'What’s for dinner?’ is a question that can easily fill you with terror. Well, perhaps not terror, but certainly mild panic! We know … you’ve told us! But fear no more, because in your hand you have the key to making delicious, nutritious, quick and easy meals. We promise you, this book will have you fearing that question no more!
Whilst making Eat Well for Less we’ve heard all the excuses. ‘Cooking from scratch takes ages.’ ‘I can’t cook!’ ‘Recipes are so complicated.’ And yet by the time we’ve left our families, all of them have realised they can cook, and not only that, but they enjoy it, too. With this book, we want to show you how to find the enjoyment in cooking from scratch, and that it doesn’t have to take ages to do it. Honestly!
You’ll find recipes for healthy snacks, breakfasts, lunches, dinners and sweet treats, with meals divided into veggie, fish and meat so you can easily find what you fancy. And you’ll be cooking a lot of the dinners quicker than the time it takes to order a take-away in. In fact, you’ll probably not want to order a take-away again after you’ve tried your hand at some of our home-cooked ‘fake-aways’!
Of course, not only is there real enjoyment in serving up a delicious meal that the whole family enjoys, there’s also great satisfaction in knowing you’ll be saving money, keeping the cash in your wallet rather than someone else’s!
We all lead busy lives, and thinking ahead for meals can often be the last thing on our mind, but you’ll find lots of time-saving tips and tricks in here. As always, the best way to save time when cooking is to make sure you plan ahead. Plan what you’re going to eat for the week, and check off the ingredients you have in your cupboards. Then plan what you need to buy – and more importantly, stick to it! No going off-piste – or rather off-list! – when you hit the shops. People often tell us they never have enough time to plan, but then we point out how much time – and money – they lose by rushing out to do last-minute multiple shops and spending more than they need to, and then the penny drops. Planning ahead really does save time. Do it!
We hope you’ve all played along with Eat Well for Less at home, swapping your partner’s favourite coffee without telling them, putting some different brand cereal in a plastic tub, and always grating your own cheese! If you haven’t, it’s time to have a go. We bet you’ll be surprised by the results. If you feel yourself getting distracted around the supermarket, or always reaching for your preferred brand, imagine what you’d do if we suddenly popped out from behind a display of beans?! As the well-known saying goes, look after the pennies …
There are so many quick, easy and tasty meals in here that you’ll never worry about meal times again. Cooking is like anything, the more you do it the easier and quicker it gets. So there’s no time like the present … let’s get cooking!
Gregg Wallace and Chris Bavin
You might think that you know where the common pitfalls are when it comes to shopping and sticking to a budget, but how many of them are you actually guilty of? Let’s get down to basics and prevent those slip-ups …
You might argue that you are too busy to plan, but the truth is, you’re so busy because you aren’t planning. How many trips do you make every day/week to the shops to pick up dinner, or pop in to get something you’ve forgotten? Think about how much time that wastes (not to mention petrol, if you have to drive there …), when you could be doing something else. Time spent now will save you time later – not to mention those conversations each evening of ‘What do you want for dinner?’ We’ve all been there.
So, settle in with your blank planner and a pile of Eat Well For Less recipe books, or just get your family’s opinions (see here) and fill in meals you’d like to cook across the week. You can include breakfasts and lunches where relevant, but if these are pretty straightforward or catered for by school/work, just concentrate on the evenings and weekends.
Plan a themed food night – Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday or Fake-away Friday (when you make your own home-made version of your favourite take-away) – if your kids love routine. It gives them something to look forward to and makes planning the week so much easier.
Heading into a supermarket without a list is asking for trouble. Racking your brain for what you need leads to panic-buying, and if you get distracted you could find yourself tempted by items that will later languish in your fridge or cupboard until they quietly expire, unused and wasted.
So, planner in hand, think about what you NEED to buy and in what quantities – don’t put a huge bag of carrots into your trolley if you only need one or two, or another multipack of biscuits if you have a packet already in the cupboard. This is particularly important if you are trying to lose weight – if the extra food isn’t there, neither is temptation. Minimise waste and you’ll minimise your spend.
Buy yourself one of those magnetic notepads, stick it on the fridge and make a note every time you run out of something that you know you will need to replenish in the weekly shop. Then when it comes to making your list, you won’t forget those items.
