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.

lol!

Now it makes sense.

Ig I’ve got the pantry stocked that way (and just replace items when used up) I find that my surprise free olio food, nearly free Lidl boxes, and half price food from store reductions, will get used fairly easily as the majority of recipes that I may find to use the free/nearly free fresh produce will already be covered by what’s in my pantry or I’ll have a workable substitute for an ingredient.

There are some great ideas on here.
This week for us (starting on Saturday as that’s when I shopped)
Sat- chicken flatbreads with tsatsiki and salad. I used breast this time as they were on Clubcard price (as were the flatbreads) but sometimes use thighs, sometimes mince made into kofte
Sun- huge roast with chicken, gammon and loads of different veg. Having so many sides meant everyone had less meat and I also cooked a bit extra veg.
Mon- roast again for the youngest children, bubble and squeak with a fried egg and some cold meat for everyone else
Tue- mushroom biryani. Going to use up the last of the tzatziki and pretend it’s raita. Also have a bit of spinach and some tomatoes I’ll chuck in. The last scraps of chicken for those who want it.
Wed-Chicken casserole (chicken, potatoes, carrots, leek, onion, pearl barley, dumplings)
Thu- jacket potatoes. Beans/cheese/tuna/maybe leftover casserole
Fri-Asian chicken with rice. A lot like the pork thing in the op just with chicken mince (which is around £2.50/500g instead of £4.50 for pork))
Sat-not sure yet. Something with salad as I have a lettuce to use
Sun- toad in the hole with veg

Thanks, I will take a look. I dont use YouTube often, i probably should! I did see a reel on Instagram where a lady was demonstrating a meal for less than a pound each and people were full on laying onto her. Apparently she was perpetuating the idea that it's okay to be poor. And she hadn't costed it properly because she had done her costings by weight - ie, not the full pack of butter as she used half. I did feel for her as i think she was trying to help.
Sorry, I digress!

Glad I didnt offend you. It won't surprise you that one of my favourite things on the Internet are the 'clumsy thumbsy' typo posts. I cry laughing at them because I'm very prone to a mistype.

You sound like you've cracked the art of cheap shopping and eating. I need to look around a bit more to see if there are any plave s that do wonky veg type boxes. Im not sure we even have olio, I must look.

Welcome @keffert that sounds like a great week! My favourite meals is always a roast. I love that it can be as simple or as com0licated as you want. We generally have knew every week, but weirdly not thos week. That said, I did roast a gammon on sunday for sandwhiches and another dish.
You shopping sounds very similar to mine. I bought the cheap gammon and the chicken breasts on offer from tesco thia week too. I'm thinking about grabbing a few more gammon's this week (of the pork variety, not the racist ones) for the freezer, they work out much cheaper for sandwhiches.
It sounds like you have a few children living with you too! We are down to two, two have moved out now. It's cheaper, but I miss them, even though they visit.

I LOVE spam.

Happy school memories of spam fritters

Amazon is your friend. He has 5 tins at present taking up space in the cupboard.

Will take a look! Thanks

@Seaside3 yes four children although one is at University so only here part time. Although I do cook for ds1’s girlfriend quite a bit too.
I’ve got so bored of cooking recently but having a plan makes it slightly more tolerable. Also just cooking what I want sometimes without worrying whether everyone will eat it. I know the younger kids will moan about the biryani but as long as they eat a bit with some chicken, raita tzatziki and a poppadom it will be enough of a meal for them.
Good idea to get a few more gammon joints to slice while they’re on offer. There’s not much room in my freezer at the moment but I do try to stock up on meat a little bit while it’s on offer.

Today -
Porridge with flax and chia seeds, half a grated apple, cinnamon, prunes, toasted pecans.

Lunch out

Tea egg with lentil curry, rice with peas, yogurt from yesterday.

Egg curry 'recipe', boiled eggs, cooled and rolled in Paprika and turmeric. Keep to one side. Fry an onion, grated garlic, ginger with a variety of curry spices. Finely grate in 1 large carrot, a tin of lentils, 1 tin of tomatoes and 1 tin of water. Cook for 20 minutes, add the eggs back in. Cook for another 20 minutes. Serve.

Ooh! I’ll definitely try that!

@furforkssake here's the original. I didn't have coconut milk, so decided to go with a dahl instead.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPwcvINjcDx/?igsh=MTBvM2trbGZ1bG5tdQ==

Today i finished the apple and fennel salad with a little jacket potato for lunch. Porridge was chia, flax, sultanas and toasted almonds.

Tea was a delicious.pasta bake made with the ham i did on sunday.

In 1 pan boil water with pasta and broccoli florets.

