Waitrose web series: add your tips and questions on cooking for the family and have the chance to win £100 of Waitrose vouchers

Family Cooking: Buy a big joint of meat/chicken then it can be used throughout the week for leftovers/sandwiches. I do about 4/5 different vegetables, then I know my boys will have eaten at least 2 of them,

I always put a small piece of a particular veg on their plate, even if they say they don't like it. They usually cave in, they ate asparagus last week after a few months of pushing it around the plate.

Oh, and I get DH to make the gravy, DH makes his from meat juices etc and it is far better than I ever make.

Small girls with a princess complex will eat even broccoli if it is served on a multitier cake stand - seriously I even got DD to take her medicine by calling it a 'fairy pill' and putting it on the top layer with a few jelly tots.

Family Cooking: Place chicken breast or fish fillet on an oven tray with a piece of bacon over the top and cook in oven for about 15 minutes depending on size. The bacon makes it moist and tasty and can be removed afterwards for anyone who doesn't like it. We often serve it on salad leaves with new potatoes for the adults; children can have any sides that they like.

Making gravy from granules always results in lumpy, too thick gravy.
I put the granules into jug/ saucepan and put a splash of cold water in and mix to a paste before whisking in the hot water.
No more lumps.

Sunday lunch

Preparation is key! Peel the veg and potatoes Saturday night. Invest in a steamer to do the vegetables, this saves having 4 bubbling pots on the hob and ensures they are not boiled within an inch of their lives!

serve Sunday Lunch "family service" where veggies are in serving dishes and you will find more of them are eaten this way.

also roasting bags are brilliant at keeping the oven clean.

do slow cooked roast pork - bung cheap joint of pork, wrapped in foil on low heat at 12pm, prepare veg ready, go out for day, come back at 5pm, bung in roasties, open wine, drink wine, put on veg, eat amazing roast pork.
Use leftover pork which is falling to bits in chinese style wraps next day.

Sunday lunch - cooking a roast is easier than you think. Bung it in the oven. Chop up a variety of root vegetables - carrots, potato, sweet potato if you like it, etc, stick it in another roasting dish and put it on the shelf below. (i par boil my potatoes first, but it's quicker not to.)

Whilst the meat is standing, add cornflour mixed in water to the gravy juices and stir until dissolved to avoid any lumps. Simmer for 5 minutes, season, and add a stock cube if it needs it.

Serve. If you have small children and want an eaiser life, serve with (cooked) frozen peas also.

If you want fab stock, throw left over veg and the meat carcass into a large pain, add a bay leaf and a little salt and pepper, simmer for 2 hrs then strain and freeze the stock.
(Those AK weaning trays other first time mums like me thought would be essential work really well here.)

Apologies for the spelling - will you dock me a voucher if i win? [worried emoticum]

To take stress out of cooking Sunday lunch - teach your dear husband, in stages, how to cook a roast dinner.

It worked for me.

To take stress out of cooking Sunday lunch - teach your dear husband, in stages, how to cook a roast dinner.

It worked for me.

Roast your veg. Not just potatoes, parsnips, yams, butternut squash - but also carrots, courgettes, onions, tomatoes etc. all roast beautifully. No more pans on the hob

Choice No. 1) Be Anti-social
Don't invite anyone or tell them that everyone in your household is suffering from the latest long-lasting life-draining lurgi (not swine flu, otherwise you might encourage people who want to get it sooner rather than later)

Choice No. 2) Advertise the get-together as a "Bring & Share"-themed do
This gets around having to waste precious brain matter thinking about what to cook for awkward (ahem, I mean people with special diets).

Choice No. 3) Get a Rice-Cooker Steamer
I know that this piece of kitchen equipment comes in & out of vogue, but I got mine for 10 quid from Lidl & can use it to cook a massive paella style meal.
Celeb cooks will probably groan & shake their heads, but I just throw in some olive oil & chopped onion(s), frozen chopped garlic (new in Waitrose) + mixed seafood + measure out the appropriate rice & water + spices/ favourings of choice & the result is not only yummy, but I can watch over my family rather than watching over the food. (The rice-cooker/steamer will turn from cook-> heat when it's done. )

P.S. Include frozen mied veg to make the rice-cooker/steamer paella really colourful (i.e. hide the vegetables with tasty seasoning stuff).

Sunday Lunch with a toddler and grandparents:

Get LO involved in the cooking, DD loves helping to chop and stir. She whisks the batter for yorkshires etc - anything that is not hot really.

When serving get them to help decorate the table (DD likes picking flowers) and put it all out in seperate dishes. I then let DD choose what to have, I find she eventually tries a little of everything so long as MIL leaves her be

Put all the vegetables in serving dishes on the dining table and for the children, but this also works with fussy adults, believe me, give the vegetables your own names such as 'Prince/Princess Peas' or 'Harry Potter Potatoes'. Eventually the children will be choosing their own names for the vegetables - and will sure to be eating them too!

The best Roast Chicken is one that has had half a Lemon stuffed in its cavity a handfull of fresh thyme and a few onion quarters.

Make a flavoured Butter, i like Lemon and Corriander, Anchovey, Garlic and Chilli, they freeze wrapped in clingfilm so all you have to do is boil your veg then cut off a knob of your nice butter to melt on top and its a whole new dish!

.

Hehe

Was picked for the web series but declined, for now at least.

Who got through then?

Go to Waitroise.

Get four different meals.

Serve.

On a daily basis.

I think I'm on a slightly different planet. Does everyone still do Sunday lunch?? We do a yummy but easy early brunch at 11ish (overnight batter pancakes with bacon/croque madame/scrambled egg and sausage pittas/muffins with poached egg; that sort of thing) then a high tea around 4 with whatever is in the fridge plus some fruit or cake. Sunday is not a day for cooking in my book. Shudder.

<<gets back on spaceship>>