ideas for cheap healthy meals.

[addictedishavingagirl]

dh is an office worker, hes never been that in to exercise and for the past 5 months has slowly been putting on weight. (coinsidently the same time as i had to give up exercise due to being pg and as i'm not doing it am unable to pull him along with me!)

its getting him down, i'm not that bothered about it, but he is. so we've worked out an exercise plan where he uses stairs instead of lifts and walks rather than gets a taxi and gets up 15 minutes earlier to run on the treadmill or exercise bike. and we've spoken about replacing his lunches eg boots be good to yourself sandwich/pasta salad rather than a big mac

so no we are looking evening meals. i always thought my meals were healthy, they are mostly made from scratch and i always bulk with veg. but a friend commented that maybe they wernt so healthy so now i'm looking for a few new recipie idea we can try. we dont have a huge food budget so cant do anything extravagant and the only meat we can really afford is chicken and beaf mince or lamb mince.

any ideas?

What meals were you cooking out of interest?

What i have done this week is brought 2 organic corn fed Chickens from Tesco they were 2 for £7, one of them has gone strieght into the Freezer and the other i have Roasted with a tiny amount of spray oil and seasoning, we had it with new potatos and Salad, next day we have Chicken Omeletes and today were having Fajitas, but not having sourcream or cheese, just low fat tortillas with the chicken and Fajita mix with salad.

There is also enough for sandwiches for DP tomorrow.

So that is 4 things with one large Chicken, and we still have the other in the Freezer.

Lentils are cheap and can bulk out things so you could freeze meals to make them quick and easy on bust days.

beef and lamb mince not that healthy if you're overweight, both are high in fat.

Skin the chicken, and serve with vegetables stir fried in Frylight cooking spray with chinese spices and garlic, and boiled noodles. replaces chinese takeaway

Chunks of chicken in a skimmed milk white sauce, topped with Plain mashed potato and served with carrots and peas. Replaces cottage pie.

tuna in onion and tomato sauce with chunks of red and yellow pepper, made into lasagne by layering it with lasagne sheets and low fat philidelphia.

Poached eggs with frylight cooked potato wedges and beans to replace egg and chips.

Don't put butter in sandwiches. Or mayonaise.

Lots of skinless chicken based salads, plenty of veg but use low fat yogurts instead of dressings.

Lean lamb mince kebabs

Make your own low fat burgers

hes not really over weight hes 6.10 and weighs 12st

i do a take on cottage pie with beaf mince, carrotts, peas, sweetcorn, onions, mushroom, courgette with a stock cube and 1/2 pint of water and potato slices on top

chicken or ham omelette with home made oven chips

jacket potatos with salad

tuna pasta bake

home made chicken pie with home made chips

chicken fajitas

home made lamb burgers

cous cous with chicken

roast chicken dinner (using left over chicken for other meals like tits)

i dont use lots of oil or anything, i have one of thoes airosol oil sprays so i just use the bare minimum

colditz, thankyou, some really good ideas and i already have some of thoes ingredients

when we do mince-based meals now, we beef (no pun intended) it out with a can of pulses e.g. kidney beans, haricot beans or whatever, as they're really cheap. great fibre too it actually started with that change 4 life thing, one of the ideas was 'pulse one' so I try to do that a few times a week.

one of my favourite meals is lentil stew, just sweat onions or leeks, then add dry red lentils and tip in a load of veg and cover with water and if possible a chicken/veg stock cube. you do have to pay attention to it, I always have to add more water!

veg wise, we use more frozen now. asda smart price - they do mixed veg too chopped up really small, great for casseroles!

your cooking sounds fine. Is he drinking more beer than normal?

were both t-total so no alcohol at all

i origionaly thought it was down to the lack of exercise and his lunch time meal options but then my friend came over for dinner picked at her meal and said it just wasnt healthy i've got really paranoid. (it was a chicken pasta bake that i'd made. chicken chunks with white sauce sweetcorn and pasta)

all veg is fresh or frozen, i dont use cans my mum hated opening them (she had a crap opener) and i've just grown up with that mentality!

i should probably give you his lunch time meal options (before we spoke about it )

a bag of jelly babies, bag of chrisps, bottle of fanta or 7up or similar and a bacon tripple pack sandwich or similar

big mac

restaruant with a client and have a full hot meal, but not tell me so i'd cook another one rather than a lighter dinner

i could go on!

thankyou for all the ideas - pulses is a good idea and i'll try the lentil stew

I think your friend was rude and has some kind of hang up about normal food. Unless you'd drowned your pasta bake in half a kilo of cheese?

Your dp needs to do more exercise and eat healthier lunches.

I'm going to start having a Boots Shapers meal deal sometimes (I'm a SAHM, but would pick one up in town) - if you're careful to choose only Shapers label stuff, apparently all combinations are less than 500 calories!

I do think what your friend said about your food is a bit silly. and bloody rude!

If you make things with mince try using Quorn instead of meat, it is really low fat and you can still add in lentils etc.

Your cooking sounds absolutely fine - it's the lunches that are a problem but you've sorted that.

I think your friend is incredibly rude saying that about your food! Were you talking about you wanting to change your meals, or did it just come out of the blue?