New for 2018

Hello and happy new year! I won't be back in to the routine until next week, but I wanted to pop on and let you know what to expect in the way of newness from the site this year. Now that Evie is more independent and settled at nursery, I feel it is the right time to really throw my weight behind 'my brand'. Gosh, that sounds like such a millennial cliche doesn't it. But I am The Mother Cooker and I am sincerely proud of what I have achieved. I just haven't had the time to dedicate myself to it fully, being a mother had to come first and it always will. But I have so many ideas and something has clicked in me to really put the work in this year. Maybe it's that I think we are finally settled in this new house (we've moved four times in two years), I have an office and a bigger kitchen etc.

The first thing you might notice is that 'Evie's Corner' has now changed to 'The Little Cooker', mainly because Dey bought Evie the cutest apron to match mine with her very own matching logo. I simply had to change it and I feel it's a little less personal. I will be dedicating a lot more content to food for little's this year, it always does really well and I get inundated with mothers asking me for help. But without further rambling, below are the new categories for this year. I'd love any feedback via Twitter or Instagram.

Take One, Make Three

This is an idea that I have had for a very long time now. So there will be one main product, say a pack of sausages, chicken breasts, large root vegetable or pasta and from that I will create three dishes that you can make from that one base ingredient. So for example, with sausages you could make sausage casserole, sausage and mash or meatballs. I hope it will offer a lot more inspiration for home cooking and help people make the one base ingredient go further and cut down on waste. I'm looking to do this once a month.

The £5 Meal

I hope this speaks for itself, the one thing I've found is that people love to save money. Food is expensive, especially for families. So this idea will serve a minimum of two people but I'm hoping to create recipes that cater for at least four. I'm sure it will take trial and error and I'll be sure to list where I shopped within the post. I'm looking to do this once a fortnight.

Takes from my Kitchen Garden

Launching in the summer, this will focus on in season produce grown in my very own garden. Recipes made with things I have grown myself (lets hope I can grow vegetables). Recipes will be 90% vegetarian and I sincerely hope it inspires you to attempt growing your own produce yourself. My cousin and the amazing Rosie really gave me the push I needed to attempt this, even though I am the keenest gardener you'll ever meet. You really don't need a huge space to grow fruit and vegetables, even if you managed to grow a barrel of potatoes...imagine the triumph. I am really excited for this, and will be digging my hands in to cold earth to get prepared very soon. I'm hoping to do this once a month or more frequently depending on how successful my crop is.

The Little Cooker; Meal Prep Sunday

I have shared a few of my batch and freeze ideas on my Instagram and they have been so successful, that I thought I would dedicate a post to them. A lot of you make them, even though they are meant for little's. Being a parent is hard work and any stress I can relieve from you makes me happy. Children are fussy, stressful and I find feeding one the hardest job of all. So I hope I can save your sanity as well as mine with this new instalment. I'm hoping to create at least three recipes that you can make in bulk, be it a secret vegetable sauce for pasta, mash potato bites or grown up dishes adapted for tiny taste buds. I'm hoping to do this once a fortnight.

Let's do Lunch

One of the main things I get asked for is lunch ideas, for big and little people. I mainly get asked by my Husband too, what can I make for lunch? So I've decided that I really need to work on this one, one of the main things people spend money on is eating out at work. So this instalment will be a great mixture of hot and cold lunch ideas. I'm hoping to do this once a week.

I will also be continuing with Tried & Tasted Tuesday, as this has been hugely successful and I absolutely love sharing recipes that I have cooked and loved. I really hope that these ideas sound like something that will help with your cooking.