ABOUT YOUR ULTIMATE MENU
Hello! I'm Josie (or Jo) - the writer, cook and photographer behind Your Ultimate Menu. I love food (cooking, baking and eating), photography (of food), design (of anything food-related), and planning (of, you guessed it, food!)… especially planning what to cook for dinner.
While I love spending all my free time thinking about creating new meals, I realise that's not for everyone. Maybe this sounds more like you:
Eating interesting and varied meals the whole household will enjoy... fantastic!
Cooking… not so bad.
Shopping for food to cook… just about manageable.
Spending time and energy thinking about what to cook, while trying to keep the shopping list of ingredients to a minimum… no thanks!
If you can relate to that, then you’re in the right place. Y.U.M, or Your Ultimate Menu, is all about making your cooking life easier and more inspired. I do the thinking, you do the creating.
Each week, discover 3 delicious new recipes together with an organised, easy-to-follow shopping list. Just add your other household items and you're good to go. No more standing around in the supermarket deliberating over what to buy!
99% of the recipes featured in the weekly menus can be on the table in 60 minutes or less (emphasis on the 'less'), including cooking time. Every recipe is a full meal, so you don't have to worry about dreaming up what sides to add.
You'll find plenty of variety in both cooking times and cuisines, and each weekly menu is designed to minimise waste. Gluten-free options are provided for all recipes and wine matches are suggested too.
✔ Get out of the dinner rut ✔ Reduce food waste ✔ Save money - did I mention that (unlike home delivery options) Your Ultimate Menu is completely free?!
Y.U.M recipes serve four people, so if you're a family of four you're sorted with tasty new recipes 3 nights of the week (or double up and use a previous week's menu to make it 6 recipes). Household of two? That's 3 dinners and leftovers for lunch the next day (or 3 more dinners). You can use your Y.U.M-free nights to cook the classics, grab your favourite takeaway or go out for dinner.
Check back every Thursday for the following week's menu or sign up below to get notified when a new menu is released.
A FEW RANDOM FACTS ABOUT ME:
• I live in Auckland, in beautiful New Zealand, with my partner, Royce, our dog, Turbo, and (some of the time) Royce's son, Leo.
• I haven't always been the biggest fan of dogs. Royce owned Turbo before we met and when we first got together I tried to get Royce to sell him on TradeMe (what was I thinking?!?!). Now I couldn't imagine life without him.
• I have a Bachelor of Food Technology, which has lead to work in food packaging, product development and marketing roles.
• Something you won’t find featured in my recipes: offal.
• When I'm not working, you can usually find Turbo and me out walking (have to balance out all that taste testing somehow!).
Please feel free to get in touch - you can find all the details on my contact page. If you are interested in working with me, you can also find those details there.
