Cheap home cooked meals??

[Morrison2005]

Hi just looking for some inspiration,
I'm a busy mother to 6 children aged from 16 to 10 . 5 boys and 1 girl plus a husband to feed!!
I work full-time. Bit I'm struggling to find cheap and easy meal receipts,
It's really becoming a nightmare what with the cost of living and everything 😕
Please help x

What kinds of things are you cooking now?

how many nights a week do your husband and the older children cook?

Here's a couple

Chicken tray bake:
2 kg of chicken thighs (about £3.50 per kilo) would give you 1-2 pieces of chicken each with some left over for lunches.
1 medium potato per person sliced into chunky chip-sized pieces, with skin still on
4 large carrots, peeled and cut into 5cm chunks
2 large onions, peeled and cut into chunks.
Toss all of these together in a big roasting pan with 2 tablespoons of oil, some dried herbs, garlic granules or a spoonful of garlic paste, salt and pepper. Add a mugful of water.
Bake in the oven for 45 minutes until the chicken skins are golden brown and the veg are cooked through with some bubbly juices

Steam some broccoli or seasonal greens to go with it
Total cost of dinner about £1-1.50 per person depending on how much chicken you eat

Pasta 'bake'.
Cook 1 kg of fusili or penne pasta. Add 2 mugs of frozen peas to the cooking 2-3 mins before the end. Heat up 2 jars of tomato pasta sauce in microwave. Drain the pasta and peas, stir in a spoonful of oil, the heated sauce and a sprinkling of dried oregano. Put in a heatproof serving dish, grate cheese on top and then stick under the grill to melt the cheese until it bubbles.
Serve with salad or steamed broccoli.

Total cost per person about £1 each

Second previous poster idea about tray bake and pasta bake. Here are a few of mine:

1. Tortillas with a filling of fried peppers, onions, taco beans and rice. Super fast and cheap, delicious with a bit of salsa, jalapenos and avocado.
2. Pasta 'bolognese' with red split lentils (no meat version).
3. Vegetable stir fry with a sauce of your choice.

4 Ratatouille

1. Jacket potatoes with whatever toppings and salad on the side.

Shepherds pie bulked out with baked beans and lentils .

Sausage & chickpea casserole.
Lentil or bean soup with bacon hock.
Boiled bacon joint with colcannon and parsley sauce.
Root vegetable casserole with butter beans.
Egg & chips.

Make two - eat one and freeze one.

realfood.tesco.com/budget-meals.html

Try these recipes.

I would reduce meat and switch to vegetarian where possible.

One of my favourites is red lentil pasta sauce: simmer a chopped onion & when soft add garlic, then add a tin of tomatoes and same volume of water, couple of handfuls of red lentils and teaspoon of cinnamon. Once lentils fully cooked add salt & pepper. Serve with lots of pasta.

If you can, the best thing you can do is learn to make bread, then you get really filling & healthy bread for the price of supermarket bread. Then whatever you have for tea you can give the kids toast afterwards which helps fill them up.

I hope your husband and older kids are doing their fair share of the cooking OP. That’s a lot of pressure just on you.

If you have an air fryer baked potatoes in there are great. 5 mins in the microwave then 20 mins in the air fryer and they end up lovely and crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. Adjust your timings a few minutes if you have bigger potatoes.

Massive vat of pasta and bolognaise sauce bulked out with lentils.

OP, I eat all kinds of foods but mostly veggies. My DP eats lots of meat and his food bills are always higher (oh my gosh, we saw an organic chicken today for £17!!!). Today, I did my weeks shopping — £15. All veggies. Here’s some things I make:

1. Veggie soup — biggest pot you have. Oil in bottom with garlic and chopped onion, smoosh around a bit til they smell nice. Then, chuck in chopped: carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peppers, broccoli, cauli (anything you like/whatever is on offer). Cook down a bit. Put some stock (I use bouillon) in water and add until veggies covered. Add lentils (huge cheap bags in Indian food aisle). Cook for a bit. Add in chopped cabbage and can of any kind of beans (except baked!) (again, look for offers). Freeze half (even just for later in week, to keep freshness) or don’t freeze — I’ll eat this same pot all week — veggies stuck in fridge wouldn’t go off in that time in my mind! This is a meal the fam can make together because all you have to say is “chop these up”.
2. Roast any specific veg (eg broccoli, fennel, red pepper) with garlic in oven for 20 min ish. Get out your soup pan, put on hob, oil and a chopped onion and toss the roast veg and garlic in, swoosh around a bit. Add stock+hot water, add loads of lentils. When lentils are soft, I use a stick blender to blitz. I also add a thing sometimes like: blue cheese (goes well w broccoli), tahini, cream, butter, more oil, any herbs, salt and pepper. Only one of the above.
3. Bung a bunch of potatoes in oven. Add baked beans.
4. Chop all veg, roast, serve with eggs and ketchup or similar!

P.s. I’m so sorry this is a situation you are in (and us all). Curse this government! How are we the sixth richest country in the world and parents are struggling to put meals together for their children? Sincerely hoping things improve for you and us.

You can make your own pasta sauce with onion and Tesco basics tomatoes, add whatever you fancy - garlic, herbs, chilli, tomato puree. It'd be cheaper and healthier than buying (no criticism intended) and you can make in bulk and freeze.

Mix with cooked pasta and lentils or kidney beans which are cheap and filling, or add peppers, sweetcorn, can tuna, mince or chicken.

Veggie chilli with above tomato base, chilli couple of cans beans, frozen sweetcorn is good value and peppers, serve with plenty of cheap rice.

Keep on eye out for offers you'd genuinely eat and get to know prices in different dhops. We mainly eat veggie and easily keep our food spending, including wine/lager below £25pppw.

