More Than Four: Recipes for Larger Families

By Cassandra Graves

Our economic times call for recipes and hints that help families get through and still put a healthy and delicious dinner onto the table, especially larger families.

Some of the following recipes come from my grandmothers handwritten notes from during the war. My grandmother would regularly have not only her family of seven to feed but her three sisters families, who each had five members as well. With only three occupants in the house earning an income, she became very adept at cooking filling, good, delicious healthy meals for very low cost and using many basic ingredients and being able to use the leftovers from the night before (if any) so that there were no wastage, or fresh vegetables from the garden.

Some of the other recipes are specifically for using up the leftovers and still getting a full meal for seven that I have developed over the years.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Dec 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499034387

Cassandra Graves

Cassandra lives in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, with her three daughters, aged twenty, nineteen, and fifteen; her mother and her sister; as well as three cats (who belong to her mother), one old Maltese terrier and a border collie puppy and a very fat rabbit who loves to eat all the vegetable offcuts. Casandra separated from her husband in 2006, two years after she commenced studying a bachelor of law at University of New England part time while working as a paralegal for law firms in and around Sydney, New South Wales. Cassandra has now been admitted as a solicitor for three years, practicing in property law and civil and strata law at a local firm in Sutherland. When not at work, cooking is a big theme, with regular Sunday baking days and regular experiment days, taking what is in the fridge, freezer, and cupboard and turning it into something not tried before. Since then she has been juggling life as a single mother cooking for up to twelve people at any given time with working full time as an employed solicitor and still spending quality time as a mother, daughter, and sister. As a long-term foster mother, Cassandra never knows when she may have extra mouths to feed, but for at least the last five years, she has not had less than six in the house at any given time, with the usual number sitting at eight and has had to feed up to nineteen on several occasions with little or no warning. Unable to find any recipe books that have recipes specifically for more than four, she has been forced to either play around with recipes due to the increase to the number of mouths to feed or create her own version of family favorites.

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Cassandra Graves

ISBN:   Softcover   978-1-4990-3433-2

           EBook       978-1-4990-3438-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 01/06/2015

Xlibris

1-800-455-039

www.xlibris.com.au

Contents

Chicken Dishes

Spicy Indian Chicken and Mango Curry

Easy Chicken Cattiatore

Chicken and Zucchini Risotto

Paprika Chicken with Couscous

Spiced Chicken cooked in Yoghurt

Chicken Fettucine

Two for One

Chicken Soup

Chicken Pie

Simple Roast Duck (or Goose)

Mango Chicken

Honey Chicken

Smoked Chicken Fettucine

Savoury Stuffing Loaf

Beef, Lamb, Goat & Pork Dishes

Easy Meatloaf

Taco Pie

Beef Vol au Vent

Schnitzel Strudel

Korean Style Grilled Beef

Lasagne

Apricot Veal

Slow Cooked Goat Lattice Pie

Sweet and Sour Pork

Bacon and Pea Puttanesca with Pasta

Baked Macaroni Cheese

Pasta Bake

Super Fried Rice

Pork Spring Rolls

Steamed Spinach Rolls

Red Cooked Beef with Star Anise

Lemon Lamb Cutlets

Mongolian Lamb

Chili con Carne

Carbonades de Boeuf a la Flamande

Seafood Dishes

Prawns in Oyster sauce with Hokkein Noodles

Whitebait Fritters

Fish Fillets in White Wine Sauce

Simple Paella

Tuna Bake

Salmon and Rice Pie

Kedgeree

Egg Dishes

Easy Peasy Quiche

Frittata

Vegetable Dishes

Broccoli and four cheeses Calzones

Vegetable Strudel

Potato Cheese Bake

Pesto Fettucine

Stuffed Mushrooms

Potato Pancakes

Carrot Pancakes

Tabbouleh

Waldorf Salad

Francoise Salad

Potato Salad

Minted Beetroot

Broccoli and Almond Salad

Pineapple Salad

Cucumber Salad

Grated Raw Vegetable Salad

Carrot Salad

Beetroot Salad

Red Radish Salad

Cucumber salad

Left Over Make Overs

Vegetable and Pasta Fritters with Pasta Sauce

Baked Pasta Pie

Chicken Spinach Pie

Desserts

Short Crust Pastry (basic)

Mango custard pie

Rhubarb & Apple Short Crust Pie

War Time Bread Pudding

Mum’s Wartime Fruit Cake

Stewed Apple Cinnamon Teacake

Honeycomb

Fruit Muffins

Baked Mulberry Cheesecake

Honey Squares

Banana Pineapple Cake

Pineapple Francoise

Ambrosia

Party Food

Cheese Noodle Fritters

Cob Loaf dips

Individual Picnic Pies

Pizza Scrolls

Sesame Cheese Crisps

More Than

Four

Recipes for larger families

Our economic times call for recipes and hints that help families survive and put a healthy and delicious dinners onto the table, especially larger families.

As a single mother with four teenagers, one mother and one sister in the house who are notorious for giving me less than 2 hours’ notice that extras are coming to stay for the night or for the weekend; I have learnt to stretch the planned meal from 8 people out to anything up to 12 people (with leftovers).

Cooking for 7 – 8 people every night I have noticed that most recipes around nowadays only cater for a family of 4 and whilst doubling seems to be the logical thing to do, sometimes it does not work and instead of dinner triumph there is the scratch around looking for something else to be done as the planned dinner is relegated to the garbage bin.

The trick of course is being able to make the most out of the staple items in the pantry and of course, obtaining ingredients at the best price possible. Whilst we would all love to be able to afford to cook Lobster Mornay for dinner every night, or have Scotch fillet instead of BBQ steak realistically speaking this is not going to happen in the everyday family life of a larger family. I regularly buy bulk meat at a bulk butcher as I have found purchasing 30 – 40 meals worth of meat at a time means that you can use the regular specials for 2kg or more. Buy the number you need, for example 14 pork chops does 2 meals for 7 people.

If you can afford to shop for meat at a bulk butcher monthly, do this as you will notice the difference in the prices over time.

My mother told me stories over the years of times where her mother would be making meals for many during the Second World War and for many years after using whatever cuts of meat that she could get for the money that she had available. Don’t discount a cheaper cut – they can be very tasty.

The other main trick is preparation, buy spinach or other fresh vegetables when it is really cheap, (I usually get two or more bunches at a time,) cook