£7.00 per week - menu ideas

quintwins

has anyone mentioned baked taties yet? i love baked taties with cheese, beans and butter, or butter and coleslaw, or when i was on slimming world cream cheese and spring onions which is prob the healthiest option.

Butterfly_Brain

CHEESY LENTIL BAKE
175g/6oz red lentils
350ml/12fl oz water
110g/4oz cheddar cheese, grated
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper
a little mustard
cheese sauce mix
1 tsp butter

Preheat the oven 190C/375F/Gas 5.

Rinse the lentils thoroughly and cook in a tightly covered pan with the water for 15-20 minutes.
Check after 10 minutes in case you need to add more water. The mixture should cook to a stiff puree.
Remove the pan from the heat and mix in the grated cheese, chopped onion, parsley and mustard . Season to taste.
Make up the cheese sauce mix and pour over the lentils.
Grease a 450g/1lb loaf tin with the tsp of butter and press in the mixture.
Bake for 45-50 minutes until the top is golden brown and the mixture feels firm to the touch.
If you are serving this loaf hot, let it stand for 10 minutes in the tin before turning it out. Alternatively, serve cold with a salad.

Soworried

That sounds really nice BB. I will have to try that one as well.

Butterfly_Brain

You could add a tin of tomatoes as well soworried just to give an alternative oh and some streaky bacon to the tomatoes as well, that makes another version

Soworried

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

You could add a tin of tomatoes as well soworried just to give an alternative oh and some streaky bacon to the tomatoes as well, that makes another version

I have all that in as well. Except my streaky bacon is cheap cooking bacon these days.

PennyGrabber

Oh yeah! Baked spuds! I'd completely forgotten about them! They were a staple meal when I was a uni student. usually with baked beans or a cheapo coleslaw, or if I was feeling rich, with cheese!!

debbym

quintwins wrote: »

has anyone mentioned baked taties yet? i love baked taties with cheese, beans and butter, or butter and coleslaw, or when i was on slimming world cream cheese and spring onions which is prob the healthiest option.

They were on the now infamous menu plan I'm actually wheat intolerant (although not completely allergic I can cope OK with small amounts in my diet) when I'm having "one of those days" I use baked spuds in lieu of pasta for me and cook pasta for the family - use the same sauce just split it when I serve it, haven't found a pasta sauce it doesn't work with yet.

Fruball

My colleague and I have been puzzling over how to do a whole week of meals for 2 people for £7 and I have to say - I just cannot do it healthily. But I think I would be happy to eat it for a week or two if money was really tight.

So

Shopping list
(all sourced at MrT online, today except for potatoes)

Value tinned tomatoes 31p
Value Lemon Curd 22p
Yellow split peas (500g) 49p
Value rice (1kg) 40p
Value spaghetti 24p
Deli counter 100g double gloucester cheese 48p
Value butter 98p
15 eggs 1.25
Value pork sausages x 8 56p
value coleslaw 20p
value white rolls x 12 35p
value peas 900g 95p
3 mushrooms 20p
4 baking potatoes from ald! 39p

Grand total = £7.02 (ok it is over the £7 but you could probably find 2p in the street if you went looking )

Breakfasts/Lunches = either a fried egg or lemon curd in a roll - one day would be one sausage in a roll (You would be 2 rolls short so I would suggest a lie in on the weekend and get up for lunch )

Dinners -
Risotto made with 2 sausages and peas with tiny bit cheese on top

Jacket potato with cheese and coleslaw

Casserole made with 2 sausages, 1/2 tin toms and split peas - serve with wedges

Omelette with peas

Spaghetti with mushrooms, butter and black pepper (even better if you could get your hands on a clove or two of garlic)

Pea soup followed by tomato risotto

Spaghetti made with 2 sausages and lots of peas tossed in butter.

If you had any seasonings/stock cubes etc then this would be all the better for it.

I know this is not a healthy week's food but should be bearable for a short while as I think it offers a bit of variety.

If you had butter already then that 98p would be better spent on some fruit or vegetables but I couldn't eat dry pasta - pasta with butter, salt and pepper is actually very good so I would personally rather have the butter than the fruit/veg.

For an extra £2 you could include a reasonable amout of fruit/veg. Even one extra carrot would be an improvement on the above :rotfl:

nat21luv

Oh this thread is very impressive, thank you thank you thank you! The meal plans on the first few pages are great, I love the idea of plain pasta with olive oil and seasoning, think I may have it for dinner tonight!

Well done ladies, sterling job!

nat21luv

Oh forgot to add, at my local car boot they have fruit and veg sellers. Towards the end they sell a box (banana box size) of mixed fruit and veg for £1!! Managed to nab one; 9 tomatoes on the vine, 2 punnets of red grapes, 10 plums, 20 apricots, 8 apples and punnet of cherries