Joe Swash’s new Channel 4 TV show, Batch From Scratch: Cooking For Less, couldn’t have come at a better time for those feeling the post-Christmas weight gain. The former EastEnders star has joined forces with best-selling author and time management expert Suzanne Mulholland, also known as Instagram sensation @thebatchlady, to help families save time, money and washing-up by preparing healthy meals in advance.
By following Suzanne’s advice himself, Joe quickly lost half-a-stone and managed to organise his hectic family mealtimes. Joe reveals, “We are batch cooking at home and it’s working. I’ve lost about half a stone since we were filming.”
Cooking ahead of time also frees up more time for exercise. Joe, who has six children with his wife Stacey Solomon, says, “I’ve started to go back to the gym. I went three days ago. It was the first time in ages and I’m still really sore. I can’t put my jacket on properly. I’m at the early stages of bettering myself. Get back to me in a couple of months and you’ll see the difference.”
On the show, families learn how to prep meal times in advance, giving them more time to spend together at the dinner table. Joe and Stacey see this as a vital part of family life, reports the Mirror.
“It’s so important,” Joe says. “In our family we like to use the dinner table as a way to interrogate our kids without them even realising it! “.
In a busy family home, mealtimes are one of the rare occasions when everyone is in the same place. So, for Joe and Stacey, it’s the perfect opportunity to catch up on news and check in with the kids.
“We can’t get our kids to sit down for anything,” Joe says. “But one time a day we sit down, we have our dinner, we talk to our kids about their day, their guard is down, and they let us know what they’ve been getting up to. The kids get to socialise with each other. We find the dinner table such an important place and such an important time for our family.”
Joe often turns to Stacey for feedback on his TV appearances because he dislikes watching himself on-screen and finds his TV personality “annoying”. However, he’s confident that Stacey and the kids will love Batch From Scratch.
“I really find it hard to watch myself and I really annoy myself on telly,” he says. “If I weren’t me, I’d be like, ‘Oh my God, turn that geezer off he’s doing my head in! ‘”.
Joe Swash has revealed that he values the opinions of his partner Stacey Solomon and their kids when it comes to his work. “My kids like to watch me and I like Stacey to watch me because she gives me fair opinions. If I’ve done something that doesn’t look good she’ll quite honestly tell me that. This one I will watch with the kids and the family, because the kids will like it and Stacey will like it.”
In an interview alongside Suzanne, Joe shares his expertise on making mealtimes more enjoyable, but confesses that before meeting Stacey, he was quite disorganised and untidy. However, with their six children at home, including Harry, 17, Zachary, 16, Leighton, 12, Rex, five, Rose, three, and two year old Belle, a good routine is essential.
Joe admits that Stacey had to work hard to get him to change his ways. “It took Stacey a while to whip me into shape, to be fair,” he chuckles. “It involved a lot of making me go back and tidy up the mess I’d left behind. A lot of, ‘This is how the cupboards are meant to look,’ and ‘I don’t want it to look different to this.'”.
Initially, Joe resisted Stacey’s efforts to establish an organised and tidy home, but eventually he came to appreciate the benefits of her approach. “I fought it,” he recalls, shaking his head. “I did fight it for quite a long time and then I just thought, ‘I’m just going to go with it.’ Now we’ve got the most organised kitchen in the world.”
As the host of the popular show Sort Your Life Out, which helps people declutter and organise their homes, Stacey, 35, has strict rules. However, Joe reveals he sometimes inadvertently upsets the system.
“We’ve got all of our crisps on a tension rod hanging on little pegs. Now, sometimes when I’m in a rush, I’ll just grab one and pull the whole tension rod down. The crisps will go everywhere. I’ll get in a panic where I’m like, ‘Oh my God, where’s Stacey? Right, Rex, make sure mum doesn’t come in…’ Then I’m trying get the tension rod back in quickly. She’s definitely got me whipped into shape.”
Now he’s turning to pal Suzanne for organisational tips, and together they’re helping the families on their show get their lives in order. “If someone has got a way of doing it even better, then you should take it on board,” says Joe.
“Today I’m going home at four o’clock and I’ve got to feed six kids. I can relate to the families on the show.”
Batch From Scratch: Cooking For Less, Monday 17 February, 8pm, Channel 4
View news Source: https://www.ok.co.uk/tv/how-joe-swash-lost-half-34653647
