What does convenience mean to you?  In this episode I take a deep dive into what we believe convenient food is, how we use it day to day and explore new ways for convenience to not always be a ready meal or a snack from a packet. 

Recipes for 

Banana and Oatmeal Energy Bars - Banana and Oatmeal Energy Bars - Cookidoo® – the official Thermomix® recipe platform

Pizza Dough - Pizza Dough - Cookidoo® – the official Thermomix® recipe platform

Homemade pesto - Basil Pesto - Cookidoo® – the official Thermomix® recipe platform

Chunky Bolognese - https://cookidoo.co.uk/recipes/recipe/en-GB/r540251

ou have a question or tips to share you can send them through to 

notpastaagain@hotmail.com

Connect through my social channels 

The facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/letsthermomix/

Following me on Instagram my_food_for_thought_

Find out about me and how I work as a Thermomix advisor myfoodforthought.co.uk

Hey, it's Sam and this is Not Pasta again. I hope you are well. I hope you are eating well and I hope that there is a whole lot of flourishing going on in your kitchen. I don't know about you, but I am currently enjoying blue skies and sunshine. And for me, this represents a brilliant time of year.

With the clock change that's gonna happen this weekend, I am absolutely loving the fact that we are gonna be having lighter and longer evenings. It just means we are able to do things that we want to do more easily and more freely. So for me, I'm thinking walking in the evening, I might even start running, we might be able to have barbecues, even enjoy sitting outside with a drink, obviously, as long as it's not too cold.

And it also means that instead of watching my youngest son play football in darkness, I'll be able to sit out and watch him in daylight. So I don't know about you, but the longer days just give us the chance, like I said, to just enjoy the things we like to do a little bit more. It's so much easier to do something when the days are light rather than when it's dark and wintery. It got me thinking all about convenience as well.

and how we embrace convenience in so many areas of our life. But when it comes to food, I really do feel that that conversation can shift. This is something I've been thinking about and grappling with for a pretty long time. And I figured that if I talked about it on my podcast, that it would be a great avenue to understand how you feel about convenience as well. So what I'm gonna be doing in this episode is talking about what convenience actually means in the kitchen.

and how we can maybe rethink it when it comes to getting some really good food on our tables. And what if I told you that convenience could go beyond just grabbing something quick and actually be about improving the quality of our meals?

before we delve into the detail of what I mean about convenience and food, I just wanted to give a little bit of feedback and a shout out again to Cheryl who came and joined me a couple of episodes ago. She's the parenting guru who offered so much insight into how

we can, I guess, avoid issues at the dinner table with some of those difficult eaters we might have. Specifically, you've got back to me and said you loved the No Thank You bowl. And absolutely, I think that is sensational. I also learned to be patient, to not speak, serve some food, and you will be rewarded by your child eating it if you give them some space to accept it. So thank you, Cheryl. We will most definitely be getting you back for some more insight.

Right.

Back to convenience. As a researcher, I kind of need to set a baseline for this discussion. And that's going to involve me sort of talking through the convenience landscape. I'm going to call it that. And how convenience has very much changed over time. I think we would all admit and recognise that convenience has become much more prevalent in all areas of our life. And I would say in most cases, we receive it quite positively. However,

there are certain occasions where convenience isn't necessarily seen as a good thing. So wherever you sit in relation to that, I think we know that convenience is something that is going to continue to be a part of society. It's here to stay. But what does it mean when it comes to food? Again, I needed to look at convenience over time to have an understanding of how it has changed

and where we sit currently in relation to this notion. So if we think this is a very, very basic synopsis of convenience and food, pre-industrial times, everything was homemade. There literally was no alternative. So convenience was just about making stuff at home. Post-World War II, you can see the introduction and the rise of packaged foods, frozen foods, and that sort of thing. They were very much a modern solution

to help us as our lives were getting busier. If we move through to now and the current times, I think there's a shift towards finding a balance between what we call convenience and also healthier, higher quality food choices. And then we need to look at what convenience in its own right means on its own. And I would say that very simply, it's about making whatever we're doing easier, quicker,

and less involved. It's also probably about cutting down our effort when we're doing something and hopefully we're not going to be cutting any corners.

