Under pressure

Almost a year ago I described our mornings, in music (link). How I would like them to be, but how they too often turn out. We’re back at that stage…
A household with an infant, if it’s your first or your fourth, can be chaotic. Although with every child your time efficiency gets better, so you manage better to stay on top of all the jobs. You try to cope with the change of routine, the time for feeds (we’re still on two hourly feeds, if he even makes that!) and getting up three times during the nights. You need to find the patience for the younger siblings to deal with their acting up as a reaction to the change of dynamics.
It can be a challenge, my brain just doesn’t function on it’s best with a lack of good sleep, the pressure to keep it together. So some days are like this:

You just can’t look past the pile of washing and folding to be done. Just looking at it already gives you a headache. Walking through the house is jumping from one spot to the other, careful not to trip.

Most weekends, with a little luck, I can get an extra hour of sleep in the morning, while Sander looks after the kids. 

And I come back alive. 

Tackling that laundry, getting the floor clear and I start cooking.

With all these hungry kids in the house, life is so much easier when they are fed…

My sisters gave me a pressure cooker for my birthday, it is ideal. I tend to cook two ways: very quick or  very slow. Contradictive? 

Slow are my stews, curries, stocks,… They need a long time cooking for the meat to fall of the bone. I can put it on in the morning and leave it simmer. The only thing left for dinnertime is to cook some rice and throw a salad together.

Quick is for things that need cooking for an hour or more, but can’t be left simmering. The high pressure cooker brings the time back to a third, making it doable for a in between job. So during the weekends or somewhere in between I fill up the pressure cooker with whole beetroots, skin and all. Kept in the fridge they are ready to go in salads for the rest of the week. Chickpeas are another one, soaked for a full day ahead (here is why), then cooked in twenty. Some in fridge the rest in the freezer to throw trough curries are on standby for some chickpea salad (I’ve got a wonderful recipe that will follow, one day). Same goes for brown rice and all these other dry beans you can then easily use in meals. A great way to stretch meals cheaply, with extra protein and extra minerals.

You can use the pressure cooker for so many things, steaming veggies, boil potatoes in a tick. Including those slow type meals in a hurry, but my pressure cooker is to small for those large amounts I like to cook, so I’ll take them slow.

Sweet potato baked in the oven in coconut oil is great as a side for dinner, so much more taste and nutrients then ordinary potato. Always make some extra for during the week. And my life would’t be the same without dukkah in the pantry (yes I’ll get you a recipe), flavouring salads and meals in a sprinkle.

So even on the crazy days I manage to put a decent lunch salad together. This is where is all some together…

A rainbow after the storm. And a good boost to tackle the rest of the afternoon.