To ask your absolute cheapest ways to feed 1 adult 1 5 year old

[HAF1119]

Cheapest food ideas - primarily dinners - beans on toast/on jacket potatoes I have on the list. Cheapest fruit/veg and proteins?

A ducks in a row situation literally every penny counts and need a dramatic drop in outgoings (not long term but possibly as much as 6 months so as many suggestions as possible as my head space is poor right now)

What does your 5yo like eating op? Pasta is usually a safe bet and there are many cheap but filling and delicious pasta dishes. Do you have freezer space because batch cooking is a great money saver too. Today I gathered up all the remaining veg I had and made a pasta sauce- butternut, carrots, courgette, pepper, garlic and roasted that with some olive oil and dried spices. I then added that with a tin of tomatoes and let that simmer and blend and I made so many batches of pasta sauce. So easy to boil some pasta and take out a bit of sauce when you need it.

I also did a batch of pinwheels today. Different fillings.

A portion of mince - roll into meatballs or burger patties. To this I add veg like carrots, onions, spices. Endless options of pasta and meatballs, burgers, on pizza too.

Im doing a lot of batch cooking for upcoming school holidays. It doesn't need to be expensive and a good amount of veg, beans , pasta goes a long way.

Pasta and broccoli bake
Batch cook ratatouille and freeze in portion sized pots. You can add this as a base with mince or meatballs or eat as a vegetarian dish.

Buy bigger portions of meat and freeze in smaller portions.
I find eggs a good staple. Scrambled, poached, omelette, boiled with a bit of salad or veggie sticks.
Tuna bake
Mini roast with sausages as the meat.
Look for yellow stickers 4pm ish onwards. I got a six pack of rolls for 20p last week reduced from £1.85, when I popped in the small co op for milk. Freeze and use as needed.
Porridge
Buy fruit you can stew, plums are reasonable and apples or pears or apricots and nectarines if on offer. Put in portion size containers and freeze until use. You can eat with value natural yoghurt or custard or in porridge etc.
Frozen fruit also good option.
Frozen veg last longer than fresh and I have found on a tight budget better value.

I lady I know has a FB page 'Janes Food ideas on a budget', and what is good about it is that it is her genuine record of her feeding herself and her teens using the food bank/food pantry/ really budget food as a long term thing .
Dahl is a great cheap food which is nutritious and filling. It does need long cooking to start with, but you can freeze portions and add whatever veg is cheap at the time when you reheat it to ring the changes (carrots, courgettes, peas, butternut squash, cauliflower, spinach whether fresh or frozen) and I like some peanut butter added in too. That way it doesn't feel quite so like the same thing over and over. If you can do the cost upfront of a big bag of rice it is so much cheaper (and weirdly big bags of rice on Amazon can be very good value, though Tesco and Sainsburys have them too) and you can cook brown rice and then freeze in plastic bags (cook, spread on a tray for 5 minutes to cool, portion, flatten the bag, get them into the fridge to cool quickly, then into the freezer after 30 minutes and its perfectly safe) then you can microwave from frozen in 2 minutes

Shakshuka: in a shallow pan, fry onions and peppers, add some spices, pour over tin tomatoes, then once that makes a nice rich sauce, make wells in it and crack eggs in the wells. Cook so eggs to liking. Mop up sauce with some pitta bread, or add a baked potato. All ingredients cheap but a nice dinner :)

I love lentil soup - easily the cheapest thing. Add one rasher smoky bacon for additional lovely flavour, or toasted cumin seeds

So the 5yo has healthy tastes but sometimes the more expensive things. E.g. I offer and always have bananas and apples but he likes strawberries and melons mostly (diva) it's just not possible anymore so.. it will be bananas and apples or I guess the fruit amount will have to drop a fair bit.

Veg he loves brocolli, cauliflower, carrots. Peas and sweetcorn is touch and go I tend to do those if it's a roast sort of meal as gravy makes him want them but otherwise he wouldn't.. maybe I just add gravy to the peas etc with a fish finger meal 🤣 something in me just says no to some foods combining! Hates cooked tomatoes/corgette/butternut squash

Salad loves peppers, cucumber, baby tomatoes, avocado

Meat he likes the cheap cuts of chicken (legs/thighs) - and meals made with mince. I do bolognaise and freeze pots of that as well as chilli con carne. Fish if in batter/breadcrumb form. Likes lamb/steak but they're not going to happen. Prefers red meat to white

Carbs he's not great at. Will do pasta on a good day, roasted crunchy potatoes he likes. But chips/rice/couscous he doesn't really

Lentils he does like, baked beans he likes, loves a sausage. Just don't want to go into full on junk, but cut costs right back and also make the prep time efficient

Ps that pasta idea is great though. I will do sausage, brocolli, mushrooms, cauliflower add sauce and freeze. Sounds an odd combo but I actually think he'd be sold on that!

Risotto is cheap. Mushroom, squash and sage, tomato or chicken if you can stretch to it.

Make sausages into meatballs to have with pasta and the rest of the packet into "burgers" or sausage casserole.

"Lobbies" is a bit of a regional thing but basically cubes of potato, carrot and onion boiled in a pan with an Oxo. When cooked add cubes of corned beef and simmer for a few mins more. Looks awful but tastes good with a bit of HP sauce and bread and butter.

Special fried rice (add egg, prawns, ham or bacon and whatever veg you have). 5 spice lasts forever and makes a big difference to this dish.

Bacon, mashed potato and cabbage.

Bacon and egg pie.

Pork is probably the cheapest meat, Chinese style pork chops with fried rice and broccoli is a fav here. Or chops dipped in breadcrumbs and baked, with potatoes and veg.

Tinned mackerel or sardines on toast or made into fish cakes to have with tinned beans.

Quiche.

Scones and flapjacks for treats.

Have you got a local allotment? Strawberries are out at the moment and the quantity some people have is unbelievable! Literally buckets being harvested and they are only just starting. Other veg/ berries are going to be ample too soon. People begging to give away and foisting veg on you. Might be worth asking around.

If I was going to do this I would go food bank route or bulk buy pasta and rice as the basics. Then yellow sticker the rest. If you eat a good meal 3 times a week you can probably eat a substandard one the rest and still be ok.

You can get free vitamins for kids. https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/getting-vitamins/

Might be good as a stopgap to ensure even if your dropping the ball a bit on variation of fruit/ veg that he’s covered.

Thank you. I've also now spoken to someone I know who works in a supermarket to see if we can get 'on the date' fruit/veg/items from end of day etc which may help x

Allotment is a good idea too, there is one near, I will see if I can build some rapport, never thought about that. I'm really shy but... needs must