Meal planning, sharing recipes and ideas to make the weekly budget go further.

[Seaside3]

Ok, snappy title, I know.

Having recently loved a thread where the op bemoaning the price of minced beef, (i didn't love that) and seeing how helpful people were, I decided to start my own thread.

We are a large family, but currently just 4 of us live at home. 2 adults, 2 teens who eat adult portions.

I aim to spend around £70 on average a week, we do eat out a couple of times a week, but £70 should roughly cover it.

New shop arriving tomorrow, hoping it will cover the week.

To start though, tonight we had Asian style pork, rice and garlic broccoli.

Asian pork - minced pork, onion, grated garlic and ginger, Chinese five spice, carrot, courgette broccoli stem, sweetcorn, peas, dark soy, chilli flakes Fry, add a little water if required.

Garlic and ginger broccoli... fried sliced garlic and root ginger, red onion, broccoli florets. Added a couple of splashes of water, soy and a sprinkle of sugar. Would have used honey, but didn't have any. Fresh coriander leaves.

Basmati rice

Added a fried egg.

Served 4 for dinner, 2 extra servings for lunches.

Would love to hear others go to family meals.

Please can I come to yours @keffert? Sounds amazing. And that's a great budget, how many people is it for?

Tonight we had the beans, fennel and walnuts, with somw pork meatballs from last week and pasta. Tomorrow im out with work, so I've left them the sausage casserole. They just need to had cheese and heat, plus cook some broccoli. The casserole has kale in it, and leeks in the mash. Plus the sausages have gravy in too. I'm hoping it's delicious!

Technically 5 people @Seaside3 as dd1 is at uni. But I cook for ds1’s girlfriend quite a bit so still cook enough for 6 most days and if she doesn’t eat with us we end up with leftovers to freeze or have for lunch. Last year I was also cooking for my mum several times a week and dd1 was still at home so I was cooking for 8 most nights. DH hasn’t yet twigged that the food budget should have gone down a bit now I’m cooking for two less people 🤣. Tbh it has gone down a bit and is often closer to £500/month but I am also being a little bit less careful, constantly worrying about cost is one of the things that killed my enjoyment of cooking so while we can afford it I’m happy to be a bit less frugal.

I can confirm, this sausage and mash casserole was so tasty, I will be making again soon.

We were gifted some pies by a neighbouring company on Wednesday, so that was Thursdays tea, with more mash, onion gravy and peas. I would never buy pies, but they were really good.

Last night the adults were out and the teens home, so they had the chicken curey with rice, tonight the roles are reversed so we are having what's left.

Tomorrow I think I will do the hoisin beef with rice and cucumber salad, requested by the boy teen for him and his new gf.

Just starting to think about next week. Got quite a lot already in the freezer, but im thinking to hold on to some for Christmas. Thay way, when I do the Christmas shop it won't have such a big outlay. This year I'm responsible for starters/canapés. For 17 people, so finger food is a must as not enough seating. Happy to hear some suggestions. I will also do a cooked breakfast on Christmas morning, likely just for 4.

So, next week im planning:
A green soup
An orange soup

Black bean tacos

Chicken, cheddar and broccoli stew

This quinoa dish, have some in the drawer that I didn't know how to use.

This greek style chicken

This bean stew

And something like this nduja roast chicken

Lunches will be the soups, egg mayo and chicken wraps. Bought some peri peri chicken pieces in lidl yesterday, which will work for lunches once cooked off.

Breakfasts porridge, branflakes, toast or greek yogurt.

Just need to pick a pudding and that's me done.

Gosh, you have been busy! Re pies, the best thing we bought was a Hairy Biker's pie maker. Like a toastie maker, but with space for two mini pies. Shop bought pastry as we are lazy but all manner if leftovers go in and we then freeze the pies. The freezer currently has beef casserole pie and chicken and chorizo pie. It was 20 quid at the time, and bar the toastie maker and stick blender is probably the most used gadget in the kitchen.

