What are your best cheap meals?

[ImFree2doasiwant]

I've had a few vets bills this month and last month, and as a result am a bit hard up.

I'd like to spend a minimal amount on food for me and 2 small children. Everything else is paid for so food is my only real expense.

We have loads of porridge oats and the DC both love porridge so breakfast is sorted. It's really evening meals I'm after. Thanks!

Jacket potatoes, beans & some grated cheese.
Pasta & a tomato based sauce (fry off some garlic & onions, add a few cans of tinned tomatoes and simmer down)

Lentil dal with flatbreads, Jamie Oliver recipe which is amazing

Noodle soup - made with noodles, stock, vegetables and a small amount of chicken

I use quorn a lot instead of meat in bolognaise etc and dried packets of soya protein are even cheaper

Pasta with tomato based sauce

I always buy chicken thighs or drumsticks instead of breasts or whole chickens. You can do a roast cheaply this way.

I too was going to suggest jacket potatoes. I soemtimes do a mix of potato ones and sweet potato for variety and more nutrients.

They go well with home-made coldslaw. I grate or finely chop an onion or spring onions (if the kids eat them?), purple cabbage (which literally lasts in my crisper draw for a month!), grated carrot and maybe celery, radishes or any other hard veg. Mix in mayonnaise and thats it.

Frittatta. Basically any left over roasted veg or frozen veg mixed with eggs and baked. Served either hot or cold. Similar to a quiche, but without the creme.

Soup. Veg, pea/ham, chicken/sweetcorn can be filling with bread and veyr tasty.

Veggie chilli (lots of beans)
Chickpea, red pepper and BNS curry
Pasta with garlic mushrooms
Lentil dhal and rice
Carrot and kidney bean burgers (jack Monroe)
Sausage casserole
Fritata
Tuna pasta bake

Cauliflower cheese with toasted breadcrumbs on top

Pasticcio: bolognaise on the bottom, cheese pasta on top

Corned beef hash with a tin of corned beef, potatoes, onions & tomatoes

Turkey stir fry: turkey mince, whatever veg you like in as many colours as you can manage, soy sauce if you have it

Spanish tortilla : 6 egg omelette packed with potatoes and veg Great leftovers for lunch too

Hearty root veg soups (some or all of carrot/parsnip/split pea/sweet potato), or minestrone-type soups with mini pasta shapes or pearl barley, or pea and roasted garlic soup.

Spag bol made with lentils to replace half (or all) the meat.

Cheese/ham/tomato toasties.

Dhal and rice with a dollop of plain yoghurt.

Pizza bread with mushrooms/olives/spinach/whatever veg they’ll eat.

Omelettes.

Veggie risotto (or can be poshed up with frozen prawns, or scraps of cooked chicken, if you have them).

Cauliflower cheese with hard-boiled eggs and/or bacon.

Kedgeree, which is inexpensive if you use that vacuum-packed smoked mackerel rather than fresh smoked haddock. (I add onion and peas to mine.)

And there’s no harm in a beige freezer meal (Quorn nuggets, fish fingers or similar, oven chips, baked beans and/or mushy peas) once in a while.

‘On Toast’ meals a couple of times a week - beans on toast, scrambled egg on toast / cheese on toast etc.
Even better if your DC will eat wholemeal bread.
Dessert can be canned fruit and yoghurt / scoop of ice cream

Toad in the hole with peas
Beans on toast
Pancakes with grated cheese and wafer thin ham
Pasta pesto
Jacket potatoes with beans
Sausages/fish fingers and oven chips with peas

Stir fry, either all veg or if there's quorn or meat on offer stick that in.

Pasta bake, tinned tomatoes, veg again if you have a meat type thing and some mixed herbs. I get a ball of mozzarella and melt that just at the end.

Veg soup.

Veg risotto.

Chicken liver salad, fry the livers with an onion and serve on top of salad with pitta on the side.
Turkey thigh mince as a sub for beef mince in anything
Pork shoulder pieces, slow cooked in chopped tomato and any veg

Also if you shop online, put the name of the supermarket’s value range in the search bar and start from there.

Macaroni cheese
Pizza pitta bread/wrap
Tuna pasta bake
Sausage and mash
Hotdogs
Vegetable curry

Jacket potatoes with home made coleslaw
and or home made hummus
Spanish omelette
Home made red lentil soup
Pasta with pesto sauce and veg
Egg fried rice with veg
Make bolognese add loads of veg and green lentils, mushrooms and small amount of mince will do you three nights. Make into chilli on third night
Tuna pasta bake
Make roast chicken dinner first night, make chicken barley n veg soup with the chicken bones etc, enough for two nights and eat rest of chicken in curry.
Cheese on toast with onions or tomatoes
Beans and cheese on toast
Poached eggs on toast