Cheap meal ideas that aren’t pasta?

[CandyFloss35]

I’m trying to do two cheap meals a week to try and keep our food costs under control, we are a family of 5 and were spending over £200 in Asda. One dc has a rare allergy which his bloody had to be sent far and wide to test for so due to poor labelling Aldi and Lidl are out for us unfortunately.

We just had a 2 egg cheese omelet, 1 slice of toast, cooked mushrooms and tomato’s each. Apart from beans on toast, scrambled eggs on toast, soup and roll what other cheap meals do people do that aren’t pasta? We like pasta and have it once a week already just done want to fall into the pasta every night trap. We all eat jacket potatoes which are cheap to buy but the oven is on for 90 minutes which puts that not in the cheap category for fuel unfortunately.

Dc are 2 teens and a 10 year old, not fuss literally eat anything that’s put In front of them.

Thank you in advance

Jacket potato in microwave?

Vegetable stew with dumplings.

Yorkshire pudding wraps.

And buy a slow cooker.

Lentil dhal and rice - super cheap and filling

Sausages, veg and mash

3 bean chilli with rice

Soups and stews

Fried rice. Add cooked rice to wok with oil, ginger, garlic and five spice and soy sauce (and chilli if you like). Add cheap frozen veg like peas and sweetcorn, then you can add a small amount of protein which goes far - shredded chicken etc. Stir in an egg right at the end and drizzle with sesame oil before serving.

Would they eat peanut butter chicken? It's basically a chicken satay curry with peanut butter (can do with basic white rice, chicken thighs etc to trim costs)? Spicy bean burrito (bbq spiced beans, rice, cheese, crunched up Doritos if you want, tomato)? Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup is a great one too!

Definitely do baked potatoes in microwave, or at least do most in micro and finish off in oven. Sweet potato as an alternative is nice.

My kids love noodles with chopped ham and peas.

Rice + frozen mix veg + chickpeas + a chicken stock cube + some paprika/turmeric/grated garlic. All in a wok.

corned beef hash

one tin of corned beef
potatoes- cut into small cubes
one large onion - finely chopped
gravy granules

get a large pan, fry the onions off, then leave in the pan

add the potatoes with just enough water to boil them once soft add the corned beef and gravy granules

serve with baguette

Soup (theres such a range; maybe more substantial soups with beans/lentils) with crusty bread, maybe some bacon or croutons fried up on it

Lentils - dahl

Eggs - egg fried rice, omelette and chips

Stir fry - veggies, soy/stock, some rice or noodles

Egg and chips.

Sorry @DrMarciaFieldstone beat me to it!

Is it possible to get an air fryer? You can do everything like baked potatoes much more quickly

Veggie stir fry (use up all the bits in the fridge) with one packet of ramen noodles per person. Add garlic, chilli, a bit of soy sauce and sesame oil to make it tasty.

Exactly this!

Halve the baked potatoes and they cook quicker.

Also rice mixed with chopped need-to-use up veg and bacon.

Potato cakes. Mashed potato mixed with fried onion, small pieces of meat, carrots, swede etc and then fried.

Cheese onion and potato: Mashed potato mixed with onion and cheese put in oven for few minutes to get a crispy top.

Panackelty en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panackelty

Chilli (meat or veggie) and rice if doing meat add lots of beans

Lots of Mexican dishes are cheap too, think beans and rice type dishes with spice and flavour.

Bread pizza?

Bread (or toast) as the base, bit of tomato puree, then add toppings/herbs/cheese and grill to melt the cheese.
Not exactly gourmet, but can use up whatever leftovers are in the fridge for the toppings.

Do baked potatoes in bulk and freeze, then just reheat in microwave

get a frying pan

one large onion finely chopped cook in oil, then add three cloves of garlic, then add two tins of chopped tomatoes, once cooked, add in four eggs 🍳 then garnish with parsley and a sprinkle of grated cheese if you like

serve with crusty baguette

Our cheap meals include:
Soup with whatever veg is leftover
Corned beef hash
Fried rice with left over meat or veg chucked in.
Chilli with lots of beans first night then Nachos second night.
Cheapest cut of beef in slow cooker with heaps of veg for a stew.
Baked potatoes with whatever you fancy on top.
I tend to cook in bulk so that the oven is on less and then reheat in microwave. It also means less pots to clean too!