Daisychicken,
keeping it to £50 was not easy and took a lot of planning and work, but my DS1 was starting at uni so all our money went into that and I had to make do with what was left.
Some of the things that I did were:
cook 500gm green lentils with 1kg brown rice, 2 onions,a packet of whitworths dried vvegetables,a couple of stock cubes, garlic and black pepper. Simmer it in 14 cups of water until everything is cooked and the water absorbed. Then I used this as a base for lentil loaf, lentil burgers, lentil and rice soup and to eat just by itself with salad and grated cheese.
Cook 2lbs pinto beans with onion, garlic and black pepper, Divide into 2 portions, serve one as is with rice and things to put on top like sour cream, grated cheese, chopped onions and tomatoes. Divide the reaming portion in 1/2 use one to make refried beans for quesadillas and the other to mix with kidney beans to make chilli.
Tis sort of thing was a regular feature. Cook a big pile of beans of one kind or another and then use them as the basis for 3 or 4 different meals. So one week might be lentils and chick peas, another would be black eyed beans and pintos. If you don't want to eat the same bean 4 times in a week, cooked beans freeze well.
When making rice, always cook extra to make either into hot rice for breakfast or eggy rice with onions and peas for lunch. same with potatoes, make extra, mash and make into potato cakes for snacks or a quick lunch with beans.
I bake my own bread, cakes, biscuits etc. and use any dying bread to make tea bread or whatever.
I used tinned tuna or salmon for fish and can make a kedgeree for the 5 kids with 1/2lb smoked mackerel. I can make one tin of tuna feed all 5 as well by making white sauce with an onion and a tin of peas or corn and serving with rice ot toast. Another one they like is a tin of tuna mixed with a tin of mushroom soup, a cooked onion and some frozen peaas and corn, served over mash or toast.
We ate soup a couple of times a week with homemade bread and something like rice pudding or crumble. Split pea types are cheap, so are bean and ham ones.
Other things that are regulars are tomato rice with cheese, garden veg rice and beans, spicy chick peas or chick pea burgers, bread omelette with veg.
This is an old meal plan that might give you an idea of the kinds of things that I was making:
Monday:
HM ready brek ( porridge whizzed on the blender), fruit juice
lentil sloppy joes, fruit
pasta bake, brocolli, carrots
Tuesday;
pancakes, fruit juice
creamy tuna jackets, fruit
butter bean and ham stew, hm bread, mixed veg
Wednesday;
apple oat bread, milk
rolls and slice sausage, fruit
lentil anad potato curry, HM chapattis
Thursday
cereal, fruit juice
split pea soup and polenta pancakes
sloppy joe pizza
Friday
pb&j muffins,milk
cheesy wedges, fruit
sausage casserole, dumplings, brocolli, hm bread
Saturday
polenta cakes with icing sugar, milk
rice-a-roni stir fried with egg, fruit
potato bake, mixed veg
Sunday
cereal. fruit juice
bean and soy burritos, fruit
fish pie, carrots and brocolli.
Orange squash, chocolate milk, pancakes, plain muffins, potato cakes and choc chip oat cookies for snack.
here's another one:
Sunday:
Coffee cake, fruit juice
morrocan veg stew, rice
lentil loaf, hm garlic and herb potato chunks, sweetcorn, hm oatmeal bread
snacks: hm muffins and doodle bugs
Monday:
cheese and courgette scones, fruit juice
corn fritters, fruit, bread and butter
lentil and rice soup, hm onion bread yoghurt
snacks: pancakes, lemon whirls
Tuesday:
banana loaf, milk
creamed tuna toast, fruit
tomato rice, cheese, cornbread
snacks: frozen grapes, scones
Wednesday:
wholemeal muffins, fruit juice
corn chowder, bread,
hoppin john ( a kind of spicy thing with rice and black eyed beans), salad
snacks: fruit, seed cake
Thursday:
cereal, milk, fruit juice
pasta and beans
minestrone macaroni, hm garlic and cheese bread
snacks: fruit, spice cake
Friday:
easy apple struedel, milk
pea and ham rissotto
chick pea curry, rice
snacks: yoghurt, rye muffins
Saturday:
pancakes, fruit juice
chick pea and chorizo soup, bread
potato and baked bean bake, chard
snacks: frozen frubes, fruit
Sunday:
orange juice mufin bread, milk
fishy fritters, fruit
spicy chick peas, rice
snacks: apple and raisin bread, yoghurt
This must be the longest post ever! We only have a tiny garden, but I have converted the kids old sand pits into containers! So we grow tomatoes, celery, peas, beans, carrots, courgettes, spinach, chard, herbs and cucumbers in summer and cabbage, cauliflower and kale in autumn and winter to eke things out a bit as well. At this time of year there are a lot of courgette and cheese muffins on the menu!
If there are any particular recipes that you would like, let me know and I will type them up.
Blackface .co.uk are great. The meat is fabulous, my big boys love the rabbit, when you can get it, and the venision. The stuff is delivered before lunchtime in a big box insulated with polystyrene, shredded papper and stuff. The meat isn't frozen, it is chilled and I would think that as long as it's not left somewhere in the sunshine it would be fine until tea time.