Meal planning has long been considered a way to reduce your shopping bill, a money-saving tip championed by the likes of Gregg Wallace and Chris Bavin on the hit BBC show Eat Well For Less. Asda have embraced meal planning and launched a £20 meal plan, which consists of seven budget friendly recipes which the supermarket giant says will feed a family of four for one week.
There are other companies that specialise in meal plan delivery to your door. What stands Asda apart, is its focus on a £20 budget using ingredients from its Just Essentials range, which start at 16p.
The range includes store cupboards staples such as plain flour, rice and tinned tomatoes, fresh produce such as brown onions, and protein including pork sausages and bacon rashers. Reporter Megan Shaw who has a family of four tried out Asda's meal deal, here are her thoughts as reported by YorkshireLive and how she got on cooking from the budget range.
I have two children and a boyfriend who eat me out of house and home, so I was sceptical that this would work for us. My typical weekly food shop tends to cost around the £80-£100 mark so I just did not think we'd survive.
The Just Essentials "7 for £20" plan is available online and customers can browse the seven recipes, adding the required ingredients to their basket, before following the method to create each meal on the Asda Good Living website. Each recipe consists of simple family favourites that won't break the bank - from sausage and mash to pasta bake, they're hearty and wholesome recipes that will leave the whole family satisfied, without stretching the wallet.
And all seven recipes cost only £20?! Surely not I thought. So, I headed to the Asda website to place my order to give it a try.
The supermarket giant states the only things customers will need in their cupboards already, to make use of the Just Essentials family weekly meal plan are oil, salt and pepper. This terrified me a little, I won't lie.
I'm an avid seasoner and I like my food to be flavoursome. I was also apprehensive about the tinned veg and the jar sauces as I prefer to make things from scratch ideally, and would always opt for fresh produce usually. But equally, I'll try anything once, so tinned potatoes, come at me.
Asda’s Just Essentials meal plan includes the below evening meals:
- Monday – Sausage and Mash
- Tuesday – Fish Biryani
- Wednesday – Fish Pie
- Thursday – Bacon and Pea Frittata
- Friday – Tuna and Tomato Pasta
- Saturday – Chicken Stew and Rice
- Sunday – Chicken Pasta
The meals are not too dissimilar to the meals we would usually eat as a family. First up we had the sausage and mash, which was a hit with everyone.
The tuna pasta bake went down a storm too. Throughout the week, each evening we sat down as a family and enjoyed a meal, which is a rarity in our house - there's always usually somebody upside down on the sofa while I'm trying to shovel in another mouthful of beans (and that's just my other half!).
Other than weekends, the kids usually have their tea earlier on and we will eat later, so it was really nice to enjoy the meals together. It reminded me we must do it more often.
I must admit I did feel the need to 'spruce up' a couple of the dishes with some staples I already had in the cupboards, including spices for extra flavour, dips and I included side salad with some of the dishes as the meals began to feel quite carb-heavy come mid-week.
Also, for transparancy, my children think a pasta dish being served without garlic bread is illegal, so just to note this wasn't included with the deal. Admittedly, I didn't love using a jar sauce but overall the meals were nice and I wouldn't turn my nose up at trying them again and the kids certainly enjoyed them.
Generally, I'm not the most organised of people, in fact I don't think I've ever made or stuck to a seven-day meal plan in my life. I'm more of a 'see how I feel on the day and wing it' kind of person, but I weirdly enjoyed the structure.
It's a great option for families looking to cut costs. The meals are also tasty, nutritious and the portion sizes were more than enough to feed a family of four.
While I don't think this is something that I personally would use on a weekly basis, purely due to personal preference, it did make me realise that I spend way too much on the food shop and I could really be much more savvy by planning ahead. The seven recipes are available to buy online here.
