One of those days bolognase....

We had such a fab time on Monday! Group homeschoolers trip to the Magna science museum. It was a LOT of walking though and i'm really hurting today, throbbing all over. Its days like today when i'm so grateful for my kitchen gadgets! I've put a ready made bread mix in the bread maker, just add water so no fighting the brain fog thinking about measurments. And i've just put one of my standbye staple meals into the slow cooker, Bolognase! I make this so much I dont need tothink about it and once youve prepped everything, you can stick it in the slow cooker and let it do all the cooking for you, which is priceless for days like today. Because i'm struggling so much to move today, ive used pre-chopped veggies from the freezer. Days like this are why I have pre-chopped veggies in the freezer.

Grated carrot, chopped celery and some chopped peppers, about a handful of each, in the cooker.

You can just stick onions in the slow cooker, but they really taste a lot better if you fry them in olive oil first (imagine boiled onions? yeah, not nice.) These are frozen pre-chopped onions. I would normally add grated garlic, but i'm feeling extra lazy today, sooooo......

Frozen pre-minced cubes of garlic (oh yes! *that* level of laziness!)

We really like a lot of garlic in our italian type foods, so I added 4 cubes (equivelent to 4 cloves.)

I had some chopped basil in the freezer so added a few pinches and some extra dried herbs.

I really dont like using canned mushrooms, but I have non in the freezer or fridge so these had to do. I discovered them recently actually in tesco, they were about 9p for 250g sliced mushrooms. So I keep a few in for emergencies.

Lea and Perrins is my special ingredient, a few splashes of that along with a few splashes of red wine make a huge difference to the depth of flavour.

I normally use canned tomatoes but I have a lot of passata in my cupboards at the moment as they were cheaper than tinned and more versatile. I usually use two or even three cartons and add lentils too, but my poor slow cooker was looking rather full so I just put the one in.

My breadmaker in the background there was kindly donated to me from a very kind lady off freecycle, years ago. Its only a cheap tesco model, and ive used it almost everyday for the past 4 years! Its on its last legs, but its holding out for the time being.

I brown off the mince just a little, other recipes say brown it off completely, which you can do, I like to do mine until about half of it is browned off then add it to the slow cooker.

When I see lean mince reduced or on offer I fill the freezer, its so versatile. 

As I said, I add a couple of splashes of red wine, lots of fresh ground black pepper, and I also add some beef stock. A couple of teaspoons/cubes depending on how much your making. I find it adds flavour but also helps combat some of the acidity from the tomatoes/wine etc.

This is a 3.5ltr slow cooker, full to the brim. I used a 600g pack of lean mince and plenty of veggies. I would normally add a couple of handfuls of lentils at this stage, but its so full already I havent bothered. This will be on high for about 5 hours, it will do tea tonight, lunch for hubby to take to work tomorrow and a meal tommorow night, I will be making it into chilli.

If you have any bacon add that to the mince when you brown it! It goes amazing in bolognase!

So that is my very lazy family meal, for when your having one of those days :)