Moondog, Franny and anyone else who prides themselves on cooking good food for their kids - I have a challenge for you....

[englandflag]

Whenever I try and feed my family on "good" food, it seems to cost me a fortune.

So, I challenge all you foodies to give me a week's worth of meal ideas that are not going to break the bank - have three kids aged 7, 5 and 3.

TIA

(Am watching from sidelines....)

and totting up the scores, I hope, moondog

I'm saying nuttin'!

Black pudding? Where in the name of Jumpin' Jehosefah did you get that from? I will have you know I will not even be in the same room as black pudding - it is made of scabs bleurgh

Doner meat, OTOH.....

and don't forget fish pie. You can use the tail ends of fish (normally cheaper). If you add boiled eggs it makes it even more substantial.

Chicken cury (mild) risotto is good (but I'll have to remember to look out the recipe for you).

I don't spend a fortune but my kids eat very well, as do I.

oh you northern types, you all eat it

or feed it to your whippets or something

Oh good one FrannyandZooey - lots of veggie recipies for me to nick

You could do with a few nice fat faggots inside you Franny, fatten you up a bit

How dare you talk about my dp like that Greeny? He may be a lot of things but he is not a faggot

Home baked beans

8 oz haricot beans
1 lb toms, skinned and deseeded (I used tinned and it is ok if maybe a little runny)
2 tbsp tom puree
2 tbsp molasses
2 tsp mustard powder
3/4 pint hot stock (that's three quarters, not 3 or 4 )

Soak beans overnight in large bowl covered with cold water. Drain well, put in sauce pan and cover with cold water by at least 2 ins. Bring to boil, skim surface, cover pan and cook at rolling boil for 30 mins. Drain well. Preheat oven to GM 2. Put beans in lge casserole and stir in all remaining ingredients. Mix well. Cover casserole and cook for 2.5 hours. Stir gently and cook for another 35 mins or until tender and sauce thickened. (normally takes up to 4 hours to get really tender and not too runny IME).

Freezes well and is popular with dads as well as children. I normally cook at least double and freeze lots. It has been pointed out to me that with having to cook them for so long, and with baked beans being so cheap, that it is probably cheaper to buy them, but I would far rather have this sort with no salt and no artificial sweeteners. I think baked beans are a truly healthy food but the tinned sort normally have a lot of crap added. These are easy to make and also make the house smell lovely.

psst
franny
tell them about falafel

There's a Heston Blumenthal recipe for baked beans that involves cooking them at v. low temperature, overnight or something. I should give baked beans a try, but am meant to be doing a giant refried beans blitz, 3kg of beans or something. (I did it before going on holiday, and then the freezer got turned off ).

I am gutted that i did not have this idea for a thread. well done EF getting all the food experts to overhaul your menu .

moondog - i love the way you describe food that is erm less than wholesome 'sick of the devil' - sooo looking forward to my curry tonight now

I aim to please.

Franny if you were an Organised Type and cooked the beans when the oven was on for something else it would be very cheap. I am tempted by that recipe actually.

actually i might try making my own tonight. i did a thread a few months ago because i use jars of sauce for everything! I think you probably posted on it md and since then you'll be pleased to know i haven't bothered with the jars for bolognaise or chilli or fajitas as my own sauces are much nicer [smug and proud emoticon].

If I could just improve my home made curry sauce to the same standard my jar cupboard would be redundant .

apols for hijack EF. Lokking forward to the feedback from the new recipes.

come onto this late, but give us a budget idea please?

Budget ideas .... not sure if these are your cup of tea but are very cheap:

Liver and oinions with mash & veg
Cheese and potatoe pie with baked beans
Spag Bol (or anything with mince)(add veg to sauce - yum)
Carbonara (sp)
Fajitas with meat from chicken thighs instead of breast chicken
Hot pot (not the weather i know)
Ploughmans style salad

fabulous thread

Franny - is your son 3 (sorry if wrong, too hot = brain drain). And he eats well? dd1 is 3.5 and a pain in the backside.

dd2 22 months and fabulous. Am worried she will go the same way and have a faddy stage.

Do you offer the meal and if they don't eat, tough?

Am thinking of going veggie again. Dh horrified! Ha.

It's his fault for being a food snob and buying from the local farmer - I see the ickle lambs gamboling and the piglets cuddling etc and have gone RIGHT off it .

x

Good on you Raggydoll!
I read the ingredients list on a jar of seafood sauce in Iceland yesterday (I was hot yer Honour...escaping the sun an' all that).

Sweet Jesus!!!!!!
It's a wonder they're not being sued for manslaughter.

I watch the food programmes on TV and they are sponsored by Swartz (spelling??!!) and they do a packet mix for cheese sauce! How bloody easy is it ffs??????

And chilli etc. Must be powdery crap. [Puke emoticon]

Some great ideas on this thread. I am not wholefood/vegetarian, but I am organic-where-possible, avoiding artificial colours/flavours/sweeteners.

A very cheap meal if your kids like fish is sardine/pilchard pie. At its simplest you just put tinned fish in tomato sauce under a mashed potato and swede topping, with cheese on top if you prefer. You can make it a lot better by adding other vegetables and tinned tomatoes etc, but it is quick and cheap.

We do three-bean chilli and minced quorn chilli as well, which with lots of veg in lasts for ages.

That really pisses me off actually Olive.
It's the same with these 'celebriddy' chefs who peddle crap mixes and powders.

I wrote to express concern about a photo in Observer Monthly last week or so.They had a chef in a kitchen bottlefeeding his baby.
I felt it was really at odds with the message they are spreading re good food of healthy provenance.
Got a very nice letter back, stating that it was actually EBM and the shoot was too complicated and deangerous to have the mother in. (Eh????)
I maintained that a far more powerful picture would have been of the b/feeding mother being plied with delicacies by the chef and sipping a large glass of wine.

In Turkey,I am constantly harassed by one of the very few foreign women there,who keeps asking me to go with her to find packet cheese mix.
For goodness' sake!!!