Worried about family getting enough calories

[Tatoumorse]

We've been very poor lately, paying back debts, I have researched all of our entitlements where we live (abroad).

I'm constantly cold now it's winter as per last year, and my teenage boy and younger one are always hungry. Today googling other things I think we may be undernourished, never crossed my mind before.
I thought we have a healthy diet, porridge/yoghurt breakfast, boiled egg/peanut butter toast for lunch, with a small cereal bar each, then pasta/rice-based veggie dish or chicken for tea, occasional burgers and occasional cake.
But today I added up the calories and we get approx 500 max per day if I calculated correctly. I'm really worried this is way off what we should be getting and may be a source of several health problems now that I'm joining the dots.
I am not a bad parent but I had a poor upbringing, not to blame that, but I never learnt about nutrition, I was actuallly more worried about overfeeding my kids (unhealthy snacks, etc.) Now I feel awful.

On a VERY limited income, how can I boost our calorie intake in a healthy way quickly? I wonder about protein shakes, or noodle snacks? Any advice please, but not on the debt issue as that is in hand, I had expert advice on it etc. and am just having to do my best and pay back over a 2 year period

I’m sorry to hear you’re hungry OP, must be so worrying as a parent.

I empathise, I lived in France as a poor student and food is v expensive there. Things I used to make relatively cheaply:
Pasta, homemade white sauce (uht milk), sprinkle of Comte cheese (the best value, most versatile cheese I could find!), carrots, tinned sweetcorn.

Lentil stew (tinned lentils and tomatoes, fresh cheap veg like courgette, onion, mushroom)

Eggs! In any form - homemade pancakes, omelette, scrambled eggs, combined with tomatoes and toast etc.

You sound like you’re doing everything you can to do the best by your kids despite things being tough - I really hope things get better for you!

Do your kids get free school meals? I'm not sure if that's a thing in France, but even if not free they are probably quite subsidised. Are there food banks?

If possible, weigh and measure yourselves - if anyone is already underweight then obviously the situation is already urgent.

You've had lots of good advice on here about cheap meals. Make use of your slow cooker with cheap cuts of meat when you can.

Il faut faire la fin des marches et remplir ton caddy OP, et puis il faut aller au secours populaire. Tu peux aussi demander de geler ta dette jusqu'a une annee. Regarde aussi si tu peux avoir une aide exceptionelle aupres de la mairie. All the best OP.

To disagree with the previous poster I think the last thing you need to do if you are cold/anemic/frequently ill is to go vegetarian at this time. (I'm not anti vege and was one for years)

I would suggest you try to eat more affordable meats more often such as pork steaks and mince in bolognaise or chilli's.

Get your bloods taken and see if you are low in anything particularly B12, D. I think you need to do this before you start taking multivitamins if you want a true base level.

An evening hot chocolate made with full fat milk could be an affordable treat and boost calories.

You might also have exceptional help at the CAF. All the best op.

Iron from lentils is better absorbed by the body. But if the problem is quantity meat is so expensive even if it's every other week the cupboards might start to replenish a bit.

What is your weekly budget for food? The supermarkets in France can be pricy for certain things but tend to be reasonable for butter/ham/pate/cheese etc, which alongside fresh (and in our area very cheap) bread from local boulangerie would provide filling accompaniments to a veggie and lentil stew/soup. The boulangerie can be surprisingly cheap, I think they are subsidised. Even the tarte creme which is a luxury at €8 but is huge and easily provides 10 portions full of homemade egg custard which would keep hungry teenagers going

You can do jacket potatoes in slow cooker, also full fat rice puddings.
Dried pulses are much cheaper than canned. They need to be soaked and then cooked. They can bulk out stews etc.

Olive oil is healthy and you get a lot of calories for your money. It also makes everything else taste better and won't spike blood sugar like a lot of the starchy suggestions here. You can drizzle it on toast, add to pasta meals etc.

Edit

But today I added up the calories and we get approx 500 max per day if I calculated correctly.

Yes, you have! A bowl of porridge is anything up to 400 calories. An egg is around 70 calories. Rise/noodles are very calorific.

Haven't read replies but read yours. The phone application Yazio is very easy and helpful for nutrient and calorie tracking. Your meals don't sound enough for the growing kids. Lentils, chickpeas, beans, mixed with pastas, potatoes, rice, tinned veggies, tinned tomatoes, olive oil if you can. Frozen fruit is usually cheaper, you can make smoothies with full fat yoghurt and milk drizzle some honey or sugar. Frozen veg is also good, mix spinach puree with potato puree for instance, cauliflower, leeks, broccoli bakes with some cheese or cream or both if you can afford on top. Swap snacks with these kinds of hearty cheap meals. Can you get vitamin supplements, own brand ones are usually cheap. Peanut butter is good, also in smoothies.

and eggs are amazing full of nutrients.

I think you might have added that up wrong @Tatoumorse . Have a check. You probably are getting enough calories.

Dietitian here, as Pps have said that is not 500 kcal, more like 1200-1500. Not sure how old your kids are, but they will need some high calorie foods. Doesn’t have to be unhealthy: peanut butter, fish tinned in oil, full cream milk, adding olive oil on top of pasta sauces, raisins as a snack, cheese. Frozen veg is as good as fresh, nutritionally anyway. As a PP suggested ( in french) turn up at the market as it closes to pick up discounted fruit and veg, or when the supermarkets discount their perishable produce ( in U.K. it’s usually around 7-8 pm). Good luck!

