MyFamilyClub - Money Saving Made Easy

Rising food prices and wet summers can be a source of misery for a lot of home cooks. This week’s family meal planner tackles both, so don’t let food prices and the British weather put you off from enjoying barbecue food with your family this summer.

About our family meal planner
This week's family meal planner
Shopping list

Make a batch of the barbecue flavoured paste for the Sunday roast and keep in the fridge to jazz up pork chops, chicken pieces and burgers throughout the next few weeks. You can also be savvy with this week's meatless recipe, which uses a tin of chickpeas bought for little more than  £1.

By serving the burger in whole wheat pitta bread with a salad, your family gets to eat a delicious nutritious meal very cheaply.

Finally save £s on a weekly treat by making your own take away. Fish goujons are so simple and cheap to make with my crisp fizzy water batter. So don’t let food prices and miserable weather get you down this week, use our family meal planner instead!

About our family meal planner

In our weekly family meal planner you'll find child friendly meals containing plant and animal protein such as red meat, white meat, fish, and eggs along with cheese, chickpeas, nuts and seeds for meatless days. The delicious recipes should all form part of a daily balanced diet, and will provide nutrients from each of the food groups (proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals), says Sian.

Sian says the secret to low-cost healthy and stress-free cooking is to plan what you’re going to make and get all the right ingredients in the right amount in your kitchen ready to  cook.

Every week, Sian provides five easy recipes for the week's family meal planner. You can choose to make them on whichever day of the week suits you best. You'll even get a handy shopping list (below) that you can print out and take with you to the supermarket.

This week's family meal planner

• Chickpea burger with pitta bread and tomato chutney
• Shepherd’s pie served with cabbage and carrots
• Fish goujons served with summer salad with garlic dressing
• Barbecue chicken served with roast root vegetables
• Chicken madras curry served with coconut rice

Shopping list:

Meats and fish

Chicken - 3 kg
Lamb mince - 450g
White fish (boned and skinned) - 500g

Baked goods

Whole wheat pitta bread - 4

Dairy and eggs

Natural yogurt - 8 tbslp

Fresh vegetables and fruit

Cherry tomatoes - 8
Mixed lettuce leaves - 1 bag
Cabbage - 250 g
Carrot - 12
Cucumber - 200 g
Garlic Cloves - 6
Parsnips - 6
Ginger - 2 tbslp

Bottles and cans

Sparkling water (small bottle)

Herbs and spices

Fresh rosemary - 3 sprigs

Store cupboard (check before you go shopping)

Frozen

Garden peas 100 g

Dairy and eggs

Eggs - 1

Stored veg

Garlic puree 4 tsp
Onions - 3
Potatoes - 1kg

Baked goods

Breadcrumbs - 16 tblsp

Dried goods

Basmati rice - 2 cups
Cornflour - 1 tblsp
Plain white flour  - 1 tblsp
Self raising flour - 100g
Brown sugar - 1 tsp
Beef stock - 500 ml
Chicken stock (homemade or cubed) - 300 ml
Almonds - 25 g
Herbs and spices
Nutmeg - pinch
Coriander - ½ tsp
Cumin - 1 ½ tsp
Dried chilli 0.5 tsp
Paprika - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder 1 ½ tsp

Cans and bottles

Olive oil - 2 tblsp
Chickpeas (two cans) - 800g
Worcestershire Sauce - 1 tbslp
Cider vinegar - 2 tsp
Tomato chutney - 4 tblsp
Tomato sauce - 2 tblsp
Coconut milk - (one can) 400 ml
Tomatoes - (one can) - 400 ml

Sian is a home economist with over 25 years experience as a secondary school teacher and now running her own private cookery school with a focus on meal planning. After years of seeing people struggling to provide healthy meals everyday for their families, she created her own meal planning system at Siansplan.com.