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Miss Thrifty3 September 1, 2010
This is a new way to save money on the dinners that you cook at home. And no: it doesn’t have anything to do with my tips and tricks for filling your supermarket trolley for £30 or less. Nor am I about to prescribe a diet of Supernoodles and tap water sandwiches.
Instead, I’m going to recommend The Resourceful Cook: a lovely new website, which provides weekly meal plans with accompanying recipes, to fit your budget. Oh, and like all the best thrifty services, it’s free!
Simply select how many people you are cooking for this week (1 – 4), and select the Great Value Suppers option (low calorie and vegetarian meal plans are also available).
I have tried meal planning websites before, but often the “value” recipes are nothing to write home about. This one features some delicious recipes at budget prices. The Great Value Suppers plan is £26 for two people for seven dinners. The vegetarian plan is £25 for two people for seven dinners.
As you know, I spend very little at the supermarket (less than £26 a week, all in). But one reason why I like The Resourceful Cook is that each individual meal is broken down into pounds and pence – I can dip into the site as and when I wish. The dish pictured above is Tandoori Spiced Vegetable Skewers from the vegetarian meal plan, costing £1.58 per person. Here’s the recipe:
Tandoori Spiced Vegetable Skewers
Vegetable skewers in a Tandoori-style marinade and served with a bulgur wheat salad. Bulgur wheat steadily releases energy throughout the day.
Ingredients
- 75g of natural yogurt
- 3 medium new potatoes (approx 70g each), cut into 2cm cubes
- 1 small courgette (approx 165g), cut into 1cm cubes
- 6 closed cup mushrooms, halved
- 1/2 medium lemon, juiced
- 1 small red onion (approx 110g), cut into 8 wedges
- half a bunch of spring onions, sliced
- 100g of bulgar wheat
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 clove of garlic, crushed
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1/2 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
- wooden or metal skewers
Method
- To make the bulgur wheat salad, cook the bulgur wheat according to the packet instructions. Mix the olive oil, lemon juice, spring onions, mint and chilli together with the bulgur wheat. Season generously with salt and pepper.
- To make the spiced yogurt marinade, mix together the yogurt, ground cumin, ground coriander, garam masala, ground ginger and garlic in a bowl. Season with salt and set aside.
- For the skewers, parboil the potatoes for 6 minutes. Drain well and set aside.
- Preheat the grill to high. Thread the potatoes, courgette, mushrooms and red onion onto skewers, alternating the ingredients. Place in a deep baking tray and spoon on the spiced yogurt marinade, making sure that everything is well coated.
- Cook the skewers under the grill for 15 minutes, turning frequently, or until tender and beginning to char.
- Serve the spiced skewers together with the chilli and spring onion bulgur wheat salad.
Yummy, no?
3 Responses to “How to save money on delicious home-cooked dinners”
Cash Saving Mum says:
How refreshing, what a good find you have there.
I had a brief look on ‘The Resourceful cook’ site. And Im hooked. I myself am on a very tight budget and sometimes the family and I will get take out or go out to dinner once a week to treat ourselves to a nice meal. This generally isnt because I dont like to cook- in fact – I LOVEEEE to cook. But quite often the food in our cupboard is the same every week. Because we can only buy so much to keep our budget in order. Very rarely will we ever splurge on chocolates, a nice cheese or the like.
So thanks again for this wonderful reference, now I can mix up the family dinners and still save fast cash.
I have a feeling cooking is going to be extra fun this week.
Cash saving mum
September 7, 2010 at 1:18 am