FamilyFirst editor Sara Bonchek shares her wholesome and frugal meal ideas

Job: Editor — twice a week in the office, three times a week at home

Lives: Beit Shemesh, Israel

Family: Seven kids, ages three to 15

My Cooking Philosophy:

I try for nutritious while still being delicious, so I serve at least two vegetables with every meal and only use whole wheat products.

We’re also very budget-conscious, so what’s on sale determines the meal plan. Even when I have something on my menu and I know my family likes it, if we can’t get it for a good price, we do without. I just recalibrate and cook something else.

My food style is heavily influenced by my Hungarian roots and the fact that I’m from Down Under, where kosher fish and chalav Yisrael products were hard to come by (when I was a girl; it’s improved now) and meat (think lamb chops) was plentiful and considered a staple.

Living in Israel also plays a role in how our tastes and menus have developed — kudos to Danielle Renov’s cookbook Peas, Love, and Carrots (and my sister Malka for buying it for me) for bringing the Middle East into my kitchen. I’d never touched a jalapeño pepper before that.

The most complicated thing I make for Shabbos:

I make my own corned beef and pastrami from scratch. Not as often as my family would like, because it takes some advance planning, and that isn’t my strong point. And not because I’m so geshikt, but because necessity is the mother of invention. When I’m expecting, I crave cold cuts, but they’re very expensive in Israel. One pregnancy, a Google search taught me that you can cure your own meats using brisket, Morton’s Tender Quick, and spices like black pepper, ground coriander, and garlic powder. Some bochurim from my husband’s yeshivah brought back a few packages of Morton’s Tender Quick from the US when they went home for Yom Tov and I’ve been making it ever since. This way, it costs me 45 shekels a kilogram instead of 120.

If someone treated me to a meal out, I’d order:

I just did that last week. (Thank you, Mum and Tat.) Steak or kebabs. Or both.

When I’m too tired to cook:

I serve fried eggs. The kids make it themselves. Sometimes, for my husband and me, I’ll spruce them up by making shakshuka or sautéing mushrooms, onions, and tomatoes to serve with them.

Sunday

Shabbos leftovers

I don’t usually have Shabbos leftovers, but when I do, it’s a great break for me. Otherwise, I make something with cubed chicken cutlets.

Monday

Arayes and Israeli salad

I sauté ground meat, season it with hawaij, stuff it into pitas and broil it. When I don’t have pitas, I make spaghetti or rice with meat sauce. Or if I have a lot of time or energy, meatballs, because they go down better. No sweet and sour sauces for us — it’s tomato sauce, garlic, and paprika.

Tuesday

Roast chicken, roast potatoes and sweet potatoes, and charred green beans

I use a honey soy sauce recipe for the chicken. Ideally, I parboil the potatoes first and then roast them. This is what my mother, a great cook, does, and they come out crispier that way. But I often “cheat” and put them straight in the oven.

Wednesday

Chicken skewers, couscous, and a garden salad

I have a few chicken cutlet recipes I alternate between. I either make honey mustard schnitzel fingers from Danielle’s cookbook, her spicy baked pargiyot (using white cutlets instead of dark), or sprinkle the cutlets with hawaij to make it shawarma-style.

Thursday

Stir-fried tofu and vegetables with rice

I marinate the tofu in a sauce for chicken and green beans from a recipe by Rivky Kleiman that I cut out of Family Table. It comes out really delicious. Well, my husband and I think so.

Favorite Supper:

Arayes is hands down the favorite. It’s also the easiest and fastest to prepare, which makes it my favorite, too.

Thrifty Trick:

I always use frozen deboned chicken breasts that I cube myself. It’s the cheapest way. It’s also a lot of work, so I bribe the older kids to take the younger ones to the park on those afternoons.

The Kids Disagree:

Unfortunately, only one of my seven children likes tofu, so the rest eat those cheap Israeli hot dogs I can’t bear the smell of. Never thought I’d be serving that on a weekly basis!