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

Pancakes. The most underrated cheap food and shouldn't be eaten just once a year! Covers protein and carbs and I serve with banana and whatever fruit is in the fridge. Main and pudding in 1 and the kids will love it!

Mashed potatoes from powder with grated cheese and black pepper mixed in - can be served with fried onion and apple (no, really).

We also make 'scrambled pancake': pour several pancakes' worth of batter into pan at once, let bottom brown, turn over and tear apart with pan scraper, stir pieces adding a bit more butter, fry until golden. Reduces time and energy needed.

@CandyFloss35 about the cost of running an oven for jacket potatoes etc - a quick Google suggests around 54p for 2 hours - about 13.5p per 30mins.

People suggesting buy an air fryer - it's a lot of oven hours before you've paid for the airfryer. And they still cost to run.

This is tasty (honey broccoli noodles) - skip the nuts and add any random veg. www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/honey_broccoli_noodles_73478

I wondered that....

also defrosting stuff, heating hot milk, popping popcorn, and wheat "hot water" bottles,

we've also been know to use ours for steaming veg, cooking rice, cooking a lazy cheese sauce from scratch (for 1 person), hot chocolate, porridge!!! (Everyday just ds for breakfast so much less washing up and exactly the same result as on the hob) and goodness knows what else

Curry (easily made vegetarian and quite filling with chick peas) and chilli made with vegetarian mince (the frozen bags of tesco veggie mince are what we use and it's pretty good).

Frozen parathas or chapattis served with either scrambled eggs (add curry powder if you want to spice it up), tinned veg curry or veg dhal.

Mince (cheaper per kg than corned beef) -fry with onion and a 1/4 jarPataks curry paste - serve with rice. Or good old spag bol

Stewing beef - slow cook with veg to make casserole.

Dahl, lentil soup, lentil bolognese. Lentils are my favourite cheap staple!

Veg curry.
Sweet potato, Potato, cauliflower, onion garlic. Lightly fry off. Add curry powder, tin of coconut milk, tin chickpeas or lentils. Chicken stock and water to cover. Simmer until veg soft. (You can omit what veg you don't have or add some chicken)

Blitz any left overs for nice soup.

Cous cous is quick and cheap. Jazz it up with herbs, orange, roasted nuts. And eat with grilled chicken or veg.

Burritos
Make a spiced mince.
Cook rice.
Grate carrot.
Slice cucumber, peppers.

Put in the middle of the table and fill a wrap.

You can make sour cream with plain yoghurt and lemon juice.
And salsa with, chopped tomato, onion, peppers, add a touch of vinegar, sugar, salt oil and tomato sauce and stir.

Batch cooking and freezing meals seems to be a good way to save money
I bought a batch cook book a month or so ago but yet to do any cooking !

I think I have seen that you can batch cook jacket potato's then freeze and microwave from frozen when you want them (although they wouldn’t be crispy ?!) but might be nicer then just microwaving them.

Made this tonight as son is sick and requested chicken soup “like in nanny McPhee” he is 21! 😂 Was really filling and comforting

I did not have a whole chicken so used 2 small chicken breasts.

Did Not have mint either but I don’t think it needs it.

We used stock cubes and 1/2 the garlic (as had run out).

Chicken Soup

Ooh as a pp said, pancakes! Wrap them round sausages pour over a tin of toms and some beans bung in oven. Or have with ham and cheese.

one small piece of lamb flavours a veg stew and if you Chuck in chickpeas it becomes ‘ Spanish stew’ yum.

Ditto to chicken soup above. You can cook rice in stock though no need to cook first, unless you have leftovers.
also my Jewish chum asked me for ‘leftvar’ a traditional Jewish dish, and when I got there it was leftovers! Very funny, and nice x

also pasta with garlic, chilli and a splash of olive oil. Surprisingly nice
or garlic and chickpeas
or garlic, fried breadcrumbs and lemon zest.
yum!

Something fun which could be one meal turned into two is a chilli and then enchiladas. Have a chilli one night then use some black beans to bulk out what's left. Fill some tortilla wraps and roll up like a sausage roll and put into a baking dish close together. Top with a tomato sauce spiced up as much as you like, top with grated cheese, and if the filling is hot, it just needs grilling to melt the cheese and warm the tortillas up a bit.

Cauliflower cheese 🧀

Place marking for ideas!

Corned beef hash with a fried egg on top, chicken hotpot made with cheap thighs meat, leeks, mushrooms, sliced potatoes on top, beef stew and dumplings, chilli bulked out with beans or lentils, vegetable/ egg stir fried rice, quesadillas with cheese and veg, chicken curry made with thigh meat, and lots of Dhals with frozen spinach added!

Tuna bake, tuna and whole grain sandwiches, tuna melt with cheese, tuna on baked potato.

Tinned salmon, sardines...

