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

The best way to cut cats is to substitute meat for veg.

Lentils can be made into lots of meals.

Potato bakes instead of pasta bakes.

Baked eggs is nice.

Cauliflower cheese?

Substantial sandwiches like club or cheesesteak are a meal rather than a snack.

Also go to the supermarket at 6/7pm and get the yellow sticker items and be flexible.

I go Iceland and get the three bags of fish for £10. I then make a dish out of each bag, normally has 4 to 5 pieces of fish. I then chop it up,make fish curry, fish pie etc, bulking it out with potatoes and veg. I also buy dried soya mince (so much cheaper than freezer stuff like Quorn) hydrate it and every bag of mince I use, I do a 50/50 ratio. Then do mexican, boritos/fajita/bolognese etc, bulking it all out with lots of veg/salad, so the meal isn't around the meat as such. No one knows the difference. I have allergies, so can't do Aldi or branded goods, due to all the additives they use, so I am a fakeaway person. Get some yeast sachets for the cupboard and make my own naans etc. So for a family of 5, costs no more than £5 per meals

Bubble and squeak;
boil selection of veg,
drain squeeze out moisture
fry, add a poached or fried egg, voila!

We made this earlier in the week as a 'what's in the cupboard so I don't have to go to the shop' dinner and it was REALLY good, I added a tin of chickpeas too as they were to hand -

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/better-baked-beans-spicy-wedges

Just thought about a dish my nan used to make for us as kids.

She would poach a yellow smoked fish fillet in milk. Boil potatoes and mash them with lots of butter ( could use mayo) and add dry sage and onion stuffing mix. She poured the Smokey fishy milk on the mix and it was absorbed by the stuffing. Then she would flake the fish into it and mix it all up and form into patties. Dip in flour, then egg and rolled in breadcrumbs. She would fry them until golden and serve with a spoon of beans on top and we LOVED them! They were proper delicious fish cakes despite the 1 piece of fish content being tiny when divided between 5 people.

We do Jack pots in micro wave and crisps then for a few minutes in the air fryer

And much cheaper to run although you would need a fairly large one to bake five potatoes.

When I make jackets potatoes, I leave the oven on super hot for 15 mins, pop the jackets in and then leave them for the day. Or pop them in after we have cooked a meal. They cook slowly and are delicious.

Air fryers for big families aren't much cop, in my experience. I gave ours away.

Chickpea anything! I recently started making chickpea curries and the kids love them.

Also, our current favorite is a tune of chickpeas, kidney beans and berlotti beans. Mix together with red onion, cucumber, tomatoes and a vinegarette. You can chuck any bits from the salad drawer, or cheese in there too.

Yes to this. In addition to chickpea curry, recently made Moroccan lamb stew in slow cooker, served with couscous. Then pulled pork, in bread .

Also Chinese pork with noodles.

Beef adobo in slow cooker is amazing.

Soups with any scraps are fab in it.

I don't cook chicken or mince in it, but pretty much everything else. People do cook lasagna in it, so I hear...

Also, it gives baked potatoes a nutty flavour (shall stop with baked potatoes now!)