@murasaki that sounds good, apart from i dont have any gadgets really! I'm that weirdo that doesn't like stuff on the counters or shoved in cupboards. I wish I could be better at having them, they sound fun.

We have a shelf of doom above the end of the work top where things get shoved and we hope they don't fall off....oddly the surfaces are all clear and tidy, and we ignore the shelf....

The shelf is slightly above eye level, which helps with my wilful blindness.

Love this thread! So many ideas.

Do you think that green soup recipe would work with spinach or kale, or a mix of the two, instead of watercress?

@serenesquirrel i do. Im going to use watercress, just because I'm trying to expand my veg repertoire a bit. But will add spinach as im also ordering that this week and I never seem to use the whole bag before it goes slimy. I make two soups weekly, and it's been a while since we had anything green, so looking forward to a fresher taste.

Last night's curry was good. We got some starters from the shop as we bith wanted to eat out, but trying not to over spend. Made it feel more like a treat without the spend.

Spinach and potato is a good soup, I think I'll make one this week

Dp decided to get Nepalese takeaway in yesterday, yum in the extreme and plenty for tomorrow's lunch. I'm doing Nigella's Spanish chicken tray bake today, so that'll cover Tuesday's lunch too. Home made beef kofte and flatbreads with salad and a yoghurt dip for Wednesday, I need to think about Thursday. After the takeaway splurge, I'm going to just use things we have in for the rest of the week.

Hello frugal cooks.

Youve all been busy.

I managed to murder a lamb shoulder last week as I forgot to turn off the slow cooker - unreliable. So I’ve been crying into my lentil soup these last few days.

Back at it with a roast today using up odds and side and free/half price/budget range ingredients - I reckon I’ll have done it for around 60p per person so, WIN!

60 p per person is brilliant! Shame about the lamb though, I would have been sad

That's a great price! Tonight we ended up eating the kale and butternut squash orzo. O added walnuts and blue cheese for me, egg for my husband.
Now the kids have decided they do want feeding, so I guess they will be having beef and noodles. Left over for lunches.

Left in freezer : leek and butter bean soup, chicken orzo, muligatawny.

Ended up making this: https://www.everydayhealthyrecipes.com/spicy-spinach-bean-soup/#recipe It's very green. Had it for tea with some crusty bread.

@Seaside3, how do you organise your freezer to fit all this in? We've only got a fridge freezer too so not a massive amount of freezer space and I need tips!

Do you have a recipe for the squash and kale orzo, please?

@serenesquirrel that sounds good. Im determined to get more beans into our diet, so that's another soup to add to the list.
I have a tiny freezer, it's a built in fridge freezer, you can't even fit a shop bought pizza in without removing packaging! I have loads of plastic tubs of varying sizes. Some hold enough for 4 large mains, some single serve. I just decant into there and fot them in as best I can. Generally I keep 1 soup and 1 meal out, and then just pull stuff out as we go.
Of I really cant fit it in, I keep something in the fridge for a couple of days until there's space.
To help with planning, I try to keep meat in the bottom if the freezer (raw, not prepped), mains on ine shelf, soup on another and things like veg/fruit/ice cream in the top. Then I can see roughly what I have without having to know exactly whats in each tub

Tonight: beef and noodles with cucumber (and eggs for husband).

I've had a less industrious week this week, just two soups and two mains. Green soup made from watercress, buttee bean and spinach, orange is sweet potato and peanut butter.
Greek chicken and rice bake, chicken quinoa and vegetable bake. Managed to get legumes into every meal I made today.
Thursday my boys are coming over, so making a roast chicken with ninja and pasta. The left over chicken will be made into curry.

I’m loving your organisation. My freezer it a complete nightmare - everything all over the shop. Think this weekend I’ll attempt to sort it out.

