Morning! I’ve got a guest post for you today from Simone from Play With Food about getting out of the baking rut. Simone and I have worked together to create the Happy Mealtimes eCourse and she is also a great friend in the blogging world. She offered to take a little weight off my plate by creating this awesome guest post {because I really like having new content for my readers}. She also creates the most awesome little cooking videos with her girls, so you should definitely check her out.

A few weeks ago, I found myself in a gloomy little baking rut. I hadn’t gotten in the kitchen with my two young girls (2 and 4) for a while and I found myself looking disappointed at my pantry. I realised I had to do something to get out of the rut!

Although it is difficult to cook with kids – don’t get me wrong – I get so much joy watching them regale others with tales of their cooking adventures. It has taken many frustrating, hair-pulling and crazy moments in the kitchen {like this one} to get to the point that I can honestly say, I hate-love cooking with them. Yet, without it, something just seems to feel “out-of- whack” and it makes a funny little rut in my mummy life.

It’s funny what makes a rut in your mummy life. For me, I realised one day that it was not baking with the girls when I did not have something on hand for afternoon tea. All I was doing was staring blankly at a pantry of non-cooked flour, grains, nuts, spices, herbs etc… Things that were ALL totally useless in their current state for our afternoon tea.

For others their rut may come about because they have been missing out on park play time with their kids or going out solo for some exercise time. Others may find a lack of retail therapy, aka the hub-bub, people watching and stimulus of a busy shopping centre is causing a bit of a downer.

Ultimately, You are the one who knows your “rut” and how to get your mojo back. I think that as busy mums we put too much pressure on ourselves to meal plan, bake and produce lovely meals every single day. Life is swings and round abouts. We can’t do it all. In fact, I found this article about why mummy cooks should not be shamed for not-so- pretty food really interesting because it highlighted to me just how much better we are at cooking / baking when faced with typical mum life adversity. There is no culinary school that can teach you how to cook / bake to suit your family through all sorts of distractions, time constraints, ingredient constraints and with the added pressure of witching hour.

Domestic cooks may not have the prettiest dishes you will ever see – however, they come back and do it on REPEAT. You are doing a great job! Just find a way to keep your mojo in check. For me, I get inspiration from other blogs {especially Shari’s}, pinterest and my huge collection of recipe books.

I also don’t over complicate it. I pick the right time and place to steadily climb back on that horse. I also like to follow Shari’s meal planning advice from the Happy Mealtimes eCourse

What did I do a few weeks ago when I realised I was in rut-ville? I fought to get my baking mojo back. These cookies were the result. My girls devoured these persimmon, sultana and oat cookies (and I helped too) in one afternoon tea. It is a very simple recipe but I had to start somewhere to get the creative juices flowing again!

PERSIMMON, SULTANA AND OAT COOKIES

Pulp from a very ripe persimmon (no seeds/skin)
1 cup oats
2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup SR flour
1 egg
2 tbsp brown sugar
¼ cup sultanas
1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 180oC and prepare your baking tray. Mix all of the ingredients together until well combined.

Using two teaspoons, take a golf ball sized dollop of mixture with one and use the other teaspoon to scrape the mixture off. This is a great activity for pre-schoolers too. These drop shapes aren’t the prettiest things in the world but that’s not actually the point for some at-home lazy days cookies.

Put the cookies into the oven for 12-15 minutes until golden around the edges. Enjoy after they’ve cooled down slightly from the oven. (Perfect with a cup of tea in the afternoon)

Disclosure: Shari is the co-writer of the Happy Mealtimes eCourse  and subsequently earns commission from sales via these links on her site. This does not impact how much you pay. It just helps support her awesome blog! Her “Happy Family Meals” recipe book that you get as part of the eCourse is really cool and I cook recipes from it all of the time.

Thanks so much for having me here, Shari!

Simone from Play with Food is a part-time feeding therapist and blogs about happily feeding families over at www.playwithfood.com.au. You can get a free 30min video tutorial on helping kids get out of a food rut via her website too!