‘Remember, you’re aiming for one big shop per week, not several little ones, so you want to be ready and prepared to save yourself those expensive ‘pop-ins’.’
Your shopping list should only include items that you don’t have already at home. So, take stock before you shop. Check your cupboards/fridge/freezer to see what you have in – make sure things aren’t hidden at the back and you are using everything efficiently by eating what’s in there before you buy more.
Remember, you’re aiming for one big shop per week, not several little ones, so you want to be ready and prepared to save yourself those expensive ‘pop-ins’.
Take a ‘shelfie’ – a photo of what’s in the cupboard/fridge/freezer – if you don’t have time for a proper check. Then when you’re at the shops you can double check if you have something or not.
Think about your budget. Is it important that you stick to a certain amount each week, or do you just want to make savings to a spend that’s spiralling out of control? Taking cash with you is a great way to stick to a budget, or shop online, where you can see the bill totting up as you go. Keep your receipts, as they can be a good reminder as to where you went wrong or a good benchmark to work against next week. Keep track of these receipts and they will provide an incentive to better manage your shopping habits.
Online shopping has revolutionised the lives of busy families. You can do your weekly shop from the comfort of your home, at work or even on your phone on the bus or train, whenever you like, and once you’ve done it a few times, the website will remember your favourites to make ordering next time even quicker. Some websites even offer you the option of ordering everything that you ordered the week before – but be careful here. Don’t reorder stuff that you already have loads of – check your cupboards first! With 1-hour slots available for most supermarket deliveries, that’s one job you don’t need to make time for anymore.
‘Keep your receipts, as they can be a good reminder as to where you went wrong or a good benchmark to work against next week.’
Ready meals and take-aways are so convenient, but they come at a cost – to your budget and your health. It is far healthier (and much more satisfying) to cook from scratch.
Heard the argument that eating healthily is more expensive than fast foods? Not so, says the Institute of Economic Affairs, who, using data from two leading supermarkets, discovered that, weight for weight, a selection of seasonal fruit and veg costs less than £2 per kilo, whereas the equivalent in ready meals, cereals, burgers and pizzas was over £2 per kilo. (Remember, if you’re on a budget, you don’t have to buy the most expensive, organic fruit and veg; budget buys will provide the same amount of nutrients.)
This difference in price is true not only for ready meals – you can pay double for ready-prepared fresh fruit and veg. Convenient? Maybe. But chopping veg and fruit takes minutes, in some cases seconds, so is it worth it? Add in the health benefits of preparing it yourself – nutrients start to deteriorate in fruit and veg as soon as they are cut, and it could easily have been a whole day (often longer) since that bag of carrot batons was prepared and packed.
Whether you are physically going to the shops or doing an online order, stick to the list! You will save both money and time if you stay focused.
Supermarkets are very clever about putting temptation your way, strategically placing juicy offers or tempting luxuries where you can’t avoid them, or positioning basics such as milk down long aisles of other foods to turn your head as you pass. How many times have you popped in for a pint of milk and a loaf of bread and come out with a bag full of stuff you hadn’t planned to buy and probably don’t even need?
And let’s not forget those tempting offers. Remember, it's only a bargain if you were going to buy it anyway! Check the deals that are on offer carefully – are they as good as you think? Look closely; is £3 for two items, which are individually priced at £1.50, really a great deal? Are the weights of the products included in multi-buy offers the same across the board? Some products might show their weight in kilos, others in grams, so pause and decide if it really is a good deal. Some offers are genuinely worth taking up, so if you have space to store everything and you know it’s something you will eat, then go ahead, but don’t get carried away!
Cooking for a family can feel like a chore when it’s down to just one person to prepare the meals, and at times can be enough to have you reaching for the shortcuts after a long day. So, lower the heat and get everyone involved, then dinner can be made, eaten and cleared away in a flash.
Getting the kids to help in the kitchen is fun and can be a great opportunity for family time and catching up (apparently the most effective way to talk to your teenagers is without eye contact, as they feel less judged and more comfortable, so keep your eyes on the chopping and let them get stuff off their chest!).
Of course, a helping hand gets the job done quicker, but it’s not only beneficial for you – encouraging children to be involved in preparing food from scratch from the very youngest age will kick-start an interest in and awareness of healthy eating and good nutrition, which will hopefully stay with them well into adult life.
