Easy cheap family meals for a week planner

[lisalisa]

title say s it all really.

Trying to economise but not wanting to scrimp on good protein sources.

What would your choice be of good family meals on a budget?

By the way there are 5 kids in my family between age 3 and 12. No pork or shellfish please as we are kosher.

Thanks

Oh and to start ball rolling I would suggest looking out for special deals in supermarkets - 2 weeks ago my local tesco had an amazing deal - half side salmon for £6 - cut into slices that made about 12 slicnes of salmon. Enough for 2 dinners for us ( so £3 per dinner) but for smaller family would be even cheaper.

thanks all

I'm still rather fond of the feta and spinach lasagne recipe you posted on here years ago, though we ditched the faffy, roll-it-into-canelloni business. Cheap and the kids can make it.

Go to sainsbury's lentils etc section and they have packets of 'soup mix' and similar (can't remember the exact name) which is a mixture of lentils, oats, pearl barley etc that you can use to bulk up stews and casseroles. I also routinely bulk out anything meat-based with lentils (bolognese sauce, mince, chilli etc). In extremis you can use TVP instead of meat, but it really isn't as nice.

I have a veggie-burger recipe at home featuring a tin of chickpeas and various other random veg, all squidged up with some oats and a beaten egg.

Lots of good spices is the key -- buy a packet of chilli flakes from a middle-eastern corner shop. A knife-tip of those improves virtually anything. The coriander/cumin angle is good for making root vegetable-based dishes taste less workhousey.

Failing that, a large chicken will do us three meals (roast chicken, some kind of casserole and chicken soup with rice/pasta).

Tuna pasta

Squash risotto or just mixed veg risotto (well you can just about anything - leftover chicken with asparagus is yummy)

Fritatta and salad

Ratatouille and chicken thighs

Make huge batch of veg with tomato sauce and then split - use half as veggie pasta sauce adding italian herbs and garlic and half as ratatouille adding Ras al Hanout.

Use some of the pasta sauce up by making veggie pasta bake, adding it in layers with pasta and then a layer of cheese and top with cheese and bake till goes scrummy and crisp on top.

We have roast veg with sausages sometimes which is cheap if you can get lots of near sell by date medditeranian veg at the supermarket - of course kosher sausages!

Braising steak cooked for hours in a tim of tomatoes, add tabasco and worcestershire sauce and a couple of oxo cubes or some sort of kosher beef stock and then have mashed carrot and swede and cabbae or green beans and broccoli.

I could go on and on all I seem to do is bloody cook at the moment.

Also a good old stew with stewing veg pack you get at supermarket or buy seperate from cheap market stall, with minced beef, add tabasco, oxo, worcestershire sauce and a bit of garlic with dumplings or bread to dunk or boiled potatoes.

Home made pizza, everybody loves it and you can use all your left over vegetables.

MMmm thanks - some very good ideas here .

particularly like sound of casserole types from madamecastafiore .

frogs - funny you should mention the soup mix thingy. i did that last night wiht a bean and barley mix adding carrots and potatoes. Was absolutely decilious but took an age to cook ( due to raw lima beans).

I agree with you re spices and use a lot of spices/sauces at home. re making root veg dishes taste less workhousey!!!!

You are lucky that a large chicken will do you 3 meals - a large chicken no longer does us one meal - need one plus a few thighs!!! hence probalby this request for cheaper dishes.

Kedegree sounds interesting - anyone got a good recipe.

The feta and spinach lasagne sounds nice, how do you make that?

Can i ask how you all manage to make a large chicken last more than one meal??

We use the whole thing for one meal We must be v v greedy. There are 6 of us btw.

I also think its hard to make the chicken last - we are 7 and can't do it . Maybe the families concerend are a lot smaller!!

Re spinach and feta lastgne - I think - can't exactly remember as we don't make it so regularly anymore - take a large bag of spinach and add a pinch of nutmeg and a packet of cubed feta cheese.

Take a box of lasagne sheets and soften slightly in warm water for about 10 mins. When they are pliable but not too soft scoop bundles of spinach and feta mixture ( small bundles) inside and roll up and place in dish. Add tin(s) of tomatoe chopped and sprinkle with grated cheese and cook. Voila! My kids used to make this in the mnorning with me when i was very busy getting lunches tetc ready and b/feeding.

now I've posted it I am inspired to make it again!!!

Amny more ideas anyone?

Hmm that sounds lovely lisalisa,i will try that one. I love feta!!

Thanks for that, it sounds refreshing after all the xmas food we have been consuming.

dhal is my cheap / healthy / they eat it option:

fry cumin, coriander and tumeric in oil and water until fragrant

add 3 finely chopped onions and soften

add vegetable stock cubes and some boiling water

add half a pack of red lentils

cook it

add some salt / sugar / lemon juice

cook it some more

cook some rice

serve with yoghurt, chillies, chopped onion and mango chutney

be surprised as whole family eats without complaining

Jamies 'ministry of food' cook book has some great basic simple recipes in it

Cheap cuts of meat cooked very slowly can be another good standby.

Beef brisket is cheap, and lovely if you stew it gently. For the non-kosher on MN, hand of pork is a an equivalent pork joint that is beautifully tender if slow-cooked in apple juice.

Another vote for dahl: I do Delia's here but instead of the tomatoes and peppers I just fry up some onions and garlic in spices and dried chilli flakes then stir it in at the end. This adds a nice crunch and more spiciness. I serve it with chapatis (easy to make your own but I usually buy them) and a yoghurt raita or mango chutney.

Another really easy/cheap thing is cheese and onion flan - shortcrust pastry in flan dish, stab it a bit with a fork. Fry some onions until golden then stir them and a load of grated cheese into mashed potato; whack into the flan case and bake. This is good with homemade baked beans.

I love brisket cooked slowly with paprika, brown sugar, onions, about a pint of beef stock (from a cube!) and some red wine if we have any. It ends up with loads of flavour, really tender and caramelised on the outside - nicer than an expensive joint of beef IMHO.

Lentil soup
Daal
Risotto
Lentil bolognese/ shepherds pie
Omelets/ frittata

See here

cheap meal thread

Came across this web site today. Looks good.

www.bestrecipes.com.au/category/Ratings/

Also this is useful;

www.sainsburys.co.uk/family/feed_your_family_for_a_fiver/feed_family_fiver_l3.htm

Yum yum -some really excellent ideas here. All sound good and don't want to single anyone out for fear that others will think their contributions not valued but janeite your flan sounds gorgeous. Haver to ask though - mashe potato? I've never heard of that in a flan before? presumably it works and is not too hard?

Yes it's fine - just add some butter and milk as you mash it, whack it in the flan case then wiggle a fork around a bit on top to make the potato into small "peaks" like on Shepherd's pie. Then just put it in the oven to brown if you've baked the pastry case blind, otherwise on a lower oven to cook the pastry case and then turn it up a bit to brown it.

For the homemade baked beans I just fry an onion, a bit of garlic and then add some paprika, honey or brown sugar, mustard and black pepper - fry up a bit. Then add a small tub of passata and a couple of tins of drained cannelini beand and cook it up a bit - taste and tweak as needed.

If you are making any sort of stew/chilli/casserole add a handful porridge oats and or red lentils - makes it creamier and bulks it out

lisalisa- I read this last night and was inspired to make your spinach and feta lasagne for lunch today.

Have just witnessed DDs aged 4 and 1 shovelling in large quantities of spinach (have never got it past their lips before)- thank you!

Btw I added a dollop of creme fraiche to the chopped tomato topping, which made it quite nice and creamy.