To ask for your really cheap ideas to feed 5 on a budget

[turquoisegem]

Family of 5.
3 teens not yet of working age.
Food is costing us a fortune at the moment with growing kids and food prices on the hike.

The older boys have huge appetites so I'm hoping for some ideas for meals we can cook on a budget please?
I feel like I'm spending a fortune and still struggling to make it go round.

I'm cooking for 2 teens and a constantly hungry human labrador of a DH. I jus bulk all my meat out with loads of veg and pulses and add a bit of marmite to beef up the meaty taste. Yesterday I bought a small pack of beef mince as it was reduced due to date. I made a batch of bolognese sauce with it but I bulked that out with a lot of carrot, and celery , plus 3 onions and a carton of passata and an equal quantity of stock. I added a large teaspoon of marmite to add a meaty flavour. Half of that went in the freezer and the other half was bulked out with a tin of baked beans and some peas to make a substantial cottage pie.

I have a soup maker so that is often in service to turn left over stuff into soup for my/DH lunch and DC sometimes have soup in a thermos. Today's was made with the green bits I cut off the top of leeks plus the stalks from a couple of heads of broccoli flavoured with a little pesto and some lazy garlic. Enough for 2 portions today and 2 tomorrow. I also make soup with carrots, red lentils and curry powder which goes down well. As PP said soup as a first course also goes down well.

Left over potato from sunday lunch can be sliced and added to a frittata with onions sweetcorn a little bacon and cheese. Mine like that with baked beans.

Is usually cheaper to buy a good sized whole chicken and have over 3 meals so have half as a roast, then a quarter in a risotto and a quarter in a noodle salad in lunch boxes. I usually strip the caracass and make stock which makes the risotto taste better. A gammon joint is usually quie cheap and once cooked lasts for ages in the fridge - have half for a roast and then use half in a pasta bake - is very good with a grated carrot and tomato sauce and half in a risotto or similar.

Mine aren't great bean lovers (other than the Heinz variety) but will eat any amount of veg chilli if I serve it with wraps. Cookie and Kate have a brilliant recipe. I usually freeze half and serve with a sweetcorn salsa and greek yoghurt.

Also - keep an open mind and be flexible so if you are in the supermarket and there is a good yellow sticker bargain buy it and google recipes if you don't know what to do with it. I was in Sainsburys today and they had a lot of pork joints reduced to £3 so I bought one and roasted it with some potatoes (45p) and served it with a panful of cabbage carrots and peas all boiled together and gravy. I only dished up half the pork so I googled what to make with the left overs and tomorrow we'll either have a pot pie with homemade pastry (Paul Hollywood's cheats rough puff is a doddle and inexpensive) or sweet and sour depending on how we feel. So two meals for four at about £3 each. I also picked up a yellow stickered pack of meatballs for £1. They've gone in the freezer but at some point I'll cook them in passata and have them with pasta. I also picked up a pack of stewing steak for £1.5 which has also gone in the freezer - I'll cook that next week as this week is looking a bit meat heavy at the moment..

Soup made from veg on offer in Aldi and lidl served with Irish soda bread.

TVP and lentil to bulk up any mince dish.

If you have good butcher you can buy marrow bones to add to soups and stews. Marrow is full of goodness and really filling. Ask how to prepare it properly.

Eve's pudding and massive scones ( with egg added in the mix are very filling)

Spanish omelette- loads of veg, potatoes and bacon.

Yoghurt is very easy to make- bring milk to boiling point, simmer 10 min, allow to cool for about 30min, add shop bought yoghurt and keep warm over night in the airing cupboard. You can make a gallon at a time and add tinned fruit or just some cheap jam. It lasts about a week.

I make a filling dish called Sausage Plait
1 lb sausages
3 red peppers
4 hard boiled eggs
4 large tomatoes skinned
2 onions
2 leeks
Tub of mushrooms
Mix all together with squeezed of ketchup and wrap in short crust pastry to make a plait.

Almost veg fry up - potato cakes from left over mash, beans, eggs, mushrooms, tomato, fried onion and black and white pudding. Very filling and very little meat.

