Recipe ideas for 5 healthy dinners for 50 quid

[PurpleDisco]

Chatting with a friend earlier about how expensive the weekly shop is now! We both have families of 5 (2 adults and 3 hungry teenagers) and we get through a lot of food! We decided to challenge ourselves to spend just 50 pounds on 5 dinners. So, is it even possible to make 5 weekday healthy dinners for a family of 5 for 50 quid? No one is vegan or vegetarian, or has allergies or intolerance’s. All your idea’s please…

Oh and get the teens making bread, no machine needed, focaccia is easy to make by hand taking about 10 minutes then needs to rise, perfect if you get home later as the centrepiece to pasta meals etc even basic stand by - eg I sauté courgette, red pepper, onion and mushrooms, add a jar of pesto (double quantities in your case) and add spaghetti, with the bread it really makes it filling

During the winter months I put any chicken bones in the freezer and then make a really thick jelly stock.
It makes veggie soups gorgeous.
Lovely for cooking pasta in with lots of vegetables.
Great for making a lentil curry with.

You can significantly reduce the cost of bolognese by substituting some or all of the beef mince with pork mince or canned green lentils.

Veg to go with a roast chicken or pork can be very cheap - potatoes, carrots and cabbage for example.

A dal can be made into part of an Indian feast by also making a spinach and potato curry and perhaps adding chick peas to the dal. Or slow cook chicken legs in a spiced gravy. Rice, home made naans and basic salad (lettuce, cucumber, carrots, onions) are also relatively cheap. You probably couldn't make all those for £10 for 4 but you'd probably have leftovers if you did all the dishes so likely less than 2 x £10 meals.

Omelettes with leftover bits of cheese, ham, veg etc would be another good choice. All supermarkets do mixed free range eggs for about £1.50 for 6.

Tuna and broccoli pasta bake would be another £10 for 4 meal.

TBH, this isn't much of a challenge unless your normal meal expectations are large portions of prime protein cuts - chicken breasts, steak, fresh fish etc.

£10 per meal?

eggs chips and homemade coleslaw ( carrot cabbage onion and mayo) - 2 or 3 eggs per person £3.55 for 15 in Sainsbury’s

homemade bean burgers - tins of chickpeas, butter beans, sweetcorn and an onion mushed together , again with the homemade slaw ( becuase that’s the cheapest salad- replace mayo with a honey and mustard dressing - honey and mustard and garlic in a basic vinegar and oil dressing )

feta and couscous salad - 2 packs of feta for 5 unless your teens are all 18 year old lads where you would need 3

roast chicken dinner followed by a stir fry or a broth -6.75 for the chicken but that’s over the 2 meals with a £2 pack of tofu to supplement the chicken in a stir fry, or lentils in the broth . Basically cut the chicken into sensible portions and keep the carcus for stripping afterwards.

agree with PP unless you do actually have strong dietary preferences for lots of meat it’s not hard

I buy a big packet of 2kg thighs from Asda £5.75 and make 3 meals from it, normally pick 3 of these; Sweet and sour chicken with rice, chicken enchiladas, chicken naanizzas, chicken stew, coronation chicken bakes, hoisin chicken and cucumber wraps, chicken curry etc.
Just fill it out abit with vegetables like onions, peppers etc.

Then I normally do a mince dish; chilli con carne, beef burgers, meatballs, spag bol, caramelised Vietnamese pork bowls, cottage pie

Then a pasta dish; tuna pasta bake, vegetable bake, carbonara etc.

roast chicken dinner
use left over chicken add mushrooms make risotto - serve with rocket / Parmesan salad
carbonara
sausages (either with egg chips and beans or mash or toad)
curry (whatever you fancy - lamb or chicken, spinach, cauliflower, chick peas, sweet potato is our favourite)
burgers or goujons or fish fingers with chips, peas, corn on cob

its really easy -

I bought a large piece of pork for £11 which is over budget for one day but that will do us 2 roast dinners with potatoes apple sauce and veg, and a stir fry with noodles onions and peppers so actually under £4 of meat per meal with the potatoes and veg only costing a few pounds.

