The Cheapest Healthy Meal Ever!

spugzbunny

Oh I would say, you can cheapen this down a lot by buying porridge oats instead of the 2min microwave oats that I buy. Buy supermarket own l.fat yog instead of muller lights. Buy cheaper fish. Eat cheaper veg - I prefer asparagus & butternut squash but if I'm a bit skint I'll have carrots and peas!

Drea

spugzbunny wrote: »

Oh I would say, you can cheapen this down a lot by buying porridge oats instead of the 2min microwave oats that I buy. Buy supermarket own l.fat yog instead of muller lights. Buy cheaper fish. Eat cheaper veg - I prefer asparagus & butternut squash but if I'm a bit skint I'll have carrots and peas!

Thanks for that, gives me a bit of an idea and your £80 isn't much more than what I spend when I take my lunches into consideration.

gailey_2

I have a mate and her hubby who seem to live on something frozen with chips or readymeals, yes she says she dont like to spend much but main excuse is time.

Hubby and daughter take packed lunch which is cheap healthy

usually
small pot yogurt/fromage frais
peice of fruit usually value bag apples
bag of crisps
sometimes grapes, cherries, tomatoes or raisens
daughter likes cucumber and carrot in sticks, breadsticks with mini pot of dip
we vary sandwiches to wraps or filled pitta.
Fillings vary but some good examples is

cheese and onion-quite cheap
ham only buy proper ham, hubby likes corned beed
leftover meat from sunday roast like chicken
oh chicken and stuffing even if it is paxo.
whats really nice is cream chese spead with sainsburys basics smoked salmon trimmings with little bit lemon huice on top,
tuna/mayo
egg and cress
Hubby oddly likes those princes sadwich pastes

Do mix it up a bit think of tupperware as freind and buy some cheap tubs with kids.

do dried pasta with tin sweetcorn or frozen and tuna-cheap/healthy
I cook a boil in bag rice with water and stockcube then drain and mix in peas and swetcorn make savoury rice.
green salads with crisy bacon peices or chicken and grated cheese.

vegetable stir fry with noodles very quick i just fry with few splases of soy sauce.
serves 2 often see it reduced or on offer in produce department.

pasta with homemade sauce from passata best to make in bulk than freeze i add bacon, pancatta or ham to mine as sometimes cheaper than mince.

homemade pizza making own base and passata for sauce plus toppings.


winter small thermos flask of soup simple and cheap to make self, tins ok but i do like fresh covent garden soup and its often on offer and can be frozen.

september go blackberry picking and nuts

try simple cake or bicuit recipie.
I do cook huge dish like lasagane or shepards pie and portion off into tubs then freeze very healthy.
The ingrediants for my lasagne quite pricey as i use red wine, expensive mince and 3types of chese comes in at about 5quid mark but makes 8-10portions so less than 1quid per portion hubby just blasts in micro and serves with chips or wedges.

big pan of chilli or curry vwoth doing as could be added to rice or jacket potato.

omlettes we love chese and ham
pancakes made with savoury with chese and ham spinach fillin.
fritta basically baked omlette with potaoes and any other things got to chuck in
quiche with just roll frozen pastry.i make mini ones in muffin tin again great for packed lunches.

eggs are fab as so many options with them.

brecckie-wholemeal/granary toast with butter/jam, peanut butter if in a hurry
healthy cereal or porridge
yougurt and peice of fruit
maybe batch cook some cereal bars if short on time.

weekends distant memory of lie ins b4kids but we sometimes skip breckfast and have brunch so

cooked breckfast of lean bacon, eggs, grilled tomatos, mushroon, sausage, frozen hash brown on brown bread.

bacon sandwich sometimes with egg in big crusty baguette
get part baked ones and just bung in oven so they smell fresh
croissent and jam-rare treat
scrambled egg on toast or boiled egg and soldiers.

SmlSave

Hi Drea

check this out : http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/recipe-chillimince.html I've found it really interesting and the meals are very cheap and healthy.

I agree with the making more than you need and freezing the extra. Whenever we make chilli or pasta sauce we make a whole pan full and freeze them (in chinese takeaway containers) Pies freeze well and so does lasgne if you make it quite 'solid' in tin foil parcels.

Have you tried bulking things out? grated carrot and lentils work well - my DH doesn't mind as long as you can't see them

HB81

Hi,
Try taking a look at some of the recipes here http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/recipes.html
This website is being developed by Weezl, a regular on these boards, with the aim of providing a full monthly meal planner for an average family of four for £100, and for it to be healthy with at least 5-a-day fruit and veg and the right balance of calories/fat etc etc. E.g. there is a chilli recipe costed at £0.42 per portion and a hm pizza recipe you could make yourself in advance and freeze ready to bring out on those days you don't feel like cooking.

edit: oops, someone bet me to it!

spike7451

I also make my own quiche quick & easy.I buy the ready made pastry bases,around 56p,then mix some eggs,milk & whatever I want to add to the mix,(cheese,bacon,onion ect) & bung in the oven for a few minutes.
Does me a week for lunches.

Pink.

Hi Drea,

These threads have lots of ideas that should help:

The Cheapest Healthy Meal Ever!

How to Feed Your Whole Family a Healthy Balanced Diet, with Very Little Money...etc

Healthy eating but moneysaving?

Healthy Eating

Easy, cheap Vegetarian recipes?

cheap, easy family meals

Your best/cheap/easy fish dishes please

What's your 'can't be bothered' dinner/tea?

I'll add your thread to the first link later to keep the suggestions together.

Pink

Drea

Didn't expect this many replies :rotfl:

Thanks everyone, some really good ideas and I'm going to look at what to make at the weekend quite excited about it now

Although will never be able to separate it all out once merged

Pink.

Drea wrote: »

Although will never be able to separate it all out once merged

You won't need to separate it out. Posts are listed in date order, so you'll find the more recent posts towards the end of the thread.

Pink

bitsandpieces

If you want something to stick in the microwave some evenings, Tescos and other places will do frozen fish fillets (I like salmon). Stick in the microwave with some veg and lemon juice and it's barely more work than opening a pizza package and sticking the oven on.

Batch cooking is very helpful. It's no harder to microwave a portion of homemade chilli or whatever than to microwave a ready meal. Just takes a little planning...

Also, well worth learning how to make a quick folded omelet if you don't already know. Means I can get home and 5-10mins later have a cheese omelet with salad/toast/microwaved veggies.