I also make a falafel that I add mince to and serve with pitta, hummus, salad.

Could you look at using something like musclefood for meat? My sister is a gym bunny and uses this to keep costs down. Food warehouse for snacky items for teens??

I would not recommend Muscle Food. Dreadful quality for the price - better from Aldi.

Not sure if you have one OP but we've found our slow cooker to be a great help you can use cheaper cuts of meat and chicken and they come out amazingly tender and full of flavour using the slow cooker, I know it's an expense to start of with if you don't already have one but we picked up ours really cheaply from Robert Dyas(they seem to keep having sales on they'res for some reason)or maybe see if you could borrow one of someone to see what you think before buying one.

Thankyou for starting this thread I've just picked up some great meal ideas for our ever ravenous brood, I swear the freezing cold weather's not helping with our family and the ever increasing food bills neither.

Big pans (you can doubles recipes and freeze one) of vegetarian lasagna, enchiladas, breakfast casserole (can be cut into Individual portions and frozen for easy breakfast), or if you want to add meat a little goes a long way. Soups and stews thickened with barley, potatoes and rice.

Why don't you try one meat free week, see if it feels hearty enough, and how much you save and see if less meat going forward might be a good fit?

If you are making a stew / chilli / casserole put out one extra portion and freeze it as a ready meal but remember to add to it so it's not just eg chilli so in my freezer I have a veg chilli and 2 flour tortillas for a meal.

Sign up to any free or cheap recipe boxes.

Do the teens cook? Give them a challenge to cook a meal for £x.

Use apps like too good to go and Olio.

Meatloaf - mix pork sausage meat and mince in equal quantities add cooked onion (at this stage you can make meatballs) add seasonings and corn flakes, lots of corn flakes, put in a loaf tin and bake for 40 mins, check it is cooked, pour off any extra fat but keep it for cooking or as 'dripping' to spread on bread.

I cook smoked haddock in rice and a 50/50 mix of orange juice and water, you could use kippers or bulk it out with cheaper fish or adding peas.

Braised cabbage is cheap but you would probably need to add to it.

Offal is cheap in relation to other meats. If you don't like the idea then disguise it eg make a steak and kidney pudding (use the slow cooker) or call it something else eg 'Yorkshire Coral' is tripe in a light batter and quickly fried.

With jacket potatoes, I am assuming everyone uses an oven, not a microwave? Which, of course, is very expensive. Same with stews or anything cooked for hours in the oven, really.

2 tins tomato soup into a jug, add big grind black pepper and microwave til hot (about two three minutes).
Cook 500g of short pasta like penne and drain it.chop up one or two balls mozzarella (Lidl is good and cheap) and drop it in the soup. You can also add drained tim of tuna or two, but moz is cheaper.
Tip soup over cooked pasta, stir and tip into baking dish. Top.with grated parm, or cheddar or crushed up crisps are nice too, put in oven for about 15 to 20 mins on 180. It goes in hot, so only really needs the moz to melt and to form up in the oven
Lovely and serves 8, freezes well and reheats well.

@TwinsAndTiramisu I love Irish stew but when I make it I find it's really expensive due to the price of the lamb. How do you get it to work out cheaply? I already add pearl barley.

Mexican and Asian food is far cheaper. If you can find an Asian supermarket they're the best value for money. By packing food full of flavour you feel less deprived and enjoy it more. We have a lot of ramen and quesidilas (refried beans and cheese is delicious). I make my own refried beans as it's cheaper.

I made a huge batch of chilli and bolognase the other day. We're a family of 5 (with younger children) and it made us 4 chilli's and 3 bolognase - total of 35 portions. I used 2kg mince beef, 8 tins of tomatoes, 9 carrots, 9 onions, 9 sticks of celery, plus all the usual other bits. I blended the carrots, onions, celery and tomatoes once cooked and there was enough sauce left for 2 meals of pasta sauce. Once cooked I took out 2/3 for the bolognase and then added 2 tins of kidney beans, 1 tin of black beans and 1 tin of canellini beans to the rest to make the chilli. I imagine you'd either get fewer portions for your family or if you add more beans you might get the same amount.

