To the moms (and dads) out there…
You may be thinking about doing the intensely healing GAPS™ protocol to heal your babies…
Or maybe you are already neck deep in stock pots. (Empathetic grin here)
Or maybe you just want to cook real food in bulk for everyday life.
How do you prepare all this food and still have a life?
I’ve experienced this dilemma myself (after all, we did GAPS Intro in an Airstream, whilst traveling with our four kids.)
Along with experiencing it myself, I’ve also “e-observed” many methods of beautifully dedicated mums and dads, and was inspired to create a quick list of tips & tricks for working once/eating twice.
As you know there’s a lot to think about on GAPS™…
Here are some tips that I’ve either used myself or thought would be a really super way to do things.
Basic Kitchen Gear:
- Multiple large cooking vessels. Even in an Airstream we had a stockpot and a crock pot going all the time
- Quart and 1/2 gallon mason jars (yes, you can actually fit these in an RV fridge)
- Immersion blender – this is my favorite
- Good chef’s knife, paring knife, and cutting boards
Less Basic Kitchen Gear:
- Food processor – this is the one I have
- Good quality blender or Vitamix
- Juicer – like Omega, Champion, or Green Star. Even a cheap-o one like a Jack Lalanne will do the trick
- Excalibur Dehydrator
- Consider an extra fridge or freezer (absolutely not required…I made do with an RV fridge…but pretty nice if you can)
Cook It Once/Eat Twice:
- Instead of cooking one chicken, cook 2 – 4 whole chickens
- Instead of a 4 lb roast, do an 8 lb roast and have meat on hand for snacks and quick meals
- Prepare not quarts, but gallons, of broth at a time. One method for this is by using a 22 Qt. Roaster
- Prep breakfast soup in the crock pot the night before. Creamed soups are great for this, like garlic-cauliflower, or butternut, or carrot-ginger. Just cut veggies in chunks and cook in crock pot with broth, on low, overnight. Blend with immersion blender in the morning.
- Add heaping tablespoons of animal fats to everything you are eating…fat is healing and as a longer burning fuel will satiate longer (this is helpful in the first 6 – 8 weeks, when your kids are hungry 15 minutes after they just ate!)
- Prepare vegetables in bulk and freeze. This could look like:
- 8 butternut squash – peeled, de-seeded and cut into cubes
- 6 – 8 leeks – washed, ends removed and sliced
- 4 heads of cauliflower (or 4 lbs organic frozen) – washed and chopped
- 5 – 10 lbs onions – peeled and sliced/chopped
- 5 heads of garlic – peeled and minced (or pureed in food processor and put in olive oil, store in fridge for a week+)
- 4 heads of broccoli (or 4 lbs organic frozen) – washed and chopped
- Whole bunches of fresh herbs – washed, de-stemmed, and frozen
- 5 – 10 lbs carrots – washed and chopped
- 1 – 2 roots of ginger – peeled, chopped
- Prepare at least 4 gallons of ferments at a time. Serve in ramekins as sides so the kids remember to eat them! Shot glasses or straws can also make fermented kraut juice a little more fun.
As always, I would love to hear from you. What are your trickster-kitchen-maneuvers to save time and sanity?
Warmly,
Melanie
2 thoughts on “Feeding a family, GAPS style”
Thank you for sharing? I’m so scare to fermentate? Can you please share your fermenting recipes? Thank you!
That is a good idea for future posts.
Thank you,
Melanie