Affordable family lunches: Your best canned food tips!

[EllieSmumsnet]

Summer holidays can stretch the family budget, but we’ve got a potential solution! Partnering with Love Canned Food, an initiative that celebrates everything canned food, as canned food is not only tasty, but also great value for money. It’s also high in quality, convenient to use and helps cut food waste. We're looking for your best tips and tricks for creating the perfect family lunch using canned food. Canned foods can be a great way to cut costs by up to a third, and they offer versatility and convenience.

• Share your tricks for creating the perfect family lunch using canned food in the thread below to be entered into a prize draw
• One lucky MNer will win a £200 voucher for a store of their choice. You can find out more about the VEX gift card and retailers here.
• Don’t forget to vote in our poll below.

Here’s what Love Canned Food has to say:
"Switching to canned food can save families up to 31% on their food bills while still enjoying great-tasting, home-cooked meals, during the school holidays . We aim to show families how easy and tasty canned food can be, while saving up to £160 too over the summer break*."

Share your family’s favourite budget busting meal ideas using canned foods.. One lucky winner will win a handy canned food hamper, plus a £200 voucher for a store of their choice! Let’s make summer lunches easy, affordable, and fun. Ready, set, cook! 🌟🍴

For more inspiration and recipes, check out Love Canned Food here.

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!
MNHQ
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Sweetcorn - so versatile and perfect in salads, pasta dishes, sandwiches and with jacket potatoes

It’s only called canned food in the USA etc. Tinned is what we call it here

Canned black beans for soup in winter, add whatever veg is available. and black beans for refried beans with fajitas in summer.

Tinned peas, corn and chickpeas into mashed potatoes and made into fritters, and another vote for tinned potatoes in the airfryer to go with tinned beans. For adults have you ever tried mushy pea curry ?? 300g fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped,1 small onion, roughly chopped, 50g tin of coconut milk,, 5 cloves of garlic, 2 cm ginger, roughly chopped, 2 tbsp oil,1 tsp cumin seeds, ½ tsp turmeric,½ tsp red chilli powder, 400g tin mushy peas, Salt to taste, 1 tsp coriander, chopped.
A full herb and spice collection is the backbone of your kitchen !

Chicken pie: use the chicken in white sauce tins, and then top with shortcrust pastry - bung in the oven. Can be eaten hot or cold, my favourite is warm with a side salad

corned beef hash: tinned corned beef, mashed together with mashed potato (can use instant or boil your own potatoes) Serve with baked beans on the side and ketchup!

baked bean curry: 2x tin of baked beans, optional can of kidney beans etc, then add curry powder (or chilli powder to make it like a chilli, or bbq sauce) serve with rice.

the obvious tuna, mayo and sweetcorn pasta is a classic! my boys also occasionally like hot dog pasta (tinned hot dogs chopped up, pasata or tinned tomatoes, mixed herbs and whatever veg with pasta)

Tinned tomatoes, corned beef and a tin of sweetcorn. Mix and cook- with onions and garlic. Add some rice.

A favourite in my house for years!

Tinned veg and new potatoes can make a quick meal. I usually have with Sausages or faggots.

soups- lazy lunch!

I use tins a fair bit- they’re better for my budget and last a good while!

Corned beef or spam, I make a corned beef hash (oxo sliced potatoes and thinly sliced onions), corned beef and potato pie, mixed with instant mash covered in egg and breadcrumbs for little patties, mixing with rice to make burritos, corned beef omlette - and in a sandwich. spam fried rice tastes AMAZING with added spring onion, corn, peppers and some soy sauce, spam frittatas (perfect for leftovers) , spam ramen.

All cheap, quick and tasty.

A large bag of pasta, macaroni, frusilli or penne pasta is really cheap and can make 3 days worth or teas mixed with a pasta sauce, making a macn'cheese adding lots of vegetables can bulk the meal out further. I made tea for us ALL for £3.50 for 5 days - with enough to take for lunch.
As long as you keep adding liquid (a pint vegetable cube) when it gets to dry it still tastes as good.