You must have a gigantic pot!

@Blip

The lamb is the only expensive bit.
I can get it pretty cheap at the butchers if you ask for stew cuts, usually about £6 p/kg. I have used 2kg of Waitrose (I know?!) stewing lamb, which is £16 the lot, to make 2 batches for 5 people each time. The rest of the ingredients come in at about £4.
So on butchers meat, £16 all in for ten portions, and using Waitrose meat, £20 for ten portions.
I think even at £2 a head, it's a cheap meal, with little effort, packed with veg, grains, meat, carbs. At £1.60 a head, it's a great dish.

It's not quite the £1 a head Sausage and Fennel ragu I posted earlier (which incidentally we are having tonight) but once you get lower than £1-2 per head, I feel you are verging into "not a meal" territory. We could eat supernoodles with chopped up hotdogs in for a bit less, of course, but I think you need to strike a balance between eating cheaply but still providing a good nutritious meal.

Sausage plait as mentioned upthread is also uber cheap: (Lidl Prices)

One sheet ready rolled puff pastry - 79p
2 x 350g packs sausage meat (I use butchers) £3
Large apple, chopped - 40p
Half bag Echalion Shallots, chopped - 20p
Good handful fresh breadcrumbs (leave the end bits from your sliced loaf out overnight to go stale, and whizz in blender) - 20p
2 tsp dried sage - 20p
1tsp lazy garlic - 10p
1 egg, beaten - 20p

Total £5.09

Fry shallots, garlic, apple and sage. Wait to cool, mix into sausage meat. Mix in bread crumbs. Roll into sausage, plonk on puff pastry, cut ribbons around it and fold over to form plait. Brush with egg wash. Oven 180c for 35mins.

Serve with salad (bistro salad, 79p) and roasted miniature potatoes, (59p), taking total cost to £6.47 for five servings. £1.29 per head

Egg and chips with some bread and butter on the side.

The trick is to mix pulses with meat to make it go further.

Lamb curry is a perfect example

1 pack diced lamb (300g ish)
1 can chickpeas
1 small butternut squash (or half large one) diced
2-3 onions
1 bag unwashed (large not baby leaf) spinach
1/2 jar patak jalfrazi paste
1 can chopped tomatoes

4 cups rice (I use brown basmati bought in bulk)
Chapattis

Feeds 6-8

Sauté onion, lamb, add paste, squash for 1 mins
Add tomatoes, 1 full can water, chickpeas.bring to boil then simmer until squash is soft, add spinach for last 5 mins. Meanwhile cook rice, make chapattis (100g white flour, 100g wholemeal flour, pinch of salt plus water to bind), roll out fry chapattis 1 min on each side.

Serve with yogurt

It's a great alternative to eating out or a takeaway but by only having a small amount of meat it's cheaper and healthier

Remember lamb is stronger in flavour and richer so lends itself more to adding pulses

Dahl and naan
penne arrabiatta and garlic bread
jacket spuds with various fillings
Leek and potato soup
Risotto
Jambalaya

@TwinsAndTiramisu thank you

Bake potatoes in the slow cooker is a game changer

Stewing steak at the market should be keenly priced. not sure at the supermarket.
Beef and barley stew in slow cooker tastes amazing and is v cheap for a meat dish
www.seriouseats.com/short-rib-and-barley-stew

Make your own sausage rolls. They go a long way at lunch times and way more tasty and cheaper than Greggs.

Do you have a slow cooker? Lots of opportunities for making huge stews for hungry teens.

www.asda.com/good-living/recipe/braised-peas-lettuce-with-chicken
or this www.asda.com/good-living/recipe/kale-bacon-pearl-barley-risotto
or chilli bulked out with beans, soup, jacket potato, sausage/mash/veg, pasta and sauce, egg fried rice.
porridge for breakfast.

You make the cheapest porridge by microwaving own-brand big bags of oats with tap water and adding own-brand powdered milk. It doesn't need to be sweet; old-fashioned Scots ate it with a pinch of salt.