Tonight it was stir fried egg and vegetable rice (with chicken added for me) with vegetable gyoza. All the veg, apart from an onion, and the eggs were free, so another decent cheap meal. The gyoza is from Costco in a huge bag - much cheaper than the small bags in the general supermarkets.

@fiftyandme don't be fooled, I don't label anything, so I'm not that organised.

I'm jealous of your bargain lifestyle. I do try to buy in season or reduced, but it's not the same when online. And our corner shop is so expensive that reduced prices are only the same as online prices. There is a freebie shed a couple if miles drive away, but it's usually bread, and not good bread at that, so I don't bother any more. Plus if you're not there at 10pm, you might as well not bother, it's all gone. There is also a waste not want not kind of shop, which served us well in covid. But it became a lot of weird stuff the supermarkets couldnt sell and again, nothing very healthy, so I stopped that too.

Photo of today's cooking attached. Yesterday my daughter brought home Yorkshire puddings ans roast potatoes from her work, so tomorrow it's sausages, onion gravy and veg alongside the freebies. So cheap enough.

This weeks shopping was £71, that includes washing powder and toothpaste. I'm still researching canapés for Christmas day, thinking mainly vegetables as the main meal is always a lot! Does anyone have a good recipe for a cold soup? I have dinky sherry glasses and figured they would be good with a soupcon of soup. Open to suggestions though.

Y freezer, in theory, has potato stuff, e.g
Chips, and veg in the top drawer , meat in the 2nd, fish amd home made ready meals in the 3rd , and soup and pies in the bottom.

Until DP messes with it. I do a reorganisation every month as it helps remind me what we have in.

@murasaki If my lot are cooling (generally reheating) I leave put the ingredients so they can't mess up.my system.
It's the only room in my house I have any organisation and control over. Thye know to check what theyre allowed, should the whim to go off piste take them. Or at least to let me know if they've eaten something that they know is likely part of a meal.

I’ve recently added an under counter freezer as my fridge freezer was never enough space. But I somehow don’t seem to have gained much space! I thought I’d have loads of room for batch cooking but that does not appear to be the case. I think maybe I need to organise it a bit better. I did do it a few weeks ago but I was rushing a bit.
In theory my fridge freezer freezer goes (from top to bottom)
puddings/cakes (small shelf)
fruit and herbs (small shelf)
cooked stuff (big shelf)
cooked stuff (big shelf)
convenience food (fish fingers/pizza/veggie burgers/oven chips etc) and fish (small drawer)
meat (big drawer)
At the moment it is just a big mess!

then the little freezer
ice creams/lollies/icepacks/icecubes
bread
veg.
This is less of a mess.

Haven’t done my meal plan for this week yet, it’s a job for this morning. Don’t need to go to the supermarket though as have loads of food still from last week’s mammoth shop.

Two freezer spaces is quite something @Keffert

Today we had sweet potato and peanut butter soup for lunch. Recommend this recipe.
Tea was vegetables, sausage, onion gravy, with gifted Yorkshire pudding and roast potato.
Ice cream with raspberries, almonds and chocolate sauce.

Sorry, this recipe for the soup.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRC1Sa-DSQd/?igsh=MWZ4cmo4bDY4ajg5Ng==

Today, soup for lunch, soup for tea! And oats of varying types for breakfasts.

Lunch was roast veg soup with nice sourdough. Tea was mulligatawny, which i made ans froze last week. Today me was very thankful if a quick, filling, healthy meal when I came home.

Tomorrow, roast chicken with ndjua and linguine for the troops. Must pick up some green salad to go with. And hopefully a pudding, but will also bring cake back from work, just incase j cant be bothered to make pudding.

Crap image, but tonight's tea. I added a tin of haricot beans in my attempt to have legumes daily. And of course finishes it with Greek yogurt, chilli flakes and seeds. I'm approaching 48 ans becoming very aware that I need to be healthier.

For freezer organisation I recommend playing Tetris and applying that to the freezer.