Less meat more cake?

crockpot

I do most of my shop in Aldi.

Have had limit luck with HM burgers, the sight of mince makes hin physically sick, which puts the others off! He just works himself up and at 12 is not much better than when he was 4.

Hubbie will not eat anything with a bone in it!

12 year old does not like 'mixed' up food. Have tried soup but they did not like it.

On a typical week we would have a roast beef dinner, roast chicken, HM pizza, sauasauge and mash, fish and chips, kids might have chicken in bread rubs and pasta if we had a pasta bake.

Can not afford to throw food away or cook 2 meals each night.

Roast and chicken only do 1 meal, cause they raid the fridge for leftover meat!

ubamother

If you want the roast and chicken to be used for other meals, rather than being available for snacks, is it worth freezing the leftovers as soon as they are cold enough in appropriate portion sizes? If you're happy making pastry, pies make meat go a lot further. When my brother was a teenager he had really hollow legs and mum would make extra pastry, just rolled out in a circle and baked to serve with a meat dinner to help fill the void.

zippychick

I don't know about you , but i don't find cake filling. Have you thought about a veggie night or bulking out your meals with pulses etc?

What about soup recipes thread for a starter?

We do have a microwave cake thread

we also have a cheap meals microwave thread

Cheap healthy snacks may also help

we will merge this later on

Zip:A

Pink.

Hi crockpot

I agree with the soup starter, cheap and easy to make and leftovers can be used for lunches. It certainly helps to fill my lot up.

On meat free days we have pizza, omelettes, quiche, pasta with sauce, pasta bakes, veg lasagne, veggie curries, vegetable chilli, filled baked potatoes, mushroom risotto, soups or salads with crusty bread, pannini or a cheap night eg beans, mushrooms or scrambled eggs etc on toast. If they really insist on meat, you can make a little bit of bacon or one chicken breast stretch really well in the like of omelette, quiche, pasta or fried rice etc.

In addition to the links that zippy has posted these threads may help:

Best vegetarian recipes for non-vegetarians?

Want to go half veggie

My food budget has halved! Need lots of help please, including veggie recipes!

Easy, cheap Vegetarian recipes?

I'll add your thread to one of those later.

Pink

custardy

crockpot wrote: »

With the price of meat on the increase need to find a way to keep my growing boys full.

One will not eat mince however I cook it!

The other would eat a cow a day if I let him!

Have already increased carbs and veg but no filling them. So think pudding is the way. Time and money are short.

Have made the tea loaf, but need something that bakes quick or microwave? Need to save on fuel too.

Any ideas?

meatballs,meatloaf,burgers?

valk_scot

crockpot wrote: »

Roast and chicken only do 1 meal, cause they raid the fridge for leftover meat!

Well, I'd put a stop to that one instantly. It's all very well wanting snacks, sure, but taking ingredients that are required for another meal is an absolute no-no in this house and results in a really utterly dull meal being presented to them the following night. At 12 and ?? your lads are well old enough to understand they shouldn't just take anything they want out the fridge and cupboards and your OH should have figured this one out a few decades ago.

Anyhow, if they're meat hungry it sounds as if you need to keep the protein up. If their bodies need this for growth then no amount of extra stodgy puds or veg are going to satisfy this craving. Milk, eggs, cheese, fish, nuts, pulses, beans, liver, quorn etc? You can use minced meat (remember it does't just have to be beef, there's lamb, pork, chicken and turkey mince too) for meatballs, kebabs and meat loaf. Milky puds like rice pudding, baked egg custards? Also you could think about things like beans on toast, boiled or scrambled eggs for breakfast, extra protein foods in their lunches like frittata, cheese sticks, boiled eggs (I'm a great fan of eggs) and meaty fillings like cooked ham and thinly sliced leftover roast meats.