How do you make meals stretch?

[UnicornMommy03]

My kids and I moved into a new place and I just started a new job so I'm stretched beyond my means. I find myself skipping meals to ensure that the kiddos eat. It's just me and them and I am just looking for ways to make our food stretch for now. I

What are you starting with?

Can you give a couple of days’ food as an example? Or your budget?

Use cheap carbs (rice, pasta, potatoes) for the bulk of calories and give small portions of more expensive ingredients.

Also ask your GP about a referral to a food bank - this is what they're there for.

Thick home made soup with cheap veggies and lentils. If its very thick, serve as a stew with flatbreads/ chappattis etc.

Home made soda bread really easy to make( no yeast,no proving) and a chunk of that is very filling even just with bread and jam.

Pasta dishes - lots of variety and options
Jacket pots with beans/cheese/ tuna etc

If you have a slow cooker you can do all sorts of casseroles and stews with cheaper cuts of meat.

Add lentils to everything.

Here to say ditto lentils!! They'll go in anything and are really filling. I currently have a concoction going on in the slow cooker which is mostly lentils.

Lentils 🥰
I make a big pot of soupy stew several times a week with cumin, garlic, ginger and grated carrots.
Absolutely delicious, warming and cheap!

Bread with everything, lentils/pearl barley/beans to bulk out, stodgy filling puddings.

Dried soya mince is very cheap, easy to use and is good for bolognese, shepherds pies, chile con carne etc

Lentils

I add oats to things like bolognaise which seems to pad it out quite well.

Fridge soup - dont chuck any veg on the edge out, chop it up and a make soup, it will do for a meal or two. If you want to make it interesting chop up a tin of hot dog sausages and sling in some noodles

Tinned pulses - cheap and can easily be added to things or make a meal in their own right.

If you have a joint of meat don't waste a bit - soup it, sandwich it, chop it up into little bits throw in frozen veg and add some thick bisto and some potatos chopped up small and shove it in the oven for a bit

Stodgy puds like semolina, rice pudding are really filling.

More pasta, more rice, more wholemeal bread and butter.

If you're making spag bol or chilli con carne, or soup, grate in lots of raw carrot (fine grater) before cooking, or add lots of lentils before cooking, to bulk it out cheap and healthy.

Feed them bulky whole-grain breakfast cereals (weetabix, porridge, shredded wheat) rather than sugary expanded grains.

Whole milk not semi skimmed.

Crusty bread makes an adequate, tasty and quick side to a meal like curry or stew instead of pasta/rice/spuds

Lentils are great for bulking out as is a tin of chick peas in a curry or mixed beans in a chilli, easily makes double dinners. And nutritionally great too.

A big plate of bread and butter in the middle of the table.

This itself is my favourite tea ever

@Etinoxaurus could you give me a rough recipe / method for this please? X

a slice of buttered toast to fill up.

wholegrain rice/pasta/bread fill you up more and is healthier.

veg are your friends. grated courgette/pumpkin/carrots adds volume to sauce/curry. (do you know anyone with an allotment? they are often keen to offliad surplus veg)

Mixed beans (not baked beans), chickpeas and lentils will stretch stews/casseroles etc.

I second this call for a recipe!

I love a tin of baked beans is my spag Bol !

If you're adding extra pasta/rice to a meal, you can always add extra herbs/spices to whatever else is going with it and stir in the rice/pasta - that way all of it will have some flavour. Jacket potatoes are great with beans or left over curry/pasta meals. You could have smaller meals and have bread available for anyone who wants it on the side or after if they're still hungry.

I find pasta, rice, large bag of potatoes, cans value tomatoes, onions pulses, herbs and spices are great to have in - all relatively cheap and you can make a lot of variations with them or anything else that needs using up can be added. Shops own baked beans are also good to have in, when we were struggling I'd regularly have them with a couple of fishfingers, a slice pizza, jacket potato - DH likes them mixed with pasta.

Grate carrots- 2/3 depending on what I’ve got in. Couple of cloves of garlic, grated as I’ve got the grater out, thumb of ginger grated and a chopped onion, but I’ll leave this out if I cba.
Fry off with a tsp cumin, half a tsp chilli. Add a squirt of tomato purée and a cup of red lentils, stir and add a tin of chopped tomatoes. Add 3 cups of water and simmer for about 20 mins. I don’t add salt until serving because I’m never sure whether salt makes pulses hard but that might be complete nonsense.
Its a very good tempered recipe. I made it today without chilli or ginger or tinned toms. Season well and serve with squeeze of lemon and chopped coriander- I had neither today but still delicious.

The NM carb police would disagree but bread, pie crust, dumplings etc all help to bulk a meal out. Bulking a chilli out with lentils to make it go further us fab, if you do a dumpling topping it goes further still and is really delicious.
Turn stew into a pie, chilli into burritos, leftover meat or cheese etc into enchiladas.
We eat like this from preference as we love our carbs and it really does stretch the budget out.

Just seen @Handsoffmyrights asked for those blooming lentils too. I’m a DV trainer and facilitator and consider myself rather skilled. Several times I’ve run long amazing days and the feedback is always good but absolutely raving about the soup 🤷🏻‍♀️

From my work email, sent to about 20 women who’ve asked for it over the years.
Heat a tablespoon of oil, chop a carrot, add a teaspoon of cumin, a cup of red lentils, tin of tomatoes and 3 cups of water. Cook over a medium heat, stirring ocassionally. When the lentils have gone mushy- about 20 mins add salt and pepper to taste and enjoy.

That’s the very basic recipe! Today I started with a tablespoon of garlic and ginger from a jar and also added turmeric and dried coriander. I often stir through some spinach leaves or add cheese when cooked. It's very adaptable and takes half an hour and is very cheap!
Ax

I made a variation on this last night and it was surprisingly fab. I only put one tin of chickpeas in, and just normal plum tomatoes but put a red and yellow pepper in and had it with rice. Made loads and was really cheap - if you get essentials/value products you could probably get six portions for under £4?
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spinach-chickpea-curry

@UnicornMommy03 you should not be going without-I agree to referral to a food bank to get you through-
this is exactly what they are for!!

When we had very little money we ate a lot of lentils, tinned beans and chickpeas, and root veg. Meat was pretty much only chicken thigh fillets and beef mince bulked out to about 50g a serving.

I remember more focus on what I didn't buy than what I did. Strawberries were a treat due to the higher price per kilo, I didn't buy things like fresh peppers (frozen for chilli) or sugar snap peas. No cereal, only oats. We ate a healthy but repetitive diet.

Our family is two adults and two kids 9 and 5.

I buy a whole chicken (most basic no flavouring) and cook it on a Sunday. Have it with roast potatoes, carrots or frozen veg.

I use the rest to make a big pie. I don't do whole pastry case, just the top but it's a good way to make the left over chicken stretch. I do it in a white sauce with veg (usually frozen). That does all of us one night with jacket potatoes and then just the adults the next with different side.

Cottage pie is another favourite. Bulk out the mince with lentils and mixed frozen veg. It does us two nights (you could freeze portions)

I love a lentil soup or pasta bake with broccoli and cauliflower. If you ever buy those fajita kits I often have a bit of the spice left over. Chucked in some pasata with a bit of onion and garlic it makes a brilliant sauce for a pasta bake.