Turia Pitt has long been an inspiration to us all. Here, she shares her top dinner time tips on The Carousel, particularly what she does to avoid the dinner time dredge – using Thermomix. You can also read her Mother’s Day message, here.
Thermomix’s new research shows that dinner time is the least favourite time of day for more than half of young families. Could you explain why this is the case?
There’s a couple of reasons why I think that dinner time is the least favourite time of day, particularly for people with a young family. I think it’s because you’ve been at work all day, the kids have been at school or after school sports, everybody’s tired. You open the fridge, you’ve got to start cooking. There’s a lot of stress that we put on ourselves, maybe to try and make a healthy meal and a meal that everybody is going to eat. So from my perspective, I like to do a little bit of organising for my week ahead on a Sunday so I know what I’m going to be cooking each night and during the week, I just make meals that I know are favourites in the family like a bolognese and I also try to cook a little bit more so I can batch cook them and put them in the freezer.
How can families reduce the amount of time it takes to make dinner?
So for me to reduce the amount of time it takes to cook dinner, I think just like I said before, I’ve been a little bit organised, being a little bit on the front foot, trying to map out your week, and also batch cooking so you’ve always got some nice, nutritious meals in the freezer. But also, I think having a really great kitchen appliance like a Thermomix can be really helpful because you can be making risotto while you’re cleaning up while you’re doing dishes while you’re unpacking school bags, and that type of thing so you really can multitask with a Thermomix.
What are your go-to meal prep recipes?
My go to meals to prep are bolognese, spaghetti bolognese is always a winner and why house and then you can, you know you can put the meat with rice you can put the meat with into a lasagna. So there’s lots of different ways that you can do it. My chocolate slice is a bit of a banger for a little sweet treat and it’s a real pleaser with my friends and family.
For a lot of people, cooking feels like a chore. Do you have any suggestions for making cooking more fun and enjoyable?
Cooking can definitely feel like a chore. If you think about it, we eat three meals a day, plus snacks on top. So that’s a lot of time in the kitchen prepping, cutting, slicing, cooking. I don’t really enjoy the process of cooking, I’ve got to be honest. But I find that I do like to eat nutritious, wholesome, hearty meals. I like to get my boys involved every now and then but if it’s at the end of the day, probably it’s more trouble than it’s worth. But also having a really good appliance on hand like the Thermomix to make all other parts of cooking, you know chopping and stirring and grating, all of those a lot easier.
What are your favourite kitchen tools that make cooking easier?
My favourite kitchen tool is obviously my Thermomix, I bought one about a little bit over 10 years ago. I use it every single day. I can use it to make a meal from scratch, if I’m inclined to do so, but even just to help me with, you know, chopping an onion or finely dicing an onion, or grating some carrot. I think the really great thing about it is it’s self cleaning. So I pop in some vinegar, some water, and then it cleans itself.
Orders can be placed through your Thermomix consultant or online at www.thermomix.com.au.
RRP: $2,579
