Cheap evening meal ideas??

[blossomsmine]

Bit short of cash for the next couple of weeks (at least!) I really need some ideas for cheap meals for the 5 of us, there are a few vegetarians in amongst us and the others are real meat eaters!! Not easy!
I always do spag bol, mushroom/ham pasta....just getting so fed up and can't think of anything! Anyone got any cheap ideas? We had jacket pots and beans and cheese tonight, that was ok and cheap.

lentil pie?

Well, I was going to suggest corned beef hash with poached egg (then I noticed you had vegetarians).

Lentil soup with good bread, followed by crumble and custard.

Homemade potato wedges with cauliflower cheese and veggie/meat sausages.

Chick pea casserole with cous cous.

Veggie curry and rice.

What about fajitas, spicy seasonal veg and beans for veggies and add chicken thigh meat for meat eaters?

Tuna and bean salad? (tinned tuna not expensive steaks!)

cous cous and roasted veg?

Sardines or mackerel with a side salad?

Ratatouille with mash or rice?

potato and leek soup

creamy leek and potato pie

cauliflower and macaroni cheese bake

stewed fruit and custard

baked bananas with buttons

champ with roasted veg

veggy sausages with mash and onion

We had a very cheap and easy casserole the other night. It consisted of 2/3 cans of mixed beans in tomato sauce, tinned tomatoes, herbs, any veg you have (mushrooms, onions, celery etc) and some veg stock. Put all in casserole dish and bake for 21/2 hours. We put bacon in it but you could add this at the end for the meat eaters...

Macaroni Cheese

Tomato & Chilli pasta

Baked Potatoes with cheese and coleslaw with salad on side

Quorn chilli with pitta bread and rice

Homemade lentil soup and sandwiches

Vegetarian lasagne and garlic bread

Vegetable stir fry

What brilliant ideas
Would you be able to post recipee for lentil pie and creamy leek and potatoe pie, please? I am not a bad cook but not confident enough to just throw things in and see how it comes out!!
Tonight we are having bubble and squeak, with bacon (for meat eaters) and baked beans.
Love the bean casserole idea aswell, any more ideas??

Mushroom risotto and salad

Pasta and pesto with sweetcorn and then sprinkled with grated cheddar

Dalh, served with pitta bread toasted and cut into strips to dunk in the dalh, also do cous cous to eat with it and add sultans to the cous cous before pouring over the boling water

Cook pasta to packet instructions - enough for 5,
use a tin of cambells condensed creamy mushroom soup, fry of some onions and in a fry pan, add the sioup and a little boiling water (I use the pasta water which is cooking at the same time) ad some swetcorn, peas peppers (whatever you like in that vien) and then put the pasta, the soup mix into a casserole and sprinkle cheese ontop and bake in the oven for 25 mins on gas 4

mexican

make refreid beans - use three tins of beans and wizz in food p then add cumin etc

roll the mixture in tortillas and then place in a baking tray and sprinkle cheedar over the top. bake in oven for 30 mins and make a salsa to serve with it.

make a big vegtable tortilla on a thursday using whatever is left in the fridge. serve with bake beans and crusty bread

have you got a breadmaker or have the time to make by hand? I can get away with the dodgiest thrown together soups/stews when there's warm, homemade bread to go with it

I have followed some this advice this week and it is going really well I am doing quorn chilli tomorrow night. Been keeping away from the supermarket, just needed milk and bread so far!

omelettes? You can add some ham for the meat eaters and cheese/mushrooms/onions/sauteed peppers etc for the veggies.

Yes, think i will do omelettes Friday night I am actually finding that a really cheap and easy meal. As long as you have eggs, anything else can go in them

I'm a veggie but my husband and son aren't (although helpfully, in the distant past they were). My favourite quick and easy recipes are: Pasta bake-tinned tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, pepper (or whatever other veg you have) brought to the boil, pasta cooked with veggie frankfurters put in for the last few minutes, mix it all together, put in a dish and grate cheese and bread on top. Very cheap, plus you can make double the sauce and freeze it. I've also taken to doing mashed potato, mushroom and spinach pie. Mash potatos as normal then put in a dish, add cooked mushrooms, boiled frozen spinach and put beaten egg with grated cheese in it on top. A favourite of my 7 year old!