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 set off as a chill cook, but ended up making tonnes of stuff!

I made a roast chicken and new potatoes, roast carrots and parsnips. This is tonight's tea, alongside some stuffing, broccoli and yorkies.

This week's soups - roasted butternut squash and pepper with cottage cheese and a roast veg with chicken.

Lunches- coronation chickpeas, chicken and stuffing for sandwiches.

Salads - celeriac, apple, fennel and walnut and a peanut, ginger beetroot one.
Sides - cous cous, boiled new potatoes, baked potatoes. Cous cous was eaten at lunch, potatoes will either be fried with an egg, or made into potato salad.

Puddings - apple crumble, carrot cake

The salads and cous cous were eaten, (along with an egg for husband and son) this lunch time. A portion of beets left, and replicated the celeriac one to marinade overnight for tomorrow's lunches.

Feel like i've done loads of cooking, but still lacking in tea for the week. But freezer suitably restocked for lunches, so that helps.

Still got pork meatballs to make, and I suspect there will be plenty of chicken left this evening for a pasta dish Later in the week.

Pics below. Highly recommend the salads I made today.

Wow OP I hope you had room in the freezer.

Haha @sashh I only have a tiny freezer. You will be surprised at how fast they eat their way through this lot.

Last night was roast dinner, tonight I think baked potatoes.

Lunch was coronation chickpeas and salad.

I sometimes chatgpt with what's in my cupboards, fridge and freezer, we've had some good recipes that way that i wouldn't have thought of. You can refine the questions as you go. So for example, i said pork belly, chorizo, butter beans, and it gave me a really nice recipe. Pick some stuff for the start, and refine the request. It assumes basics like onions, potatoes etc.

@murasaki one day i will join the modern world and use chat gpt.

Tonight i made cauliflower cheese to have with the baked potatoes and the left over celeriac and apple salad. Autumn in a bowl.

Waheyyy. I didn't know Tesco do halal brands. Have you tried the humza chicken kebabs??? 😋

That looks really tasty.

@murasaki it actually was!

We have a sage plant at work that is clinging on for dear life, so I fried the leaves in butter with some garlic. Fished them out before I made a mustard roux with cheese. Boiled the cauliflower, put in a dish with chunks of cheese and the fried sage. Grilled in oven.
It was just what we needed on an autumn night.

Hmm, definitely cauli cheese coming up this weekend! Totally agree with mustard in it.

@murasaki I would have done it with pasta, but already had the potatoes baked. And a potato left foe my lunch tomorrow, whoop!

Carby happiness!

This is a lovely thread. OP can I please get your chicken with pearl barley recipe?

Order placed for Sunday.
Making a note of the recipes that I intend to make so I don't forget when it arrives.

This curry

Beans and sausage casserole, inspired by this reel

A chicken pasta dish

Something lentil from the gorgeous 'Hello Grace' series on insta

Asian inspired chicken

Mushroom soup and another, to be decided

Gammon with root veg mash

Lunches - ham, eggs, cheese, soups

Weekend brunch sausage sarnies

I like tarragon in a mushroom soup, but rosemary is nice too.

Hi, thanks!

I dont think i had one. I think i had some left over roast chicken, pearl barley feom the freezer. I just cooked with a stock cube and froze when done.
It's likely I fried an onion and garli, chopped carrot. chuck in the chicken and pearl barley. A splash of water and add frozen veg. Thats what it looks like from the picture! Sorry, I make stuff up as I go a lot of the time. Sometimes I leave out onions and garlic if I want a 'softer' taste. You could add cheese if you wanted a more Risotto feel.

Ah, you and my DP are cooking twins. He makes something lovely, then can never quite replicate it!

Nice. I like a garlicky one with a bit of cream splashed in.
Might add peas to my order to make pea and ham my other one.

Yes, I never make something exactly the same, but 99% of the time it's tasty. And the other 1% it passes. Ive never been one to follow a recipe, apart from when baking. Even then I riff. This week the carrot cake had prunes instead of sultanas in it. .

Pea and ham is a top choice. I still have some in the freezer. I'm a recipe follower in the main as I'm a competent cook, but not an inspired one, and it's easier. He likes to go free-range and results, while mostly great can be.....interesting. it's just annoying when it's something really nice and then he can't remember what spices it as exactly or how much for example. Ah well. I think I've only binned something once.

@murasaki I would love to have the patience and dedication to follow long, complex recipes. One Day I will create a beautifully presented, perfect dinner. Until then, it's a fun game of 'i wonder how this will turn out.'
I will make more of an effort ti write things down though, as I've been asked for 2 things in this thread and I have guessed how I made them!

I have a lot of pearl barley so am definitely interested in trying the chicken one.

Let me know how you get on, would love to see any photos.

Tonight...
Pork and feta meatballs
Roast broccoli
Panfried new potatoes
Yogurt, cucumber, dill and capers

Apple and walnut crumble
Custard

Meatballs - pork mince 500g, half a block of feta, 1 egg, half an onion finely chopped, chopped garlic, fennel seeds, salt and pepper. Fry, finish in oven.

Potatoes : boiled new potatoes (made on tueaday), fry with mixed herbs until crispy.

Yogurt sauce: Grate the cucumber into a sive, sprinke with salt, leave to drain. Add Greek yogurt to a bowl, salt, pepper, finely chopped dill, capers, add cucumber.

Broccoli : roast in a hot oven with salt, pepper abd chilli flakes.

Apple crumble : peel and chop apples, put in oven proof dish with cinnamon, bake whilst making crumble. Make crumble mix, add walnuts and oats. Tinned custard

I love this thread. I have nothing to add but getting a lot of inspiration!
Thank you

You're so welcome! It's just nice to share with people who aren't my family!

Today's lunch - chicken and stuffing sandwich with home made fig chutney. Chicken and veg soup.

Tonight im out with a friend, but the rest of the family are on wither dahl or the roasted pepper and cottage cheese soup. Dahl served with rice and eggs, soup with a cheese toasty.