Learning about where food comes from and the nutritional difference between home-cooked food and ready meals or take-aways helps develop a positive connection to a wide variety of foods, including fruit and vegetables, which will nudge everyone towards getting their 5-a-day. Teaching cooking skills and techniques is also an invaluable lesson for life, setting your children up to be independent in adulthood, have a healthy lifestyle and take care of themselves.
But it’s not just the cooking they can get involved in. Children are more likely to try new foods or eat what’s put in front of them if they have had some involvement in any part of the meal process – whether it’s planning the menu, shopping for the ingredients or preparing them. So, let’s get them started on helping with the weekly menu.
If it’s a really busy evening and everyone is in a rush, scale back your expectations but still give them something to do – they could chop up veg for a stir-fry, toss together a salad or some dressing, or lay the table.
‘Getting the kids to help in the kitchen is fun and can be a great opportunity for family time and catching up …’
If the sight of a blank planner for the week ahead fills you with fear, knowing you have to think of what to cook, why not get some input from the rest of the household? Ask everyone what their favourite dishes are and see if you can work these in. Perhaps each person could pick one day on which you eat their choice, so that everyone gets a turn to eat something they like, and they could help you to make it, too? (If they are resistant, try tempting them to help out by selling it as special one-on-one time.)
Don’t forget that this is about choosing healthy options, though. Listen to their choices, but don’t let them dictate the menu if it doesn’t look nutritious or budget-friendly. You might find that older children in particular are more savvy about what they should be eating than you’d think and want to take some control over what they eat, particularly if they are doing a lot of sport or have long days at school. If that’s the case, this is a nice opportunity to let older children be responsible not only for selecting a recipe but also cooking it themselves – perhaps for dinner one night, or for breakfast at the weekend, giving you a break and them a real sense of pride.
As part of your planning, think about where you can find time to cook together. The pace of modern life means that most families are usually very busy, so you may find that you need to schedule a slot to cook together. Weeknights tend to disappear in a flurry of parents coming home late from work, older children having after-school activities or homework to do, and younger children needing to be in bed early, so it might be easier to keep it simple in the kitchen on weekdays.
At first, cooking with kids can be a slow process, so if you want to keep it fun, keep it for the weekend, when you can relax and enjoy spending the time together. The weekend is also a great time for batch cooking, and the job will be much easier with help to hand. You could work together on the preparation and cooking, or you can assign different dishes to various members of the family. Younger children can get the containers ready for potting up the dishes, and write the labels – let them decorate them if they like! With a family production line in full swing, you can get several nights of dinner packaged up and in the freezer much quicker.
‘Listen to their choices, but don’t let them dictate the menu …’
Going to the supermarket with your children might seem more like time wasted than time well spent, but sometimes it has to be done, and there are ways in which you can get them to be a help rather than a hindrance.
If you have time, going to the supermarket can be a lovely opportunity to go around and let your child see a huge variety of different foods, which might encourage them to try new things and ring the changes. However, the reality is often that most busy working families want to get in, shop, and get out, so you might need a strategy to do this with the kids in tow.
Play Beat the Clock – challenge your children to get round the shop in record time, with everything ticked off the list. It’s a game everyone will be happy to play if it means a faster trip!
‘Grin and bear it if they don’t do it right, remember that it takes time to perfect skills …’
Not only do children learn basic cooking skills in the kitchen, they also develop essential skills such as reading, following instructions and measuring, not to mention developing fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and even early concepts of maths and science. This is all great, but don’t tell the kids! If you make it another school lesson they will switch off, so if you want them to get the baking bug, make it all about the fun.
So you’ve picked your recipe and you’ve got the ingredients you need. Time to get cooking.
In the early days, expect everything to take longer than it usually would – you might all be new at it, so make sure you’re not rushing and allow extra time. Grin and bear it if they don’t do it right, remember that it takes time to perfect skills, and you are doing this for the long term. It’s bound to get messy, too, so try to get everyone to clear up as you go along – wiping surfaces, putting utensils in the sink or dishwasher, and keep a clear area to cook in. To make clearing up really easy, keep a mixing bowl on the worktop to use as a bin as you go along, then just tip it out at the end. No mess!
