Cheap but full of veg

[Igglepiggle78]

Overspent this weekend on Christmas stuff, probably best to have a low budget food shop this week. Any ideas for very low cost products that make meals full of veg plus fruit in the day etc (have a toddler so need go keep it healthy.
What’s the lowest food shop you’ve done for the week and what did it contain?

*Need to

What do you have in?
How many meals for how many people?
Budget?

Can’t give many tips but tinned chickpeas are fab for bulking out meals. Tbh more beans are.
Have a rummage through your cupboards and see if you have anything lurking at the back you can use.
Porridge is healthy filling and cheap. Then I’d look for whatever protein is on offer and use that as the basis of the other meals. Meat is often the most expensive part but I keep seeing gammon mega cheap and one goes a long way. Plus only a little on top of whizzed peas to make soup feels like a treat.

I think the thing with veg is to keep it as seasonal as possible.

So, no berries in late autumn for instance. Apples are good just now. Look for the offers on them. They can be eaten raw, stewed or baked.

I would buy a big bag of rice, oats and lentils and as many in season fruit and veg as I could.

What shops do you have near? I mainly shop at Tesco and they have some good deals for clubcard holder at the moment.

And they also have a section at the end of the aisle for fruit and veg on offer.

I also shop at Aldi but find I can find just as cheap at Tesco if I shop wisely.

Porridge and stewed apples or other fruits (frozen and tinned are good too) for breakfast.
Home made veg and lentil soup for lunch. A big pot can do 3 days for cheap.

Then rice or cheap pasta and veg /home made sauce for dinner.

Jack Monroe has some great ideas on cooking on a bootstrap.

But also yes...what do you have in already? Any store cupboard items? Any herbs or spices? Or are you starting from empty cupboards?
I love to play "can't cook, wont cook" . Get out everything i have and see what can be made.

Wouldn’t recommend Jack Monroe’s cooking if you’re on a serious budget as some of it just doesn’t work. Her carrot and kidney bean burgers don’t stay stuck together nicely as an example. It’s ok if you have extra ingredients but if it’s all you have it’s a pain.

Root vegetable stew (carrots, potatoes, onion, parsnips etc.).

Spinach pancakes

Omelettes with peppers, onions, peas

Vegetable curry and rice

Stuffed peppers (roasted with risotto inside)

Large Shepard’s pie. I pack of mince under £2 bulked out with onions, carrots, shredded cabbage and a bag of wonky potatoes to make the mash. Two meals for under a fiver.
Do the same with a casserole. Use chicken thighs and any cheap veg. Make enough for two days but on the second day add in a spoon full of curry powder.
Cheap bag of 30p pasta, tin of tomato purée and an onion and a couple of mushrooms. Cook and mix together and serve with some garlic bread.
Cheese or beans on toast
Jacket potatoe with beans and or cheese. Add a rasher of grilled bacon to either or both if you have it spare.

Fruit buy wonky apples or pears a bag of each will be about £1.20 and sliced up will be enough for a week.

Lentil soup - just onion and garlic base, curry spices, red lentils and half a can of coconut milk. Or leek and carrots softened in butter with chicken stock and pearly barley, handful of spinach at the end. And maybe some chorizo or bacon!

Sorry, litre of stock in the lentil soup too!

Mince with onions, kidney beans, tinned tomatoes and chilli seasoning makes a big batch, you can have it on jacket potatoes, nachos, with rice or in tortillas that 2 big main meals sorted for about £4, less if you have any of the ingredients already.

Frozen fruit and veg is often cheaper than fresh, frozen greenbeans, peas, sweetcorn can be used in a variety of meals. Frozen berries to go on porridge or with yoghurt for breakfast.

Beans/egg/cheese/mushrooms on toast for lunches

My nearly two year old loves both of these. Partner and six year old do not.

Cauliflower and chickpea curry.
Lentil ‘cottage’ pie.
Macaroni cheese with added cauliflower and/or broccoli.
Jacket spuds with baked beans.
Beans on toast.
Rice pudding.
Scotch broth, plenty of Pearl barley but only a tiny amount of lamb.
Veggie burgers. Just grate some sweet potatoes or beetroot, mix with a handful of porridge oats add herbs and spices to suit.

