Budget friendly winter family dinners - week 4

It’s never been easier to feed the whānau!

This week four winter meal plan has five easy and tasty dinner recipes that can feed four people. Download the shopping list and recipes to enjoy in season veges, zero food waste and nutritionally balanced dinners!

Tips for the week four meal plan

• We recommend cooking the karaage chicken rice bowl before the chickpea and lentil pilaf as cooked rice is shared between the meals. Other than that you can cook the meals in any order you like. 
• To keep a whole bunch of celery fresher for longer, wrap the root end of the celery in a paper towel, place the whole celery in a ziplock bag and squeeze out the excess air. If you have chopped celery, place it in an airtight container lined with a paper towel.
• The leaves of the celery are edible, use them like parsley. You can save the base of the celery when cutting it and regrow more celery from it.
• Revive any limp celery stalks by cutting in half and placing the cut side in a jar of water and leave for a few hours or overnight 
• There will be leftover uncooked rice this week, store this in an airtight container in a cool place and use in another meal. 
• There will be some leftover frozen green beans this week, you can add more into the recipes or use in other dishes another day. 
• If your family prefers smaller or larger portions than listed in the recipes, change up the ingredient quantities to suit. 
• For children, limit the amount of salt added during cooking.

Some ingredients will be used across more than one meal in a week. These ingredients are all marked with a * so you know not to use all of the ingredient in one meal.

* Each meal plan of 5 meals is designed to use in-season fruit and veges. Fruit and vege growing conditions and pricing vary throughout each season, so choose cheaper in season fresh, or frozen substitutes if  a particular item is unseasonably expensive.