Skint, cant cook to well & need ideas please

[Margaritte]

Basically what the title says. I do have some food in already -freezer bits, few tins

We are in a tight spot at the minute and for the foreseeable future, whilst paying off debt. Have dc to feed too, and 3 packed lunches to make each day. Myself & dd are at home in the day, so we eat here.

I am not very good at cooking unless I follow a recipe (no imagination) and I'm so exhausted by the evening, I make minimum effort. I have just recovered from PND, so am trying be easy on myself, in order not to lapse.

Any ideas will be appreciated.

I apologise for the spelling in the title.

Here are some old threads with ideas which may help : )

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/food_and_recipes/2122710-What-is-the-absolute-cheapest-meal-you-can-make

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/food_and_recipes/2133991-Help-need-quick-cheap-nutritious-meals

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/food_and_recipes/1956734-Looking-for-ideas-for-really-cheap-meals

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/food_and_recipes/2336307-Can-anyone-give-me-some-really-cheap-meals-recipe-ideas-please

My cheap dinners are;
Jacket potato with cheese and beans
Macaroni cheese
Spaghetti bolognaise with lentils to stretch it to 2 dinners
Chilli con carnie as you can stretch it with lentils. Rice one night, jackets the next.
Omelette's with bread.

I'd do as much of the food prep as possible in the morning, so that you know it's done, and just hear it up in the evening.
My DCs were always happy with spag bol, which you can pad out with an extra can of tomatoes,diced carrots etc. I can give you a basic recipe if you like.
Also found curries and stir fry quite quick and easy - don't know if your DC will eat spicy food, but again can post recipes, using frozen chicken/white fish.

Thank you for the links TyneTeas

Yes please to the recipe DelphiniumBlue And Damnautocorrect, would really like your macaroni cheese recipe please

Can't beat pesto and pasta with a few frozen peppers and brocolli for cheap and quick meals

Pancakes one egg. One cup flour. One cup milk

Sausages and mash

Omelette

Beans on toast

Look at the blog, 'a girl called jack' loads of fab ideas.

I now use value tinned potatoes which if you roast them are delicious and at only 15p a tin cheaper than most potatoes you can buy.

Remember frozen veg is cheaper and just as nutritious. My girls loved rice with peas, sweet corn and left over chicken/ham/chorizo, whatever I've got in the fridge.

For tea tonight we had chicken noodle broth and one chicken breast did all 4 of us, 3 carrots, leftover spring onions and a stock cube, shake of soy sauce, grated ginger (I keep it in the freezer and grate it when needed) and a couple of blocked of noodles oh and some garlic.

I often make a tomato sauce from leftover veg that you can have as a pasta sauce or a base for a curry.

Hope you find some ideas you like.

These are all great ideas - thank you - and keep them coming please

Has anyone got any tips for where to buy or what to buy even? I really need things that will fill everyone up too (everyone here likes to snack - would like to cut that out, or have healthy budget alternatives) I also have no idea on how to get fruit cheaply, its all so expensive and I like to have a wide range in.

Shamefully, we have wasted a lot of food this month (and I mean ALOT ) As I just have no idea on what to do with leftovers, or even how to stretch food (ie a pack of sausages to feed us all) and so just leave it and its gone off the next day (I remove it from the freezer, with best intentions, yet it goes off quicker)

Chorizo sausage from Aldi/lidl =
Chorizo & pesto pasta
Chorizo & potato stir fry
Chorizo & baked bean stew etc etc
Buy a whole chicken =
Roast it & use leftovers for sandwiches
Mince padded out with lentils =
Spaghetti Bol
Burgers
Meatballs
Where do you shop?

I have a lidl, Farmfood, Asda near me, which I shop at. I also have the other big supermarkets & I order meat from a butchers in a small nearby village. They have an Aldi there too I believe.

Find out when the supermarkets mark down food and shop just after that time.