Big bags of pasta and potatoes don't cost much, you can batch cook, it doesn't sound like much for two growing teenagers to eat in a day tbh.

concentrate on getting a healthy array of nutrients by eating a smallish amount good quality food that gives you the necessary amount of protein, vitamins etc then fill the boys up with cheap pasta, rice, potatoes or bread. The extra calories will help you feel warmer too.

These values are approximate!

An oz (28 grammes) of carbohydrates or protein is approximately 100 calories.

An oz of fat is approximately 230 calories.

Therefore fatty foods are more calorific, by weight, then carbs or protein.

As someone who dieted on 1400 calories, I find 500 hard to believe correct with what you've listed. Lean into traditional peasant food. In France it should be especially easy to get North African ingredients. One of my favourite meals when home alone (DH not a fan) is mujudara which is rice and lentils with onions cooked down to caramelisation. A vegetable tagine is very inexpensive or a couscous stew (I miss those tubes of harissa I used to find in every supermarket in Paris). If you spent the money you would on a chicken for one night, the ingredients for a chana masala with rice, home made flat breads and red onion pickled in lemon would last half a week.

Honestly I'd fill up with lots of potatoes, bread and eggs.

My fave high calorie meal is eggy bread with syrup and beans and cheese on baked potato,

Potato with tuna mayo or just sweetcorn mayo as a budget alternative and you can have as many potatoes as needed to fill up for a cheap meal

Also definitely calculated wrong, I've never been able to get a normal sized bowl of porridge under 350 calories with milk.

Eggs are around 70-80 calories per boiled egg
Chicken is hundreds and then all the sauce you must be on at least 1000-1300 calories but to boost that up just make cheaper meals with bigger portions, could get the kids a cereal for when they're hungry

I don’t know if anyone has suggested this, @Tatoumorse, but My Fitness Pal is an easy site to use to calculate the calories in meals - it is a fitness/weight loss site, but it has a huge data base of ingredients and packaged foods that you can use to add up the calories in your meals.

If you are always hungry then you aren’t eating enough. Perhaps you need to extend your debt repayment timings and release some money. It’s not fair on your children to be constantly hungry.

It sounds like the OP also needs to learn how to cook. I don't mean that rudely at all. I mean if you can start a file of nutritional recipes, with low cost ingredients, perhaps that can help evolve your meals.

I know so many people who can't cook from scratch. You wont really know about nutrition if you are not chopping things up and making something IMO.

Have you heard of Jack Monroe? She has loads of recipes on a budget.

https://cookingonabootstrap.com/

Hello,
Apologies first as I'm not going to be able to do justice to all the kind and helpful comments and advice and tips as I'm only now finishing a teaching shift and then need to help with a bit of homework...so I'm not going to get the chance to check my calculations today but it does seem like my calories count was a bit out.
I want to say I'm really grateful for all the advice - will go through it all carefully and some of the things I can do immediately.
Just in reply to what I've kept in my head

1. We do have the porridge with water, not milk because of my lactose intolerance. In fact one child has a full fat yoghurt instead because he doesn't like porridge but that's it for breakfast. For lunch, I have one egg and 2 slices of bread without any spread (no toaster, so not toast) and the boys have the peanut butter on bread, which is relatively expensive but seems like a good choice for calories, so many on here recommending. I think you're all right about the cereal bars, particularly as I buy the euro ones (5 for a euro) which can't contain much of anything. We eat chicken or beef twice a week (2 meat dishes in total per week) and then veg the rest of the week, with rice/pasta.
2. I've minimised my debts as much as humanly possible, they're in UK/Ireland not here but it's largely friends I owe now who bailed me out when the boiler broke and I can't hold off paying them back as you can understand.
3. I'm waiting for my social security no and after that might be able to avail of some things like school meals, get a doctor etc as others recommended - I'm not sure yet, I'm chasing this up as it's been months now, but again my priority is to sort myself out not rely on help, but not be ridiculous about it in the short term therefore if I do find assistance locally that some have recommended on here, I will do it short-term
4. I love the idea of slow cooked jacket potato, might be a life saver as no oven (as mentioned) and slow cooked flapjack, will definitely google. Because of my own IBS etc. issues I have frequently been underweight and before having my boys the doctor's main advice (years ago) was to drink a pint of full fat milk daily which I did but that was before the lactose intolerance reared its ugly head. I can definitely give milk products to my sons though whilst I continue without it (I won't risk an illness due to adding in milk products, but I can eat a bit of soft cheese and a bit of milk now and again without a flare up, just only a little- in a country of cheese though, sadly!).
5. Bananas, bananas, bananas - noted! I've found an Nutri Ninja cup replacement on Temu.com in my break which would be great as that's all I need to make smoothies again and can maybe do bananas, milk/yoghurt and dollop of peanut butter for boys to add in a bit more nutrition/calories.
6. Do the French have baked beans? Aldi thankfully does do cheapish "flocons d'avoine" (oats) whereas other supermarkets are pricier here (small packets, though, they can't be popular. Eggs fall in the expensive category but I know I need to rethink things if that's the way things are for us right now (we really can only afford a dozen per week for all the family, free range)

I'll look through all the other comments soon and thanks so much/ je vous remercie - for those who've said I'm not doing too badly, that has helped too, because nobody has starved yet I just want to cope with this period a little bit better and not feel like my boys are really hungry if that can be avoided.