Cheap but nutritious meals!

[ohmygolli]

September is a tight one… I need meal plan ideas for cheap but good healthy meals

curry is an easy one. Any others?
anything toddler friendly would be great too!

Pasta with passata and chickpeas. Add onion, spinach, garlic and seasoning if you fancy/ have time.

Lentil bolognese. Loads of veg, red lentils and passatta then use the leftovers to make a shepherds pie.
Chickpea curry.
Homity pie.
Home made pizza

Pasta with tomato sauce ( use what’s left on pizza)
Baked tomatoes and beans.

Dhal is my go-to when money is tight.
Soups, minestrone is a good bulky one you can make so many portions very cheaply. If you eat meat mince is the cheapest way to incorporate it, make huge portions of Bolognese, chilli, cottage pie and bulk it out with lentils and any cheap veg. Sausage and bean hotpot again bulked out with lots of veg and maybe some beans.

Jacket potato beans and cheese

I’ve started batch cooking and its saving me time and money. One of the things I’ve made a lot of is bolognaise sauce. I use a kilo of mince, 3 cans of chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, 2onions, 2 peppers, 6-8 cloves of garlic (you could reduce this, we just really love garlic) italian herb seasoning, 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar, 3 oxo cubes, roughly 500mls of water, salt, pepper and about a tablespoon of sugar. This makes enough for 3 dinners for us and we’re a family of 6, it works out at about £3.50 per dinner. It’s really nice and reheats well. I also use it to make lasagne or add a bit of chilli powder for a chilli and serve with rice to change it up a bit.

Jacket potatoes with toppings like cheese, beans, tuna etc
Salads or pasta salads
Homemade soups. Red pepper and tomato, leek bacon and potato, broccoli or cauli cheese
Chicken or beef strew and dumplings
Tacos or wraps
Make bolognese or chilli and freeze it, I can usually get quite a few portions from batch cooking
Homemade pizza

Some of the things is used to do were to add lentils to things to bulk them out, porridge oats in casseroles as a thickener/filler.

Sausage pasta
Veg chilli (or use paprika instead of chilli)
Anything on toast (within reason)
Eggs and chips and beans
Savoury rice, basically lots of rice with a bit of chicken and veg
My kids used to love hot dogs and noodles
Stew and dumplings
Jacket potatoes

Peanut veggie noodles https://healthylivingjames.co.uk/speedy-satay-sauce-noodles/

Tuna bolognese https://www.wcrf-uk.org/recipes/spaghetti-tuna-bolognese/

Halloumi frittata https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/halloumi-potato-and-spring-greens-frittata.html

Spaghetti carbonara is cheap and delicious. A true Italian one has no cream!

A good, economical approximation is the following.

For each (adult size) serving: 100g or 4 oz spaghetti, 1whole egg, 1-2 oz Parmesan or Pecorino or to taste, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, 2-3 streaky rashers. EVOO.

Saute the rashers in a large enough pan to hold the pasta, in a bit of EVOO. Don’t drain the pan. Tear the rashers into pieces about 1inch square.

Beat the eggs, grate the cheese and mix these. Season with S&P. Add hot pepper flakes if you like.

Meanwhile cook the spaghetti, reserving a cup of the pasta water. Warm the bacon drippings in the saute pan and toss the pasta in the hot drippings. Add EVOO if necessary until the strands glisten. Turn off the heat, add the egg mixture and toss. It probably isn’t silky - add pasta water by the tablespoonful, tossing, until a silky texture is obtained. Add the bacon bits and more black pepper if necessary and toss one last time. Serve quickly.

It is almost faster to make than to read

All it needs is a salad or side veg and a great piece of fruit or very simple pudding

Not very cheap, but puy lentils and feta with cherry tomatoes. Good protein and veg in there.

Veg fritters - basic egg and flour fritters mixed with any veg you have l. My preference is courgette and sweetcorn but I've done all sorts - if you have spices I like a pinch of paprika or cayenne I'm the mix but it's not essential.Top with poached eggs.
Fridge raid fried rice
Sausage tray bake - slice sausages to make them go further
If you're making spag bol / curry / chilli etc take a few large spoonfuls out and use for baked potato toppings or wraps.

Curries definitely although nothing is really cheap anymore!

We combine meat and veg on curries so it works out cheaper and make things like
Chicken and saag
Chicken and mushroom
Chicken and peppers
Chickpea potato
Keema, potato and mixed veg
Dahl
Paneer and peas or spinach

Pasta with veg and tomato
Or tuna Mayo

Baked potato

Wow thank you all so much for the suggestions!!

these are fab. ♥️

Chicken casserole wuth lots of carrots and you can add pearl barley potatoes and any veg you have. Make double to save on fuel costs xx