If you need dinner in a hurry and your enthusiastic younger child is holding up the process because they are struggling to get to grips with a task, hand them a few different pieces of fruit or veg and let them taste, touch and smell them while you crack on. You could even give them a toy plastic knife for chopping if they want to copy you.
If you are working with younger children who have a shorter attention span or are more likely to drift away halfway through your cooking session, get out all the ingredients and equipment you are going to need before calling them into the kitchen, to maximise quality time with them.
Working in the kitchen, of course, has hazards, so before you even start, make sure everyone knows your rules and understands that they are there to keep them safe.
Ensure all potential hazards are away from grabbing hands – turn pot handles inwards on the hob so that they can’t get knocked or pulled off; keep hot food and liquids, sharp or heavy utensils and cleaning products away from unsupervised hands.
Wipe up any spills on the floor immediately to prevent slipping over.
Think about what they can trip over and make sure there is always a clear path if you’re carrying anything hot, sharp or heavy. If in doubt, get them to sit at the kitchen table while you move the hot items around.
Talk the children through rules about washing hands, and not cross-contaminating raw and cooked meat, etc.
Not sure what you can ask your children to do competently and safely? See here for a rough guide.
Dinner is done, devoured and everyone is feeling well-fed and happy. What next? Does everyone get up and disappear from the table, leaving you with the clearing up? To make sure everybody gets some quality time in the evening, ask everyone to pitch in with:
Some jobs might be more unpopular than others and cause an argument or complaints when they are mentioned. If this is the case, create a weekly chart and write down who does what when, so that everyone gets a turn at doing each job. Of course, some jobs might be dependent on age, and if so, explain that to the children.
• Get your children invested in their lunchboxes and making healthy choices. Children from about 7 or 8 years old and above can make or help with their lunchboxes. To make mornings less of a rush, the night before, ask them to gather what they want for their lunchbox, such as a yoghurt or piece of fruit, and pop it all in the box and into the fridge ready for the morning. Older children can make their own sandwich or fruit salad themselves.
• Get them to take responsibility for adding things to the shopping list that they want for lunches, too, and keep the list on the fridge or similar so it’s easy to keep track.
Different children require different levels of help and supervision, so make a judgement on what you are happy to ask them to do.
At this age, children are still developing their fine motor skills, but you can give them jobs that don’t require much precision (but be ready for mess!).
• Washing vegetables.
• Stirring ingredients – but make sure they are at room temperature, not hot.
• Mashing with a fork or potato masher.
• Sprinkling seeds, flour, icing sugar onto foods – if you like, pop a tray underneath to catch any spills.
• Weighing ingredients on scales – with your help!
Let them carry on with all the jobs that younger children can do and add a few more. At this age, all these tasks still need close supervision.
• Weighing using scales and measuring spoons.
• Cutting soft ingredients – such as butter, soft fruit – with a child’s or table knife.
• Sifting, and breading and flouring bits of chicken, etc.
• Mixing ingredients using a spoon or their hands.
• Kneading, rolling, shaping and cutting dough.
• Picking leaves from herb stalks, picking tomatoes or grapes off vines.
At this age, you can start to introduce your child to trickier techniques and also equipment such as sharp knives, scissors and graters. But make a judgement call – if you don’t think your child is ready for this yet, leave it a little longer.
As well as the above skills:
• Chopping fruit and vegetables using a small knife or scissors – teach them to chop herbs in a bowl using the tips of scissors for safety.
• Grating cheese and citrus zest.
• Scooping out avocado flesh and cooled potato from their skins.
• Greasing and lining a cake tin or tray.
• Setting the table.
Start to give them a little more responsibility, and independence. They still need supervision – particularly when handling knives or hot liquids and food – but try to be as hands off as you can so that they can learn.
As well as the above skills:
• Following a simple recipe and making sandwiches.
• Finding ingredients in the cupboards and fridge (help them if things are high up).
• Using a vegetable peeler and opening cans with a can opener.
• Whisking.
• Cooking on the hob, in the oven or in a microwave.
• Putting food on skewers.
If children of this age have already had some experience of cooking, they can begin to prepare more difficult recipes and may be keen to cook certain recipes on their own. Again, make a judgement as to how much supervision is needed depending on their ability and maturity – if the recipe involves using any potential hazards, you might want to set yourself up with a cup of tea in the kitchen and keep one eye on what’s going on!