Hamilton food blogger Kathrine Lynch shares budget meal ideas on her website The Daily Menu.
She gives us three quick, low-cost recipes for taking care of takeaway cravings – Pulled Pork Tortillas, Butter Chicken and Crunchy Coated Fish and Chips.
Photo: Kathrine Lynch
New Zealand families who've previously relied on takeaway dinners are now finding them too expensive, Kathrine says.
Thankfully it doesn't take a whole lot of effort to make something just as delicious at home with a lot less salt, fat and sugar.
When people do a price comparison between takeaways and takeaways, they are automatically interested in the idea, she says. Then when they discover the cooking is pretty easy and kids like it, they're converted.
Involving children in meal preparation is a really good opportunity to teach them about nutrition and basic cooking, Kathrine says.
"I'm really passionate about getting parents cooking because I'm really concerned about my children's generation growing up and not having basic cooking skills."
Recipe: Pulled Pork Tortillas
One of Kathrine's family favourites is pulled pork cooked with barbecue sauce in a slow cooker and served in tortillas.
"You can get pork on special quite often and to cook it up that way is a really nice alternative to having takeaways."
Recipe: Moroccan Style Meatballs
Like patties, meatballs can also be made in bulk and frozen uncooked. Just defrost as many as you need, brown them and add tomato sauce.
Recipe: Butter Chicken
Recipe: Satay Pork Noodles
Recipe: Beef Goulash
Recipe: Crunchy Coated Fish and Chips
Using coconut oil gets oven chips super-crispy, Kathrine says.
"Start off with the oven quite low then turn it up right at the end just to crisp them up. That's honestly the best potatoes you'll ever cook - in coconut oil."
Homemade Beef Burgers
Kathrine says that while her young kids love a McDonald's cheeseburger Happy Meal, they actually prefer homemade burgers.
"When mince is on special we bulk-buy it, we make it into burger patties and we freeze them uncooked, stacked up between nonstick baking paper in a bread bag or plastic container. And then pull out as many as you want, defrost them and then cook them.
"It's just a really quick easy meal."
Kathrine Lynch on RNZ:
Low-cost, tasty freezer meals
