outlaws coming to stay - HELP!!!! v cheap ideas needed.

[Munz]

I need meals for 5 adults and J, 3 men (DH BIL FIL) me and MIL they're coming for 10 days. (will be hard - but I did offer and it won't be for long! lol - she says) anyhow last time they gave us £40 - which I don't like taking at all, and not expecting, we can have food of £200 for the month but no more. ie £50 p/w is it possible to feed us all on that? - can reduce DH and my weeks to £35 if I really stretch it out. and use the other for them going down.

what can I do that's cheap filling and looks more than it is iycwim.

BIL seems to eat loads thou, esp snacky foods like crisps and buscuits etc (will be making the fork buscuits) they don't really have brekkie - but I do porrige anyways, not always lunch, but cheese will do - althou not for 10 days mostly it's just dinners

Huge pot of chilli? You can throw virtually anything in that. You could serve over nachos for visual bulk too, plus it will pander to BILs snacky tastes!

yep, can do that for those 4 the one day - I don't eat it and J won't either (is only 10 months)

in an awful way i'm hoping DH goes away this month for a week or so so I can save food from this month in the freezer/cupboards for next . I wasn't going to get any more crisps than normal - do lidl's still do the 16 bags for 80p? I don't mind buying £2.00's worth of those instead of the tesco ones - althou with those DH eats 3/4 packets a time

Cottage pie - bulk it out with loads of carrots and mash.

Bangers & mash

Stew (use cheap meat and cook for ages, they won't notice!)

Fish pie

How is your pastry? Could you make meat & potatoe/mince pie? Could do a huge one and serve with loads of veg?

Home made pizza - serve with salad and garlic bread

What about a whole chicken in mediteranian vegetables? (or chicken pieces - our local butchers sell large chicken legs at 35p per pound which gives you around 6 for £2 - but remove the skin) Lidl have amazingly cheap veg (went last week and was stunned!). Buy garlic, onions, courgettes, peppers, aubergine and tinned tomatoes. Casserole the whole chicken (pref skin removed) in this and serve with crusty bread/cous cous/rice/mashed potatoes. The leftover mediteranean sauce makes a great lasagne filling/pasta sauce and you could then boil the chicken carcass for some stock for soup.

Don't know about Lidl crisps though. Can you just not buy them - if they want them they can buy them?

Yes, I wouldn't buy the crisps. Do you bake? You could bake a load of muffins (so easy) / bics for desserts?

there's an idea whinne, I normally do 95% form scratch, and tis' all frozen/has to be cooked, I think BIL prefers the convinence of ready to eat food.

mama G pastery's not that hot tbh, can do a suet top thou/pudding no probs. will do pizza as well with wedges the one day. can you do home meade garlic bread? - althou I guess it's just as cheap to buy the value bagettes?

will do a cottage pie, and prob a big pot of pasta bake type thing as well. fruit/veg I buy from the market so that will only be about £10-£15 for the whole time, if that.

yep I bake - my poor DH is all baked out I think! lol. how do you do muffins? like fairy cakes but bigger? do you need the special tin and cases?

it is possible thou isn't it to feed us all on £200 - pref lower, I don't need nappies/wipes if need be as brought double this month. normally I spend £120-£150 after the meat etc p/m for 2 and a baby.

Sounds good munz, I'd just buy the value garlic bread TBH.

Sounds like its coming together for you

slow down

I'll give you my muffin recipe...have you got a baking tin with 12 "holes"? you'll need muffin cases too. They are v v cheap to make though. Hang on...

I'll post recipe later, have to dash off now...

I have a great muffin recipe if MamaG hasn't got one to hand - suppose you could make mini-muffins if you don't have the tins and cases!

About the veg though - get it from Lidl seriously... it's about half the price it is on markets, if not less and really good quality. Punnet of chesnut mushrooms 39p for example and I think a bag of 5 leeks was about that too.

lol. yep got a normal fairy cakes tin but not a deep muffin tin. was going to bake a load of buscuits and also do one of my double choc cakes. I got a choccy making kit as well from mum for xmas so was going to have them be my guinea pigs he he he! lol.

I want to get DH to try cheese/pot pie as well. he does the meat/pot pie better than me so will get him to do one of those for the sat.

Heat oven to GM 4

11oz plain flour
2tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb
6oz sugar
pinch salt

mix together in a bowl

10floz buttermilk (substitute 1/2 plain yoghurt 1/2 milk - sometimes I just use milk if I have neither)
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence
4 oz melted butter
Spices if required (ie cinammon for apple and cinammon muffins)

mix together in a seperate bowl.

Add liquid to dry - mix until just combined (don't over-mix)

Add 6 1/2 oz of whatever filling you want. Apple, raisin and cinammon is good.

Bake 20 - 25 mins (poss less if making mini-muffins!)

leek & potato soup.. can get the veg from lidl, all else you need is some veg/ chicken stock powder, some crusty bread, the part baked stuff you can finish at home yourself,sell that in lidl too.....v v v cheap and filling....

pasta and some tomato sauce made with value tinned chopped tomatos, garlic, and seasoning is cheap.....

baked pototos with beans and / or cheese

veg lasagne, with lidl half price veg...

Do you believe me about Lidl veg yet? Eh? EH??

What about a veg curry? The veg will be cheap, and lidl had very cheap jars of sauce last time I looked.

Like all the other ideas, bulking out with cheap veg works really well.

Pasta bake? Just thinking along the lines that pasta and rice are very cheap but are very filling ...

Baked potatoes? Sausage casserole - you can buy cheap sausages and fill it out with loads of potatoes?

Yay for Lidl!!!

Tbh if you had to shop in Tescos or Sainsburys I would say no you could not do it(or it would be vv difficult) but if you have a Lidl near you, you will do it comfortably.
They have excellent value in frozen fish too, salmon and tuna particularly, they also do really cheap frozen pollack(it's about £2 for a kg), an unpopular white fish which is perfectly good for fishcakes.

Their tins of tomatoes are only 15p and a couple of them means you will always be able to make a decent pasta dish. Also their jars of sun-dried tomato pesto is good and makes a really quick, easy and cheap lunch.

I normally do tescos tbh, but yes we have a lidls not far - looks like a big one as well.

OK will go out there with DH, and J, how about a savoury rice thing? any ideas on that?

thanks guys, we really can't afford to go over the £200, so anything that keeps the costs down i'm in favour of - just don't want them to all go hungry ifcwim.

ooh yes wine I do believe u on the veg - is it good thou or is it a case of have to eat on the day?

if you spent £200 at lidl, you could fill 3 or 4 trolleys!!

love lidl!!

It's great - I still have one of the punnets of mushrooms, 2 leeks, a bag of onions and some tomatoes, tangerines and apples and they are still really fresh.

Hows about a risotto for a savoury rice thing? Love those and they are very filling. You would just need some arborio rice.

Oh yes, I should have said, I bought it all on Wednesday morning!

hmm how do you do risotto - sorry i'm normally the stodgy type of a cook. meat/veg and mash etc.

will do a big stew actually, and see if I can get some chuck from the butcher.

credit to Aitch...

....risotto from her Baby Led Weaning blog! You can prob buy cheap vermouth from Lidl too which would be perfect, and I know you can buy parma reggiano (think that's what it is called - parmesan stuff) from there.

Perfect for J too, obviously!