Look out for bargains on things that wont go off. Any leftover veg can become soup, even if you don't want to make soup at the time you have the leftovers, just freeze and use later.

Turkey mince can be used for meatballs, chilli etc.

You can see the weeks special offers from Lidl here www.lidl.co.uk/en/2486.htm
and use these to help plan the weeks menu.

Ask the butcher for a cut of meat to do a casserole, which will require long, slow cooking but should be cheaper.

It's cheaper to use in season ingredients so check the calendar here www.bbcgoodfood.com/seasonal-calendar/all
and try to get fruit and veg in season.

Buy a big bag of oats and give snacks of porridge or use them to make flapjacks - just need oats, sugar, some butter and a bit of golden syrup

This is a good sausage recipe, as you chop them up you don't need 8 so can get away with less.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1487/saucy-sausage-pasta

Ok macaroni cheese I do mine by sight rather than a recipe, so I've had a quick google for amounts!

50g butter
50g flour
700ml milk
350g macaroni
Bread crumbs (any old bit of bread whizzed or grated)
200g cheese (more or less depending on taste)

Cook your pasta

Melt butter, add flour. Leave to bubble until it slightly changes colour.
Take off the heat, slowly wisk in your milk. Add the milk bit by bit as your wisking so it doesn't go lumpy.

Put back on the heat, keep wisking until it thickens.

Take off the heat, add your cheese and season. You can add a teaspoon of English mustard too if you like it.

Pour over pasta, mix up a bit.

Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top.

Oven for 20 mins at about 190. Or until it's brown

I make individual ones as my fussy lot like different things;
Bacon (bits of streaky fried to within an inch and added just before the cheese sauce to the pasta)
Tomato on top
Cauliflower and or broccoli (boiled for a few mins then added to the pasta just before you pour over the sauce)
Ham (chopped and stirred through before cheese sauce)

I struggle with buying fruit cheaply, most of the time it gets forgotten and thrown. I've given up as it's just too expensive
I do follow the advice from here about frozen fruit though, lidl do frozen raspberries and they are lovely in porridge with golden syrup.

With the lentils for things like bolognaise, just throw a handful or two in after everything else. Then bubble like normal.

If you've a stick blender then vegetable soup is a great suggestion from above.

I roast all my left over veg, the last one I did was:
Carrots
Onions
Squash
Courgette
Tomato
Only needs rough chopping as it's going to be whizzed.
Once it's browned (say 30-45mins) put in a saucepan, add chicken or veg stock.

Simmer for a few mins

Whizz with a stick blender

Simmer a bit more. You can add thyme, rosemary, bay leaf

Season to taste, add more water if it's too thick.

Meatballs from above is another great idea.
Lidl's are £1.89 for 12 or make your own. I make tiny ones so they cook quicker and look like more. I fry them, pour over a tomato sauce (bought or made depending) and serve with pasta or rice.

This is another lovely cheap (once you've bought the store cupboard stuff) recipe, although I've never put in the star anais or done the 'to serve' bit! I leave mine in the slow cooker for 4-6 hrs.
I serve mine with green beans / broccoli and rice.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1758666/chinese-braised-beef-with-ginger

You can use almost any leftovers, including sausages and veg and hard end of the cheese in a frittata. Tasty and filling.

Maybe don't worry too much about the healthy at the mo, by that I mean, if the kids want a snack then bread and jam isn't going to do any lasting harm. It's sweet and comforting. I grew up on it.

Omelettes are great for using up left over bits, you can put anything in them and they are quick and easy to do.

Beans on toast, egg and chips, it's not going to win masterchef but will keep the kids happy, that's fine when you are knackered. Save yourself for when you have the energy.

Love food hate waste is a good website for ideas on how to use bits. Skint foodie and a girl called jack are also very good and quite clear.

Good luck.

Why does the food go off so quickly the day after its defrosted? Is it because you don't freeze it until its about to go off or is you fridge not running at the right temperature. might be worth checking.

