As a busy mum of two I always like to find easy ways of preparing quick meals for them. I have to admit they do consume their fair share of fish fingers and oven chips but I do really try, when I have time, to give them homemade stuff. I love it when I find one recipe that I can use in lots of ways and this is exactly what I do with my Tomato and Vegetable Sauce (I’m going to call it TVS in this post for ease). I make batches and batches of this sauce and freeze it in portions or weaning trays. It’s then just a matter of popping some into the microwave or in a fridge to defrost then using it as I wish. It also means I can get some vegetables into The Boy who, as you know by now, is a vegetable hater. Here are some ideas of how I use it in my cooking but I’m sure there are lots more so let me know what you come up with!

NB: I used defrosted TVS a lot but remember once it’s defrosted you can’t freeze it again regardless of whether it’s been reheated or not. These following ideas are to be eaten straight away or reheated once cooled but they cannot be re frozen. If you use fresh TVS in a recipe then that can be frozen.

2 ingredient dough pizza with TVS.

I make this basic pizza dough in exactly the same as these recipes here – “Easy Bake Bagels” and “Easy Peasy Pizza Parcels” . I then add my defrosted TVS to the top and top it with cheese and pop in the oven on 200 degrees C for 15-20 minutes until it’s nice and brown. The Boy and I had a lovely time making this together while Little Lady was napping.

Quick lentil and TVS couscous.

I defrosted a few cubes of TVS in a pan and then added some red lentils that I had soaked for a while. I left to simmer for 20 minutes (until the lentils were soft) then mixed in some cooked couscous and some grated cheese. Totally yummy!

Quick bolognaise with TVS. 

My kids both love bolognaise and I make batches of it and freeze. But when I have run out of it I make a really quick version using TVS I simply fry off some onions with some mince (mine love turkey mince) then add in some defrosted TVS and hey presto you have a tasty and totally easy bolognaise.

Tuna and TVS pasta bake

Again I mix some defrosted TVS with some tuna and some cooked pasta. I then put it into an oven proof bowl and grate lots of cheese on top then bake in the oven on 180 degrees C for 15 mins until the cheese is nice and bubbly.