Sick of the same thing every night

[littleduckie]

We are extremely poor and have frozen food every night (burgers, pie, sausage etc) and every night its either mash potato or chips and either peas or beans.

So sick of it. I want pasta and rice but I grew up with potato every night. Suggest me some alternatives please.

You wouldn't have rice and burgers or sausage and pasta, right?

Pasta with a tin chopped tomatoes and cut up smoked sausage.

Macaroni cheese

Buy mince, have chilli and rice, mince and potatoes, pasta bake

Home made soup

I'm sure other will come along with other ideas.

Ratatouille
Lasagne
Pasta bolognese
Macaroni cheese
Risotto ( with a whole variety of things)
Pasta with hot dog sausages
Sausage casserole
Roast chicken with veg then use left over chicken for a chicken casserole the next night.
Stir fry

I would suggest some things that you could buy to double up on- saves time and money.
such Bolognese & lasagne
(or batch up another bolognese for the freezer -even if it's just 2 extra small portions for the kids - saves time & money)
Chicken/Pasta/Philly or Chicken with Stir fry noodles.
Sausage Caserole/ Toad in the Hole

Or other ways to make the potatoes- Jacket Potatoes & Cheese/Beans

This might sounds daft but think of other veg you like too- green beans, sweetcorn, brocoli, peppers- all can be found frozen then you are mixing them up to :)

Ps. My DP doesn't eat pasta or rice so I'm sick of cooking the same things too

Funnily enough we had pasta with tomato sauce, cheese onion and frankfurters tonight.

Don't feel obliged to do meat every night. Rice especially is lovely with stir fried veg and soy.

Pasta with a tomato sauce and grated cheese is good healthy and cheap. Add a few bts of cut up fried bacon for extra flavour.

If you de skin the sausages and break them up a bit, fry with onion and add a tin of tomatoes, that also makes a great substantial sauce to go with pasta.

Cut sausages up into meatballs to have with pasta.

Cut potatoes into wedges, slice finely and fry with an egg to make Spanish tortilla.

Frozen sweetcorn or spinach instead?

We had couscous and pesto with some fish today. Takes all of 5 minutes to prepare, and there's leftover for tomorrow to eat cold.

Delicious two-dinner solution. Roast chicken and veg one day followed by 1970s chicken and rice the next day. I expect lots of people will tell you that you can make it go a third day, but my lot are greedy.

I couldn't tell from your post whether you can already cook, but if not, get a chicken (about 1 and a half kilos) and put in the oven at 200C for about an hour and a half. As long as it doesn't burn, it's nicer if it's a bit overcooked as it goes more tender. It will tell you on the packaging how long exactly to cook for. I always add ten minutes.

Oh God, I really hope I haven't been a patronising cowbag.

Chicken and rice:
Leftover chicken, cut up small (dice size bits)
An onion, cut up small.
Veg, cut up small. I use frozen peas, frozen sweet corn, frozen peppers, frozen carrot. It doesn't have to be frozen as long as whatever you've got is cut up small. About a handful of each.
Half a small glass of rice per person.
A glass of chicken stock (oxo cube) per person.

Fry the onion in a big saucepan, not a frying pan. Put in all the veg and stir around until it's coated with oil and looks a bit less frosty (about 5 mins). Put in the rice and stir it in until it's all mixed up. Put in the chicken and stir again. Pour in the stock and make sure it covers all the ingredients. If not, add a bit of water. Put the lid on and leave it to cook until all the liquid is absorbed. Dont take the lid off if you can help it. You can tell when its ready because the steam stops, then you listen - about a minute later, you hear a quiet crackling sound when the rice on the bare bottom of the pan starts to catch.

I've never met anyone who doesn't like it - it's bland so add soy sauce or lots of salt and pepper for adults.

If you chop up all your own veg, it takes about 15 mins prep. If you use ready chopped frozen, it only need about 5 mins. It cooks in about 20 mins. You have to stay in the room so it doesn't catch when the liquid boils away but you don't have to do anything to it. You can make a little bit of chicken go a long way by adding more rice/veg. It's also nice cold for packed lunch the next day (especially with salad cream on).

One of my favourite meals is mince onion mushrooms fried and then gravy granules and water added (like Chilli without chilli!) And rice. Gorgeous. Or do burgers like kebabs. Cookc them then.chop them and add salad and mayonai and put in pitta breads. Or have with rice.

Nothing wrong with sausage pasta?

You could have a sausage hot pot?

Homemade pizza is cheap. Some bread flour tomato purée and basics cheese and you are away!

Stew with dumplings can be cheap and filling.

I make Spanish chickpeas with cous cous, pea risotto, veg soup and garlic bread....all dead easy and cheap.

Hth!

How about a lentil Dahl and naan bread? With some veg curry? It's probably better for you and cheaper to swap meat for lentils.

Have you tried approved foods? It's food that is out of date but still ok to eat like cous cous or poppadom a.

Fwiw I use aldi cheapest pasta, 25p for lasagne sheets or spaghetti.