The ultimate no-chop, impress-the-in-laws, dinner cheat of deliciousness

I've blogged about cheating at dinner before. But what happens when your husband calls while you're half-dressed, wrangling the kids over a mass toy explosion, to tell you his parents are coming over for dinner in half an hour?  

Dinner?? Did he just say dinner? Like how in the hell did it even get to dinner time? The fridge is bare, and the only clean part of the house is the kitchen—but not for long. Because even if you could possibly scrape together a meal that you'd be prepared to set before them in half an hour, you know—just know, that by the time they arrive the kitchen will have succumbed to a massacre of grime of such proportions that horror music will eerily begin to play the moment the door opens—  
 

YES HORROR MUSIC WILL PLAY!
 

Well perhaps not for everyone, but for me it's the outcome of cooking. No simple cheat will do. It has to be quick, it has to contain its mess, and above all it must be absolutely delicious!

 

Don't worry, I have your back peeps. A dinner that requires NO CHOPPING, has virtually no prep time, is contained neatly in one pot, does not mess your kitchen, and is tastes-like-its-been-cooked-for-hours scrumptious!

 

FAST Slow-Cooked Beef in Red Wine

 

Ingredients

500g Diced Beef (Butcher marinated in garlic and red wine for best flavour)

1 jar good quality pasta sauce like Barilla

1 cup of baby peas

1 cup frozen veg mix (carrot caulli, & broc)

*I know you want to doubt me on the frozen veg mix and the whole deliciousness thing right? Trust, these veg (except for peas) totally break down and disappear into this dish. It's sneaky veg. They actually help make the sauce thicker and more flavoursome.

Now you can cheat at this cheat. You can use any meat you have. I always keep diced meat in the freezer for precisely these occasions. In this case I used butcher Red-Wine marinated beef. It's the best thing to keep in the freezer because it has an intensity of flavour that only comes from proper marinating. But if you don't have marinated beef, just add quarter cup of red wine and a teaspoon of garlic paste.

Pressure Cooker

This is cooked in the pressure cooker. Seriously if you don't have one go-get-one-now. Mine was thirty dollars from the supermarket. It's just like a normal pot but with a special lid and fits in the cupboard no problem. Unlike a slow-cooker it doesn't take up my entire bottom shelf, weigh more than my car, and it actually fits in my sink for easy washing up. It also doesn't require me to be organised yesterday to use it. It's the ultimate cheat's kitchen accessory.

 

Directions

There's no chopping, and you don't have to dirty dishes. I've only measured out the ingredients for the purposes of the photograph. Just brown the meat in the bottom of the pan with oil, pour everything in (I just measure veg by eye), and wack on the lid. Once it has reached pressure, set kitchen timer for 20 minutes and there is NO MORE TO DO!

It cooks itself and no mess, no dirtied anything.

 

 

See the veggies are gone!

 

AND LOOK

 

I just had to prove this meat falls apart likes it's been cooking all day!

 

But really, the photo's don't show you how good this dish smells. The red wine, and garlic, so rich and decadent....nom nom nom....

 

Good enough to feed to the in-laws!

 

Tip: I buy tube minced garlic for no chopping

Tip: Keep jars of really good quality pasta sauce for these kind of recipes. They make the perfect base with little to no effort.
 

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6 Cheats To Revolutionize Your Kitchen

I've resolved to be more organised. As you know I like my domestic shortcuts and organisation is no exception. So here are 6 cheats I use to save time and space in the kitchen.

1. Read that magazine recipe.

Those wily editors managed to make trying to follow a magazine recipe like some kind of kitchen gymnastics. It's pretty much impossible to hold a magazine open and cook something. Just hang it from a pants hanger and it will not only stay open but you can read it at eye level. Coat hangers are magic multipurpose tools!

 

2. Keep knives away from fingers.

Ever stuck your hand in a draw and–ouch! Yep, not so great when there are kids around. Hang a metallic strip to keep knives away from fingers and have them close by for quick chopping. You'll never have to search for your knife again and they'll stay sharper for longer.

3. Store Frypans vertically in their original box!

This one came from my mother. Never throw away the box your frypan came in! Just fold in the edge and slide it vertically. Not only will your frypans be neat, organised, and easily accessible, but they won't scratch. Winning!

4. Actually find measuring cups where you need them.

My measuring cups have always been sacrificed to the utensil draw of no escape. It's only possible to find a quarter cup when I need a half cup, and never ever possible to find a quarter cup when I actually need one. And really why not keep them where they're actually needed—with the baking products. I now have them hanging (yep on another hanger) clipped to the bottom of the spice rack. I'll always find the cup I need where it needs to be.

5. Make use of dead space.

That space at the top of a deep shelf is dead-dead-dead. Worse, all your things are balanced precariously on-top of one another. Seize that space by making use of a hanging shelf. This wire one was a few dollars from Store.

 

6.No more soggy stinky cloths.

Don't know about you but my clothes turn into soggy, stinky, bacteria filled messes almost instantly. I need to change them every other day. Keep them dry and clean by pegging them to your dish rack. I've seen lots of people suggest using bulldog clips and them balancing them on the clip handles but really—that's gimmicky and not practical. Because can you imagine how often you are going to knock over that cloth? Do these people have kids? A peg is easy and will stay put.

