Your DC's favourite, cheapest meals?

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We can't absorb the food price rises and unexpected bills like idiot DH buying a new bike so I need to cut the food budget for the next couple of months. What are the cheapest, balanced, nutritious meals your DC like?

Nothing mushy texture or with mushrooms or nuts. I haven't mastered lentils (tips?), they always go mushy or if I cook them less, give someone stomach ache. I have a teenage boy to feed and a pre-teen girl going through a growth spurt. Random, unorthodox combinations acceptable; we are not vegetarian but are trying to eat less meat.

Replace meat in any recipe with a tin of chickpeas. That will cut the cost of any meal by about 60%. You can save even more if you buy them dried and soak them yourself. They freeze really well so I normally prep a whole bag in one go and then portion them out into about 8 or 9 bags. Frozen veg means you only use what you need.

Pasta Bake is my nearly teen DS favourite.

Simply get some passata, add some (olive) oil, extra tomato puree and herbs. If you have some cream available you can add a bit as well.

Boil pasta, mix it all up in a baking dish, cover with cheese and bake until cheese is melted. Serve with a leavy salad.

That's fine basic recepie.
You can add cherry tomatoes, peppers onions, chopped up sausage ect to mix it up.

Another cheap pasta sauce is mince some onions celery and carrot, (& garlic). Sauté and add a TS of tomato puree, a can of tomatoes or passata and season with a stock cube & herbs. (Basically what's in the sauce jars, but better & cheper!)
It's great stuff for the freezer, and all you need to do is defrost & add some veg or mince to make it into a sauce or chilli.

make a cheese sauce with flour. Butter milk and cheese - add to cooked pasta or rice. Add protein(chicken, tuna, quorn), some cooked veg and mix with a pinch of salt and pepper.

Chickpeas and tomato... so simple but she loved it!!

Fry a finely chopped onion in whatever oil u normally use - brown a bit.
Mix in half to one tin of chopped tomatoes
Add one or two tins of drained chickpeas and salt

Serve with rice - and green veg if have

I do something very similar to this but often add frozen chopped peppers for extra bulk and veg.

If you can't already, learn to make massive quantities of Italian tomato sauce: tinned toms, oil, garlic, wine if you have it, reduce til thick.
You use it to make really good pizza, pasta, add to all kinds of casseroles, etc

Serve mash or oven chips and buttered barms with everything

Cauliflower cheese with baked beans, don't question it, just try it

I make Quorn fajitas which are cheap and cheerful. I also make my own fajita mix it's much cheaper and nicer than shop bought.
Pasta bake made with a cheese sauce and frozen veg plus bread buns and home made garlic butter make a very tasty cheap garlic bread 😁

I've recently started having porridge for breakfast, really fills me up. I'm using loose porridge and the sweetened soy milk from Morrisons, 55p, lasts three breakfasts.

Pesto pasta with peas, wraps with peanut butter and marmite, homemade lentil soup, jacket potato’s.

This, but with extra chickpeas instead of lamb. Works out around £6 for 4 people that way, less if you have spices and honey already.
https://groceries.asda.com/recipes/Rootleaf-stew/384eb522-2aff-11e9-8802-7daf07a34f81

or this is around £1.90 per person

https://www.asda.com/good-living/recipe/braised-peas-lettuce-with-chicken

or fried gnocchi in pesto, or jacket potatoes, or Greek salad, or something on toast,

What’s in your own fajita mix please?

Or smoked salmon carbonara: pasta, handful of frozen peas, couple of spoons of the pasta water, stir in some garlic powder, grated cheese and 2 egg yolks plus a £1.80 pack of smoked salmon trimmings.

or regular carbonara (as above but with bacon bits instead of salmon and mushrooms instead of peas)

@ShirleyPhallus 1 and a half tablespoons of chilli powder, 1tbsp ground cumin, 1tbsp smoked or sweet paprika, 1 tbsp garlic granules, 1 tbsp onion granules, 1 teaspoon of cayenne , 1 teaspoon oregano.
Salt and pepper if you want but I don't bother with that. I also omit the cayenne and use half of the chilli powder because I'm a wimp 😂
Put it in a jar and shake it up 😁

I was going to say green lentils but dry ones, and look in the world food section.

A bit of something fatty (cheese, bacon etc) will perk up a cheap dish, you don't need much. Good for making own-brand baked beans and veg-based dishes seem more filling.

Chickpea Curry - onion, red pepper, courgette, chickpeas, curry powder, garlic, ginger, 1/2 can coconut milk (freeze rest and use next time), chopped tomatoes. Serve with rice.

Veggie fajitas - frozen peppers, red onion, mushrooms, courgette, fajita spice mix. Serve with tortillas and lettuce and sour cream.

Mince and bean chilli - mince beef or turkey (use half the amount you usually would), black beans, onion, grated carrot, chopped tomatoes, chilli spice mix. Serve with rice/jacket potato/wedges/tortilla chips/taco shells

Tuna pasta bake - passata, tbsp tomato purée, Italian herbs, tuna, pasta (red lentil pasta for more protein than normal pasta), cheese

sell the bike or get a refund.. i couldn't fathom reducing the quality/quantity of food for my children because someone bought a bike..

other than that vegetarian dishes are generally cheaper.. bean chilli. chickpeas ... healthy and cheap... hummus. curry .falafel

I've recently started using Iceland for frozen veg and fruit, it's really cheap and it saves me so much time for prep as DS is a toddler and I'm also working. They also do frozen garlic, ginger and chilli which is cheaper and so convenient. We have egg fried rice for lunch a lot I usually chuck in frozen peas and prawns and some garlic, chilli and ginger.
Dahl curry is great (you want to cook the lentils right down till they're soft) and then top with a boiled egg and rice.
Make a pot of chilli bit buy mixed beans tinned and put mostly beans and a small amount of beef mince.

Iceland is pretty good. The frozen food is good value.

Lidl do packs of 'cooking bacon' which are really cheap - we've had packs that have had several whole gammon steaks in them. Useful for pasta, fried rice, omelettes etc. Chorizo - a little goes a long way.

Potato bake - fry chopped bacon, onions or leeks. Cut potatoes into 1 inch cubes and boil until tender. Make cheese sauce. Mix onion/bacon/leek into potato, pour over cheese sauce and bake in oven for half an hour.

'paella' - cheapy packet of golden veg rice, chopped chicken thighs, couple of inches of chorizo chopped small, red pepper, onion, chicken stock and frozen peas.

Fridge bottom soup - any old veg, tim butter beans, handful of pasta shells, tin of tomatoes and chicken or veg stock - you can either serve like minestrone or whizz smooth. Serve with part baked baguettes.

My weekly cheep meal is tomato &spaghetti, which mine love. I add a whole bag of of sofritto with 2 tins of chopped tomatoes and a bit of double cream then blitz.

Tinned sardines in tomato sauce stirred into pasta cooked with frozen veg. Grated cheese on top.

To make it more saucy I sometimes add a bit of passata (if I don’t use a whole carton I’ll freeze the leftover bit, which is perfect for this).

It’s extremely cheap, and pretty nutritious. And we really like it.

Patatas bravas
Caramelized onion pasta
Quesadillas
Taco pasta (my ds invented this one) - a basic tomato sauce with taco seasoning, red pepper and a tin of green lentils.
Egg fried vegetable rice
Jacket potatoes, beans and cheese
Pasta salad
The one that likes eggs loves smoked salmon frittata with salmon offcuts

Chips, cheese, and beans is a favourite with my teens.

Chips can be replaced by any potato base and beans can be baked beans or chili or beans and minced up veg mixed into a sauce they like. Add cheese, and they're happy.