Lost job, what's good budget meals?

[lil454]

Trying to cut food spend, as have been made redundant, there are 3 of us: myself (I'm pregnant), husband and a toddler who eats and eats!
What's your healthy budget meals?
Many thanks

Sorry to hear about your job
A cheap, big filling family meal in our house is Lasagne. It's a great meal for sneaking in extra veg that fussy eaters won't notice. Made from ingredients you may already have in the fridge or in back of the cupboard. We always have loads spare for lunch next day. It's time consuming rather than cost. I usually keep a bit of the bolognaise sauce back and freeze it for another pasta dish.

minced beef - you don't need much, I only use about 250g and pad it out with chunky veg or just leave it out all together and use veg only.

6 lasagne sheets
1 onion
1 grated carrot
I stick of celery
carton of tomato passata
tomato puree
oxo cube - should be red wine but we never have spare
basil

white sauce
1 litre of milk
100 grams butter or marg
100 grams flour
cheese for top
salt and pepper
bake on 180 for 1 hour and it's good to go.

I sometimes use cheap cuts of chicken like wings and get some spices and just marinade them and put them with rice. I think you can get 6 chicken thighs for about £1.80 and rice is £1.00 a kg so cheap and easy. If you like veg on top then some frozen peas work out well. I find that if you find an Asian supermarket you could end up getting some of the marinades cheaper. I like Cajun and harissa. It's a cheap and easy weekday dinner.

I also do some chicken or pork fried rice keeping it simple with rice, eggs, spring onions, frozen peas and your chosen meat. If you make a big portion of boiled rice you could have the leftovers as lunches.

I find that getting my meat from Aldi/Lidl in bulk helps as it's cheaper and I can make a lot out of chicken and pork. Roast dinners are a lot cheaper from there as a whole chicken is about £2.50 and the potatoes and veg is about £1.50. That and you can use the leftover chicken for soups, sandwiches and other things.

Homemade pizza is relatively cheap and the dough can be frozen. It's fun to make too.

Sorry to hear OP, hope things improve for you soon.

I think a chorizo sausage ring is a good buy as it’s very flavourful in a meaty way and you don’t need a lot. Think it’s like £1.40 from Aldi. We are 3 greedy people and can’t eat a whole ring in one setting as v rich

Here’s my recipes:

We do ‘mums special rice’ which is a third/half a chorizo chopped up small and fry for a couple of mins in casserole dish. Add onions, garlic, celery, carrots, (all chopped small whatever you have in) and sauté till soft. Put in 1-2 cups of rice and fry for 1 min. Add a couple chopped fresh tomatoes if you have, sliced up green beans (could use peas) double the amount of water and half a stock cube and simmer till cooked. Tasty, easy, can stuff peppers or other veg with it. Put any herbs you have in etc.

My other chorizo recipe;

• good half a ring chopped in biggish chunks
• fry for couple of mins and add chunky chopped pepper & onion, fry
• add tin of tomatoes, water to cover and half stock cube
• tin of butter beans (could use chickpeas or cannelini, I find butter beans make it nice and thick)
• cook for say 20 mins until thickened and everything soft

Serve with bread or baked potato

I also add bits of chorizo to chicken casseroles or tray bakes. Less chicken but v tasty. I do eat some meals with chorizo... I think...!

*without

Thank you so much!