To ask for your cheap, healthy and hearty recipes?

[Hungryandbroke]

I really need to save money on the food shop but struggling to find recipes that please my family, who mostly turn their noses up if there isn't meat and/or something really stodgy. Please could I have your ideas for recipes that are cheap, healthy and filling?

I cooked half mince beef and half lentils for lasagna, t’was delicious and not a complaint was received. I also added a spoon of bovril and cooked the lentil first before adding to the mince. I’m sure it would work for other things like bolognese (sorry can’t spell!). Lentil are cheap and delicious if cooked nicely.

Thanks, that's a really good idea and sounds healthier than eating just a pile of red meat!

Try this cheaptastyandeasy.wordpress.com/ These are the recipes we do, all cheap and tasty. We and the DC love them.

Avocado on sourdough with cumin, chilled and lime.

*Chillie

I make a slow cooker beef stew, with lean diced beef, berlotti beans, red pepper, carrot, onions, passata, garlic, cinnamon, italian mixed herbs, pepper, paprika. Cooks on low all day and tastes amazing and it feeds 4 of us, with left overs.

I make a massive cottage pie, which will last a couple of days, by bulking out the mince with a tin of baked beans. The DC love it and so does DH. It gives a really nice flavour

Pasta, chicken, green pesto & sweetcorn went down really well with our family last night which was a revelation as normally at least one of the ungrateful sods whinges about something.

Have you ever followed any of the Jack Munroe recipes - some of them are really good (and cheap). We've have omelette and homemade chips tonight which everyone liked. Risottos are usually good and cheap, pasta, homemade soups.

These are 3 i can recommend

cookingonabootstrap.com/2018/07/21/peach-chickpea-curry-recipe/

cookingonabootstrap.com/2018/02/15/spinach-lentil-soup-recipe/

cookingonabootstrap.com/2018/02/01/butterbean-cider-cassoulet-recipe/

These are brilliant - thanks so much. I look forward to trying them out. That website is written by a Mumsnetter too!

Cowboy Hash
500g beef mince
1 onion chopped
2 carrots chopped
tin oxtail soup
tin baked beans

Brown the mince, add the onion & carrots, fry for a couple of mins
add the oxtail soup & baked beans, cook for about 20 mins on medium heat. Serve with rice or jacket spuds

I made some beef and chorizo puff pastry empanadas, really simple to make and froze some extras for a quick meal another day. Only a small amount goes in each pastry but they’re really filling so I used the rest of the mixture for a pasta dish the next day. Just chucked a little extra seasoning and some passata.

Chorizo is my thing at the moment

Sliced and fried in red wine and serve with crusty bread, olives and salad.

I something do chicken, chorizo and herby potato bake.

Chorizo omelette.

It’s cheap, flavoursome and versatile.

We live on a budget and buy ingredients that stretch and work with lots of other things

This is making my mouth water! Thanks very much for your ideas!

'Back of the fridge' Baked omelette / frittata - eggs beaten up, with whatever fillings you have, done in oven dish. Brilliant for using up a piece of cheese home w hit hard, elderly tomatoes / spring onions etc.

It was a favourite of mine but annoyingly DH hates eggs. I miss quiche!

*gone a bit hard, that should be.

Add Yorkshire pudding to meals......feels like a treat and fills them up!!

I can second adding lentils to mince -I tend to do 75% meat to 25% lentils and no-one seems to notice!

That website is written by a Mumsnetter too!

Yep indeed Thanks to mumsnet I can now find everything we do easily.
BTW I highly recommend the quiche. We've made it about 6-7 times now and it's brilliant, and it's 100% down to the type of cream.

I'm curious @Hungryandbroke did you try any of the recipes?

The JM recipes are such lies though. ‘Butter bean Cassidy - serves 4 to 6 people’

Ok let’s go conservative and say it feeds 4.

You get half an onion each, one carrot and half a tin of beans each. Oh, but serve it with bread. Ok, but you’re mainly eating bread then. Might as well just do beans on toast for dinner and give the adults a whole tin each and chuck some carrot sticks on the table.

Hi @DiggertyDamn, yes am working my way through them! Adding lentils to beef has been brilliant (don't think DH even noticed!). Did the peach and chickpea curry without the peaches and it was still really hearty and filling! Love that website actually, have found a couple of really good things on it - thanks @namechangedtoday15 for the suggestion!! Tried some oat fingers from the Mumsnetter's website but I got it completely wrong and they were vile and I think we have quiche or omelette on the menu for tonight.

We still have to tighten our belts even more but this has been a really good start, and it's so nice to eat something a bit different, and to not have to rely on meat all the time.

How did you go wrong with the oat fingers? I've always thought they are the easiest thing, no matter what you chuck in

With the quiche it's important you use dessert cream, that's the only thing to remember.

I'm making LOB tonight :)

not sure if you realised from my earlier post, the mumsnetters website is mine

Try a mushroom pearl barley “risotto” - pearl barley is really cheap and with just 300g of mushrooms, 300g of pearl barley, an onion, garlic and 1 l of chicken or vegetable stock you can make a hearty meal for 4

@DiggertyDamn I had no idea! I definitely put too much milk in and don't think I cooked them long enough either, as they were pasty-textured and very gloopy! What ratio of oats to milk do you use? I'd be really keen to get this recipe right as it'd be perfect for snacks on the go!