Family Food: budget meals from a local chef, and how to feed a family for a fiver

• Family Food – new weekly series
• Budget meals from a local chef
• Feed a family for £5
• Affordable health food

Feed a family for £5

CARING Cooks of Jersey provide meals or the skills and tools to make meals that are healthy, balanced and on a budget, to help improve nutrition within Jersey families.

Their services are completely free of charge, and are supported through charitable donations and fundraising.

Full-time working mother of two – and founder of Caring Cooks of Jersey charity –Melissa Nobrega gives her top tips of the week on how to feed a family of four for just £5.

Inspired by the charity’s Community Cooking Programme, Melissa decided to see what she could make for £5.

Many other Caring Cooks are now also doing the same and posting their budget meals on the charity’s Facebook group – inspiring many more to do the same.

Ingredients

• 8 sausages
• 100g plain flour
• 1 egg
• 300ml milk
• 1tbsp vegetable oil

Method

1. Put the oven on at 220°C. Place the sausages in the ovenproof dish with the oil drizzled over, place in the oven for 15 minutes to brown.
2. In a bowl place the flour, and then add the egg and the milk and whisk to a smooth batter.
3. Take the dish from the oven and arrange the sausages so that they will slice evenly later.
4. Pour over the batter mixture, to ensure an even covering.
5. Put back in the oven and bake until golden and crisp, about 40 minutes.
6. Serve with mashed potato and vegetables of your choice and gravy.

Chef’s budget meals

As part of our new Family Food series, local chefs have been asked how to turn a key ingredient into three family meals.

This week is the turn of Radisson Blu Waterfront Hotel’s executive chef Vincent Duffy, who had a kilo of minced beef as his main ingredient

Vincent Duffy has certainly been seasoned in the trade after joining the hotel from the esteemed Belfry Hotel in Birmingham.

No stranger to celebrity, Vincent has met Michel and Albert Roux on a number of occasions and even worked with Marco Pierre White at the opening of his new Birmingham restaurant.

He firmly believes that using local produce connects us with our heritage and speaks to the local community as well as enriching the experience for visitors to the island.

Day 1 – Cottage Pie (serves 4)

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 medium carrots, chopped
• 350g beef mince
• 50g frozen peas
• 290ml OXO beef stock
• Dried thyme and bay leaves – mixed herbs
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the topping

• 750g potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 75g/2½oz butter
• 55ml/2fl oz milk
• 3 finely chopped spring onions
• 50g grated cheddar cheese
• Seasoning

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C.
2. Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the onion and carrot and cook over a medium heat for five minutes until soft.
3. Add the minced beef cover and cook for three minutes to brown.
4. Drain off any excess fat.
5. Add the tomato purée, beef stock and dried herbs and cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Season.
6. Thicken with gravy powder.
7. Final tasting for seasoning.
8. Meanwhile, to make the topping, boil the potatoes in water until soft. Drain and then return to the pan to dry out and add the butter and milk. Season, add chopped spring onions and mash.
9. Spoon the meat into an ovenproof dish and chill, top with the mash, sprinkle with your cheese and bake for 30 minutes at 170°c until golden brown.

Day 2 – Vincent’s skewered-style meatballs with spaghetti (serves 4)

Ingredients

• 200g beef mince
• 4 rashers of raw bacon
• 2 raw pork sausages
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• Dried or fresh parsley
• 85g cheese, grated, plus extra to serve if you like
• 100g fresh breadcrumbs
• 2 eggs, beaten with a fork
• Oil, for roasting
• Spaghetti, to serve (you’ll need about 100g per portion)

For the sauce

• 3 tbsp oil
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 4 x 400g cans chopped tomato
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• Dried parsley and basil – or mixed herbs

Method

1. Cut your raw bacon into strips, slice your raw sausages into thin slices, place in a mixing bowl, add the mince, onion, herbs, cheese, breadcrumbs, beaten eggs and lots of seasoning.
2. Get your hands in and mix together really well – the more you squeeze and mash the mince, the more tender the meatballs will be.
3. Heat oven to 220°C/200°C fan/gas 7. Roll the mince mixture into golf-ball-size meatballs (you should get 12 meatballs from the mix) and then skewer 3 meatballs onto a wooden skewer, place in a large roasting tin and allow to rest. The meatballs will brown better if spaced out a bit.
4. Drizzle with a little oil (about 1 tsp per portion) and then roast for 20–30 mins until browned. Transfer into an earthenware dish ready for the sauce.
5. Meanwhile, make the sauce. Heat the oil in your largest pan. Add the garlic and sizzle for 1 min. Stir in the tomatoes, sugar, herbs and seasoning. Simmer for 15–20 mins until slightly thickened. Stir in the basil leaves.
6. Spoon the sauce over the meatballs and serve with spaghetti and grated cheese.

Day 3 – Vincent’s special recipe burger (serves 4)

Ingredients

• 450g beef mince
• 2 finely chopped spring onions
• 50g bread crumbs
• Salt and pepper
• 1 whole egg

To serve

• 4 burger buns
• 4 slices of tomato
• Thinly sliced red onion rings

Method

1. Place the mince beef in a bowl, add the spring onion, bread crumbs, egg and season. (If you have a Worcestershire sauce, add a splash too)
2. Mix well and roll into 4 equal balls.
3. Spread cling film on table top approx 6 inches square, place the rolled meatball in the centre, pull the four corners of the cling film together and twist the cling film and with the palm of your hand press, which will give you the shape of the burger, then rest in the fridge.
4. Grill or pan-fry your burger, ensure it is thoroughly cooked, and place in your prepared bun
5. Prepare bun
6. Toast your burger buns, spread one half with mayonnaise, the other half with tomato ketchup, add the tomato and onions and burger and enjoy.