I fried an onion with dried mixed herbs, basil and fennel seeds, added 2 x celery sticks and 2 x carrots, finally chopped. Add the stem of the broccoli, also chopped into small pieces, some sweetcorn and some peas. A knob of butter , melt. Add flour and cook it off. A couple of splashes of water from the pasta, a bit of milk. Chop cheddar into chunks, stir in, alongside the ham. When pasta is cooked and veg soft, mix together in an oven proof dish. Top with cheese, bake.

Served 3 with 1 very large portion for sons work tea tomorrow.

Sounds delicious.

Currentlg trying to empty the freezer here so it was veggie sausages (grabbed at half price last month) broccoli, courgettes and asparagus (free from olio), oven chips, Aldi jarred hot dogs for the non veggies.

Mine have never really been given a choice, which has meant they eat almost anything they're given. Dont get me wrong, if there's something they really dont like, they're not forced. They were given what we eat right feom the start and it's worked. They're aged 26 - 17 and no picky eaters. Well, they're picky as in thwy dont like eating too much crap! I laugh at how bougie they are.

Somehow the weekend is fast approaching so of course I'm planning next week's food.

Tomorrow we are having beef panang with noodles. (Made and frozen on sunday)
Friday I'm going to pop to the farm shop where I work and buy some sausages. Im planning on baked camembert with honey sausages and Yorkshire puddings to dip in! I will also pick up a nice sour dough from the bakery for weekend brunches. (These purchases are part of my 'shop local, even if it's a small amount plan)
Saturday is a free for all as everyone is out doing their own thing.
Sunday, similar, but we are off to the big city to use a voucher from last year.
So, i guess the shopping will be delivered Saturday or tuesday morning, depending on what's available.

Next week im planning - spiced lentil soup and another soup, probably roast veg.

The roast this week is this chicken, bean and orzo one.

This week's salad is the sweet potato one I planned last week, i forgot to order the items for it!

I'm planning on paneer and pea dahl with potatoes with nigella and poppy seeds.

Left over chicken will become this pie as I have puff pastry to use

I've ordered pork mince and stuffing, I think i will make them into balls, bake whilst the chicken roasts and then serve on a different day with mash, veg and gravy.

Sandwich fillings next week will be chicken, egg mayo or cheese. As usual I will be boiling eggs, baking a couple of jackets and his may be the week i finally get around to making oatcakes, which have been on my mind for ages!

And pudding for the week is this.

Breakfasts - beans on toast, omelette, porridge, pancakes.

I agree and have never cooked separately for them but do adapt things a bit sometimes. The older ones do eat everything (one is vegetarian but eats all varieties of cuisine just meat free) but the younger ones are still a bit picky and like to complain. Hopefully continuing to serve them everything will mean they also grow up eating everything but only time will tell!

Why have I never thought to have Yorkshire puddings with baked Camembert? Definitely doing that next time!

The chicken looks great too, I do a similar one using just thighs in the instant pot, also a tomatoey version with Mediterranean veg. Orzo and beans are real comfort food for me.

argh, I wish I could say the same. Mine ate everything and as they got older developed real aversions across multiple foods despite my best efforts: turned out they were autistic.

All sounds delicious.

I can vouch for home made oatcakes (if you mean those if the Staffs. variety) - so easy (if a little time consuming)

You've got me thinking about starting to make them again

I think I see where I am going wrong. You get 9 portions out of 500g of mince. I would get 4-5

@Fiftyandme that makes it harder for sure.

@keffert I can take no credit, i saw it on Instagram ans instantly knew i had to do it.

@scrollers yeah, I am queen of the stretch!

I love this thread! Ive bookmarked it as I have to defrost the freezer, so I need to eat it empty then fill it up again! I try to stick to £70 PW for 2 adults and 2 teens too. Interesting you do all your shopping on Tesco ( I presume online). I went through a phase of going to Lidl/Aldi to try and cut costs but ended up spending so much more than I do if I just do an online shop in Tesco, so now I stick to that. One of my DS's is veggie, and I have an issue with lunches in particular and a love of eating out, but once my freezer is empty/defrosted, I'll be back for some inspo!

I’ve got a glut of greens from Olio over the past couple of days so I’m going to make this soup (all free ingredients except the fennel and the cream) https://www.recipetineats.com/immunity-boosting-green-goddess-soup-its-delish/#recipe

Welcome @rainbowbagels! That's correct, I use tesco online as I find if I physically go to a shop I end up buying extras like candles etc. Plus I like the tesco points, I use them towards our holidays!

I do love to eat out, but have clamped down on ot the last couple of weeks, we are only allowed to do it once a week. We go for lunch whilst the kids are at school/college, it's the only way we can afford it. Otherwise I've found making soup/salad at the beginning of the week means we all eat a better lunch than a meal deal.

@fiftyandme, that sounds so good.