Edenderry woman promotes good food on a budget
by Danielle Harney Updated: Friday, 5th November, 2010 12:50pm
An Edenderry native has tackled the problems of food budgeting and healthy eating all in one go.
Elizabeth Carty has set up a website dedicated to finding the best value bargains in Ireland’s top eight supermarkets and has written an accompanying recipe book - all with the aim of proving that a family of four can be fed for less than €100 a week.
'Shrewd Food: A New Way of Shopping, Cooking and Eating’ contains low-fat and gluten-free options, while her website www.shrewdfood.ie, is updated every week with super offers from the country’s top eight supermarkets, budgets and recipes.
Elizabeth wanted to prove how easy it was for people to eat well on less money but also wanted to be creative with the type of recipes she’s compiled.
“Food is an area that you can really economise on, I’ve put up recipes of main meals that are very, very budget conscious,” she explained. “The whole idea is that it’s easy and it’s delicious. Any person can benefit, not just a family of four.”
Elizabeth described herself as a “third-generation shrewdie”, and said her mother and grandmother taught her about food and budgets. After attending St Mary’s Secondary School in Edenderry, she then spent years living abroad in London, Cyprus and Dubai. She returned to Ireland in 2000 and settled in Dublin, with her young son. However the fast-living boom years surprised her.
“I think a lot of Irish people got out of the habit of cooking during the Celtic Tiger years but because we were eating out a lot more we grew accustomed to more adventurous types of food, food that many people don’t know how to cook.
“This book attempts to redress that balance. Food is really not that expensive and there are a lot of value products out there that are really good,” she said.
Although kept busy with her website, Elizabeth still works full-time as an accountant in Dublin, but still gets a chance to visit her family in Edenderry.
Elizabeth’s book is available to buy from her website www.shrewdfood.ie or is available in most good bookshops.
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