Each week Her.ie will look at a new cook book, giving you the inside scoop whether the recipes cut the mustard. From health kicks, to wholesome foods, we find out what books offer the best insights for budding cooks!
This week: Wholesome, Feed Your Family Well For Less – Caitriona Redmond (Mercier Press)
Caitriona Redmond’s cook book is living proof you don’t need a huge budget to make decent, healthy food choices. The mum of three living in Dublin put together her cook book following her redundancy, where her family food budget was drastically chopped in half.
Starting her shopping habits from scratch (long gone were the convenience foods of yesterday), the mum collected a recipe book of menus, snacks and dinners that fed a family of two adults, two children and a teenager on €50 a week.
Wholesome, Feed Your Family Well For Less is more than just your average cook book. The introduction offers a step-by-step guide to Irish parents (or even a student home) on how to cook balanced, nutritious and tasty meals on a budget. With tips from store cupboard items, to batch cooking and food storage, Redmond even outlines the basic kitchen equipment required to battle through the recipe section.
The book wants you to cook big on a little budget – and Redmond gives you all the tools and know-how for savvy shopping.
Much like the title suggests, the recipes to follow are packed with nutritious foods that are easy to come by in supermarkets. Fresh ingredients are essential, but used to create tasty foods while adding some variety to family dining, like the ‘Only-Codding' Fish cakes, making your own baked beans and don’t let the budget fool you – there’s plenty of room for dessert too.
The book is a treasure for anyone cooking for a family, but the tips for money management and recipe ideas means it’s a staple for any cook book collector.
Our only small criticism is the quality of photography in the book may not be as pristine as we’d hope, but in Caitríona’s own words “There is no such thing as a food stylist in my kitchen”, and the mother of three still manages to make our mouths water at the sight of each dish.
Overall we love that it’s very accessible cooking, and by ‘running her kitchen like a business’ Caitríona’s cooking tips and meal plans offer a variety that won’t bore even the fussiest faces around the dinner table.
Image via Mercier Press 