Spaghetti carbonara

I think anything that bulks out meat with veg will work. I do a mince dish with cheaper mince 20% fat £3.35 500grams then I cook it off with lots of garlic, onion and Middle Eastern herbs (store cupboard but about £1) for a gentle heat, thinly slice a whole cabbage 89p and slice a bag of carrots 1kg using veg peeler to make ribbons 69p. Sauté with mince, don’t add water the veg will release a bit of moisture stick the lid on and cook on a low heat stirring occasionally. Serve with potato wedges (£1 ish for homemade) or air fryer tinned potatoes £1.20 for three tins does five and we are greedy.

YABU!

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Pork Schnitzel and Burrito bowls aren't really a recipe so much. For the pork I just buy pork steaks or medallions or a fillet or whatever is the best value on the day (usually on offer), then bash them a bit to make them thinner then dredge them in flour then egg then breadcrumbs then fry.

Burrito bowls I use Chicken breasts which I cut horizontally to make thinner breasts. I usually marinade those in a bit of lime juice, yoghurt, paprika, hint of cumin andn some chilli flakes (for about 5 minutes - marinading in advance is not something I do), and then fry those carefully. Then I just serve with rice (mixed with black beans if I remember which I have an annoying tendency NOT to do), some sort of tomato salsa/salad, some grated cheese, avocado. I like there to be some sort of onion so either in the salad or as a little pickle and if I have corn I might blacken it in a pan and season with some lime and paprika too. I do also do a sort of cheats mayo with some mayo and sriracha or I mix mayo with paprika, a bit of mustard and some lemon juice with some yoghurt for a ligher version.

The lamb is a sort of sweet lamb stew that is very popular in this house. Use whatever lamb you can get the best deal on that works well for slow cooking - breast, shoulder, neck, shank etc. Cut into chunks and discard the more obvious chunks of fat. If you're using something with a bone, keep the bone itself and put it in while cooking (remove at the end) for extra flavour. Season generously and fry off then put into a casserole dish that has a lid.

Fry chopped onion, some garlic and 1-2 teaspoons each of cumin and coriander in the drippings from the lamb. Then add about 1 tablespoon of flour and stir in. Then slowly add the liquid which is about 1 cup stock and 1/2 cup red wine (mixed) stirring to combine. Then a tin of tomatoes. Once it starts to simmer, add 2 cinnamon sticks, 2 bay leaves and a drizzle of honey then add to the lamb. Also add peeled and chunked butternut (or use carrots if you prefer). Cover and cook in a 150 fan/160 regular oven for 1h15. Remove, stir and add a tin of drained chickpeas (or your preferred bean) and return to the oven for 30 minutes. When it's done, squeeze in some lemon juice to brighten. Serve on whatever carb you like. It's particularly good with couscous, but rice is good too and I've been known to serve it on pasta.

I usually use about 600g of lamb and that would serve 4-5 but the truth is that you could use that much lamb and add a bit more tomato /stock and carrot/butternut and chickpeas/beans to make it go even further. Another trick to make it go further is use lamb shanks but don't cut them up first. Then when it's done, remove them and shred the meat so that you land up with more of a rage with lots of quite small pieces of beat. That allows it to go even further.

Add a good soup. In winter it's on the menu weekly.

This week the teenager has asked for leek and potato soup with good bread.

I would do a chilli- half soya, half good beef nice

a bolognese - similar to above

a sausage , baked beans, mash and cheese dish - in casserole dish

a chicken casserole with M&S chicken legs

home made fishcakes with garlic fried broccoli and green beans

Any mince dish
Sausage traybake with med veg
chicken thighs or legs traybake or casserole
roast chicken use leftovers for curry

Tesco chicken legs are good.. 4 for 2.50

Lamb is expensive!

Tuna pasta bake with added veg

Very. Which is why I make this when there's offers on the cuts that are already cheaper! The lamb I used this week was breast of lamb, on offer at £8/kg and I got a piece that was about 700g. I sometimes buy shoulder when it's on offer and freeze it, and ditto lamb shanks.

It's pretty much the only way we eat lamb these days because a couple of lamb chops each would bankrupt me!