Cooking with three under 4

[TerrariaMum]

I am currently a SAHM with DD1 3.7 years (not in nursery until Sept and just afternoon then), DD2 15 months, DS 3 months.

I am really struggling to cook at the moment. DD1 will not eat vegetables (though she eats loads of fruit) which is a bit of a problem as all of us are lifelong vegetarians and DD2 is into everything so cooking. DS is ebf though that isn't such a problem as he also sleeps a lot and I try to assemble things then.

The further difficulty I have is that we have not got a freezer only an icebox, and we can't get a freezer anytime soon for reasons I'd rather not get into here.

So, any ideas, advice,experiences, recipes welcome.

I would use the slow cooker loads in your situation. Prepare your veg the night before/the morning when you have a spare moment, then put it in…

Three easy vegetarian dishes I cook are oven baked risotto
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2818/ovenbaked-risotto-

Nut roast (lots of recipes out there) - just needs ingredients mixing together, can easily be done in 10 minutes & popping in the oven

Nutmeatballs - more time consuming but the kids love them in tomato sauce with pasta/rice.

Thanks. This especially helps as I have been lacking in inspiration and have never used a slow cooker before. Now I get to learn something new and useful.

We're also a vegetarian family. I bought a few cookbooks that have recipes which are quick and easy to make, also check out libraries for cookbooks. I'm crap at thinking of ideas off the top of my head and find cookbooks so helpful as I can plan meals ahead of time.

One of mine isn't keen on many vegetables so I do quite a few rice and pasta dishes (which I can store in fridge) and disguise most veggies by mashing them with potatos.

I know stressful cooking can be with little ones! I find preparing meals for the weel but as you don't have a freezer, you can store cooked (or uncooked) food in the fridge for a few days.

My kids were similar age range to yours...

Pizza with veg hidden in the tomato sauce is a good one. Buy bases or if you can bear it make Jamie Oliver pizza base. The kids will love making it.

I wonder if you've tried sweeter veg? My veg-haters still go mad for butternut squash and sweet potato, and almost anything roasted.

Crumbles always go down well fruit or veg, and you could try the trick of doing a slow cooker veg casserole and topping with cornflakes. Sounds bizzare but it's quite nice!

Thank you all, that's all really useful. I hadn't thought of sweet potato.

The main time I cook when small ones was in the afternoon.

Get the younger two both to nap at the same time say 1pm if possible. Eldest can nap also, or have quiet time of listening to story tapes/ books, or can 'help'. Much easier with just 3 year old helping. Or give them pens and pencils on kitchen so you can watch and prep.

Then you can either cook and pop in fridge, or prep most things so just 10 mins at dinner time

Art That's what we do. My ds likes to help out so he sets up the table minus knives and folks - we only have plastic plates etc and plastic glasses that look like glass. Completely childproof haha.