Week day meals without meat ..whaddaya all eat?

[plus3]

Was reading with interest that someone was cutting down their shopping bills by only eating meat 3 times a week. Now, we eat meat dishes most nights, the exception being baked potato night.

Basically am asking for veggie based meal ideas and /or cheaper meals. We often have risotto,and unfortunately no one was keen on my ratouille and rice.

DS is 4 DD nearly 2 and DH hungry when home from work!

Sorry if this has been done before

Pasta with homemade tomato sauce, I add mushrooms, red lentils, spices and herbs and black-eyed beans. Low fat as well as very filling and very cheap. I always make extra sauce and freeze it for a quick dinner. Grated parmesan or cheddar on top. Sometimes add fresh wilted spinach and pine nuts.

veg stew, salad, stir fry, vegetable bake, crumble, veg pastat (including mixing it into macaroni cheese which is good for kids I;d imagine), spanish omelette, baked tomatoes/peppers, veg lasagne, lentil bake.

I very rarely eat meat, in fact have only started eating it again after many years due to uncontrollable pregnancy cravings (bloody carnivorous baby!), so we mostly eat meat-free. Off the top of my head:

home made pizza (very cheap and much nicer/healthier than bought)

chickpea curry

chilli beans and rice/chilli bean fajitas (the latter are great fun, everyone gets in a mess as they assemble their wraps)

butternut squash and white bean soup

good old vegetable stir fry

I'll try and dredge up some more ideas. Of course it depends if there are any particular hates among your lot - at the moment I'm only cooking for me and DP, so it's easy - things may change once we've got a child that eats solids...

Veg stir fry

Veg curry/chickpea & spinach curry/soya mince and pea curry

Omelettes (cheese & tomato or cheese & mushroom) with oven chips and salad

Pesto pasta/tuna pasta/pasta with tomato & basil sauce

Pizza

Erm, loads more but I have to go now. I'm sure plenty of others have some good ideas

thank you! I do make that for the children but for some reason we don't then eat it ourselves [hmmm]
Another problem is that I have recently been confirmed as wheat intolerant, so pasta was off limits but back on the menu now thanks to the dubious rice/potato starch versions!!

tonight
Bangers (quorn) mash and beans

they had an uber healthy meal last night so feel able to give them a lazy tea tonight

veg enchiladas! Or veg tacos!

What a very useful question - we're trying to cut down and gradually convincing DH that meat-free does not equal inedible! Would love some new ideas.

Egg-based meals like omlettes and quiche are proving pretty popular.

Tinned fish is a cheap alternative to meat, if you're doing it for budget reasons rather than non-meat eating out of principle. Tuna pasta bake. Or pasta with tinned mackerel, frozen peas and creme fraiche - my stand by store-cupboard meal, nice with parmesan on the top.

We have vegetarian lasagne. Sometimes chilli based on vegetables and pulses, although that's one for when DH and I are eating without the kids.

Mine will eat ratatouille with pasta or rice - but they like it much better with lots of grated cheese.

Sorry was refering to the tomato sauces! The chickpea (and spinach) curries sound nice.

Pizza will be attempted tomorrow as I now have the Dovehouse farm bread flour.

Thanks for all the replies off to make supper!

homemade macaroni cheese

Ooh, I forgot bean burgers - very filling and nutritious. I generally mash up a tin of beans (kidney, black eye or whatever) or chickpeas with some chopped garlic, chopped spring onion, black pepper, lemon juice, herbs + spices (whatever you fancy really). Shape the mixture into however many burgers you need and bung them in the fridge for 30 minutes or so to firm up. I roll mine in cumin seeds before they go in the fridge, but this depends on taste obviously. Then just shallow fry them till heated through - I'd imagine you could bake or grill them as well, if you prefer. Delicious with salad - you could make potato salad, coleslaw, green salad, whatever you like really

Pasta bake (with roast veggies in)
Pasta and sauce (tomato / pepper / pesto / mushroom / etc)
Lasagne
Omelette
Lentil bake
Lentil curry
Pinto bean fajitas
Butterbean casserol
Kidney bean chilli and rice
Veg pie
Moussaka
Pulse and veggie, umm, sort of stew thing.
Pizza
Macaroni cheese
Roast veggies and couscous

Our favourite is leek, muchroom, sweetcorn, onion in a cheese sauce with pasta or sliced poratoes. Servewith watercress and tomato salad and bread.

