My Raisin Family

Hey Everyone! As a busy mum with kiddos who have after school activities most of the week, planning and prepping meals is a big part of my week.  At this point, my son has futsal games on Monday and Tuesday late afternoon, and futsal training on Monday and Wednesday straight after school. Speech therapy is also straight after school on Tuesdays.  My youngest daughter also has gymnastics straight after school on Wednesday and Friday. So making sure I have meals prepped (for the most part at least) is really important for us to keep to our routines. Here are some tips I have picked up in my journey of feeding my family on a budget! Tip #1: Pre-cook your mince, chicken breast etc. We eat a few meals that use mince as the base (tacos, spag bol, savoury mince etc) and in order to make the most of my time in the kitchen, throwing a couple of kilos of mince in the pan or putting some chicken breast in the slow cooker takes little effort. Freeze in ziplock freezer b...

Hey Guys! You all know I am a mumma of a large family, so I kinda have to have a few favourite cookbooks, right? I do have quite a few cookbooks and websites that I pull from when I am meal planning, particularly when I get stuck with making the same meals over and over (it happens... I am far from perfect guys...).  Some of these are for thermomix recipes specifically, (my goal for the year is to use my thermomix more) while others are just general cookbooks. So lets get into it! 1. Thermomix Every Day Cookbook. This is the cookbook you get with your Thermomix and it has basic recipes and hints and tips to get used to your thermomix. My mum's favourite recipe in this is the custard.  2. Mamabake Cookbook. This is the cookbook I reach for when I have a lot of busy days where I will not have time to cook. There is a lot of slowcooker dump recipes in there that my family love and don't break the budget. 3. Once a Month Cooking by the Stay at Home...

Hey guys!  It's been a while so I thought I would give Meal Plan Monday another go! This time I will go through breakfasts, snacks and lunches and why we meal plan this way now. So here it is! Here is this week's meal plan (check out  Large Family Table  to find the meal planner). I don't have Morning Tea on there because it is ALWAYS fruit and everyone knows to choose a piece of fruit.  I also have for most lunches Make Your Own Sandwich. I don't make the kid's lunches, they do. There is always a variety of fillings/spreads available and quite frankly, I am not a slave. I have a LOT of other things to be doing at that time so they (with supervision) make it themselves. It also works better for them to make it, so that they take ownership and eat what they put in their lunch boxes.  It is not quite summer here (where I am we have about 3 weeks of "winter" and the rest of the year is just hot and muggy), so afternoon tea consists ...

Hey Guys! One of my favourite things to watch on YouTube is (obviously) meal planning and freezer cooking videos. I love these videos because they give me inspiration in the kitchen... and without it, I tend to do the same set of meals over and over. I'm not sure why I have not been able to get into the routine of doing freezer meals on a regular basis, however this time around, it has been relatively simple and no pressure. One of my favourite YouTubers to watch on the topic of freezer cooking is Jamerill's Large Family Table . She has put together a few packs with a bunch of large family style freezer cooking meals and they are amazing! Check it out by following the link to her YouTube channel and she has the link on her page. Some of the recipes I have been able to make for the freezer meals include: Banana Bread (3 loaves) Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan (can't wait to try this on the weekend) Slow Cooker Broccoli and Beef (this was a big winner with the kids -...

Hey guys! So I finally got my act together enough to meal plan for this week! We have had a crazy few weeks here and yes I have been really bad with meal planning. School holidays have been and gone and now it is time to get back into the routines we all thrive on here! Here we go! Monday: Savoury mince Tuesday: Chicken meatball bake with veg  Wednesday: Sticky sausages and veg Thursday: Crumbed fish with mac and cheese Friday: Noodles/Pasta Saturday: Party pies and hot chips Sunday: Meatloaf and veg I am going to do most of these meals in the Thermomix wherever I can as well as make a lot of the snacks for the week in there as well. So for snacks this week I am making: Yoghurt Popcorn Banana muffins Choc chip muffins Honey loaf Thanks for reading! Jacqui xxx

Hey Guys! I have heard of a lot of vloggers that do this Monthly Favourites video, so I thought I would do a bloggers version! I will show you my favourite items in the areas of: Organisation, Kids, Books, YouTube creators, In the Kitchen, and more! Let's get right into it, shall we? I have been loving cooking in my Thermomix this month and one website I have been loving is  The Road To Loving My Thermo Mixer . I have gotten so many recipes for lunch box snacks, dinners, soaps and more from this website for a long time. The recipes are quick and easy and are a simple and healthier version of the store-brought varieties. The kids love most of the recipes I have made and even help out with them! The winner in the Organisation category are these pantry containers! I LOVE these! I keep this one filled with snacks for school lunches and it is so easy for the kids to pull out of the pantry to grab one snack from the front two bins when they make their lunches (We ...