That's it for my Kitchen Organisation Cheats. Please do let me know if these are helpful or if you have your own!

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3 Magic Travel Packing Tricks

I’m going to RWA Fremantle this weekend! I’m so excited! But…I’m not a frequent traveler. Last time I went away I packed three large suitcases and a large toiletries case.

No? This isn’t efficient?

Well I did learn! Also maybe I obsessed about it just a little... So please enjoy my tips for packing luggage.

1. Bag it. So we’ve all seen those roll up luggage Spacebags right? Yeah they work and save heaps of room in your bag but know what? You can actually use jumbo Glad Snap Lock bags for smaller items like underwear. Simply place the clothing inside and zip up the bag leaving one corner open—then roll it tightly and do up the remainder of the ziplock! Done. Budget Spacebag! Also I’m a little OCD on the Zip bags and will use them for everything.

Image from glad.com.au

2. Plan your outfits. I know I know right. But I mean it. Plan what you’re going to wear every-single-day and pack nothing you don’t need. Plan to mix and match.

 Image from orgjunkie.com no copyright infringement intended

3. Magic shoe organizers. Most hotel rooms have tiny bathrooms and nowhere to put your toiletries—if you’re like me and must bring your own hair products, sunscreen, moisturizer… and everything, an over the door shoe organizer with clear pockets hooked over the back of the door can hold all your toiletries and odds and ends for you to find at a glance!

Luggage organised!

Was this helpful? Got any Travel Tips?

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How I cheated on my kids birthdays

Easy and Cheap Kids Cakes

As you've probably guessed, I'm a massive cheating strumpet when it comes to domestic duties. I've been a little quiet this week as all the birthdays in the world just happened at my house!

Kids birthdays are awesome. Really, really, awesome... Kids playing, party food, elaborate cakes, decorations, soft drinks, kids screaming playing, the eventual vomit...Yeah, it's not quite as awesome when you're the one doing all the everything. But children's birthdays are special, and how can you not want to give them everything they want, including that three-tier, hand-sculpted, Barbie castle cake?

So your kid wants a Barbie cake? No problem totally do-able right? Did I mention that to get that three-tier, hand-sculpted, Barbie castle cake, you must spend three days crafting the roof shingles from imported white chocolate with the worlds tiniest scalpel? Or you could just sell your car and pay for a professional to do it for you.

Believe me I've been there. For my daughters christening I made this cake—like made every single bit of it including taking tutorials and learning to make fondant bows. Seriously...I have anxiety just remembering the week it took me to make the darn thing. But can I tell you a secret?

Kids don't care...

Really, they don't care. They don't care if its a $5 or a $500 cake, or if it took five minutes, or five hours to make. They don't care. If they say they want a Barbie/Spiderman/Racing car cake, all they want is for that character to make an appearance--they just gotta turn up with the cake. Which brings me to my point; it doesn't have to be difficult.

Cheap + Easy = Good.

You know all those merchandising companies that have been ruthlessly brainwashing our kids and making EVERYTHING that they simply must have now? We can be creative and use those evil franchises and their gimmicky crap to our advantage. A little imagination and we can skip the work and the expense.

So when my daughter asked for Monsters Inc cakes, I was able to cheat and deliver these!

All it took was a bag of Monsters Inc lollies from the merchandise section of the supermarket and popping them on top of cupcakes. I used a $2 box cupcake mix, which has the advantage of being completely idiot proof. Of course you could cut a few more corners and buy a tray of ready-made muffins and decorate those.

Preparation Time: 10 mins (not including oven and cooling time)

Decorating Time: 15 mins

Cost: Less than $10 for everything!

She loved them—everyone did. And me? Well it saved money and only took about half an hour of my time so it was all WIN! Not to mention it made me look more domestic goddess and less the domestic gnome I actually am.

Just when I'd recovered from the first birthday, it was my son's birthday. He turned two, and all he cares about is cars. If it goes BROOM then basically its good. But my four-year-old YouTube cooking demonstration expert had the answer, and showed me how I could make him a cool racing car cake.

Wonderful, cool music, can't you just picture me boogying to the tune as I effortlessly mold a slab of sponge into this masterpiece...piece of cake right? Are you freaking kidding me, do I look like Liv Hanson?

I had other ideas, cheating ideas.

This racing track cake took about Fifteen minutes to decorate and the kids were so excited about it. Because instead of being a hunk of cake in the shape of a car, it actually had cars on it. Cars they could keep afterwards! It was easy and even the two-year old helped.

Just another $2 box cake, baked in a square tin, and iced (you could use a purchased supermarket slab cake). To decorate I simply cut out a piece of paper in the shape of the road and placed it over the cake, then let the four year old at it with green sprinkles. Then we pulled up the paper, defined the road with a tube of white icing, and the kids stuck mini-cars on the road. Simples. Like really simple, anyone can scatter green sprinkles.

Preparation Time: 10 mins (not including oven and cooling time)

Decorating Time: 15 mins

Cost: Less than $15 for everything, including a whole mini car set he gets to keep!

So next time you have to stress decide what to do for a birthday try the promotional isle at the supermarket. Anything can be a cake topper. Why not ice a round cake blue, cut half a fruit roll up and place it in the middle, then lay a Barbie on top...instant Barbie-reclining-on-a-pool-mat cake!

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