Where are you?

We are 8 mamas, 8 kids and 6 babies in Newcastle, NSW

How did you get started and how did you find each other?

One of us got fed up with the cooking every night routine and wrangled us together. We were all friends already through ‘Newcastle Attachment Parenting’ group and the ‘Hunter Home and Natural Birth Support’ group.

When did you start?

We kicked off in April 2013

How often do you MamaBake?

We gather to cook every 2-3 weeks at whichever mama’s house who feels like having us all over. There’s no formal roster or routine.

Biggest challenge of MamaBaking and how did you overcome it?

We found it was more than a little chaotic with 7 mamas cooking, 15 or so babies and children, craft activities, lunch, snacks, drinks, chickens and puppies wandering through the kitchen, babies napping and trying to socialise at the same time! Now we’ve overcome a lof of the chaos by some mamas cooking at home if possible and bringing meals with us, then usually only 1 or 2 mamas need to cook and the rest can help out, drink tea and chat.

Now our main challenge is which delicious meal to pull from the freezer each day. It can be very stressful… 

Favourite recipe so far and can you, pretty please, share it with us?

Braised Coconut Spinach & Chickpeas with Lemon

What impact does MamaBaking together have on your life as a mother?

Spending time with beautiful women = soul food. MamaBake makes us feel connected to other inspiring mums, with similar perspectives on wholefood eating and parenting styles. It helps to reduce our stress around cooking every night, freeing up more time to spend with our children. Tasting other people’s food broadens our minds to new recipes and brings a greater variety of healthy food to our families.

It’s also great for our children to make new friendships and learn about how we cook for each other, thus strengthening our sense of community and support .

We get warm and fuzzies from cooking huge pots of yummy food surrounded by friends, it’s like living in a big commune for a day.

One reason why you think other mothers might benefit from MamaBaking themselves?

It’s a great lift out of the rut that can be the cooking dinner ground hog!

Do YOU MamaBake with some friends?  Write in to us (using the form below) answering the above questions with a picture of your group and your fave big batch recipe and each member will receive a year’s FREE membership to MamaBake’s Online Big Batch Baking Club