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.

@keffert I would do chicken curry, bolognaise with the mince and probably something Chinese inspired with the duck. I don't really like duck, but I did catch nigel slater earlier making a duck and orange salad, he than made a Chinese duck soup.

I made the mistake of buying cheese and crackers at the weekend. Now I'm obsessing about them.

Sounds like a solid meal plan, it definitely helps to have a rough outline and repetition can help when weight watching, definitely. Good luck with that.

That’s an impressive cooking day!

I have never cooked myself with chicory, but I think it would be nice slow braised with leeks (and maybe cabbage), then cream added at the end with a big knob of butter, almost like a risotto. Or even added to a risotto.
Then sliced duck breast on top.

I think I would like that. And it would use up two of your ingredients.

Would be very rich though. Fruit for pudding!

This is what happens to me, I come up with something I fancy, like cheese and crackers, then suddenly it's all I eat for a week and every meal is based around the ingredients 😆

Thanks @fiftyandme it's a lot, but now the fridge and freezer are stocked foe days when I can't be bothered to cook etc. Hopefully it will stop us getting take aways/meal deals/meals out too often.

@toastandbutterand I can literally hear the crackers calling my name from the cupboard.

Back to work tomorrow, at least I have a choice of things to take for lunch. I'll buy a sourdough and we will have cowboy beans and sausages on toast for tea. With cheese, of course.

@Seaside3 I think that’s the secret isn’t it to good quality eating as a family - if you have a range of stuff to pull from freezer or cupboard and quick quality stuff to cook from scratch , it stops those impulse take away/grab a pizza type nights.

my shopping bill has in fairness gone up because I’m making better quality meals, however it’s been balanced by very few takeaways ( maybe once every 6 weeks at most) and taking lunch in with me.

Half price lamb shoulders at Tescos for Clubcard members

Jamie Oliver’s Loads ‘a Veg bolognaise here tonight.

I buy the dried porcini mushrooms in bulk from Costco as they work out almost half the price of the small packs in the supermarket - the jar has a very long shelf life so worth the initial outlay. Most of the veg was free from Olio. I split it in half and added broken down and pan fried beef burgers from Lidl that I picked up at half price a could have months back.

I managed to get a £50 shop for £21 today - half price lamb shoulders, half price blue cheese, half price Heck sausages, red wine on special offer, extra mature cheese, because I’d run out, and Ras El Hanout (because I’m too lazy to make my own), used up my Tesco vouchers towards the cost. (Two packs of peppers were free from Olio.

Il going to slow roast the shoulder of lamb in my slow cooker, shred it and portion it and freeze half. The other half will be going in a Moroccan lamb stew with chickpeas, butternut squash, olives and preserved lemons

Both the bolognaise and the lamb sound amazing. I might have to get some lamb, even though the rest of the family don't really eat it!

Fantastic shop too.

Cowboy beans with sausages on toast with cheese for us tonight. Enough left for lunch with a small baked potato. Lunch today was the carribean curry sweet potato and lentil soup. It was delicious.

Links to the recipe from tonight and the lamb recipe:

https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables/vegetarian-spaghetti-Bolognese

https://www.tamingtwins.com/lamb-tagine-recipe/ - I add in olives and preserved lemons.

Same here with the lamb - I only end up having it a couple of times a year: I grew up in it once a month. It’s so expensive now, I even struggle to justify it when it’s half price. But it’s so lovely and I already have everything to make the stew, so I decided to buy a shoulder

Hello! Tonight we had a chicken and veg pie with mash and broccoli. The chicken was from Tuesdays roast, the puff pastry has been waiting patiently in the fridge since I bought it a couple of weeks ago.

I fried one onion, garlic, Celery sticks, courgette, mushrooms and mixed herbs in butter. Added the chicken, some cornflour, a stock cube and some water from the potato and carrots (mash).

Cut the puff pastry in two length wise, put the filling down the middle, cover with the other piece of pasty. Cut slits in the pastry. I sprinkled sesame seeds on and popped in the oven for 20 minutes or so.

Serve.

There's a portion left for my son's tea tomorrow. And some filling with mash for my lunch tomorrow. There's chicken from the roast in the freezer too, still undecided what to do with it.

Vegetable dahl and paneer tomorrow.

Chippy Chips and gravy for tea tonight. Was required after a miserable day. And yes, we are the most northern people ever.

We've still gor pork meatballs with roast potatoes and chickpea and paneer dahl left from Tuesday, plus other bits in the freezer to get us through the weekend. There are two large chicken breaata ans some sausages in there too.

So, next week I'm planning...

Sausage and mash with added greens.
Bean and fennel pasta
Butternut squash orzo inspired by this
Chicken curry
Soups will be this - with left over roast chicken from last week, and this leek and bean one

I fancy similar to this for weekend brunches

And last, but not least, I saw Nigel slater make a rice pudding ice cream with cherries abd dark chocolate. So im making that and of course, rice pudding.

I did this today from stuff in the house, one fat pork belly slice was fine and we have lunches for Monday as I did it with mash today. Fed two with 2 lunches ,(I left out the carrot and simmered a bit longer to thicken the gravy,)

Chat gpt. It saves the recipes you look for, which is helpful

---

⏱️ Quick Pork Belly & Cannellini Bean Skillet

Serves 2–3

Ingredients

400g pork belly slices (cut into bite-size pieces)

1 can cannellini beans (drained & rinsed)

1 small onion (sliced)

2 garlic cloves (sliced)

1 carrot (thinly sliced or diced small)

1 stick celery (sliced)

100ml chicken stock (or water with ½ tsp bouillon)

½ tsp smoked paprika (optional)

1 tsp fresh rosemary or thyme (chopped)

Olive oil

Salt & black pepper

Fresh parsley (to finish)

Method

1. Crisp the pork

Heat a large frying pan or skillet.

