I’m a mum of 12 & here’s the cheap, tasty meal I make that my kids love – I have to peel 5kg of potatoes but it’s a hit
A MUM of 12 has revealed the tasty meal she swears by that ALL her kids eat – and it’s cheap too.
Zoe Sullivan, 45, husband Ben, 49, and their dozen children make up one of Scotland’s biggest families.
The couple are parents to Elisabeth, 19, Olivia, 17, Noah, 14, Evangeline, 12, Tobias, 11, Agnes, six, Joseph, five, Florence, two, and two sets of twins – Charlotte and Isabelle, 16, and Leah and Erin, eight.
The bumper brood live in a six-bedroom house in Burghead, Moray, where they regularly document their hectic lives on their YouTube channel.
In a recent post, Zoe revealed the family-favourite dish she makes that keeps everyone happy.
And the best part, her sausage casserole takes very little effort and works out at around £1.78 per person.
But serving it up with mash does present one problem for the busy mum – having to peel 5kg of potatoes to make sure there’s enough for everyone.
She said: “That’s what it’s like when you’re feeding 14 people and this is why obviously it takes a bit longer for me because I’m prepping for 14 people.
“If you’re just doing it for four it’d be really quick”
To make her dish, Zoe browned four packs of ‘extra special’ caramelised onion pork sausages which she picked up in Asda for a tenner.
She then browned three onions and mixed them together in a casserole dish before adding Schwartz sausage casserole mix, tomato puree, tinned tomatoes with chilli sauce and tins of taco beans.
Once stirred together, Zoe popped the casserole in the oven at 200C for an hour.
After serving up for her bumper brood, Zoe added: “It went down really well. Everybody enjoyed it, really really enjoyed which is good.
“It’s a really easy one that you can just put in the oven and it’s done.”
She added: “If you wanted to make it even cheaper you could just use normal sausages, not fancy sausages. I just like those sausages.
“They’ve also got cheaper beans you can get but we just like to get the other ones.”
Full of praise for his wife, Ben chimed in: “With no exaggeration this is one of the TASTIEST meals Zoe has ever devised.
“So, the sausage casserole is a firm family favourite, really simple to cook and totally delicious.”
And social media users are already desperate to jump in the kitchen and give it a try for themselves.
One said: “Am definitely making this, looks amazing.”
“That dinner looked very yummy, will definitely give it a go”, added another.
A third gushed: “It looked lovely, I might try it one day this week.”
Meanwhile, a fourth wrote: “Looked delicious going to have this for tea one night.”
Zoe's sausage casserole - shopping list
For four people, you will need:
- 1 x Schwartz Sausage Casserole mix
- 450g Sausages
- 1 x Onion sliced
- 2 x tablespoons of tomato puree
- 1 x tin plum tomatoes with chilli sauce
- 1 x tin taco beans (mixed beans)
We told earlier how Zoe only gets four hours of sleep each night – but would still never say never to baby number 13.
The supermum gets up every morning at 4.45am after only settling down the night before at around midnight.
She said: “I can’t bear being late to anything, and I can’t bear being rushed.
“So if I get up early, I can have a shower, think about what I’m going to do for the day, and get ready.
“I like to get some of the chores in as well before the kids go to school, so I might do two loads of washing and those sorts of things. It does let me get more done.
“I don’t get to bed until around midnight, so I probably average four or five hours’ sleep – on a good night.”
But she still “would never say no” to having another baby, and added: “I think the more we had, the more we realised how much we love having a big family.
“And to be honest, the more you have, the easier it gets, in a weird sort of way.”