I don't cook. At least, not very often. Bake, yes. Cook, not really. That's M's job. I find it a bit boring, and it all takes too long, and there's all the thinking and planning involved that goes along with it.
So I don't do it very often. Besides, whoever cooks doesn't do the washing up, and I'd prefer to make sure that's done properly. Pick your battles.
But this week, I persuaded M to try Tesco's 5 for £25 meals from the monthly Tesco magazine. And I'd be the one cooking it.
Squash, sage and mozzarella pasta. Cheat's coronation chicken biryani. Curried chickpea burgers. Mince and lentil cottage pie. Sardine fishcakes.
They helpfully give the full shopping list, plus anything "from the cupboard" (presumably in case you need to restock the cupboard). That reduced some of the mental load for this, since we get shopping delivered (from Sainsbury's, lest you think this an advertorial for Tesco), so I just went down the list adding it to my basket. Sure enough, it was, just, under £25, before I added breakfast and lunch items. And the other meals to make up the week.
The recipes are all for a family of four, which meant reducing quantities for us two and Tiny, who only really requires a spoon or two.
My first obstacle, though, was that the Sainsburys picker substituted my sage with dill. So squash, sage and mozzarella pasta became squash, turkey and mozzarella, because we had some leftover turkey and gravy in the fridge. While a very easy recipe, and despite the gravy, this was a very bland sort of meal. Not even a bit of salt added much to it. But it was all right. Nothing to write home about, but not as bad as M feared.
Next up, chicken biryani. Using chicken thighs, fried. This was a faff and a half and no mistake. It would be better made with ready-cooked chicken, maybe leftovers from the Sunday roast. Otherwise, delicious and flavourful. We'll keep the recipe, but with amends.
Chickpea burgers, though, were worse than M feared. Even after I'd wrapped them in bacon. And they took ages to prep, even with the food processor. A definite no.
Mince and lentil cottage pie, he declared the best of the bunch so far. Even though he doesn't really like lentils and he skipped on the red cabbage side, which was just pickled in lemon juice. I quite liked the cabbage. It went well with the cottage pie.
Which took us to Friday, and sardine fishcakes. At which M rebelled and demanded a reprieve. He simply couldn't face sardines.
My main complaint with these supposedly cheap meals is that they mostly took ages in the kitchen, especially the biryani, so any savings on food have probably gone on energy costs. But, two wins out of the four we actually tested isn't bad. And I actually enjoyed cooking again.
We'll probably test more of these recipes, though perhaps not a week's worth at once. Maybe once a week, instead.
And now I have to think of something to do with that tin of sardines.
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