Cook the pork belly pieces (no oil needed at first) until golden and slightly crisp. Remove and set aside.

1. Cook the veg

In the same pan, add a drizzle of olive oil if needed.

Sauté onion, garlic, carrot, and celery until softened (5–6 mins).

Stir in smoked paprika and herbs.

1. Add beans & stock

Return pork to the pan.

Add cannellini beans and stock.

Simmer gently, uncovered, for 10 minutes until everything is heated through and slightly thickened.

@Seaside3your beef and sweet potato casserole sounds divine, could you share your recipe please?

@mrspositivity1
I made it up, but if I were making it again I would flour casserole beef chunks with flour, Paprika and season (I do this directly in the plastic container, just give it a little shimmy). Fried them in a cast iron pot. Then add onion, garlic, smoked Paprika, cumin, sumac, ras el hanout. Cook off spices, add chopped carrots and sweet potatoes, both quite chunky. Add tinned tomatoes, beef stock. Season and stick in oven.
Cook until the beef is done. The potatoes ended up making a thick sauce. Ypu could add chickpeas and lentils too. As you can tell, im a fluid Cook, and will add anything i fancy in the day. I've even put dried apricots and prunes in this style of dish.
Serve with herby xous cous and thick greek yogurt

This sounds good and very quick too. Im always looking for new ways to sneak more beans in to the diet, so thanks!

I reckon it would work with chicken too.

Yesterday was sweet potato salad with feta and caramelised pecans for lunch. I'd run out of oil, so made a yogurt dressing with yogurt, white wine vinegar and seasoning. It worked well.
Tea was the cauliflower and chickpea dshl, with the paneer I coated in spices earlier in the week. My son cooked ot all off, with rice. Served with yogurt and mango chutney, it was so good. Photo attached.

Today, fry up for breakfast, possibly pork and stuffing meatballs for tea, depending on who is around. Ive already made them and the roast potatoes, so will just make gravy and cook off some dark green cabbage.

Thank you, that’s dinner sorted for tonight

You're welcome @mrspositivity1 let me know how it goes!

Today we went out for lunch and for tea it was a case of eating up left overs yo free up some containers fir tomorrows cookathon.
Husband had the last if the paneer dahl. I added spinach, and served with the roast potatoes, which id added turmeric, nigella seeds and poppy seeds to.
Daughter are at work.
Son and I had the last of the Chinese dumplings, served with veg and noodles and a fried egg. Plenty of noodles left for another meal. Noodles contained 1 onion, garlic, ginger, 5 spice, miso, carrot, mushrooms, courgettes, broccoli, peas and sweetcorn. I fried the dumplings first, then put them in a colander above the noodles. Noodles boiled in chicken stock whilst I fried off the veg. Add Noodles to the frying pan, along with any sauce left then return dumplings to pan. Add soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce.

Loved today's cooking. Loads done, and this week's shopping was £70, including dishwasher tablets, loo roll, shampoo and conditioner! I did have quite a bit of meat from other weeks left which really helped.

Today I made:

Muligatawny chicken soup
White bean and leek soup with bacon bits
Roasted veg soup

Butternut squash and kale baked orzo
Braised fennel with white beans and walnuts
Chicken and rice curry bake
Sausage and mash bake
Peking beef

Baked rice pudding
Rice pudding ice cream with raspberries, dark chocolate and almonds

A few tips ive learnt whilst doing these big batch cooks:

To keep track of what I want to make it have a weekly collection of saved reels on Instagram

I try to pick recipes with similar ingredients - this week features kale, walnuts and white beans quite a lot. We might not eat them all thos week, but it minimises waste and is more cost effective.

Clean the kitchen before you go, and wash up as you go.

Remember to drink! I found I was forgetting to drink water as I was busy, so stay hydrated.

I try to get 1 lot of things in the oven first - then I concentrate on hob dishes. If I need to, I then prep another round of oven dishes.

Get out the main ingredients and put them together before you start. Its a good visual reminder, and allows you to check you have what you need.

Have a bag or box on the counter to chuck your rubbish into.

Water you have boiled veg in makes great water for gravy or soup.

Ok, I think that's it! Do you have any tips ive missed?

Wow @Seaside3 that all looks great.

In stark contrast my big shop this week was £218 🫣. I do only do a big shop every 2-3 weeks and just do top ups of bread/milk/fruit & veg in between though. Last week I spent £29 on groceries and my last big shop was £236 so I’m on track - I aim for under £600/month which is for all meals and snacks apart from dc4 who still gets free school dinners.

We finished last week with chilli, pizza, chicken in Marsala sauce with mash and green veg and duck with stir fried veg and noodles. If you have an air fryer it is brilliant for cooking duck in, the skin goes really crispy without overcooking the meat.

This week’s plan is carbonara, beef stew, chicken and leek pie with broccoli, carrots and peas, crispy duck pancakes, chicken thighs with pesto pasta, green beans and tomato salad, chicken saag with rice and naan, roast chicken and trimmings.