Before we delve in to convenience in a lot of detail, I just want you to pause wherever you are and have a think about your perspective on convenience. Where in your life is convenience good? And are there areas in your life where you don't think it's so good and you wish it wasn't a part of your world? I think it's an interesting scenario to have a little think about that. I know that I welcome convenience in lots of ways, but I'm also resistant.

particularly in relation to food, to welcoming convenience into my world. I'm gonna stick to the kitchen. It's very much my domain. It's what I do. It's where I live and breathe with my business. And as I sit here, I am literally looking at about three or four things that in my eyes represent convenience in my kitchen. I'm talking about the dishwasher, the washing machine. If I had a kettle, I'd include the kettle, but also the fridge and the freezer.

to some degree.

So what I'm going to focus on is probably the dishwasher and the washing machine, because I would say these are two pieces of equipment and the fridge actually. Let's throw that in there as well. They have been welcomed into the modern day kitchen. I can honestly say,

that I do not want to be hand washing my clothes. And I certainly don't want to be washing the dishes every day of my life. I couldn't think of anything worse. Time consuming, I wouldn't do it very well, particularly the clothes washing. And actually just enabling me to save time by having those two pieces of equipment in my kitchen is genius. So here is a form of convenience that we have very easily, very readily embraced into our lives.

They are ingenious and they are welcomed technological developments.

And let's face it, if the dishwasher or the washing machine and the fridge were to break down, what's your response? In my world, it's mad panic. I need those things. I can't do without them. And if they can't be fixed, you're going to buy a new one, right? So like I said, convenience illustrated very quickly and easily within the kitchen that I love. But now let's think about food and the meaning of convenience there. Often,

I find that the positivity associated with food and the word convenience just means there's a reduction in sort of that feeling. Convenience in food, 100 % is about it being easy, simple and quick, but somehow it doesn't always feel as satisfying as using a dishwasher or the washing machine. So I wonder why we judge food convenience differently. A few days ago, I asked the question,

on my social media, what people thought about convenience and food. And throughout this episode, I'm going to reference some of the comments and feedback that I received. This next one from Steven, a football dad, he actually said to me, convenience and food is valued for saving time, effort and skill, especially for busy individuals. Think parents, workers and people on the move.

I'd also consider that it can come with trade-offs in terms of nutrition, cost and food quality. He goes on to say, the market is crying out for something that ticks all the boxes. I think Stephen sums up that contradiction between how we can welcome convenience in food in many ways, but then we fight it in other ways as well because there are those trade-offs.

The fact he also says that the market is crying out for something that will tick all the boxes. Well, let's see what I talk about later on.

What I'm gonna do now is I'm gonna talk about convenience, about convenience in relation to food. And I'm gonna look at how the positive associations can be seen because there are plenty. first and foremost, when I asked this question on my social media, the most prevalent answer that I got from you was that convenience means easy preparation, but also easy, clear away.

That's really simple to understand. That's all about less time being involved in that whole process of putting food on the table. Secondly, some of you told me that it was about using staple ingredients that you find in your cupboards and also in the fridge, like I talked about earlier. These are things that you have on hand that you know you can use to create really quick results for your lunch table, your dinner table, whichever one it is.

Another really interesting answer when it comes to convenience and food was one pot cooking. And I love this. It means there's less mess, there's less faff, there's only one dish to clean. You you're not sort of fighting with three or four pans going at the same time. And then thinking about you've got to wash them up as well.

Batch cooked meals are also convenient and I love this example because you put effort into making a batch cooked meal on one day, but you've got meals for many days in the future. They're also really good to use as leftovers for lunch as well.

Meal boxes were also given as an example of convenient food. And actually they are, they're brilliant for a number of reasons when it comes to convenience. You've got variety, you've got inspiration, and actually more and more of them are healthier than they ever have been. So in those scenarios that I've just summed up, you can see that convenience is a really positive association with food. However,

There were also some negative or more negative associations with the word convenience and food in the same sentence.

