Trying to cook nutritious, yet affordable, meals for the family can sometimes feel difficult or overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be.
Ashleigh Mogford, who goes by Cardiff.Mum online, knows what it’s like trying to feed children on a budget.
A geography teacher turned influencer, the mum of three shares her low-cost recipes and meal plans on social media. Later this month, she’s releasing her second cookbook, 5 Meals for £25, detailing how to create five delicious family meals from your week’s shop, for – you guessed it – just £25.
Now she has revealed that there is one surprising ingredient she tries to include in as many meals as possible to keep food costs low – and it has a variety of health benefits.
It’s high in protein, calcium, vitamin A and other nutrients. It also contains probiotics, which help promote a healthy gut. And it can cost less than a couple of quid.
The ingredient is Greek yoghurt.
“There are a few ingredients I buy every week, because I know that they can be spread across meals, and that’s when [the cost of] your food shop gets lower,” she tells Yahoo UK.
“One of my favourite ingredients to do that with is Greek yoghurt. When I buy a Greek yoghurt, I’ll buy a really nice one to have in yoghurt bowls as a bit of a treat, but then I’ll buy the bog-standard cheaper Greek or natural yoghurt that you can get in shops.”
Mogford uses this lower-cost Greek yoghurt in recipes where you’re not relying on its taste to make the meal. It can cost as little as 95p for a 500g tub in supermarkets.
“Greek yoghurt is probably the best money-saving ingredient you can get,” she adds.
Greek yoghurt can be used as an ingredient for various meals.
(Maliflower73 via Getty Images)
What you can use Greek yoghurt for
Make a dough
Mogford uses Greek yoghurt to make pizza bases, bagels and flatbreads and says it’s something that “more people need to know about”.
She explains that it’s very simple to make.
“Just mix equal parts Greek yoghurt with self-raising flour – you don’t even need to weigh it,” she says. You then need to mix it together until you get a “tacky consistency that doesn’t stick to your hands, but it’s still a little bit wet.”
Next, simply mould the dough into whatever shape you want.
“If you want to make flatbreads, put a little bit of oil in the pan and just roll out the dough into a flat bread shape, then fry it on both sides,” Mogford explains. “If you want to make bagels, put them into a bagel shape, spray with oil, and bake in the oven.”
It’s recommended to cook flatbread for one to two minutes per side, while pizza bases and bagels take 15 to 20.
Greek yoghurt can be a great addition to curries and can be used in flat bread.
(AscentXmedia via Getty Images)
Add to curries
Mogford also uses Greek yoghurt in her curries. Not only can it be used in the sauce itself, but also as a dollop on top.
“It is so good for filling out curry sauces,” the mum of three explains. “You can use the yoghurt the same as you would with cream. For example, if you’re making a butter curry or korma, just substitute the creamy ingredients.”
There are a variety of meals in Mogford’s cookbook that use Greek yoghurt, as she says: “There’s a page for if you’ve got leftover ingredients like Greek yoghurt, crème fraîche or parmesan that will direct you to a recipe to use up the rest of that ingredient.”
Transform into a marinade
Mogford says the ingredient can also help to transform even the most basic of recipes: “It’s a really good marinade. If you’ve got some cheap chicken thighs or whatever else, if you mix yoghurt with some spices, it makes really cheap chicken taste insane.”
Mogford uses Greek yoghurt as a marinade for the butter chicken naan burgers in her cookbook. For it, she adds chicken to a bowl with garlic powder, ground ginger, garam masala or curry powder, smoked paprika, cumin, some salt and the yoghurt.
She then mixes well to coat the chicken cutlets in the spice mix before frying them in a pan.
Greek yoghurt can be used as a nice marinade.
(JoeGough via Getty Images)
Benefits of Greek yoghurt
The ingredient has a variety of different health benefits:
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One of the most touted health benefits of Greek yoghurt is the probiotics it contains, which help promote a healthy gut
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It’s naturally lower in sugar compared to regular yoghurt
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While it isn’t entirely lactose-free, it is lower in lactose than regular yoghurt
Cardiff Mum’s 5 Meals For £25 by Ashleigh Mogford, published by Penguin Michael Joseph, on 26 February 2026 (£25.00).
