Joe Swash is often hailed as the cook in his family with Stacey Solomon, and now he’s helping others craft the skill.
Along with his co-host and chef, Suzanne Mulholland, who specialises in batch cooking, Joe, 42, showed families how to save money and time.
Stacey Solomon and Joe Swash seen celebrating Christmas with three of their tots[/caption]
Joe Swash and Suzanne Mulholland help families to save time and money[/caption]
They shared an easy meal prep hack to make two different dinners in less than 30 minutes[/caption]
The new Channel 4 show, Batch from Scratch: Cooking for Less, partners with Lidl to help families through the cost of living crisis with simple batch cooking recipes.
Tonight’s show was a hit as they shared two different dinners that can be made at the same time in less than 30 minutes.
Joe, who is husband to Loose Women panellist Stacey Solomon has five kids himself, so knows just how hectic getting dinner done can be.
The Powell family, who appeared on the show, spent over £256 a week on food – almost double the national average for their family of five.
And that’s not all, their indecisiveness wasn’t just costing them money but also time as they spent almost a day a week shopping and prepping food.
Wanting to change their ways, Joe and Suzanne stepped in to help sharing two delicious weekday dinner recipes.
Suzanne started by making a meat sauce using frozen chopped onions, garlic, dried oregano, 750 grams of minced beef, three grated carrots and two tins of chopped tomato.
To save time, buy pre-chopped frozen onion and don’t bother peeling your carrots before grating them to thicken your sauce.
Once it’s cooked, you can split the sauce in two to make two different recipes – the first being lasagne.
Savvy Suzanne recommends a time-saving recipe for the white sauce using creme fraiche, half a cup of milk and grated mozzarella.
Once mixed into a smooth sauce you can layer it with the meet and lasagne sheets.
You can freeze it as soon as it is cooled down and it can be reheated from frozen to serve five people.
With the other half of the meat mixture, you can add two tins of drained cook lentils to help bulk it out.
Lentils have lots of protein, are a similar texture to mince meat and are super cheap to add to meals and make them more filling.
You can then place it in an ovenproof dish and add ready made mash on top.
Suzanne says this can be a bit more expensive but is much quicker and will stop your pie from going soggy as fresh mash can produce lots of water.
The entire meal prep should take you just 25 minutes to complete and will save you a tonne of stress during the week.
The new show is available to watch on Channel 4 at 8pm on Monday evenings.
How to save money on your food shop
Consumer reporter Sam Walker reveals how you can save hundreds of pounds a year:
Odd boxes – plenty of retailers offer slightly misshapen fruit and veg or surplus food at a discounted price.
Lidl sells five kilos of fruit and veg for just £1.50 through its Waste Not scheme while Aldi shoppers can get Too Good to Go bags which contain £10 worth of all kinds of products for £3.30.
Sainsbury’s also sells £2 “Taste Me, Don’t Waste Me” fruit and veg boxes to help shoppers reduced food waste and save cash.
Food waste apps – food waste apps work by helping shops, cafes, restaurants and other businesses shift stock that is due to go out of date and passing it on to members of the public.
Some of the most notable ones include Too Good to Go and Olio.
Too Good to Go’s app is free to sign up to and is used by millions of people across the UK, letting users buy food at a discount.
Olio works similarly, except users can collect both food and other household items for free from neighbours and businesses.
Yellow sticker bargains – yellow sticker bargains, sometimes orange and red in certain supermarkets, are a great way of getting food on the cheap.
But what time to head out to get the best deals varies depending on the retailer. You can see the best times for each supermarket here.
Super cheap bargains – sign up to bargain hunter Facebook groups like Extreme Couponing and Bargains UK where shoppers regularly post hauls they’ve found on the cheap, including food finds.
“Downshift” – you will almost always save money going for a supermarket’s own-brand economy lines rather than premium brands.
The move to lower-tier ranges, also known as “downshifting” and hailed by consumer expert Martin Lewis, could save you hundreds of pounds a year on your food shop.