Cooking for 8 on a daily basis sounds industrial. Along with the laundry.

How do you fit it in with a full-time job.

stupid question and probably done to death but I cannot work out whether alternatives cooking methods e.g airfryer, microwave etc. really worth the investment, have a very old slow cooker, a pressure cooker(not electric) and normal hob and oven, but trying to reduce costs whilst still eating the kind of food you would have used the oven for. Any help would be grately appreciated as so many poor reviews out there.

I wouldn't be without my Instant Pot electric pressure cooker (it also functions as a slow cooker and does various other things). I'm cooking for 10 more or less daily, and it cuts cooking time by two thirds.
At the moment I am Majoring On Mince. I figure I can get the most expensive (grass-fed where Lidl does it) with a decent fat level (10-15-20%), and that way we are still having decent quality protein, but in the cheapest possible format.

Bolognese, with spaghetti/any pasta & cheese on top.

Make a double batch of that, when you re-heat add ground cumin & coriander & cloves to the other half, add some kidney beans and you have chilli con carne. We eat this with rice in tortilla wraps, and you can zshuzh up with tzatziki/salsa/plain yoghurt as preferred.

Keema (Indian spiced mince) google for recipes, v easy, includes frozen petit pois which is the only veg ALL my kids eat happily 🙄) eaten with rice, yoghurt/raita.

S.E.Asian stir-fried pork mince (with apologies to all SE Asians!) Fry up a couple of onions chopped small in coconut oil if you have it, with several cloves of garlic and some minced ginger. Add a tablespoon of brown sugar. When soft, push this mixture to the side of the pan and add pork mince. DON'T break it up too much at this stage, the idea is to hard-fry till almost burnt caramelised. It will only need 10ish mins frying. Then add a few glugs of a few/all of the following: fish sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, mirin, rice wine vinegar, hoisin sauce (basically any Chinese/Thai condiments you have knocking around) - even ketchup/Worcester sauce at a pinch. Serve with rice, raita, chilli, cucumber salad.

Then there's meatballs, and

Burgers (mine love these. In fact they love anything you have to assemble at the table 🤷🏻)

The Eastern Europeans do lovely things with mince stuffed into cabbage leaves, or peppers, but personally I'd find that too much faff in the quantities I have to produce 😅

The first three I make in the Instant Pot, cook for 35 mins under pressure and it tastes likes it's been simmering for hours. Get one! HTH.

If you are wanting to save money, try to avoid using the oven, slow cooker is a cheap to cooking in, bolognaise, chilli, stew, curry, soup. etc.

Potato bake - just like dauphinoise, but added layers of fresh spinach & mushrooms plus cheese on top (for example). Can be prepared the night before and heated up when required!
If you want meat serve with pork chops!

I make a veg and bean casserole in my slow cooker. 2 tins chopped tomatoes, dried beans, pearly barley, lentils, carrots, onion, celery whatever veg you have really. I put in a good glug of Worcestershire sauce and herbs. It's tasty and filling but cheap. Only downside is the wind afterwards!

Chicken cooked on a rack, with small pieces of veg underneath. Drizzle the veg with oil and the chicken juices drip and add to the flavour.

Batch cook Bolognese, freeze portions and just defrost as needed and boil the pasta.

Omelettes filled with ham and cheese. Serve with microwaved tomatoes.

Jacket potatoes with beans, or sweetcorn.

Curry made with mince and a bought curry sauce. Fry onions and chopped garlic first (you can get jars of chopped garlic). Add the mince, brown it, add the sauce and simmer for an hour. (30 minutes at a push). Serve with pre-cooked rice. (2 minutes in microwave).

Fried rice with veggies and scrambled egg.

Slow roasted pork shoulder, serve when it can fall apart, with mashed potato and homemade coleslaw.

Grated carrot and apple salad with a honey and vinegar dressing.

We do a bacon hotpot, sliced skin on potatoes (about 3mm thick) layered in an oven dish with onions, garlic and streaky bacon. Pour 1/3 pint of stock in, foil on and bake until pots are soft. Dot butter over top, remove foil and crisp for 15 mins before serving with green veg

Bung a shit ton of mince in a pan, fry it till brown.

Stick half in a tub and save it.

The other half, add water gravy granules and kidney beans.
Mash some spuds.
Use frozen veg and have mince, mash and veg.
(Dependant on mince and veg and spuds etc can cost very little for a good amount and takes minutes.. even faster of you use Idaho instant mash)

Next day, the other half of the mince in the tub.
Put a tin of tomatoes in and stir.
Fry some onion and mushrooms and stir in.
(You can also add peppers and garlic and whatever you can get on offer tbh)
Add some chilli flakes for a little spice.
Serve with rice and veg.
Cheap, fast and tasty.

Also.
Porridge.. thick porridge with fruit may be more traditional for breakfast, but for a fast evening meal on a cold night, its hard to beat.

Cheap sausages.
A chopped up Sweet potato
Diced onion
Tin of baked beans
Chop the sausages into chunks.
Fry the sweet potato until soft
Add onion and sausage until browned
In the frying pan add the baked beans and stir until it's hot all through.
Serve with a crusty roll.. and a fried egg of you fancy it.
Not very expensive and quite filling and nice.

Don't dismiss beans on toast either... God I love beans on toast... Grated cheddar on top.

Also
Soup. Tin for 55p each. Have broth with a cheese sandwich for dipping. Yum.
Tomato soup over chips.. food of the lords I tell you.

You could Google: Ramen Bomb.. it's a popular hiker meal but no reason you can't have it home.

www.theguardian.com/food/2022/jan/26/how-to-make-pea-and-ham-soup-recipe-felicity-cloake

Pea & ham soup. I use a recipe much like this one. I just use plain dried marrowfat peas, the kind you buy in a box & rehydrate with bicarb.