Have a No-Cook Week! Get together, batch cook and share

 

 

Are you looking for a way to have a no-cook week?  Just some time off from cooking? You’ve landed in just the right place!  We’re going to show you have a group big batch cook session with your friends can give you heaps of time off cooking family dinners every night.

The chore of cooking family meals tends to fall to us women.  Thing is, it’s not that it’s just the actual cooking of the food is it?  It’s all the mental space it takes up too.

Here’s what it looks like for most of us:

• Think about what to cook
• Shop for food
• Load food into bags, into car, out of car into kitchen
• Clean out fridge so you can get new food in
• Put away the groceries
• Prep ingredients for meals
• Serve meals
• Clean up
• Oh, and REPEAT x1,430,678 times       ……A week.

Whilst we all enjoy doing some of the things some of the time, cooking for a family is a relentless and (sometimes) thankless chore.  We had quite enough of it years ago which is why MamaBake exists. 

MamaBake is batch cooking for mums of busy families so you can have a no-cook week.  It’s a way of getting all the family dinners done in one hit so you don’t have to cook every night of the week.

The other pretty big thing with motherhood (we reckon it’s still the elephant in the room) is that things can get a bit lonely at a time when you really need meaningful connections. 

Get Together and Batch Cook

Getting together in a group to batch cook means you’re getting down to work together – it’s social, it’s fun, you’re sharing experiences of motherhood, asking questions of others, learning plus it’s also extremely helpful because you’re going home and dinners are done for a few nights.  

You’re creating a meaningful tribe of women with whom you will be creating bonds that will last long after the week you get together to cook – the benefits go waaaaaay beyond simply cooking together.

If you’re getting sick of thinking about what to cook this week and would like to have some time off , why not give this a crack next week?  SMS a friend now and start the ball rolling with a group batch cook session.  

Group Batch Cooking: does it reeeeally work though?

Oh, and don’t take our word for MamaBake’s success at freeing up mums from cooking dinner every night: hundreds and hundreds of MamaBake groups have popped up all over the world (search Facebook and have a look, also read about them here) and even the Wall Street Journal wanted to know more about us.

How To MamaBake: Stay-At-Home mums

Get together with other mums to batch cook so you can have a No-Cook week.  How does it work for stay-at-home mums?

1. Pick someone’s house and set a date and time to MamaBake (allow about 4 hours)
   
2. Everyone pick a big batch meal to cook during the 4 hours
3. Cook your big batch meal together with the other mums
   
4. At the end of the approximately 4-hour MamaBake session, share out your meal with the other other mums 
5. You will go home with fresh, homemade family meals for the week.  Stash them in the fridge or freezer for each evening.

In summary:

• Get together
• Batch cook one big meal each
• Share each big batch meal out amongst you
• Stash your meals in the fridge for the week
• Be amazing in all your newly found free time!

How To MamaBake: (Paid) Working Mums 

You can still get in on the action!  But we’ve tweaked the original MamaBake formula for you.

1. Cook your big batch meal at home 
2. Arrange an early evening with cuppas and strawberry covered chocolates OR try a weekend morning/afternoon
3. You each bring your batch cooked meal.
4. Divvy up each meal between you all
5. Go home with fresh, homemade family meals for the week.  
6. Stash them in the fridge or freezer for each evening.
7. Be amazing in all your newly found free time!

How To MamaBake: My Kitchen’s Too Small

We’ve tried and tested every possible scenario us MamaBakers have faced and there have been ALOT!  Having too small a kitchen to get together to group batch cook is definitely a common one. But still, we found a way – oh, we found a way!  

1. Rotate who uses the stove
2. Don’t cook! Agree to make things like Vietnamese Spring Rolls or assemble marinades for chicken or other meat using oils and spices
3. Look around in your local area to see if you can chuck in a couple of dollars each and rent out the local community centre kitchen or village hall (you’d b suprised how underused, cheap and awesome they are!)
4. Cook your big batch meal in your own home then get together in a public space like a park – have a picnic!  And at that picnic, sgare out the meals you have each made.

More here on MamaBaking in small kitchens.

One week we found that we were going to have 19 MamaBakers and their little tribes in tow (totally a mere 39 children) – aint none of us had a kitchen big enough to accommodate that awesome crowd!

We didn’t want everyone to miss out though, so one of the women came up with the idea of using one of the local (and much underused) and so cute village hall.  

So we all came together with our batches of meals, some of us cooked in the kitchen, the children played, we shared excess produce we had growing in our gardens – it was wonderful.  You can read all about it, here

Read about real MamaBake group stories, here.