Because there are quite a lot of us and we have 4 adults, 2 teens and a preteen, when I have to keep the food bill to rock bottom, we eat even more simply than normal. So an example would be
Soak and cook 2lbs of chick peas and divide into 3 portions.
meal 1 - chick peas with pasta - 1 1/2 bags value pasta with 2 or 3 onions fried with a head of garlic in some oil, when onions are soft add chick peas and heat through. Mix pasta with chick pea mix. If you have any a tiny bit of grated hard cheese (gran padano) makes this even better.
meal 2 - pasta and chick pea soup - 2 chopped onions, a head of garlic, 2nd portion of chick peas cooked in 4 pints or so of veg stock for about 20 mins. Roughly blend but still have bits of chick pea in the soup. Add the remaining half of the bag of pasta and cook for another 15 mins. Serve with crusty bread (HM is cheapest unless you get a mark down)
Then I make hummus with the third portion using a simple recipe without tahini with the rest of the chick peas.
Next soak 2lbs of dried marrowfat peas overnight and make them into mushy peas.
meal 1 - serve some of the peas with jacket potatoes with a little bit of cheese grated on top and some sliced tomato and onion.
meal 2 - make a very simple dahl by frying 2 chopped onions with some curry powder and mixing through the remaining mushy peas. Heat through and serve over rice
other main meals
cheese puff - make cheese sandwiches with 2 slices of bread per person. Cut them in half and lay them in a lasagne type dish. To make this for 4, beat 4 eggs into a pint of milk, season well and pour over the sandwiches. Sprinkle a little grated cheese over the top. Leave for 15minutes or so for the egg to sink into the bread, then bake at 180 for about 45minutes. Serve with cooked, frozen mixed veg.
oat savoury - for 4 people you need 16tblspns porridge oats, 3 tins chopped tomatoes, a couple of chopped onions and some herbs of your choice.
Butter a baking dish really well and then sprinkle in 4tblspns of the oats, top with some of the onion, one of the tins of tomatoes, salt, pepper and herbs of your choosing. Repeat the layers another twice and top with the remaining oats. You can sprinkle the top with a little grated cheese if you want. bake at 180 for between 45 mins and an hour. Serve with bread and butter and more mixed veg.
lentil chilli - cook a bag of green lentils in water until done. Fry 2 chopped onions with some garlic until soft. Add 2 tins of tomatoes and some chilli powder, salt and pepper. Add lentils and simmer for 1/2 an hour. Serve with the rest of the bag of rice from the dahl.
Breakfast would be porridge made 1/2 milk, 1/2 water, hm pancakes/yoghurt loaf or toast an peanut butter/jam.
Lunches would be,
sandwiches with hummus and grated carrot with a few raisins sprinkled in.
pasta with an oil and vinegar dressing with chopped onions and frozen peas mixed through
sandwiches with peanut butter and apple slices
mashed potato cakes with tinned beans
spicy potatoes and cabbage - 3lbs chopped potatoes, par boiled, 1 cabbage (or any other robust type of green) chopped, 1 onion, chopped, curry powder.
Fry the onion and cabbage with the curry powder until the cabbage is well wilted. Add the par boiled potatoes and cook, stirring all the time, until everything is cooked and tender
snacks and puddings would be hm yoghurt loaf, jam buns, swiss buns or whatever or toast and jam.
As I say, very simple but filling and nourishing. I think that when times are hard,kids just have to accept that they eat what's cooked because we can't afford fussiness. In here, if they don't et what's made they get a bit of bread and peanut butter and a piece of fruit, but nothing else and they all accept that. They would rather eat than be hungry, so they are happy to eat like this.
If you want any more really cheap recipes, I have tons that I'm happy to share.