Meal ideas on Maternity Leave

[Justamum14]

Good Evening :)
My maternity pay is due to go down next month and I will have around £100 a week to feed my family of six until I return to work. Does anyone have this budget now? What are you best tips? Is it possible?
My partner can buy baby food / nappies when he gets paid so the £100 is just for meals. Our baby is not eating meals yet so we have 2 adults, 1 teen, 1 tween and one primary age (plus baby).
My partner needs a packed lunch for work and teen/tween need packed lunch for school.
I am looking for healthy meal ideas please.
We do not eat fish, we eat sausage/gammon but no other pork products, beef, chicken. I also need meal ideas where the meat could be left out as two of my children do not like much meat.
Any ideas would be gravely appreciated.
Thanks

I'm not very imaginative when it comes to cheap meals and usually end up serving things like jacket potatoes with cheese & Beans or coleslaw or egg, chips and beans.

Some other things you could try are:

Pasta Arrabiata

Vegetarian Cottage Pie

These burgers

Actually I do cook this Peach Crumble and it's pretty good

Do you have much freezer space? There are loads of yellow stickered products in the supermarket at the moment.
The cheapest meals tend to be vegetarian or at least padded out with lots of veg, beans and pulses.
Curries and chillies are great for this.
Sausage casserole
Roast a chicken and then spread the meat for stir fries, risotto, pasta bake.
Fritata
A gammon joint can be used in similar dishes to those suggested for chicken, it also works well with leeks in a white sauce, in a potato topped pie.
Macaroni and cauliflower cheese.
Soups are great for using up odds and ends
Where do you shop?

A gammon joint can be used in similar dishes to those suggested for chicken, it also works well with leeks in a white sauce, in a potato topped pie.

Oh I do like a Carbonara made with leftover Gammon 😋

Have you checked you're not eligible for universal credit?

Veggie bean chille

Lentil spaghetti bolognaise
Macaroni cheese with blended cauliflower
Baked potato and baked beans
Baked sweet potato and veggie chilli
Various soups with bread

There's also a series of videos on instagram which show 5 meals for £25 from Aldi which I've done and are all very nice. I think you'd be able to find it on Aldi's website as well.

How about Slow Cooker Veg Curry?

Savoury bread and butter pudding https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/recipes/cheese-and-tomato-bread-and-butter-pudding
Egg fried rice
Cheesy pasta bake https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/cheesy-broccoli-pasta-bake
Tinned tomato risotto https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/tinnedtomatoorisotto50756
Cowboy pie https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/cowboy-pie

I would (and do) cook a gammon and slice thinly for lunches

I would cook things like slow cook beef stew or mince dinners

one night a week pasta pesto

jacket potatoes and beans and and egg wouldn’t be expensive and filling

for lunches for yourself - eggs so omelettes etc

At this time of year we are eating lots of soup, Indian and Thai curries, chilli - making home made soup is such a good way of using up veg and adding beans or pearl barley or broken up bits of spaghetti makes the soups really satisfying. Leftovers can go in a flask for the packed lunches.

Shop regularly for stickered items and be flexible! This week I bought 2 leeks for 55p, a carton on double cream for 15p and I still had some of the Lidl 8p potatoes and 8p shallots left, so I made Delia Smith’s leek and potato soup (add a veg stock cube, black pepper and water).

I also bought some very cheap cabbage so today we are having a winter vegetable casserole with home-made mash and cabbage.

What I tend to do is have plenty of back up recipes (defrost portion of batch-cooked tomato sauce with penne; home-made carbonara is amazing with garlic, tiny bits of leftover gammon and eggs; mini jacket potatoes and cauliflower cheese (if you make a double quantity of sauce you can freeze half and that makes it a quick weekday meal another time).

And then I shop a few times a week for stickered items so I can quickly drop whatever idea I had for today’s meal, and cook whatever the yellow-sticker section has to offer.

I think we eat much more cheaply when I’m not stuck with a very rigid meal plan and can buy what’s on offer when I’m able to shop

Thank you very much xxx

I’ve never tried carbonara with left over gammon, thanks x

I shop mainly in Aldi but will get the occasional joint from Sainsburys. I’m not keen on Aldis chicken breast or 5% mince but do like their whole chicken x

It's really nice. Try Cheese & Potato Pie too.

@TinyMouseTheatre Cheese and potato pie with a side of baked beans was one of my favourite meals as a kid!

Also if you are cooking something in the oven make a rice pudding at the bottom - milk, nutmeg, sugar, pudding rice. Perfect to fill up gaps if there wasn’t enough for main course.

Invest in some Crimpets and use a variety of fillings for packed lunches, lunch for yourself and light tea time meals.