Help need meal planning help 35 pounds for a couple of weeks!

[charmingtownrisingsun]

Well I need your help and inspiration.
My oven is broken been a few weeks now as need to raise money to fix it. I'm tired of the same old meals tomato pasta tuna pasta ect everything on toast. I have a kettle microwave and hob to work with.
I am looking for tasty and healthy options for very little money I have about 35.00 to spend on food for the two weeks maybe longer.
Any ideas gratefully recieved.
There is me and my DS 5 years with a hearty appetite.

Just a couple of quick questions. Is DS at school having school lunches and/or breakfasts?

Have you looked at Jack Monroe's website cookingonabootstrap.com/category/recipes-food/?

My personal top tip is that tins of sardines (or herring or mackerel or sild) are a great standby for cheap healthy tasty protein once a week; even better because they come in quite small portions. Delicious mixed in with sweated onions, pasta and a few raisins/sultanas, or just mashed on toast.

Lentil or chickpea dhal on boiled rice or with some kind of bread/pitta/wrap to dip

Jackets in microwave can't crisp them up in the oven but still ok, I find this for s few months when my oven broke and I had 4 kids to feed, but cheap

What about a big veggie /lentil curry done on the hob? If you wanted you could add in a pack of cooked chicken pieces

Bacon and mushroom omelettes would be tasty and filling and not too expensive

Soup and rolls

Risotto

I'd made a huge vat of lentil dhal with spinach and eat it every day. With rice or roti.

Depends what you have in the cupboard in the way of spices though Palomb. My daal recipe has four different spices, which is over two quid out of the budget if you don't have them in stock - fine if you're literally going to be eating it every day for a fortnight, but not economic if you're not. (Clearly a great idea if the OP does have the spices in though).

dahl - make rosti with wholemeal flour, pinch of baking powder, salt. add water to a sticky dough. make into balls roll out and dry fry both sides over a high heat. Use remaining ginger& garlic for a
Vege stirfry - Aldi has 35p broccoli, peppers for £1 for 8, 20p noodles. if you don't have the store cupbard bits just get a pouch of stirfry sauce
garlic - anchovy & tomato spaghetti - use half with the spaghetti & save the other half to use with the wholemeal flour to make pizza bases (if you don't have yeast start a sour dough a week before you have pizza). Use a covered pan to "bake" the pizza
Soup.... add what ever there is left in the fridge / cupboard
sausage egg & chips (assuming you have a chip pan)
Microwaved baked potatoes
omlettes
Fajitas - you can make your own in the same way as Chapatti (add some butter / lard/ oil)

What's in your cupboard already OP? Any special dietary requirements?

Op is your budget for 2 weeks for all food and drinks?

Do you need to include packed lunches for yourself and DD?

Do you have in basic store cupboard ingredients?

I have some meal ideas that using tesco online shop come in around £21 for 14 main meals and there will be some leftovers for lunch some of the days. The £14 left over could cover milk/ bread/ teabags etc but it would be tight.

Meals ideas are :
Ham fried rice, sausages and mash, mince and potatoes, chorizo potatoes (similar to patatas bravas), veggie risotto, lentil and carrot soup, ham noodles, tomato soup with cheese toastes, (micro)baked potatoes with beans and cheese, baked potato with tuna mayo and sweetcorn, chilli and rice, bolognaise, macaroni cheese.

I know the above seems a lot for £21 but I do make the above recipes frequently and thats for 2 adults and a 6 year old so you would have leftovers for lunch from a lot of them.

If you want anymore details let me know.

Chickpeas are good - buy the dried ones and soak them overnight then simmer in a pan with stock and a chopped potato with a couple of garlic cloves, a tomato and an onion. Makes a great filling soup.

Yeah Cooking on a Bootstrap has got gud idead.
i recently cooked aubergine and lentil vindaloo (not spicy, i left out chillis) and it was about £1. but does depenf if u got the spices in already.

also minsterone soup recipe on cooking with a bootstrap. made that last week and v nice.
1 onion, 1 carrot, 1 garlic, 1 tin chopped toms, 1 tin value baked beans with sauce washed of, broken bits of pasta, value chicken stock cube, any other veg u got like frozen pease, spinach, wahtever, chuck it in

Soups, veggie currys (make a huge pot of),
Omelettes

Google it "£30 menu" ...there was a thread on here several years ago which I think I may have on my laptop (not got access to it right now). The lady had done a whole menu with lots of cheap meals and comfort food puddings to see them.through a bad patch.

Thai curry - a jar of yellow/green/red curry paste lasts for about 4/5 curries, coconut milk for the world food section and some stock - either add veg/chicken or fish.

Is there anyone you could borrow a George Forman grill from? When I was without an oven for a few weeks it was a lifesaver.

Buy Frozen quorn sausages and Frozen quorn chicken pieces, frozen veg, basics pasta and rice and cheapest egg noodles can find, stock cubes, eggs, potatoes, big bags of cheapo apples and bananas and peppers, cheese: basics soft cheese, basics cheddar and basics Brie. Sausages and mash, fajitas - fry 2 peppers or use frozen can be cheaper. third of bag of frozen quorn pieces with fajita spice mix or (Cajun spice if have bottle in cupboard) own brand tortillas, use leftover tortillas with wrap as lunch, stir fry: 2 peppers or frozen veg and third bag of quorn, add powdered ginger,,powdered garlic and soy serve with rice or noodles, can crack an egg into it for fried egg rice or add grated carrot, omelettes (With oozy (basics) Brie) use rest of Brie for Brie risotto (rice, stock and choice of topping) or use in wrap for lunch, veggie sausage pasta: fry quorn sausages, cook pasta, Heat cheapo tinned toms with some basics cream cheese and a chilli, chop sausages and mix in together.

Risotto with peas
Chickpea curry & pita bread
Pasta & pesto with frozen sweet corn and cherry tomorrow, soda bread
Use everything in the freezer up

Those are my standbys for making it to the end of the week

Morrisons do big a bag of frozen mince also frozen chopped onions and peppers could do bolonese and chili con carne with that .jacket pototoes with diffrent fillings .sandwiches with soup .omlettes

Not quite what you were asking, Op, but my oven packed up one Christmas Day a few years ago: the element had gone. It cost over £100 for the engineer to come out and replace it. DH watched and when it went again 15 months later, went on line and bought a replacement for £30 (Bosch not a copy) and easily replaced it. He said it wasn't difficult to do (may be look on line to see if you can find instructions). HTH.