It can result in people thinking of packet food, jars of pre-made sauces, ready meals, takeaways got thrown into that equation as well. Ultra-processed foods also got mentioned. And I think the issue here for some of you is that there are hidden ingredients in those sorts of products, but also they are shortcuts that some of us don't feel that great about using.

So what we're seeing here is what Stephen referenced earlier in that the convenience of getting food like this is being offset and is at the cost of something else, quality, nutrition, or actually the time spent doing something we actually do enjoy. Another friend referenced and said, anything that's quick and easy to prepare requiring minimal effort cooking or cleanup is seen as convenient.

but I probably also think it's less nutritious food, but I guess that's not necessarily always the case.

I think this comment by Tracy really sums up how we can feel conflicted about convenience foods. We do want quick and easy wins, but sometimes we can worry it's not the healthiest option if we choose to go with it. And then another friend, Therese, said something similar. She said, I guess most people might associate convenience food as something bought from a supermarket that you can pop into the microwave.

For me though, it would be something I have batch cooked that I can pull from the freezer. Again, I think this just sums up how there can be two different feelings and associations when we're talking about convenience.

What if I told you we could flip this on its head? We could actually banish those more negative associations with convenience. And I can tell you now that convenience doesn't have to come at a cost. You all know I'm a Thermomix advisor and that I really do truly believe that every kitchen should have a Thermomix. That's ultimately because of the amount of joy it brings to you as well as your household.

And if I told you that my Thermomix is my convenience, what would you think? For me, there is absolutely nothing inconvenient about owning a Thermomix. It only helps to make my life easier.

Let me break it down for you. Let me explain why I believe the Thermomix is the answer to convenience in the kitchen. Okay, first and foremost, it is so simple to use and it is so simple to be able to cook from scratch. I think this is particularly important for those of us who don't have that much confidence in the kitchen. The Thermomix just allows you to not feel frustration. It's fast. You can get a really good quality meal on the table

really, really quickly with really minimal effort from yourself. It's easy to eat healthily. You are cooking from scratch, you're cooking quickly, and therefore you do not have to worry about whether what you're putting on the table is healthy. It will be because you're cooking from scratch. We get this recipe application. It's called Cookadoo. It's got about 100,000 recipes on it, and it offers really quick inspiration.

So gone are those days of thinking consistently, my gosh, what am gonna cook? Instead, you can just put an ingredient that you have got in your cupboard into the search bar and it will throw out a number of different recipes that you could cook. Remember, it's easy to use, it's quick and it's healthy.

There's no flustered feelings of having a recipe book in front of you trying to follow the different steps. It's just press a button and it tells you what to do next. One of my most favourite advantages of it is that it's hands-free. I am not tied to the stovetop. Gone are the days of having to consistently be there to prevent something from burning, boiling over, those sorts of things.

And that's breakfast porridge as well as dinner time as well. Think of risottos. Never did I eat a risotto before I had a Thermomix. It's flexible. Like I just referenced, you can use whatever you've got in your cupboards, in your fridge. You can throw them into that search bar. And like I've said, you're going to be given and offered a lot of different recipes that you can make.

One of my favourite things about having a Thermomix in my kitchen is that I just have the one appliance, the one piece of kit that does so many different things. Remember earlier, I said I don't have a kettle? This is why. It has a kettle mode, so I am able to use that to boil my water for my tea and coffee.

along with lots and lots of other things. So I don't need multiple pots and pans in my cupboards. I don't need the slow cooker. I don't need the Vitamix. I don't need the Kenwood. And it makes it much more inviting to be in my kitchen to know that I can just turn my Thermomix on and I can make a soup or a cake or a curry. It's brilliant.