• Spag carbonara
• Pasta Salad (Chopped baby toms, cucumber, olives, chives with a dressing made from 3 tbsn olive oil/1tbsn red wine vinegar and 2 garlic cloves that have been boiled with the pasta)

• homemade pizza

• Tomato and Egg pasta (tinned toms, onion, garlic, oregano - simmer for 20 mins, then stir in an egg and half a teaspoon of caster sugar) mix in pasta sprinkle with grated cheese

Soups offer a world of cheap and tasty options. You can't go wrong with leek and potato, especially with some tasty bread/garlic bread to dip in, and it's about as cheap as you can get. I read a good tip somewhere to make soup out of one primary vegetable and one type of pulse - so, e.g. red lentil and carrot, the aforementioned squash and white bean. Or you could just do what I tend to do in winter and bung everything in It's also a great way to use up odds and ends of veg, especially if you're planning to blend it.

little bit of a thread hijak here.

We eat masses of meat to and I would love a few chickpea/lentily type recipies. Have any of you got some.

Ta

What about tinned fish? Tinned salmon goes nicely in a risotto.

Tuna pasta is always a winner too.

Chunky chickpea soup

Serves 4

2 tbs olive oil
1 leek, thinly sliced
1 small fennel bulb, cut into small cubes
100g pancetta, cut into small cubes (or just leave it out and add some paprika instead)
1 carrot, grated
1 potato, cut into small cubes
1.5l chicken stock (or veg stock)
400g canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained
80g fresh spinach, chopped
50g parmesan cheese, finely grated
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the leek, fennel and pancetta and cook for 5 minutes over high heat, until the leek softens and the pancetta really flavours the oil. Add the carrot, potato, stock and chickpeas and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Season to taste with sea salt and black pepper then add the spinach. Cook over low heat for 5 minutes, until the spinach has wilted throughout the soup.
Serve with parmesan sprinkled on top.

Black bean soup with chilli and lime

Makes enough for 3-4 people

2 onions
4 garlic cloves
1 jalapeno chilli
1 tablespoon chilli powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
Salt
3 tins black beans
1 bottle of dark beer
1 cup water
2 tablespoons lime juice
Plain yoghurt/soya yoghurt

Big pan/stockpot
Stick blender

Mince up onions and garlic and cook on medium heat until golden, about 5 mins. Add minced jalapeno and cook for 2 mins.
Add chilli power and cumin and cook for 1 min/until fragrant.
Add beer and water, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 mins.
Add black beans and simmer for 10 mins.
Scoop out about 2 cups of soup into a bowl and puree with a stick blender. Return to pan, season with salt and add lime juice.
Heat up again and serve in big bowls. Add a big blob of yoghurt to each bowl and swirl in.

One of my favourite recipes ever - Madhur Jaffrey's spicy chickpeas:

2 tins chickpeas
2 medium onions
8 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground roasted cumin
Lemon juice
Salt
1 chopped green chilli
Grated ginger

Fry onions and garlic gently in oil for about 10 minutes, then add the first batch of spices and fry for 30 seconds. Add tomatoes and stir well to obtain a lovely red-brown glop. Add chickpeas and some water, simmer for about 10 minutes, then add second batch of spices, salt and lemon juice. Turn the heat down and leave to simmer for about 30 minutes, making sure it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Finally, add the green chilli and grated ginger, simmer for a further 5 minutes, then serve.

If you make this the day before, the flavour intensifies into something really amazing!

Falafel

Dahl and rice

cyteen or anyone in the know, can you freeze the chickpea curry thing? DH would love that, but it doesn't appeal to me.

You can freeze it but for some reason it seems to take the heat out. Shame really, those quantities do make quite a bit so I always end up eating it for about 3 days

plus3 - after thorough testing of most gluten free pastas, we found Tesco fusilli to be one of the best ones. Unfortunately not on prescription though. DS1 ate a lot of rice and quinoa at that time.

Also, if you're not also dairy free, we discovered a lovely new cake last week in the freezer section at Morrisons. It was a Swedish style tart with Snickers. Similar to the Dime bar cake you get in Ikea, but not quite as nice. Anyway, although it has some sponge in it, it was gluten free (said in big letters on box). Definitely worth a try. You could slice whilst frozen and defrost individual slices.