Trying to think up imaginative, healthy and cheap recipes/menu's which suit my fussy DC's and OH who cannot stomach cheese/cream/white sauces and so forth! Please Help!

[voodoomunkee]

Basically, we are now on a very tight budget, aware of how bad our diet has become and my 14 yo DS is going through a very awkward stage! Additionally in the house are 11 yo dd and 7 month old dd. I am sick to death of the same meals.... roast chicken and veg, gammon and salad, beef casserole, spag bol and chilli. OH is awating an op and as such most of the cooking is down to me and I am due to return to work in 3 weeks (PT).

I would love to offer up a fish pie or a bowl of lovely yummy pasta but neither are suitable for the fussy ones in the house!
I am sure there are some fantastic mnetters out there who can offer some tips.... Just as an aside I am trying to set a challenge of cutting out expensive sauces etc or downgrading and making the longish trip to aldi/lidl.

Thanks everyone!

Meatballs with tomato sauce made from onion, garlic, tin of cheap toms and some herbs and seasoning. Served with rice or wedges.

Is that on the right sort of lines?

It is, thank you! Honestly I am at a loss so any ideas are wholeheartedly welcomed :)

I sometimes do a pork and apple meatloaf if you make the Tom sauce separately and serve with either mash or rice. Will they eat home made pizza, I can make that quite cheaply and load it up with veg.

Is it cheese sauce your OH won't eat or cheese? Mine eats cheese but not cheese/white sauce, you see. These ideas are an epic fail if it is cheese, sorry.

Meatball subs - split sub rolls, spread some tomato pasta sauce over the base top with 3 or 4 cooked meatballs, sprinkle with grated cheese. Close rolls and stick in oven at 180 for about 15 minutes until cheese is melted and rolls are crisp.

Chilli dogs wraps - spread flour tortillas with left over chilli, top with a hotdog and roll up. lay rolled up tortillas in a baking tray, top with a tin of tomatoes with chilli and a good sprinkle of grated cheese. Bake at 180 until hot through and golden.

sausage parcels - cook 8 sausages. Roll out a pack of puff pastry and cut into four squares. Spread each square with some caramelised onion chutney. Lay 2 sausages diagonally on each square and then fold the bottom corner up and the two sides in, so that you have a sort of open envelope. Bake until pastry is puffed and golden.

polenta in tomato sauce - make polenta by boiling 3 cups of water with a teaspoon of salt. gradually whisk in one cup of polenta. Cook, stirring until polenta is really thick. Pour it into a loaf tin and chill overnight until solid. next day, slice it up and cut into cubes. Put in a baking dish and pour over a tomato and garlic sauce (tinned toms, onion, garlic, pinch sugar, oregano) and sprinkle with a decent amount of grated cheese (or not). bake until hot and bubbly.

haggis pie - spread a tin of haggis over the bottom of a casserole dish, top with mashed carrots and then mashed potatoes. Bake for about 1/2 an hour until hot and browning.

steak sandwiches - fry some strips frying steak until done to your liking. Fry some onions, mushrooms and green pepper strips in the same pan until done. Pile into crusty rolls spread with butter and horseradish sauce, season to taste.

Sausage and mash with gravy and peas.
Sausages/chicken in a tomato, onion, garlic sauce with pasta.
Liver and onion gravy with mash.

Corned beef pie. Fry some onion so it's soft, put in the bottom of a(or 2) casserole dish(es), pour over tin of chopped tomatoes, add a layer of sliced corned beef, then top with mash and put in the oven for 30-40 mins to heat through and top goes brown. Serve with ketchup and peas. It isn't very healthy as the corned beef is quite fatty and salty, but it's so easy to make and goes down well.

Stir fries. Chicken/pork/beef, veg, I usually do some combination of onion, carrot, mushrooms, Chinese leaf, then sauce of choice. Serve with noodles or rice. I mainly use the Blue Dragon sachets, these are around 60p each, 1 sachet is enough for 2, and they're sometimes on offer in Tesco, half price or 2 for £1.

Soup - in all its myriad and wonderful forms.
Vegetarian dishes are usually cheaper than meat ones, how about a quick browse in the library for a veggie cook book?

Jacket potatoes?

Get the 14yo and 11yo to provide ideas/the occasional meal? (Could get recipe books out of the library to give them ideas - there are a number of budget recipe books.)

Why is spag bol ok but not other pasta?

Ha, sorry didn't notice BC had said about library books just above!

stressedHeMum Either marry me or adopt me.

Or just write a recipe book and I'll buy it

What other meal ideas you got lady?

Ohh thanks everyone!
All pasta is fine, unless it's cheese related or creamy! He can't eat cheese, it can make him very sick! A little tiny bit on pizza is ok though (no I don't understand it either!) It's the one food that all the rest of the fussy so and so's will eat as well! Sigh. Honestly I despair of our meals each week. I am currently sat trying to work miracles with the online shop for the week.
I end up cooking about 3 different meals each night which to be honest I just can't be bothered to do all the time! The latest thing is that ds won't eat gravy so now won't even eat my favourite beef casserole. Good god!
I like some of these ideas so shall see if I can incorporate them into the meal plan somehow! Thanks everyone, feel free to add more!

I second stir fries - they are my lazy meal as so quick to do and if you didn't want to buy a ready made sachet of sauce, then you can make one easily. After I usually chuck some sliced garlic and ginger in with the meat and veg at start, then when it's all cooked add a cup of chicken stock and a dash of oyster or soy sauce or both!

What about fajitas or tacos? Easy to make and then everyone can add what they want at table (salad, Creme fraiche, cheese)

Would they eat a quiche/frittata? I make these with veg or meat (ham, chorizo) to use stuff up in the fridge and if you can't be bothered with pastry, the frittata is dead easy to make (cook some peppers, onions and mushrooms until soft, add to shallow dish, mix 4 eggs with a little milk and some herbs and pour over veg then bake until cooked and serve with salad)

There's a fab recipe in mumsnet recipes called scooter chicken which is a tray bake of chicken and veg which you could do omitting the last bit of stirring through creme fraiche - I've made it this way when I forgot to buy creme fraiche and it was still good!