New here and need help please

toria27

Good morning everyone! I have to confess I have not posted before but have been visiting this site regularly now and it has helped me save loads so far. I have been trying to do the grocery challenge and last month my budget was 50 quid pw for 2 adults and an 8mth baby including nappies,milk and all toiletries and cleaning products. This month I have reduced it to 40quid pw and I only have 18 quid left until June!

I have enough nappies, baby milk and have made a month supply of baby food so it is really just me and OH to worry about.

Heres what I have in my freezer and cupboard (I know its a lot but I lack inspiration for coming up with different meals and we always tend to have the same thing and get bored)

6 x eggs
1 x pack of bacon
3 x portions chicken breasts
1 x portion stewing beef
3x portions of steak
6 x sausages
4 x pork chops
3 x ready made bolognaise
bag of frozen peas
bag of frozen green beans
3 x tins of beans
a few potatoes
lots of pasta
lots of cous cous ( never know what to have with it!)
bit of rice
1 x tin tomatoes
herbs spices dumpling mix etc
2 x tinned pineapple
1 x tinned peaches
lots of pudding rice

(When I say a portion this serves 2)

I need to make 15 different evening meals, lunches are sandwiches and we have tinned tuna salmon and corned beef for these breakfast are also sorted as I have loads of cereals. I am out of fresh fruit and veg and do my shopping at tescos there are no cheap places to buy thigs around here.

Thanks for your help

WeirdoMagnet

How about...

Sweet & sour chicken to use some of your chicken breast, your pineapple, a few frozen peas and your rice?

A casserole to use some stewing beef, tin of toms, dumpling mix, serve with green beans & spuds.

A sausage casserole

A pasta bake using one lot of you bolognaise sause, some bechamel/cheese sauce and your pasta

...I'll keep thinking!

toria27

Thanks georgina, i didnt think of doing sweet and sour chicken do you have a recepie for this?

outrageous_monkey

This is only a suggestion..........never had it myself.......but what about if you cook a thinly cut a couple of slices of the bacon, take a couple of sausages thin cut too )or peel the skin away and rub into small balls. Lightly fry, then add eggs to make an omelette. You could use the rest of the bacon and sausages to make a different meal at a later date. I was gonna suggest a spanish omelette, but you need a green pepper and an onion for that. But that was using the eggs and the few potatoes you have.

HTH

Julie

WeirdoMagnet

toria27 wrote:

Thanks georgina, i didnt think of doing sweet and sour chicken do you have a recepie for this?

I don't have one personally, but there are plenty on the BBC Food Website.

MrsTinks

Cous cous, Stock (either from stock cubes or home made if you have it), bacon and peas. Cook the cous cous using the stock to add flavour and add a little butter if you have it. Then put in the bacon (once cooked and cut up) and the peas (again cook them...). Add herbs if you like and even chilli if you want to spice it up. You could even add one of the chicken breasts all ripped up (and cooked) to add more substance.

Again similar with the pasta but use the bacon and the sausages all chopped up and make sure you add butter to the pasta after you have cooke it in stock (both will add a lot of flavour)

Summer is a rgeat time for both pasta and cous cous salads - you can even mix in rocket leaves and some pineapple chunks if you wanted to

Penny-Pincher!!

Do they have to be 15 different meals?

I would do something like:

Egg & Chips x 2 meals
3 X Chicken breasts-make into a curry and pad out with frozen veg and pulses if you have any-even baked beans would do-2 meals, so use 2 and freeze 2, serve with rice or couscous
Pork chops-How big are they? Would serve with mash and veg and the other 2 with the pineapple so 2 meals
Sausages-Toad In Hole, with spuds and veg-so 1 meal
Stewing steak-either stew or HM pie, padded out with spuds and veg-1 meal
3 x Steak-Cut up and make HM pie/curry or serve with mash/rice-2 meals
3 x bolognaise-serve with spagetti or couscous-2 meals and pad out
Bacon, egg, toms and saute spuds-1 meal
Jacket spud and beans-1 meal
Veggi Chilli and rice or couscous-1 meal

Use the tinned fruit/rice pudding as deserts and put a crumble on top of the fruit.

HTH

PP
xx

henhog

Hi - Pennypincher seems to have it all covered - :T Here are some ideas for really cheapo meals when you use up all of the nice stuff!

You could cook the pasta and just mix it with olive oil and a bit of the bacon (fried). It's lovely. Pasta with butter is nice (I used to eat this as a student when the bank wouldn't give me any more money!)
You could do baked potatoes - you could top them with the beans or just with butter.
You could do a simple tomato sauce with your tinned toms and some herbs and serve with pasta.
Frozen peas can be made into a soup really easily - cook in about a litre of boiling water (with a stock cube - either veg or chicken) as usual, and then when they are cooked blitz it in the food processor or liquidizer.

HTH
HH

toria27

Thanks everyone, I thought people might come up with the same things I usually cook but they havn't. I'm going to try the sweet & sour chicken tomorrow night with some egg fried rice. And the couscous with bacon sounds nice too!
I'd love to have the pasta with butter henhog but am watching my diet at the moment so will just have to make the tomato sauce.
Thanks for the detailed ideas pennypincher I often read your posts and you inspire me.

Thanks again