Check out Jamie Oliver cooking veggies on YouTube.

A whole bag of pasta in tesco is 50p. Cook up some red lentils with an onion, garlic and spices and any veg that are cheap (eg aldi super six). Use the rest of the pasta and lentil mix for a pasta bake with cheese if you get some for something else.

Sorry, tin of chopped tomatoes too, look on the lower and higher shelves for cheaper brands.

@ScrapThatThen

Sorry, tin of chopped tomatoes too, look on the lower and higher shelves for cheaper brands.

And in the world foods section. For some reason in our Tesco the tinned tomatoes in the Indian food section are cheaper than in the tinned veg section

Frozen veg and add it to tinned tomatoes and chopped bacon for a pasta sauce.

Frozen cauliflower added to a cheese sauce and pasta.

Frozen veg , stock cube , potatoes , mixed herbs boil up and wiz into a nice warm soup. Grate cheese on top to make it more cosy.
Or a toasted cheese sandwich to dip into it.

Frozen veg , tinned tomato's , mixed herbs, veg stock cube , some paprika. Rice and some sour cream in a tube.

Tinned fruit salad. Tinned custard.

In season veg (so carrots, kale etc now) and frozen veg are the cheapest. The texture of some frozen veg can be a bit weird on it's own but you don't notice if it's in something.

You can chuck just about anything into a chilli with some kidney beans, and the more you put in the more likely it is you'll have leftovers to go on a jacket potato the next day. At this time of year we also eat a lot of very chunky soup/stew hybrids at this time of year - basically the recipe on the back of the dried scotch broth mix packet (the one with lentils, split peas, pearl barley etc) with whatever veg we have knocking about, and preferably with dumplings on top. Minestrone soup is also very good for using up bits and pieces of things - the tiny pasta is traditionally the random bits of broken pasta you find at the bottom of the bag hidden at the back of the cupboard. Baked beans on wholemeal toast is actually incredibly nutritious, even though it sounds like student food.

I have to cook as cheaply as possible every week.
Morrisons have 4 tins of beans (kidney etc. not baked beans) for £1.00 at the moment.
A pack of mince here is made into chilli (with lentils or bulgar wheat) and lots of veg, whatever is in the fridge and beans.
Mince also made into shepherds or cottage, similar to the chilli but minus the beans. Sometimes add pearl barley.
Mince, again, cut up veg, peppers, courgettes, aubergines, leeks plus anything else you have to hand and mix in a shallow casserole dish with the mince, cover with sliced tomatoes, drizzle with oil, black pepper, herbs, cover loosely with foil and bake. Using seasonal veg works well and it goes a long way.
Similar with thinly sliced potatoes.
Sausage and lentil casserole with added veg also goes a long way, I buy the packs of sausages on offer, not the really cheap ones. Also sausage cassoulet (with beans). I do cheat and add potatoes to the cassoulet.

Carrot & potato soup is also popular here, and onion soup. Especially with melted cheese and bread.

Odd box delivery box is fairly good value if they deliver to your area. Seasonal and sometimes wonky so cheap for veg boxes.

MyYr 7 food class made £1 veg soup this week! IT was delicious..... we used a stew pack of veg from the supermarket and added some spuds from the cupboard and two stock cubes and blitzed smooth once cooked

Yes, go to the world food aisles as the tinned veg is cheaper and so are spices etc.
Aldi do the super 6 fresh fruit and veg. Really reasonable. Sweet potatoes are on offer this week. They’re quite bulking as a veg.
Frozen peas and sweet corn are great. I also agree about carrots and get yourself a sack of potatoes, they’ll keep in a shed covered up with a blanket for months.

Frozen veg is healthy and tons cheaper than fresh.
As others say bulk out meat, if I make a stew or a curry I will use a third meat or chicken then a third each of veg and pulses- lentil, chickpeas, black eyed beans, cannelinni beans, butter beans, dried and cooked is cheapest but even using tinned will cut your cost.

Cooking a big gammon is good. Veg and ham soup bulked out with red lentils, ham and egg salad, ham and mushroom omelette, ham wraps or sandwiches, ham egg and chips, ham and broccoli pasta or gnocchi, freeze any leftover in slices.

Only works if you like ham though!