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.

Today i made cheede and ham toasties with a side salad for lunch

Four cheese Pasta bake

Hot cross bun pudding

Sweet potato and peanut soup

Butternut squash cake

Tonight I made 2 curries. 1 green chicken one and 1 paneer, cauliflower and butterbean one. Served with brown rice. Green curry based on this. Tomato curry no recipe. Plenty of left overs.

Also photo of butternut squash cake.

Tomorrow Asian pork mince, friday atill undecided. Last day at work, so may treat us to take away x

Can you please say how you make the Asian mince when you do it?

It varies, but i fry onion, Chinese 5 spice, garlic, ginger, carrots, pork mince in sesame oil. Add miso (if got), soy, sweetcorn. Add tomato puree, a little water from the noodles. (Cook noodles with water and stock cube).

If I have other Asian style ingredients I may add, like housing sauce. Other veg I might include would be peas, peppers , spinach, bean sprouts, pak choi

To finish it serve over noodles, usually with an egg (boiled or fried), cucumber salad, spring onions, coriander, sesame, chilli, peanuts. (Not all at once, just suggestions).

Hope that helps, and apologies to any purists, it's a very lose take on Asian.

Today:
Roasted tomato soup
Roast chicken (lentil bake for husband) and vegetables
Chilli
Dahl

Half the chilli in the freezer, the other half for this week with rice, guacamole, salsa

Left over chicken, cabbage and broccoli for stirfry and lunches

Left over veg for salads or soup

Dahl for another day (Enough for two meals)

Chocolate cornflake cakes with sultanas, raspberries and white chocolate.

Tomato soup recipe.

Great thread, thank you for all the inspiration. I’ve realised that I’ve gradually fallen out of love with cooking and tend to stick to the same recipes so this has really given me a helpful nudge into expanding our repertoire.

Thanks! It's so easy to just do the same food, and sometimes you need to just to make life easier. I tend to order pretty much the same food each week for ease, then make a few tweaks to allow for different meals. And I do follow a pattern - a roast, 2 soups (soon to be salads), 1 other meal from roast, a couple of veggie dishes, a couple of meat dishes, 1 dessert, some lunch prep.

Let me know if you try anything, or if you need any recipes (take that word loosely!).

I’m going to try a tomato and bean soup as I like the sound of that, you’ve linked an Instagram recipe up thread. I think I’ve got a tin of haricot beans at the back of the cupboard and I’ve always got random bits of onion, peppers, potato and sweet potato in the freezer. So some sort of combination of any of those with a tin or two of cherry tomatoes, and some garlic, and we’ll see what happens.

@florenceblack sounds good, hope it works out well!

Soup was a success, thank you. I will definitely make it again.

I used sweet potato and potato pieces (frozen left overs from homemade chips) just scattered them on a baking tray and added a chopped red onion and some frozen mixed peppers. After ten minutes in the oven I added in two tins of cherry tomatoes. Whilst that was all roasting I made a jug of stock and warmed through a tin of haricot beans in it.
Blended everything together, it made five generous portions but I might add a bit more liquid so potentially six.

That's so good to hear @FlorenceBlack

I find soup is one of the easiest ways to get beans into our diet, plus it's cheap and filling. Win win.

@Livinginacatdictatorship

I can recommend this - and various other recipes on the website

Spicy Firecracker Beef - RecipeTin Eats

Also
Vietnamese Caramelised Pork Bowls - RecipeTin Eats

@Crummles1 they both look great, thanks for sharing

Just a quick heads up, popped into alsi today and found lits if veg at 4p or 8p. Came home with 2 bags of potatoes, a swede, carrots, parsnips, onions and garlic. Also hot dog sausages, bread, cornflakes, weetabix, 2 x halloumi ketchup, soy sauce, pate, grapes, mango, husbands lunch. £25
Think I will go again once I've been paid.

Recipes to use up the above very welcome.

So far I'm thinking...

Carrot and lentil soup
Carrot salad

Parsnip cake

Root veg mash

Roasted Swede pasta sauce

Chips
Mash
Baked
Dauphinoise

Onion soup
Onions for hot dogs
Caramelised onions

Some kind of garlic dish thats has loads and loads in!

Yesterday's lunch was egg mayo pitta, tea was beef chilli. Forgot a photo as a friend was over, wine was consumed.

Today lunch by the sea in the car, tea was stir fry. Halloumi added for husband, roast chicken for son and I. Used the roasted cabbage from the weekend too. Made a quick sauce of mango chutney, soy, tomato puree, cornflour, water. Lots of ginger, garlic and 5 spice in the veg.

So far, with my Aldi veg, I've made onions for hot dogs - not had the dogs yet, but the onions went very nicely on some dahl. Served the chickpea and lentil dahl with rice, a boiled egg, mango chutney, carrot salad and onions.

Also made a vegetable and pearl barley soup.

And a spiced parsnip cake with dark chocolate and walnuts. Recipe here.

I've saved several reels where people have bought the veg, especially keen on some of the curries I've seen.

Got my older two coming over tomorrow, as yet im undecided what to make... definitely not lamb as husband really does not like it, sadly.

Can I ask how you make the swede pasta sauce? Please. Do you just treat like squash or courgettes?
Thank you. Because I went a bit mad with the veg and bought 3 lots in Aldi and 3 lots of everything in Tesco!!

I've not made it yet, but here you go.

I'm not going to bother with the cashews or yeast, and likely to include some kind of cheese!

Swede is good in root veg mash too.

Hello! Easter lunch was a roast chicken with honey parsnip and carrots, roast potatoes and cheesy vegetables (leeks, peas, courgettes), followed by mini egg chocolate pots.

Other meals include hot dogs with home made chips, Greek style salad and pork chops in a mustard, hiney and mushroom sauce with mash and vegetables.

Thank you so much, have saved on Instagram. I only ever make carrot and swede mash so definitely need to up my recipe game. Have just started to add a bit of honey and thyme to our roast carrots, and the occasional parsnip. My DD says it’s one of life’s greatest tragedies to bite into a roast parsnip expecting a potato!

For the rest of the week:

Lunches (4 of us home all week)

Chicken salad from left over roast chicken
Roast carrots and beans salad with feta
Soup from freezer
Potato cakes made from left over mash from tonight

Tea

Beef mince - I saw a recipe for seems, so giving that a go
Swede pasta
Blackbean tacos
Chicken/halloumi curry
Asparagus tart

Tinned fruit cake
Muffins

I've also got loads in the freezer, so hoping nit to have to do too much shopping

She would get on well with my son, he's not keen!

Swede, potato and carrot is a great mash. Swede is also nice just roasted like potatoes.

I'm in the process of making a Shepherd's pie with my leftover Easter lamb (roasted yesterday) which has a carrot, sweet potato & swede mash to make the most of the Lidl veg bargains!