Mama-bakes

Australia’s collaborative group baking movement, MamaBake, was founded by NSW mum Michelle Shearer in 2009, after being given a spare lasagne from a friend so she had time to go for a surf before dinner. The gesture inspired her to create a movement that would bring groups of mums together to share the workload of cooking the family’s daily meals and ultimately create more time for themselves.

The way that MamaBake works is that a group of mums, either existing friends or new ones that meet through the online community, get together regularly to group, big batch bake. They then divide the meals up amongst them and go home with a number of different meals cooked for the week. The end result is more time to enjoy life outside the kitchen to exercise, study or just relax.

With over 100 groups already established across Australia, as well as the US and UK, the MamaBake movement is really starting to gather momentum. MamaBake was recently named a Pioneer of Collaborative Consumption by collaborativeconsumption.com and was even featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal in an article about the new culture of sharing.

“By group, batch baking once a week, you can create a new support network whilst also making more time for yourself, your family and your hobbies. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.”

To celebrate their third birthday, Soul Mamma is giving you a MamaBake recipe.

Leftover Vegetable Pancakes

Ingredients

4 cups of whatever flour you have – one cup of this, one cup of that…
A mountain of grated vegetables – say about 3 cups worth
Make sure that at least half onion and some garlic is grated in – this
will take these pancakes to the dizzying levels of amaze
Add a finely chopped chilli if your family will allow
3 eggs
¼ litre of milk – but play this by ear – use what you need to get it
to a batter-like consistency

Method

Stir the flours and the vegetables together and make a well in the
middle.

Break in the egg and some of the milk and start whisking the
dry ingredients into the well slowly. Pour in more milk as you go until you have a nice thick batter.

Heat up a heavy bottomed frying pan with a little oil and when it
starts to shimmer, drop a spoonful of batter and cook until holes show
through. Flip and cook until golden brown. Sit on a paper towel to blot
off any extra oil.

Serve with an egg and chutney on top for breakfast, spread on some
avocado as a healthy toasty type thing or cook up a batch and send them off to school with the kids.

Note: Once cooked, freeze for another day. To reheat, bake in the oven
on 180degC for 20 minutes.

MamaBake is free to join and includes a free weekly newsletter and recipe. For just $5 a month, subscribers also get additional recipes and access to the online cooking community. Anyone can create a community or find a local group to join with Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, the Hunter Valley and Canberra currently hosting the largest groups.

For further information, visit www.mamabake.com