Can of black beans, sautéd onion, sachet of fajita or chilli seasoning (cheapest from Lidl), can chopped tomatoes, can sweetcorn- serve wraps, on baked potatoes, with rice. Cheap, nutritious

Tinned fruit has always been a brilliant go-to in our house. We usually run out of fresh fruit between grocery deliveries and I hate doing 'top up' shops. So having a couple of tins of peaches or pears in is so handy - blob a bit of natural yogurt on top and it feels less like emergency rations.

We use loads of cans! They’re especially good for vegetarian food - tinned pulses are a staple here.

Lentil bolognaise is the obvious one, but I use chickpeas and lentils in curries a lot too.

The things like multi bean chilli with kidney beans.

I eat fish so will have tuna jackets.

I also make a few recipes from Jack Monroe such as her Gigantes Plaki or chickpea falafels

Can’t beat a tuna pasta salad, made with tinned sweetcorn and a tin of condensed mushroom soup. Perfect for when the fridge is running low.

Canned asparagus with butter, herbs, pepper and some grated cheese made into a toastie.
These toasted sandwiches are really delicious.

Canned sardines added to freshly cooked large pasta and butter.

Canned pineapple dipped in batter and fried.

Canned tuna made into a tuna and sweet corn mornay and used on pizza base or pita bread.

Baked beans, canned, and used in a jaffle iron over a fire.
Use sour sough bread and real butter.

Canned asparagus rolled in triangles of soft white bread and butter - very 1970s- but delicious.

Agree that canned fruit is lovely with yoghurt or cream or icecream any day.

One of my favourite dishes when I get home starving is to chop onions, fry with salt till softened and add a tin of sardines. quick fry for a few minutes to get some fried onion flavour into the fish, add coriander and tomatoes, fry a few minutes more, and add chillies if you want. It takes as long as it takes to cook microwave rice.

Also works with tuna and mackerel. I always have a stack of tinned fish at home, it feeds me so cheaply, although mackerel and tuna arent really that cheap anymore

Tinned potatoes to make potato salad, or in curries
Tinned sardines on toast, delish
Tinned sweetcorn to make fritters
Tinned fruit salad for an easy dessert
Tinned tuna for with jacket spuds, add mayo and sweetcorn

Chick peas or butter beans added to a curry. Delish.

Tinned fish, tuna and salmon to make fishcakes (with some herbs and thai spices), my favourite go-to dish for mackerel Kedgeree- my family love it ! receipe is 2 medium eggs, 2 cans (125g each) Princes Mackerel Fillets in Olive Oil, 1 small onion, diced, 2 tsp medium curry powder, 250g packet of microwave rice,100g frozen peas, 100ml cold water- all store cupboard ingredients !

Has to be baked beans - on toast - the best comfort food ! baked beans in jacket potato, or over cheese on toast.

Corned beef, spam, ham - it's always good to have them in your storecupboard for a corned beef hash - best winter dish, spam fritters and beans, mini pizzas on with tomato puree, mozzarella and ham (and pineapple), or with rice and veg to make a filling family meal. (adding herbs and soy or black bean sauce)

Chickpea curry made with canned chickpeas, canned green lentils, coconut milk & tinned tomatoes.

Fry onions, add a curry paste, (chillies optional) & then fry off with tinned tomatoes for 10 minutes.

Add the tinned chick peas, green lentils & coconut milk.

Simmer gently for 20 minutes, add chopped coriander leaves, squeeze of lemon or lime juice & serve with rice or naan bread.

Bean and cheese toasties are one of our go to quick lunches and I sometimes add tomato puree under the beans for an extra 1 of our 5 and day.

I use a lot of canned beans and pulses in citrus and stews. Cuts the cooking time down too, which is great.

A canned staple we always have is coconut milk, great for desserts, curry’s and stews

Pasta gets my vote, I have a bag of coloured pasta, whole wheat, and plain pasta, and pasta shapes - mixed with vegetables, sauces, home made meatballs, and chunks of spam ham and tuna fish - the school holiday mealtimes can be cheap and nutritious and filling.

Grab a tin of beans and sausages and a tin of chopped tomatoes, mix with penne pasta (and add some bits of chopped pepperoni if you're feeling flush), pop it all in a casserole dish and top with grated cheese. It makes a simple, yummy and cheap pasta bake - particularly comforting in autumn and winter.