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

Lots of good ideas;
Sausages and mash
Liver and onion gravy and mash
Dal
Minestrone type soup at end of week with left over veg
Omelette with mushrooms
Egg fried rice
Pasta with tomato sauce
I look out for recipes that are veg +carbs and can be cooked on top of the stove eg cabbage and mushroom stir fry.
When we were children we always had boiled eggs on a Friday night .

Lentil etc guide:
Dried red, cheapest - soups or curries cook 15 mins til mushy (alone or with rest of stuff)
Tinned green or brown- add to bolognese etc, already cooked
Dried puy (little green) - cook 20-5 mins and add to bolognese or instead of mince
Pinto, kidney, mixed- tinned, add to chilli
Butter beans, tinned- good for stew with carrots, potatoes, tinned tomatoes

Thanks @aramox1

dd5 has a lentil pizza at school every 3 weeks

we all thought they would hate lentil pizza on our class wats app group but they all loved it 😂

assuming they puréed them on base

but dd who loves pizza usually cheese and Tom
or ham /pepperoni etx said was the best yummiest pizza shes ever had 😂

is there a diff in taste for red and green and now a third brown 😂

I came along to talk about lentils too.

Lentils go tough if you salt at the start of cooking. Cook the meal and add salt near the end.

Lots of lentils to bulk out soups with cheap veg like carrots.

Cheap pasta bakes with basically tinned chopped tomatoes, garlic puree, onion and mixed herbs poured over pasta with a bit of cheese on top.

If you gradually build up a small store of herbs, stock cubes and other pantry staples, then you can do a lot more with things like a tin of 30p chopped tomatoes as the pantry items only need replacing every few weeks.

Thank you @Etinoxaurus, will give it a go!

or use tinned lentils.

So for the pasta bake do you add water too or do you get enough moisture from the tomatoes to cook the pasta? Or do you cook the pasta first?

Add lentils to anything sauce like, so if like bolognaise use lentils, lots of veg and a quarter of the amount of meat. Red lentils cook down into the sauce/stew/soup.

Someone up thread mentioned fridge soup, I also do fridge curry or omelette.

If you can get to supermarket for yellow sticker reduced food then buy as much as you can and freeze it.

Any meat options, chicken or sausages, chops if they are reduced, slice them and mix into pasta/rice or serve on top of mash etc. This way everyone gets meat and it’s not “mum, he’s got 2 sausages”

Do speak to your GP or anyone who can issue a food bank voucher.

Family of four here and I think we eat quite cheaply:

Sunday: roast beef or whole chicken
Monday: chicken breast with sauce and rice
Tuesday: leftover chicken with wraps or pasta/salad
Wednesday: cottage pie or lasagne
Thursday: slow cooker meal - sausage casserole or lamb stew
Friday: scrambled eggs or omelette
Saturday: bacon sandwiches 😆

As well as bulk cooking / saving portions for left overs I try to recycle part of the meal to the next meal.

So sauasages and mash = put two saugages aside and make them into a sausage and tomato sauce for pasta.

Sausage and tomato pasta = only use half of the tomato sauce as I know the DC will leave it - blend this into a smooth tomato sauce to top thomemade pizzas with.

Left over garlic bread or pizza crust =

Sorry pressed enter.

Was going to say I whizz up homemade pizza crust or garlic bread into breadcrumbs which I think use to top pasta bakes. Before I made my own dough, same for shop bought. And so on.

Asda £1.20 big bag of potatoes and make homemade chips, wedges and jacket potatoes.
Pasta with homemade tomato sauce (cheap tinned tomatoes, onion and seasoning)
Asda £0.36 garlic bread as a side for pasta

Chickpeas are also great - cheap, delicious and super healthy.

This has probably already been mentioned but porridge oats are a great standby. You can buy a big bag of rolled oats quite cheaply. My teen dd often has porridge not just for breakfast but also as a snack. Just put some rolled oats mixed with a bit of water in the microwave for 2 minutes, then add a bit of honey or some banana etc (whatever you have at home) and a small splash of milk.

Before bulking out, look at your food waste. Don’t put things on plates, let DC take as much as they want, then refrigerate the rest. E.g. any leftover veg goes into a pan of water and stock cube and becomes soup.

One of those roast chickens in a roasting bag for about £5 is good for your situation. Whole thing goes in oven. Buy loose carrots and other veg and bistro. A good, nutritious meal with loads of leftovers. Carrots cost pennies. Completely strip the chicken of every bit of meat and use with pasta, sandwiches or throw in soup.

Buy tinned tomatoes. Full of vit c and a great base for anything. Fry onion and garlic, add tin toms, cook for 15 mins and then mash up or blend. Freeze, or use for pasta sauce, casseroles.

Don’t throw any food away. People bin stalks of broccoli etc. when this is the most nutritional bit. Chop up small and cook.

Please don’t go hungry OP. Just try and buy more smart. Tell us what kind of things your DC like.

When you have more money I’d highly recommend getting a slow cooker. They use the least electricity and everything comes out lovely.

Red lentils are very handy and cheap to fill out many dishes and in general all lentils are a cupboard essential as you can make very tasty healthy cheap meals based on them. Lentil bolognese, lentil burgers, Dahl, stews, shepherds pie…
I have all sorts of dried beans, bean & rice burgers made in bulk are a regular. Chickpeas another good cheap ingredient to fill out meals. I like to make bean hummus/dips, chickpeas or many other beans also work, and I use them in our ‘bowl meals’ where we have various different salads/side dishes on a plate with hummus or bean dip in the middle.
We save all our vegetable scraps and make ‘scrap stock’.
Oats are cheap for breakfast, I make a fruit compote with a bag of frozen berries to have with my oats. A couple of dates, cinnamon and turmeric cooked with the oats make a nice porridge too. I have an instant pot so make steel cut oats like that sometimes.

Buywholesaleonline is a good place to buy grains beans and pulses online.

careful with dried beans.
they are toxic if not cooked properly (which costs energy).