Affordable health food

Lorraine Pannetier is our creative home cook, who will inspire you to enjoy more fruit and vegetables to boost energy levels and well-being.

Lorraine has been cooking healthy meals from fresh produce for 25 years for herself and her family.

Qualifying as a nutrition & lifestyle consultant, personal trainer and massage therapist in 1996 has allowed Lorraine to share her knowledge and experience of health and fitness.

In more recent years, Lorraine has developed a healthy food-based website and uses all the major social media networks to inspire and educate people across the world.

You can visit her Beetroot Brownie website here.

Roasted nourish bowl

This recipe has: no dairy, gluten, or eggs. It is low in salt, sugar and fat.

Ingredients

• 200g quinoa
• 2 sweet potatoes
• Half a butternut squash
• 3 small parsnips
• 1 raw beetroot
• 500g bag kale leaves
• One-third red cabbage
• 3 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
• 1 red pepper
• 1 ripe avocado
• 1 fresh lemon or lime
• Sea salt to season
• Cayenne pepper/chilli flakes or fresh red chilli (optional)
• Coconut oil (or olive oil)

Method

1. Peel and cube the sweet potato, squash, beetroot and parsnips. Pop in an oven dish with a teaspoon of coconut or olive oil. Season with a little sea salt and toss well to ensure veggies are coated.
2. Roast at 190 degrees (fan oven) for around 20 minutes or until lightly golden and cooked on the inside. After 10 minutes add a washed, red pepper cut into large chunks.
3. Wash the quinoa grains, add 400 ml water and bring to the boil in a saucepan. Reduce heat and simmer until the grains have popped and become light and fluffy. When cooked, season lightly with ground sea salt, the juice of half a lemon or lime and a few chilli flakes if you like a spicy flavour (or a little sliced red chilli). Wash and dry kale leaves and remove tough stalks. Place in a large salad bowl.
4. Take half a teaspoon of coconut oil and massage the leaves thoroughly with your hands. Season lightly with ground sea salt.
5. Toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry omelette pan or skillet over a low to medium heat, for 2–3 minutes, tossing seeds frequently to avoid burning. These can be made in advance and stored in a sealed, clean jar.
6. Slice the avocado and red cabbage and arrange all ingredients in a large pasta bowl per person: spicy citrus quinoa topped with toasted pumpkin seeds, massaged kale, sliced red cabbage, avocado, roasted sweet vegetables and red pepper.
7. This makes a delicious, nourishing meal by itself. However, you may like to add some feta cheese, organic chicken breast or baked salmon if you wish.
8. These ingredients will store in a sealed container in the fridge for up to three days – perfect for healthy lunch boxes for work or school.

Caring Cooks of Jersey Charity

Earlier this year Chief Minister Ian Gorst announced an investigation into food poverty in the Island. Elaine Walker spoke to the founder of a local charity who – along with other caring cooks – is helping to feed a number of struggling families across the Island.

ONE-in-ten households in Jersey cannot afford a cooked meal a day and 42% of Islanders are struggling financially, according to official figures.

• Caring Cooks of Jersey provides free meals or the skills and tools to make meals that are healthy, balanced and on a budget, to help improve nutrition within Jersey families.
• Call 07797 728807 for more information

Now the Island’s Chief Minister has promised to take immediate action to tackle poverty.

Senator Ian Gorst says he is particularly concerned about why some people are having to turn to food banks to help them survive and has pledged to investigate poverty levels in the Island.

A local charity, which is already helping to feed families who are struggling to cope is Caring Cooks of Jersey, who has today welcomed this investigation.

The charity’s founder Melissa Nobrego, a busy full time working mother of two, said it has just launched a new cooking programme teaching parents how to cook on a budget and is appealing for anyone who needs help to come forward.

The Community Cooking Programme, run by Caring Cooks charity, is a five week course teaching parents to cook basic home made meals on a budget of £5 that they can take home and share with their family.

‘All of these services are free of charge to families,’ said Mrs Nobrego.

‘We have the use of Le Rocquier School’s catering suite and are fortunate to have received funding from UBS to put 18 families through the course this year.

‘The course is being run by three of our long-standing cooks Heidi Grimes, who is head of Food and Nutrition at Beaulieu, Michelle Banks, who has successfully delivered our Corporate Cooking Day programme since June, and Helen Asplet.’

‘Helen ran the pilot for the programme with a young mother of three children with resounding success and positive feedback such as “I can’t thank you enough. You’ve really changed our lives completely “.’

Caring Cooks of Jersey is a group of volunteers, which provides meals, or the tools and skills to prepare meals that are home made and nutritious to less fortunate Islanders.

It offers a weekly service meal, which is delivered, to families who are unable to cook or are struggling financially or through ill health for six weeks.

Families can also access frozen home cooked meals through their frozen food bank at St Helier Methodist Centre, by referral from Citizens Advice Bureau, Town Hall and Family Nursing, as often as is required.

‘We would love to hear from any families with a genuine need and passion to learn how to cook nutritious family meals on a budget, and you can find out more by emailing us at caringcooksofjersey@gmail.com,’ added Melissa.

Meal planning is a great way to budget, as it reduces the chance of impulse purchases, and makes the most of the ingredients you have already.

You can either follow this plan below from Netmums as it is, or use it as a guide and adapt it to suit your family’s food preferences.

Unlike other weekly menu planners, this one includes easy recipes for breakfast and lunch, snacks and a couple of desserts too, all of which you could cut out, or swap depending on your budget.

Click here to see the meal planner.