Hearty soups - minestrone, chicken noodle, green split pea with fried ham, etc.

Chickpea curry with basmati rice.

Mac and cheese.

Ooh sardines on toast with cheese melted on top.

Just to add to this with the chilli;bag of cheap potatoes baked into wedges then placed all around the edge of a baking dish pointing inwards and topped with chilli and grated cheese and then popped into the oven for a bit.

Chana masala!!! Super healthy, filling, budget friendly and delicious. Serve with basmati rice and naan. I'd make it on a Sunday afternoon. You can def leave out the chilli and chilli powder if you don't like spicy heat. To balance the spice I bake chicken thighs or legs with a mix of honey and chopped garlic drizzled overtop after the chicken had browned a bit and is about 3/4 done. Left-overs are also good the next day or frozen for the following week. When reheating do it in the oven with a bit of water in the pan then a couple minutes under broiler to crisp.

I also make a large pot of chilli. Keep it vegan if you can't afford meat. Still delicious, filling and healthy. I use tinned beans and three different kinds (black, kidney, garbanzo); chop a zucchini and a yam/sweet potato; tinned tomatoes; mince if you can manage it (doesn't have to be beef. Chicken or turkey also work. Or use any leftover meat if you have it. Serve with rice. I try to use brown rice.

Last go to is soup: make chicken stock when you cook chicken(whole chicken or pieces);
add veg and any herbs you like; a handful rice, up to a cup of small pasta; any left over chicken. Serve with crusty bread to dip. A tin of beans added ups the nutrition if you have it. Freezes well.

I cook as much as poss from scratch and try to freeze some for another day. Soups/chilis/vegan dishes are quite economical and if you can afford a little mince it goes a long way in these dishes but can be omitted. I also make a lot of eggs on toast/scrambled/omelettes with sauteed veggies. And when feeling super creative (desperate) leftovers go onto a pizza (dough easy to make and cheap) with simple passata and mozza; hot oven about 15 mins.

Chicken stew with Dumplings:

Place chicken breaststroke on the bone in a big saucepan,
Add chopped onion, chopped celery, and chopped carrots,
Add minced parsley, S&P, chopped or dried rosemary and/or tarragon optional.
Add water to just about cover, bring to boil.
Simmer, covered, until chicken falls easily off the bones.
Take stew off heat.
Remove all bones and gristle from the stew. Return all meat to stew in bite size pieces or shredded.

Use the dumpling recipe from Sainsburys Chicken Stew with Parsley Dumplings recipe online.

Return the stew to a heavy simmer after you've removed the bones and gristle and returned the meat to the pot.

Plop the dumplings onto the top of the stew. Cover again and let the dumplings steam for about 15 minutes.

last night it was ham salad with jacket potato (5 mins in the microwave and 5 mins on 190 in the air fryer).

tonight its ham and cheese panini with chips and corn on the cob

tomorrow its pork loins (yellow sticker snd put in the freezer) with chips peas and gravy (ill have avocado on toast with 2 poached eggs)

just some examples

Another we like are fajitas.

and were big fans of those chicken strips from Iceland (salt and chilli/breaded/southern fried etc) in a wrap served with wedges (those packets like garlic and herb. Plis pizza night when goodfellas ate on offer. With those wedges and salas

Italian and Indian are great cuisines for cheapness, get to the library and find some recipe books!

All good ideas here. Just be careful not to go too carby and leave out protein too much, it's easy to do.

If there's an Asian supermarket near you, you can buy things like rice, beans and spices much cheaper than in supermarkets.

Chickpea pancakes are good (buy gram flour) meera sodha has a nice recipe, serve with chutney

Refried beans are super tasty and can freeze and serve lots of ways - spread on wrap and topped with cheese, peppers etc and done as a quesadilla, or with nachos, or just in a bowl

So many good italian pasta sauces are cheap to make, just go for veg or minimal meat

Souvlaki made with pork or chicken marinaded with garlic and oregano and lemon, but use meat sparingly and pad out with onion, peppers, tomato etc to reduce cost

Another one for the leftovers though we tend to do that for two so aside from fried rice these may only work for a couple of people the next for lunch etc. even fried rice is easier for us as if we don't already have leftover rice we just use a couple of packets of microwave rice for the two of us.

Fajita leftovers are chopped up and turned into a creamy pasta dish the next day.

Chilli with rice the first day then nachos or jackets or wedges the second day. Chilli can be more veg than meat or all veg (black beans and peppers).

Keema gets turned into fried rice or noodles the next day. Keema can be padded out with peas, potatoes etc

Madhur Jaffrey sour chickpeas ( doesn't really taste sour) - www.multiculturiosity.com/madhur-jaffreys-indian-cooking-khatte-chole-sour-chickpeas-5/ if we have leftovers we have it for lunch while wfh with boiled eggs.

Gordon Ramsay Mexican eggs - DH loves this for a weekend brunch.