Please hit me with your cheap meal ideas

[ChickenRat]

To feed 2 adults, a 3yo and a 1yo

I can't eat chickpeas as they disagree with me but beyond that we're not fussy

Really need to cut our food bill and would be nice to try new things

Asian meals are your friend.
Daal
Curries
Stirfries with veggies and egg
Fried rice

I cook pasta, while frying off an onion and some mushrooms. Add a tin of tomatoes, some herbs/stock pot/Worcester sauce (whatever I've got in the cupboard really!) Then some frozen sweetcorn at the end. Mix into the pasta. We top with cheese, sometimes we have salad on the side, or garlic bbread. Goes down well here!

We also make Veggie curry, mushrooms, onions, pepper and peas with rice on the side. If ive cooked too much rice, i make egg fried rice the next day.

Lentil soup
Chips, egg and beans
You get soya mince from Holland and Barrett which is nice, it's about £2 for a big bag and you can make tons of bolognese, chilli etc from it.

These all sound lovely, thank you!

DH is a bit of a carnivore but I think I could convince him to try some vegetarian meals occasionally

Pasta bake - bag of cooked , drained Pasta in a pan with bacon scraps fried in garlic. Add a tub of cream cheese and a tin of tomatoes. Throw in some dried basil and oregano. Makes 4-6 adult portions easy, you can stretch it further with a bag of salad and a cheap garlic bread.

Frittata- soften finely sliced onions , peppers and bacon bits in a frying pan with garlic and a bit of oil. Add in finely sliced tinned spuds add 6-8 whisked eggs. Turn the heat right down to cook through without stirring then put in the oven to cook the top through. Serve with beans or salad and keeps great in the fridge for cold lunches.

If your dh is a carnivore, then some bacon chopped into that tomato pasta recipe would be lovely, and not too expensive.

Our go to is a macaroni cheese bake type thing. Part cook pasta, and make a cheese sauce as follows, melt some butter, add a bit of flour and whisk it til its smooth, let it cook for a couple of mins. Add milk a bit at a time, and stir continuously. When you have enough sauce, asd in grated cheese, whatever cheese you have. Mix together, until smooth, pour over pasta and mix, chuck in an oven dish and top with a mix of breadcrumbs and cheese. Bake for 20 mins or so.

You can add all sorts to it, chopped up tomatoes, bacon, mince beef, whatever you like really. I sometimes throw in salmon chunks and brocoli. Serve it with some salad or whatever veg you like.

Even if he is a carnivore, Asian meals use less meat, so cheaper. Chicken or fish curry will use very little chicken or fish, and be bulked up with onions, tomatoes, or other veggies.

I add red lentils to pretty much anything to bulk it out more.

My dds used to like something called “slump” …

Three or four onions, sweat in olive oil, add some new potatoes, some spices such as coriander, cumin, maybe chilli to taste, s & p, cook until they have taken on a little colour, add chicken stock cube, 3/4 mug rinsed red lentils, some water from kettle or a tin of chopped tomatoes and simmer for 15 to 20 mins … it’s very comforting … can add in carrots or bacon lardons at the beginning … or frozen peas and parsley at the end .. turns out like a dahl… make it up as you go along basically.

Homemade pizza is something we make loads and it's so cheap! Dough is plain flour, little bit of yeast, little bit of olive oil. Tomato puree on top (dead cheap), one value mozarella ball for three of us, and toppings are whatever we have in the fridge to be honest - bit of ham, bit of salami, a mushroom or two - but as pizza toppings you only need a little bit.

I would say our pizzas are under £1 a head, easily. Probably 70p a head?

I bought this book after following the guy on Instagram - all I’ve made so far are delicious! I especially likes the tandoori chicken traybake

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Feed-Your-Family-Under-Fiver/dp/0008600430/ref=nodl_?dplnkId=e1d377a8-7a1f-4dbf-992f-caaba7131a41

Like yours, my husband likes meat, but tends to be happy if there is just a bit of meat in there - salami on a pizza, chorizo in a pasta bake, ham in a quiche - just tiny amounts! (He will obviously eat things with no meat too on occasion, before I make him sound like an utter twat! And he does cook too - realise I sounded a bit "surrendered wife" there ....)

Kebabs but use a fraction of the meat you would usually - so cubed chicken, lamb or pork and chunks of onion, pepper, mushroom etc marinaded in lemon juice, garlic and oregano then grilled or bbq.

Easy tart - pre made pastry, roll out or use a sheet, spread with simple tomato sauce and add veg and cheese then bake, endless variations

Cous cous salad with feta and veg

Make refried beans (onion, tin of borlotti or other beans, cumin and paprika) layer in a pan between two tortilla with cheese, sour cream, salsa then slice up like a pizza

Tons of pasta sauces - try feta, peas and mint whizzed up and used like pesto

Meatballs bulked out with oats, bread crumbs etc

Look at where you can get 'more bang for your buck' when it comes to meat.

Chorizo for example, not cheap but you only need a small amount because it's so flavourful. Cut into small lardon sized bits, fry off with some red onion and chillies. Then add egg to make a spicy scrambled egg. Have it in wraps with some wilted spinach and fresh finely chopped spring onions.

Bacon lardons or ham offcuts from the cooked meat section added to a pasta bake make a very meaty flavoured bake but a lot cheaper than mince or chicken breasts. Can use ham offcuts in a quiche or a pie too.

We used to make a lot of chillies using whatever we could get cheap, sausages work surprisingly well, just brown them off then chop up and add to a chilli base (tomatoes, spices, beans, onions).

One pan roasts are good for sausages too, just put the sausages in a big roasting pan with any of the stuff you like - diced potato, parsnip, carrot, onion, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli...... add a glug of oil and some seasoning/herbs. Then let it roast for an hour, giving it a good shake every now and then so everything goes brown and crispy.

If you have a butcher near you that does the big trays of pork chops/loin steaks/chicken thighs/drumsticks on 2for £xx offers, buy those, break them into portion sizes and into ziplock bags then add a marinade (honey & mustard, bbq sauce, soy, ginger and lime etc) then freeze. They marinade as they are freezing and then defrosting. Take them out the night before you want to eat them then onto a baking tray and into the oven and serve with baked potato/rice/corn on the cob/roasted broccoli or cauliflower/ cauliflower cheese.