With fruit I just don't think that budget and "having a wide range of fruit in" are compatible terms. Stick to a couple of fruits a week and buy those which will last. If you're on a budget berries (should be cut out) are best bought frozen since they spoil so quickly. Some things will last much longer than others. Apples will last months if stored correctly. Pineapple will last a couple of weeks as will rhubarb. Citrus fruits will depend on the date on them when you buy since often by the time they go into the shopping trolley they only have two days left before they start to deteriorate. Buy green bananas and let them ripen at home. If any fruit starts to go over and is no good for eating from fresh it is still likely to be good in a crumble so don't chuck it (and anyone can make a crumble!)

A girl called jack - blog and Facebook page (also 2 books which your library might have) is wonderful and ticks all of your boxes, she cooks amazingly cheap (fed her and her son for £10 a week on 3 healthy meals a day, buying good quality meat and free range eggs, shopping in sainsburys!) Healthy, easy and quick to make meals, she doesn't expect you to have any cooking knowledge and requires no fancy cooking equipment e.g. she may do a slow cooker recipe and say how to do it in a pan too

Each recipe is costed out, you can search by ingredients and she is very good at using leftovers. There really is something for every taste there and covers all meals and snacks

Another with chorizo
Spanish rice-
onion
red pepper
chorizo
I also use leftover chicken but would still be nice without

Fry all in a bit of oil until veg is soft

Add rice I use two mugs as I know that's enough for us all
Tsp each of chilli powder, tumeric and paprika.

Mix then add water and a stock cube and simmer until rice is cooked adding more water if needed. I throw in a handfull of frozen peas if dc are not eating as they don't eat them.

Big bags of frozen mixed veg (farmhouse, Aldi, Asda/Tesco basics)are our friend on light budget weeks....
And oxo cubes - whenever on offer

Sausages - 4/6 sausages go a long way if you cook them, cut into thin slices, mix with handfuls of frozen veg, 2 oxo cubes, water and cornflour.

Chicken - same

mince (any type that's on offer) - same and put mash on top

Can cook all of these at the same time at the same temp in the oven too to save on fuel costs.

Potatoes go further and fill you up more if you leave the skins on, but can be used for crisps too (below)

Lunchboxes -
cheap wrap with meat/cheese and lettuce leaves (we have 4 cut and come again pots of lettuce on our windowledges),
potato skin "crisps" - wash potatoes before peeling for mash, peel, rub with oil and bake with the dinner stuff till crispy - add whatever you have - salt and chives here (another windowsill pot).
cake - traybake done with a wright's packet mix here (70p + a little oil and water) makes a 24 portion cake - you can't make decent homemeade cake that is as tasty for that.

We also have free fruit in autumn - there is a local footpath down the side of our kids school with an apple tree and a neighbour has a plum tree (but doesn't eat plums!),

we grow rhubarb in the garden (only thing that will grow in our ground!) and that is keeping us going (in more ways than one!!!) right now. There also is an allotment down the road where people with a surplus put it out in a box by the gate - great in courgette and bramley apple seasons!

www.aldi.co.uk/en/recipes/recipes-by-category/

This link has 100s of recipes and what to buy.

There's lots of tips on this thread. It might help if you plan a few days food before you shop/cook. You won't be overwhelmed by it then. Pnd is rubbish and you don't need any extra stress.

These are all fab.. thank you so much.

I'm not sure why the meat goes off so quickly after defrosting - I freeze when the butcher delivers and then take it out in the morning, so it defrosts by dinner time. Plans change / I stress / we eat something else, and then the next day its no good

Is it possible to give everyone the recommended amounts of fruit & veg on this budget? I'm happy to buy frozen berries, in fact have some in the freezer, though they sit there, unless I make smoothie, as I have no idea how to use them

Also happy to buy tinned fruit, though have only ever bought pineapple this way.