This giveaway is now closed and the winners have been informed.
Nonstopmama last interviewed Annabel Karmel after the launch of The Princess Party Cookbook. Her latest book, Top 100 Pasta Dishes, has just been published and features as many takes on the busy family favourite – making the most of pasta in all its shapes and sizes – including recipes for babies and toddlers. Featuring clear directions, tips aplenty and colour photos, it promises to be another classic, go-to guide for busy mums and a useful source of inspiration for doing pasta with a twist (sorry).
Here, Annabel shares some of her favourite time-saving tips with nonstopmama (and don’t miss the chance to win a copy of her latest book, below).
* Freeze ahead. When cooking for the family, make several portions and pop some in the freezer for days when you don’t have time to cook. It’s also a good idea to freeze mini individual portions for children in ramekins.
* Plan meals in advance to incorporate leftovers from the day before. For example, use left over roast chicken for a Chicken Caesar Salad the next day.
* Keep frozen vegetables in your freezer – they are already prepared and easy to cook. They are frozen within hours of being cooked, so they are often more nutritious than vegetables that have been sitting on the supermarket shelf.
* It’s a good idea to design a menu plan for the week ahead, before you do your supermarket shop. Not only will this save time when you are in the supermarket, it will also save you money.
* Keep a notebook in the kitchen, so when you have used the last one of some particular ingredient or run out of something, you add it to the list.
* If you freeze individual portions of fruit and vegetables in covered ice cube trays, you can make up your own combinations by defrosting two flavours together, e.g. apple and pear or sweet potato and broccoli. If you have friends with babies the same sort of age, you can each make up a batch of various foods and share them between you, so you can end up with six different flavours, for example, even if you have only made two.
Nonstopmama has two copies of Top 100 Pasta Dishes by Annabel Karmel to give away.
