cheap dinner ideas, needed

[rayofsunshine]

Hiya

Due to financial reasons i need to cut back a bit on shopping, anyone have any cheap, healthy dinner ideas that they have/use.

jacket potatoes!!

I use our bread machine to make pizza crust bases. Then it gets REALLY cheap! Some grated cheese, tomato sauce, chopped veg and tuna. Easy peasy and cheap.

Bean chili - on jacket potatoes, also cheap. Top w/grated cheese and stick under the grill till cheese melts - veggies, protein and calcium all in one and low fat as well.

Soups - we do LOTS of those, particularly w/bacon trimmings for flavour, and stews w/stewing meat.

I can make a chicken last for 3 meals and then make/freeze homemade stock out of the scraps.

Pasta bakes with allsorts of leftovers/ unused stuff Sausages onion mushrooms etc. Pasta makes it all stretch out to be a complete meal especially if you have a couple of sausages and a couple of rashers of bacon left in the fridge.

If you can swallow them then tesco are doing two chickens for 5.00 at the moment, and i've found the cheapest way to use them is to cut them up so day 1 half a chicken roast and carved with plenty veg, day 2 cut remainder off the bone and curry with lentils and tinned tomatoes onion, with the other chicken half for pie or stir fry and rest for casserole with cheap bag winter veg..

scone mix with herbs placed on top of the casserole for final 20 mins cooking time is nice too

I do a simple casserole with 3 tins of pulses (haricots, cick peas and flageolets usually) mixed with tomatoes (tinned savers), carrot, onion, garlic, stock... cheap, filling and healthy (dunno how old your kids are but used to leave out stock then blen d for baby too!). I use flageolets to bulk out cheap pork dishes too, as they seem to marry well together. Tuna with rice an peas (use condensed tinned mushroom sauce with 2 tbsp milk added as sauce), homa made burgers where you make a small pack of devcent mince go a long way with breadcrumbs, veg etc.

Omelettes are a standby too, extra cheap.

Mum and dad swear I lived on pilchard fishcakes as a tot- pilchards mixed with mashed potato and cooked. Not convinced now, but a great omega rich tea that the kids love for virtually nothing!

When we want something that seems nicer we buy one of those mixed packs of seafood for £1.49, chick in a couple of chopped cooked coley fillets or some Tesco Savers Prawns and make a curry or fish pie.

I buy loads of veg cheap either in the market or evenings in the supermarket and make a version of JO's veggie tomato sauce. Its basically loads of veggies eg squash, courgettes, peppers, onions, beans, carrots etc grated/chooped up and fried then add tins of toms and herbs and cook down for a bit. blend cool and freeze. This can be used for everything from pizzas to mince sauce. Much cheaper tahn buying jars and v healthy too.

Tuna pasta bake- fried onion, tin of tuna, cooked pasta, above sauce and cheese. Put in dish with cheese on top and in oven for 30 mins or so.

mince n' totties/shepards pie- use half packet of mince and bulk out with cooked lentils or beans.

fish pie - we use Sainsburys basic white fish, its pollock and much tastier than cod I think