This is my final go, it meets the energy requirements, has some vegetables, protein and a very small amount of variation, no nappies, cleaning stuff or drinks
Lard x2 £1
Plain flour x 4 £2.78
Self raising flour x 3 £2.07
oats 90p
Carrots 1kg 50p
Onions 1kg 55p
Jam 39p
20 frozen sausages £1.50
White vinegar 29p
Breakfast porridge and jam probably half a teaspoon per person
Lunch a thin soup with carrots and onion, 1 of the sausages thickened with flour
Make one big pot then serve every day for lunch for the week served with bread either soda bread, American style biscuits, mini "loaves" or flatbread if anyone wants the bread recipes I can link them, to make it stretch it is also possible to make noodles from water and flour to add these to the soup.
Dinners
The majority of what is on the plate will be bread, bread should also be in the middle of the table for anyone who is still hungry. With 19 sausages available there is just over 2 and a half sausages for 4 people per day. Gravy is to be made by using any cooking juices from the sausages onion and water thickened with flour. Before making the soup you would need to ensure you have at least 5 carrots and 5 onions left for the rest of the week and divide them evenly between the meals.
Irish soda bread using the self raising flour, vinegar, onion gravy with 2 chopped sausages through it
American style biscuits and gravy with sausages using the cooking juices from the sausages and plain flour to make gravy, defrost the sausages cut them in half and squash them flat before cooking - 1 sausage per adult 1/2 a sausage per child
Hot water crust pastry sausage rolls defrost 3 sausages, de skin split in half and roll into thinner sausages to stretch using the lard to make the pastry with baked onion rings - you could fry them in lard and reuse the lard for another recipe
Meatballs and gravy, make the meatballs from the sausages by defrosting 3 sausages cutting into 4 and rolling into balls served with flatbread
Stew with dumplings slice 2 sausages as thinly as possible before cooking to ensure a good spread of ingredients, serve with soda bread as well as dumplings
Sausages with noodles use 2 sausages sliced thinly, use flour and water to make the noodles before rolling thin, slicing and boiling like fresh pasta, this can either be eaten in a broth with the vegetables and sausage or drained. Serve with bread
Savory suet pudding with the remaining lard and sausages, onion gravy
Bread in any form (and any remaining jam) to be eaten whenever
This is a shocking menu, it has things on it from the work house, the deep American south, we all know where those recipes came from, and food my grandfather used to eat in poverty in Ireland as a child when he didn't have SHOES the fact that a meal plan for 4 in 2023 is being lauded by the media as purely "savvy" is rancid.
This is poverty, abject poverty.