Table Tucker

It’s the book promising the revolutionise the way we cook. While meal-planning is a growing trend for busy families, Table Tucker takes it to the next level by promising that you’ll only cook two out of five week nights! Yes. That’s three nights a week you won’t be washing up.

Written and self-published by Australian working mum Penina Peterson, the book provides weekly meal plans as well as annual, monthly and weekly shopping lists.

At first glance the system is a little complicated. Each week there are six dinner recipes, which can be cooked in three ’squares’, so every second night you are just preparing pre-cooked food (’combos’). Saturday nights are excluded, assuming that many families will eat about at least once a week.

Using the portion sizes in the book, a couple could eat leftover dinner meals for lunch the next day, for greater cost savings.

So what kind of food are we talking about? It’s standard, seasonal family tucker. Not the kind of recipes you’d bookmark in Gourmet Traveller, more the standard fare most families eat anyway — pasta, stir-frys, burgers and quiches. A weekly summer menu plan is as follows:

Lamb Souvlaki Wraps
Chicken Curry with Naan Bread
Ham and Cheese Omelette with Butter Bean Salad
Salmon Tomato Rice
Creamy Chicken Crepes with Roma Tomato Salad
Cheesy Macaroni Bake

The value in the book is not so much the recipes themselves (although they look straight-forward, unprocessed and tasty), but in the organisational approach to the chore of daily meal preparation.

Anything that promises to shorten my shopping trips, cut down on my washing up and save my money has got to be worth a look. And if you fancy something a little, um, fancier, unleash your skills on a Saturday night dinner party.

Table Tucker can be ordered online for $27.45 + postage.