Simple healthy cheap meals?

[lyssie29]

Hi im a single mother on a tight budget. I'm sick of all the same kinds of meals and we arent eating healthy enough. I try my best to include veggies with dinner for my kids and they love snacking on fruit but I'm just not so good at cooking. Any ideas for simple dinners that would be good for them?

What sorts of things are you having at the moment? And how old are your children? Are there any foods that they - or you - won't eat?

They're 2 and 4. Currently i usually make dinners such as sausage mash and veg, tuna pasta, pie with veg and chips, chicken curry. Things like that. My 2 yr old is not too picky but 4 year old wont eat pasta with any kind of tomato based sauce, wont eat lasagne or spaghetti bolognese. She wont even try salad or any veg except cucumber and brocolli.

I use a packet of couscous www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/253748557 which costs less than 50p. It takes about 15mins to cook in boiling water. I then just crumble feta cheese or add a tin of chickpeas along with cherry tomatoes and red peppers.
Tinned tuna is very cheap and I stir through a little bit of mayo and tinned sweetcorn and serve cold on hot baked sweet potatoes.
This pot noodle takes less than 10 minutes and is healthy www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8035/smoky-bacon-pot-noodle-for-one The quantities can be easily multiplied up for feeding a family.
This fried rice is super speedy and a one-pot www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/6350/fastfix-fried-rice
Heinz Creationz is a range of tinned pulses that I like using when I just can't be bothered! They don't have added sugar or preservatives and provide a good cheap source of protein. There's a Mexican Beans one that I serve with tortilla wraps and grated cheese and we like the lentil curry one with rice.

I come onto almost all threads and say this, but soup! It's cheap, nutritious and has almost endless variety. Broccoli and Stilton, carrot and coriander, leek and potato, county veg, roast parsnip, squash with coconut and chilli, red lentil, lentil and bacon, minestrone, chicken noodle soup, tomato and basil etc etc. A nice chunk of bread alongside and you have a meal.

Have they tried couscous? Cheap healthy and delicious especially alongside a veg or chicken tagine? Or risotto? Lots of different types of risotto and I haven't met a child who doesn't like Arancini with the leftovers- I make tomato and mozzarella risotto on a regular basis and make double just to ensure I have enough .

What about lasagne? There are plenty of not tomato based juliasalbum.com/butternut-squash-and-spinach-lasagna/
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1570636/quick-mushroom-and-spinach-lasagne
Here's two cheap and healthy options.

For a change could you make a sausage pasta? Like here allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/17687/sausage-and-spinach-pasta.aspx

Or a sausage casserole?

I like to change things up with bean mash instead of potato mash sometimes, alongside a chicken carrciatore or stroganoff- this one is nice
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5530/white-bean-parsley-and-garlic-mash

I love this fish pie, so easy www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2303636/family-meals-easy-fish-pie

Stir fry is a staple quick, easy and cheap meal in our house. You can use whatever veg you have in or even buy bags of stir fry veg quite cheaply - and it's a great way of packing loads of veg into one meal. There are loads of tasty sauces you can buy or I just buy a jar of Chinese five spice and it lasts for ages. We have with chicken or pork and serve with rice.

Baked potatoes with toppings
Home made fishcakes, I do a really simple one using tinned tuna with a little bit of chilli in.
Fritata
Chicken skewers, intersperse chunks of chicken breast with cherry tomatoes and serve with pitas.
Have a look at jack Monroe’s recipes, her carrot, kidney bean and cumin burgers are great and really cheap.
Make a veggie chilli and serve in wraps

Would your 4 year old enjoy pesto with her pasta? If you think it might be too powerful a flavour for her, maybe mix it with a little soft cheese and toss the hot pasta in with a wee bit of water, to soften it off.

How about fritters? Grated potato or courgette (squeeze to get rid of excess water) with a dollop of flour and an egg to bind, then fried in spoonfuls.

A nice thing to add interest to plain old sausages is a barbeque kind of sauce. I make mine with tomato ketchup, a little honey, a squeeze of soy sauce and some 5 spice powder. Cook sausages in oven (or grill first) till they're almost done, drain off the fat if there's anyin the pan, and then coat with this sticky sauce and bake for another 5 to 10 mins. I'd line the pan with foil or greaseproof first though! This also works beautifully with chicken bits.

When I was a kid a standby tea was my dad’s latkes, basically a fritter made with grated potato and sliced onion, made exactly as Tigerpit describes. Serve with baked beans or similar.

Couscous is great, but I find it improves dramatically if you make it with liquid that imparts some flavour. Either stock, a squeeze of tomato purée, or event just some Worcestershire or Henderson’s in the water works wonders.

I’ve suggested Venetian liver on this sort of thread before (like I used to eat as a student), but the chances of getting a 4yo to embrace lamb’s liver (even if it is cheap and full of iron) must be fairly close to zilch.

DP makes an excellent sausage stew with onion, carrot and lots of red lentils, which makes a pound of sausages go a long way. Again stock rather than water (nothing fancy, just a cube or a teaspoon of Marigold) improves the flavour.

Check out this site. Her seaside crumble amazing.

Her recipes are all kids friendly, cheap and delish
oneyummymummy.com

stiry frys
cheesy broccoli pasta bake.
have you tried roasting the veg this is how we got ours into loving veg.roast in a tin some carrots garlic onion peppers.cauliflower sweet potato etc.yum
jacket potatos and various fillings.
pork casserole
fillets of fish
fish cakes.
some rosti.you can usue potatos and mix in some grate veggies.
veggie burgers.
frittata.
fajitas and wraps.can be made not spicy.
creamy chicken and bacon taglieteli
what about switching the sausages up with a pour over sauce.like the knor French sauce jars or honey mustard.
rice one pots.
stew and dumplings.
have you got any simple recipe books.it might make it more enticing and exciting to pick a few recipes together to try.they could even help out.

Thank you everyone ☺ lots of great ideas!