I love that it's easy to clean. It's one bowl, it's one blade, it's not multiple pans, and that just takes away some of the stress of after the dinner time. It's also very versatile. I can use it, like I've just said, for so many different things. And I'm talking, I can make a soup in it, I can make sauces in it, I can make cocktails in it, I can make bread in it, I can do desserts.

the whole repertoire of everything that you might want to eat or drink can be made in your Thermomix. Also, I make all of my own convenient jarred sauces from scratch without any of those processed ingredients in them. So think mayonnaise, tomato ketchup, curry pastes, pasta sauces, all sorts of different things get made in my Thermomix. I batch them.

So I've got plenty in my fridge and cupboards and it just makes for a much healthier option and convenience in a jar. It is cheaper and healthier than processed options. It might not feel like that at the outset when you look at a Thermomix, but in the long run, the value that it offers you over a lifetime of ownership is huge. It's also convenient for those of us who have intolerances or I don't know,

allergies in our households. We can customise the way in which we cook. We can make sure that we are cooking to suit the needs that we have. And I know how frustrating and time consuming it can be when you're trying to cook for lots of different reasons in your house.

So how does that sound? One piece of kit that makes balancing convenience and quality a breeze. I figure you might want some real examples of what I might make in my Thermomix so you can understand exactly how convenient I find it. So I thought I would just chuck in three snacks that I think are particularly easy and convenient for my kids that I can make in a hurry. I will put the links to the recipes in the show notes. So if you want to take a look, you can.

Top of my list would be my banana and oat energy bars. They're very quick to mix up and very easy to put into the oven to bake. I love this because I don't have to buy additional produce from the supermarket that comes with all that extra packaging. There are also other snacks like Date and bran muffins, which are packed with really healthy ingredients. And again, they're ready in minutes. And then a favourite for my kids and for me are smoothies.

They can actually do this themselves. That could be a morning thing. That can be an after-school snack as well. They're quick, they're nutritious, and you can vary the type of smoothie that you make. And then if I was gonna tell you my three most convenient meals that I make in a Thermomix, I've referenced one already, the risotto.

I don't have time to stand and stir. I don't have the patience to do that but instead with my Thermomix it just affords me the ability to make a really really good risotto in about 30 minutes and I'm getting on with other stuff because I don't have to stand and stir it. Something else that I reference here would be pizza dough with homemade pesto. Minutes to make and absolutely maximum flavour when you put it on the table.

And then finally, another recipe I have talked about in previous episodes. It's a favourite here. It's called chunky bolognese. It's delicious. It cooks for 45 minutes, which might seem like a really long time, but I'm not involved. I think I spend about five minutes putting all the ingredients in at the beginning. And then I get on with other stuff as it does its thing. And then I have a beautiful dinner to serve. So they're the sort of main snacking.

and mealtime conveniences that I can identify for you. But beyond dinners, it also helps in lots of other ways as well. Think about midweek, you're panicking, you haven't decided what to make. You could whip up a soup in about 20 minutes. It's so easy. And to go with that, you can make some fresh bread. You don't have to knead it, pop it in the oven and it's ready and start to finish in 30 minutes as well. And you can also make a curry from scratch.

probably quicker than ordering a takeaway.

so there you have it, my take on convenience in the kitchen. We embrace convenience in so many areas of our life because it helps us. A Thermomix is simply an extension of this concept. It's a way to make home cooking genuinely easier without the usual trade-offs that I referenced earlier in the episode. If I said to you that convenience in the kitchen isn't just about speed,

It's about ease, simplicity and removing the stress from cooking. And that is what the Thermomix can help us achieve. It really does take away everything that makes cooking feel inconvenient. Think the time consuming preparation, the endless stirring, the complicated steps that you have to follow in recipes and the mountain of washing up that can follow. Instead, a Thermomix gives you control, efficiency and the freedom to cook the way you want to cook.

without the hassle.

Like I've said before, use the tools you have in your kitchen. They're there to make your life easier. That's what they were invented for. Mine just happens to be the Thermomix and I am honestly yet to find anything that beats it. If you're curious to see what I mean, then I would happily show you the Thermomix in action. Let me know if you'd like a recording of my introduction to Thermomix video or better yet, book a demo with me and see it for yourself and see how

we could redefine convenience in your kitchen.

So until next time, keep flourishing and stay away from any floundering.