Irish mum's €5 family meals go viral

Irish mum's €5 family meals go viral - I tried one of her recipes to see if it actually works

An Irish mother of three went viral recently for her €5 recipes that she claims can feed a whole family.

With cost of living soaring and grocery bills seeing a significant increase, Caz Mooney's videos on TikTok and Instagram have grabbed people's attention. Her recipes include stew, pasta dishes and homemade pizzas, all of which she says can feed a family of five and the ingredients cost less than €5.

Caz, from Offaly, has attracted more than 20,000 people on TikTok and 106,000 people on Instagram thanks to her #feeding 5peoplefor5euro videos.

But are her recipes a little too good to be true? Or can you really feed an entire family for €5? And do the recipes actually taste nice?

I decided to put one of her recipes to the test and see for myself if it works. I went with her recipe for goats cheese risotto. Here are the ingredients listed by Caz:

Ingredients:
- 500g risotto rice
- 180g goats cheese
- 90g Spinach
- 1 red pepper
- 1200ml stock
- 1tbsp smoked paprika
- 2tbsp oil
- 2 tsp garlic
- salt & pepper to taste

Now it is worth noting that in her €5 budget, she does not include items that are staples in the people's cupboards. So for this recipe she only included the risotto rice, the goats cheese, the spinach and the pepper in the budget which came to €5.16 (she didn't use the whole bag of spinach priced at €1.09 which would bring the cost down below €5)

I had different vegetables in my fridge so decided to swap the spinach for a courgette and the pepper for peas. I didn't have smoked paprika or garlic paste but used an onion for more flavour.

Here is how much all my ingredients cost:

Arborio Rice (Aldi) - €1.79
Goats cheese (Aldi) - €1.79
Bag of frozen peas (Tesco) - €0.69 (used 1/3 of a bag for recipe - cost for recipe €0.23)
Courgettes (Tesco) - €0.99 for 2 (used one - cost for recipe €0.50)
Onion (Tesco) - €0.59 for 6 (used two - cost for recipe €0.20)
Chicken stock cube (Tesco) - €0.41 for 10 cubes (we used one - cost for recipe €0.04)

Total cost - €4.55

Method:

Heat your oil in a pan.
Chop onion and courgette and soften in the pan for a few minutes
Add your rice and mix with onions and courgette, stirring for 2-3 minutes
Add a little stock to the pan, stirring for a few minutes. Once the stock is absorbed, add a little more. Repeat this - adding and stirring continuously until the risotto is completely cooked. This can take about 30 minutes.
Once you are about 10 minutes from finishing, add your frozen peas and stir.
Once the risotto and peas are fully cooked, remove from the heat and season to taste.
Finally add your goats cheese in cubes and stir through until melted.

Verdict:

So can the recipe feed a whole family? And does it actually taste any good?

While we weren't feeding a family of five (only three in our little household) but I made the full recipe hoping for leftovers. And there was certainly plenty to feed us plus more. In fact there were enough leftovers for tomorrows dinner so this easily would feed a family of five.

And was the recipe any good? It was very filling which was great - no need for any extra sides. It was a little bland though - I ended up adding a bit of parmesan cheese that was in my fridge. Perhaps the spinach and paprika would have had more flavour. But it's a versatile recipe that can work with whatever veg or meat is in your fridge so just use what works for you. I'll definitely be trying it again.

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