Book Review – Table Tucker by Penina Petersen

Grocery Shopping Lists, Easy Recipes & One Year Family Meal Planner

Sep 9, 2009 Susan Whelan

Save money on groceries and spend less time in the kitchen with this guide to planning and budgeting for family meals including recipes, shopping lists and general tips.

Being disorganised in the kitchen at mealtimes wastes time and money. Australian mother Penina Petersen has devised an ingenious plan to organise grocery shopping lists, limit cooking to three nights a week and save money by reducing waste in the kitchen.

Table Tucker (Hachette Australia, 2009) by Penina Petersen is an indispensable guide for busy Australian families who want to spend more time relaxing together and less time in the kitchen and the supermarket.

Table Tucker

This straightforward guide to planning meals and being more organised in the kitchen offers a one year menu plan with recipes for family-friendly main meals. With a week-by-week format, Petersen provides not only recipes but grocery shopping lists and tips for using leftovers.

Recipes are displayed in an easy to follow format suitable for even a beginner cook. Ingredients can be easily found at the local supermarket and there are minimal processes involved in each recipe. There is an enjoyable range of meals including curries, stir-frys, pasta dishes, soups, roasts, vegetarian dishes and salads. Meat dishes include chicken, beef, fish, pork and lamb. Side-dish recipes are also included.

The number of serves is listed with each meal, with meals serving between 2 – 6 people. Recipes would need to be adjusted to suit individual family needs. The meal plan provides a menu plan and recipes for meals six nights a week.

A basic knowledge of food preparation and cooking skills is assumed, but even a beginner cook would find most recipes achievable.

Making Meal Times Less Stressful

A fundamental aspect of Petersen’s meal plan is reducing cooking to only three nights a week. Two meals are cooked on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday nights, leaving Monday, Wednesday and Friday free to simply reheat pre-prepared meals. This reduces not only meal preparation time but also time spent cleaning up in the kitchen.

By providing a menu planner and family recipes in one place, Table Tucker takes the stress out of choosing and preparing meals. At the beginning of each week, grocery lists ensure that all the necessary ingredients will be available for the coming week.

Petersen also provides a list of easy ingredient substitution suggestions, food storage tips and a list of recommended kitchen utensils, cookware and other useful items for food preparation and storage.

Additional recipes, shopping tips and an online forum are available at the Table Tucker website.

Save Money on Groceries and Household Bills

Petersen aims to not only help families spend less time preparing meals but also to reduce family grocery expenses. Table Tucker includes annual, seasonal, monthly and weekly shopping lists, providing the option of saving money by buying in bulk where possible.

Grocery lists are provided at the beginning of each weekly meal plan, clearly listing which items can be excluded from the weekly grocery shopping list if bulk items have been purchased. Using the annual, quarterly or monthly grocery lists also reduces packaging, reducing the carbon footprint for families keen to minimise their impact on the environment.

Petersen advises that significant savings can be made by purchasing in bulk, buying seasonal fresh produce and by planning meals to avoid unnecessary purchases. There are a number of grocery and household budgeting tips included in Table Tucker and Petersen encourages readers by projecting lifetime savings of $450,000+ for families that reduce grocery spending by using a meal plan.

Practical Meal Plan for Australian Families

While some may find the recipes too generic, the simplicity of the format means that meals can easily be embellished or adapted by more experienced cooks to suit individual tastes.

With 280 family friendly recipes and 52 weeks of menu plans and shopping lists, Table Tucker takes all the stress out of planning and preparing evening meals. Table Tucker offers couples and families a guide to less cooking and cheaper grocery bills, making it ideal for anyone who has ever wished that someone else would do all the hard work of organising a menu plan or families looking for ways to reduce their grocery expenses.

Table Tucker (ISBN: 978-0-7336-2444-5, 328 pages)

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The copyright of the article Book Review – Table Tucker by Penina Petersen in Home Decor/Cookbooks is owned by Susan Whelan. Permission to republish Book Review – Table Tucker by Penina Petersen in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Table Tucker by Penina Petersen

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