varied diet on a budget!

[munz]

I'm currently trying to vary mine and DH's diet some what, and am basically struggalin with recipe ideas.

we need to be eating more fish chicken and pork (I don't eat lamb but DH does) but we're lucky to have it once a week, DH doens't like pasta bakes which r cheap, or toad in the hole which I love.

I fel our food palet's quite bland, we do have a lot of beef. (all meet's brought from the butchers) I don't feel we have enough veggies - but tbh even if I brought some different one's doubt I'd know what to do! lol.

anyhow i'm usually in from work about 5.15 (3/4 b4 DH and I normally like to have tea on the table for 6.30 latest) we shop once a month normally with veggies/bread/milk as required.

so wise MNetters - help! (or point me in the direction of a good recipe book for cheap varied dinners! lol)

lasagnes
bolgnese with spaghetti or in large yorkshire puddings
shepherds pie (or cottage pie if using beef mince)
some butchers or farm shops are good vaue and do nice fresh homemade pies and joints etc at reasonable prices.

chilli or chicken curry with rice or jacket potatoes

have you looked in the recipies section? sorry prob a silly question! you say he doesnt like pasta bake but what about normal pasta? bet you can get some good cheap meals using that.

large yorkshire - no matter how many times I try I can't bloody do then they come out like bloody tea cakes/crumpets! little ones thou are no problem (toad int eh hole is no prob) so what's going wrong?

I do actually do my own pies/puddings.

buy the ready made frozen large ones from the supermarket or freezer shop. Iceland are reasonable.

diod have a quick look yes lin - normal pasta - that's what I said to him pasta in sauce basically baked for half hour - didn't go down well.

posted this on another thread
but check out the reduced to clear stuff in supermarket that you can freeze

what is your recipe for Yorkshires? I will ask Dh who is a head cheff for tips on what you might be doing wrong. My first guess is that the fat in your tin might not be hot enough.

as per MIL, 2 eggs 2 flour 2 milk 2 water - I did try adding onions which were terrible - as I say small ones are no prob it's the big baking tray ones I can't master! lol

use lard in the tin - it gets hotter than oil or butter!

ooh ta JM - I always use veg oil (don't like lard too much)

any ideaas from ur dh lol.

we dont even have a varied diet so no tips there! We live on meat, potatoes and veg or macaroni cheese!

ok - let me tell you what we had what we'll be having this week the shopping (incluidng nappies, cereal, milk and other 'essentials' - oh and some Melons and Avacado's which were a fantastic bargain on the market - cost me £35

Lamb Burgers, Chips (homemade) and Veg
Turkey StirFry
Pizza (Homemade)
Toad in the Hole (could have made Sausage Casserole - but had that last week)
Vegetable Soup (using stock made from the Roast Chicken the other day)
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Jacket Potatoes (with cheese and baked beans)

Last week meals included

Roast Chicken (with all the trimmings)
Chilli Con Carne (without the Chilli )
Corned Beef Hash
Sausage Casserole
Honey Pork Chops

and I can't remember the others (again only cost £35 including all extras)

QofQ, how on earth do you do it? I struggle to get it below £50!. That does include washing powder and cat nosh, but nevertheless! Do you have to provide sandwiches or meals for Dh at work? Am only asking because I aspire to your levels of frugality! There's five of us tho, so maybe I don't do TOO badly. (DH is reminding me of all the £60 + shops he's had lately tho!!)

Tuna is our staple Munz, tuna burgers, tuna and potato pie... incredibly cheap. Omelettes are good, too. I remember being served a lot of eggs as a child. I mean a lot. Dad's business went bankrupt when his partner in crime did a bunk with the van (Dad can't drive, they were builders so no use static). Uncle had chickens, so we ate eggs- every day for months. can't abide egg and chips now.

Tinned beans also are good, make a fab casserole on their own with whatever veg is in season, also they make a little meat go a LOT further.

Yep - DH takes Sandwiches plus "snack" (usually a Peanut Butter and Jam/Honey sandwich BLURGHH) to work with him - as he's out on the road all day (TV Licence Officer). I also have DS1's packed lunches to do too.

How do I do it?

Wilkinson's for cleaning/washing stuff (currenlty using one that's 60p for a small box )

Market for fruit and veg (got 3 ENORMOUS baking potatoes for 60p the other day - they were actually 7 for £1 - but I only needed 3 and knew the others would go to waste). One of the stalls on the market also does 7lb of potatoes (need scrubbing) for £1 too.

Morrisons for everything else - scour the meat section to find the special offers/cheap cuts, value tins of tomatoes/beans and several other value bits and bobs [frown]. BIG blocks of cheese (as we go through tons of the stuff in this house).

Oh - and practice LOL.

i'm not so worried about he current cost - it's normally £150 from tesco/butchurs and about £20 ish during the month so no more than £170 max that's when we get all the dishwasher stuff and cleaning products as well.(doing tesco.com)

it's just keeping it varied cos i'm starting to get board! lol - haven't done a sausage caserole for ages. I mentioned chilli to DH and his words - i'll do my own chilli - lol so in other words that's curry's spag bol and chilli i've got out of cooking! lol. (his sauces are better than mine) it's the rest of it! lol.

Kedgeree (rice, smoked haddock and an egg- basically)
Cheese & Potatoe pie (nice if you add sweet potatoes)
Quiche (make your own)
Homemaade veg soup (very easy)

Falafel.
Mush up a can of chickpeas (27p at our Tescos) add some chopped onions and spices e.g. cumin corriander. (I do all of this in the blender) Add a little chana (chickpea) flour to make it stick - otherwise they go all crumbly in the pan. Roll into balls (excellent mucky fun for the children) and fry in a little oil. Serve in pitta breads (I get them in the 'reduced to clear' section of the supermarket and freeze them) with plain yoghurt and salad bits.

If you're feeling very organised you can soak and cook the dried chickpeas yourself but why waste all that time?

I make soup on the weekend and leave it in the fridge or freeze some. We often start with a bowl of soup then often don't need much of a main course afterwards. Soups can be bulked up with pulses. Currently we are eating lots of pumpkin and dahl soup which is basically pumpkin soup with 250g of red lentils cooked in it. I make meaty soups - sausage, bacon and bits of ham, and add pearl barley and lentils to bulk it out.

If you want quick, learn to love 4 minute noodles. I cook them then top them with little bits of fried chicken or beef, susally with a vaguely oriental flavouring. I also make noodle soup which involves cooking the noodles, putting them in bowls with uncooked sliced vegetables (celery, mushroom, spinach) the pouring over a hot broth made from stcok, lime juice, soy sauce and some lemongrass/chilli/lime peel flavouring. The hot broth cooks the vegetables and the whole thing takes 10 minutes max.