl can help herself.  She just goes to the fridge and gets some cut fruit or some carrot sticks or some cheese or ham or whatever.  Oh and also boiled eggs, I also boil 6 or so eggs every 2-3days and put them still in the shell in a container in the fridge and shell as I need them.

There are some tips to make your vegies last longer, don't wash them before you put them in the containers, water drips off and sits in the bottom, wash them as you use them.  Put the containers (this goes for anything) in the fridge with the lid off for a few minutes, let the cool air into the container.  And when you open the container if there is condensation on the lid dry it off with a tea towel.

The other thing I do is add as many hidden vegies into my cooking as possible.  Yes I still serve vegies on the side because kids need to still learn it's important to eat them.  But just incase I throw some more in.

Here is an example of a normal bolonese sauce in our house.

I use this to chop them up nice and small

then throw them in, there is all sorts in there broccoli, caulilower, zucchini, carrots, onion, mushroom, capsicum plus probably some other randoms that I found in the fridge


Then meat and sauce, I use passata or a similar home style brand, it's cheaper than pasta sauces and will last (if you freeze left over in portions) for 2 or 3 sauces.


And there you have a bolonese sauce filled with plenty of hidden vegies....mmmm