A challenge for meal planners...

[is30tooyoungformidlifecrisis]

In an attempt to save money I want to start meal planning. However, there are some issues that I'm having trouble planning around, so I thought I'd ask on here and see if any of you more experienced cooks and planners are up to the challenge!

• There's me (a vegetarian), my husband (eats meat) and our 13mo, we do BLW so she can eat what we eat.
• Husband is happy to eat vegetarian food but doesn't want to all the time, so need some ideas that we can do a veggie and a meat version of, like spag bol
• We don't like spicy food or food with lots of spices, we don't like Indian. We do like Chinese, Thai, Greek, Italian
• I do cook but I cook mostly pasta, risotto, and some Greek things. I know one pot things like casseroles are good for budget but I don't know where to start with them
• We have an air fryer, a stand mixer and a small slow cooker that I've never used

Would love any ideas from you who know more than I do!

So I tend to batch cook and then freeze portions. Cheaper and less work too.

i found a lot of the vegetarian meals I do can easily be ‘transformed’ into a ‘normal’ meal by adding chicken into it. Again I tend to cook a big portion and freeze the chicken - cut or shredded - into portions for 1.

Naan pizzas realfood.tesco.com/recipes/naan-bread-pizzas.html - easy to add some ham or cooked chicken.

Stuffed peppers are adaptable. This recipe is veggie but it would be easy to add some shredded chicken or mince. www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/easy-stuffed-peppers I use mozzarella (left over from making the above pizzas) instead of goat’s cheese.

I use the leftover spinach from the above recipe in a quick and easy frittata https://www.thepetitecook.com/italian-frittata-with-spinach-and-peas/

I like making a large dish of roasted vegetables, you can ring the changes by using seasonal vegetables, we are just starting with butternut, pumpkin, sprouts, parsnips, after a summer of peppers, tomatoes, courgettes etc. Then add various seasoning, can change them and the whole theme of the dinner changes.
Then you can cook a protein separately, so your husband can easily have a portion of salmon, chicken breast etc cooked, whilst you can add whatever vegetarian alternatives you like.

It's also nice to add chickpeas and feta on top of a mix of peppers, small cut potato, butternut and onions.

A lot of pasta saucesor risotto can be made veggie and if you really want to add meat, do so at the end.

I think a good way to reduce costs and up veggie is to plan vegetarian meals to which meat can be added. Eg fajitas - we do halloumi as standard as our favourite but you could swap hallojmi out for steak or chicken easily.

A bit stir fry with rice can be vegetarian. Served with a portion of meat for those who want - eg a salmon fillet or some baked chicken..

We arenot vegetarian but we do try to keep meat to smaller quantities to keep costs down..