Caitríona Redmond: Cook your way out of a rut with these easy recipes

'Little acts of service add up to keep the household on budget and ticking away - the kids call this ‘adulting’ and goodness it is difficult at times.'

A pair of quick, but satisfying, recipes for low-energy days

Last week I was weary. There’s nothing wrong with feeling weary. I got to a point where I just felt that I’d had enough of being in charge and wanted someone to look after me. You know, somebody to do the shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry, and all the other micro-invisible chores that are rarely seen but get done in the background.

Little acts of service that add up to keep the household on budget and ticking away. The kids call this ‘adulting’ and goodness it is difficult at times.

When I’m stuck in a rut like this planning meals and shopping becomes more of a slog than a chore.

Then I realised that nobody was going to come and rescue me, no matter how much I was hoping they would.

Turns out I am the saviour of this household budget and there’s nothing left to do but to embrace and revel in it.

I had been frustrated by having to do it all but actually it was the idea that was bothering me more. Once I got stuck into the weekly shop online it took no time at all.

The kids helped put all the groceries away when they arrived. Afterwards we wrote down the contents of the freezer on the front with the white board marker and it took little to no time to plan out what we were going to work at for a week.

Sometimes struggling with sticking to a tight budget is more about the concept than the reality. Plus, it’s easier to stick to a tight budget when you don’t have money to spare. The element of choice has already been removed from the equation.

I have been stuck with my leg up since a fall resulted in a bad break a few weeks ago. This has had a knock-on effect on my recipes because I’ve had to seriously examine what can be cooked when I’m not in the kitchen.

Instructions are issued in a sequence the lads follow as best they can. Which is actually a very effective method of recipe testing! If my recipes are good enough to be made without supervision by people with little cooking experience then they are genuinely tried and tested.

Home Economics – Does Buying In Bulk Save You Money?

It all starts with fish sauce. Why fish sauce you may ask? Well, just after Christmas I happened to be in the Asian supermarket and there was a flash sale of fish sauce. I prefer a Squid brand which was in the flash sale. Fish sauce once sealed will probably outlast me but I had been struggling to find in bottle form and there it was just at the tills on sale. Not in bottles though, but in a five-litre plastic carton costing €10.

Reader, I bought the fish sauce, justifying it that it was a product I was looking for, it was good value, and I will probably use it all. I got home and the big carton stood on the counter full of reproach. I couldn’t find a space in my small kitchen to store it. On reflection, it’ll take me several years to go through the full five litres, and I could have used the money elsewhere and bought an alternative.

Sure, it was good value, but in the long term it won’t save me money. I’m using up space in the kitchen that I could store something else in. €10 in January could have been better spent.

When you’re heading to the supermarket bear in mind that it is often a myth that the larger size pack is cheaper than the smaller. You really have to get down to the price tag level on the shelf and figure out which is cheaper on a per gram basis. With ‘shrinkflation’ and the cost of living crisis that shelf price is the only one I trust as a yardstick. No matter what the pack size, if the unit cost is cheaper then that’s the item I’ll choose.

Sometimes supermarkets have different metrics for displaying the pack size which can be confusing. Thankfully most of us carry supercomputers in our pockets and can easily take out our phones and use the calculator function to get around the pesky lack of information. Shopping smarter is where it’s at!

Learn from my mishap, before you buy any produce in bulk, ask yourself:

• Will you definitely use it?
• If you are not going to use it straight away, do you have somewhere suitable to store it?
• Can you split the cost with a friend and divide the spoils between one another?
• Is it cheaper to buy 2 smaller-size products than the larger item?

Check the price per g rather than the overall price.

Chicken & Coleslaw Bake

This pie is a treat for the entire family and we joke that it’s a coleslaw pie because of the carrot and cabbage in the filling.

Servings

6

Preparation Time

 8 mins

Cooking Time

 60 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 8 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 3 handfuls leftover roast chicken

• 250ml leftover gravy

• 2 carrots peeled

• Half a leafy green or white cabbage

• 8 medium potatoes, peeled

• 50g melted butter

Method

1. Put the chicken into a large deep baking dish and pour over the gravy. Grate in the carrots.

2. Finely shred or slice the cabbage and add to the baking dish. Stir all the ingredients together until well combined. It may be a thick mixture but it will thin once cooked through.

3. Slice the potatoes thinly and layer on top of the sauce mixture. Brush with melted butter.

4. Bake in the oven for 1 hour before serving.

5. Recipe Note: If you make double quantities of mashed potatoes the night before skip the sliced potatoes step and top the mixture with oodles of mash instead.

Peanut Butter Fridge Cake

Use any nut butter you like and if you can't eat nuts, sunflower seed butter works well too.

Preparation Time

 5 hours 0 mins

Cooking Time

 15 mins

Total Time

 5 hours 15 mins

Course

 Dessert

Cuisine

 American

Ingredients

• 1 pack of digestive biscuits

• 4 tbsp peanut butter

• 100g butter

• 100g roasted peanuts

• 200g dark chocolate

Method

1. Make this recipe in a loaf tin to make it easier to slice. Grease or line the tin before starting.

2. Put the biscuits into a bag and bash until you have fine crumbs and small pieces.

3. Put the peanut butter and regular butter into a large bowl and microwave for 30 seconds. Remove from the microwave then stir, repeat this process at least twice so that the two butters have softened and can be easily mixed.

4. Pour the broken biscuits into the bowl and stir to combine with the butter mixture. Press firmly into the loaf tin. Melt the chocolate and pour on top of the biscuit cake, then sprinkle the roasted peanuts on top of the chocolate while it is still liquid.

5. Chill in the fridge for at least 5 hours before slicing and enjoying.