Cheap Meal Ideas - let's have your best suggestions!

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We're going to be having a 'lean' month. Sure we're not the only ones!

Apart from beans on toast - any new suggestions for a meat eating family of 5?

Pasta with pesto.

We have the usual mince ideas - cottage pie, chilli, bolognese.

yum...I like pesto, babygrand!

oxtail stew
lamb shanks
mix mince with lentils and carrots for shepherds pie
go to market for veg, eat in season where poss.

bean stew (bit farty, but very cheap!)

My easy yummy lentil thing:
you boil up loads of red lentils with a stock cube and any veg you happen to have around (onion and garlic are a good start; you could add a tin of tomatoes if you like, chillis too if you like).
Just boil it all up till it's a mush. Then serve with brown bread.

For extra yumminess you could add some grated cheese, or a few slices of bacon on top and pop it under the grill.

lentil and bacon soup
potato curry
"leftovers" risotto
porridge
flapjacks
rice pudding
bubble and squeak.....

Grilled/baked mackerel. Half a mackerel each in this house unless they are big ones.
DS loves them.

Cheese pudding

Chicken livers - 2 x 50p pots should be generous for 5 people. I did a stroganoff with it today (used plain yoghourt instead of sour cream). Yummy

Spanish omelette - good way of using up veggie leftovers.

Lancashire hotpot made with scrag end of neck is gorgeous - scrag end of neck (lamb) only costs about a pound a pound.

You just layer the slices of meat, bones and all, in a big ovenproof dish with thinly slices potatoes and fried onions, add some water and bake for 3 hours or so till meat is all melted off the bone and the potatoes on top are all fatty and crispy.

If your kids eat veg -

spinich and ricotta lasagne or caneloni (mix thawed chopped spinich, ricotta, some pine nuts if you like, salt and pepper) with a jar of tomato pasta sauce over it

roast veg salad - veg in bite size chunks, serve with fried haloumi cheese in chunks (mmmm!) and drizzle with red wine vinegar.

Fried rice with peas, corn, peppers, chopped omlette, bacon etc.

potatoes with tuna and mayo / chilli / cheese etc

steamed veg with white sauce

maceroni cheese with corgettes and peas in it

...basicly anthing without meat will save you a bit! We are having a lean month too...actually, not just this month! Good luck

pasta and tomato suace

Tomato sauce

Dice an onion really small and sweat it slowly in oil till it softens (low heat) then add a tablespoon of tom puree and garlic (? 1 clove)

Stir around briefly

Add a splash of old wine if you have it to deglaze the pan, then add a carton of passata and some sugar to taste. I also add a drop of Tabasco. It will look pretty unexciting a tthis point?BUT let it simmer slowly for 30 mins or until it thickens and turns dark red and it goes very sweet and nice.

Add veg to taste and simmer or parmesan on top of pasta.

i make my pastas, stews and chilis with soya mince (meat eaters but prefer it with soya). I think you can knock up a big pan of chili for about 70p and serve it with rice, tortilla wraps and grated cheese for added interest. This is my favourite meal EVER. if you replace a few of your meat dishes for veggie you can save a lot on your food as one bag of soya costs about £1.50 and lasts for a couple of weks if used 2 or three times per week. Even cheap mince costs at least a couple of quid a go

buy cheapo veg, roast it and eat with oil as salad, tastes 18000 times more expensive and you don't need much with it.

nigella mince beans and pasta fantastically filling and v nice. in fact all pulses good, lentil and spinach curry etc etc.

Roll out shortcrust/puff pastry and line base and sides of a 9x13 tin with it. Then pour in a mixture of 200ml creme fraiche, 2tbsp green/red pesto and 2 eggs (all mixed together) and top with large slices of tomato and halved cherry toms. Season.
Cook in a hot (220) oven for about 20 mins.
Serve with salad or green veg.

soups in general are cheap too -

potato and cauwliflower
tomato and peppers
butternut squash
mixed veg

and throw some red lentils, canellini beans, chick peas or whatever in to bulk it up before you puree it.

gemmiegoat, where do you buy this big bag of cheap soya mince?

I do pasta with tomato sauce. i put anything and ecrything in it usually chopped up sausages, sweetcorn, carrots, bacon or whatever is left from previous meals. Great hot when fresh or cold for lunch the next day. Saves throwing anything away.

our local wholefoods place (an independent) where they have huuuuge sacks and you tell em how much you want and they weigh it out for you

they keep mince in a sack? I think I'm missing something!?

you buy bags of frozen quorn in tesco or asda. the chilled stuff is better though in the trays

noooo, they have big 5 kilo plastic bags and you can either buy the whole bag (around a fiver i think) or buy a kilo or two, by weight. It's not like a big post sack languishing around for months!

Wow, loads of ideas.

Yes we do well with veg, but DD2 is allergic to milk. Have to adapt some of the cheesy suggestions!

spaghetti in basic tomato sauce

can butterbeans

throw whole lot in oven with lid on

I have a Rose Elliot book which is all about pulses

it is for supercheap weeks