Help me cope?

SailorSam

Lots of lentils and dried beans, loads of veges and just a little meat.

Sallygirl

Have you had a look at this blog? She has some pretty tasty recipes on her blog.

http://agirlcalledjack.com/

Pink.

I find I can stretch meat more by choping it up rather than serving it as is. Tonight we're having a stir fry. Two small pork chops (sliced up) will feed the four of us whereas if I was to serve the three men half a pork chop each they'd look at me like I was mad. Chicken is good value too if you buy a whole one. Roast, slice thinly and then try to get another couple of meals out of it, and finally use the carcass to make soup.

These threads may help:

Best vegetarian recipes for non-vegetarians?

cheaper cuts of meat

cheap cuts of meat that can be slow cooked

Rubber Chicken

Pink

Meadows

Better to eat less meat but better quality. When it comes to mince it is so versatile you can do many things with it to make it taste different.
Try to check as many local supermarkets as you can as often as you can for bulk buys, offers or reduced items to keep the budget down, try bulking with mushrooms which make the dish more meaty, add dried Soya along with the meat.
Do meat loaf, look for cheaper cuts that take more cooking as they are cheaper and often have more flavour.

maman

I'm not saying don't have some meat free meals (egg&chips yum!:)) but if you normally buy mince, there are other meats which are just as cheap if not cheaper.

I had a quick look at Sainsbury's site on mysupermarket for ideas and pork leg, shoulder and gammon joints all come in at £4 per kg or less. You can use pork for roasts and then cut up for sandwiches or stir fry or you could cut some off the joint raw and cube it for casseroles. I buy my gammon in Aldi/Lidl and it's generally no more than £4 per kg. I do it in the SC and the stock makes the most delicious lentil soup and you can have the boiled ham for meals or slice for sandwiches.

Beef shin is about £7 a kg and a little would give lovely flavour to a stew all padded out with dumplings and veg.

Cheapest I saw was bacon bits for cooking at £1.70 per kg. Great for chopping into lardons for pasta, adding to soups and generally you can find a few decent rashers in those packs for grilling.

I, too, only buy decent sausages (I like Sainsbury's GFY Cumberland). If you cut them up into meatball size pieces 3 or 4 sausages would be enough for a casserole, again with plenty of veg.

I love liver and onions or liver&bacon. That's only £2.22 per kg.

I know they're not the healthiest but for a meaty hit then I do buy frankfurters. £1 for 10 in Aldi or Lidl (every bit as good as Herta). They're good for hot dogs, sausage sandwiches or stirred into pasta and you can freeze them.

HTH.

suki1964

Use smoked bacon miss pieces of bacon to add to pasta dishes and to make quiches. The flavour is bigger so very little goes a long way. I got some packs of smoked lardons for 50p which I've used along with leaks and chicken in a pie and made a pile of quiche for the freezer and have some to use as a pizza topping instead of ham

Fish buy reduced as you can. Smoked haddock and white filets are always being reduced in my mr t. I make a pile of pies with it and freeze. Small amount of fish, hard boiled eggs,peas and corn topped with mash and a grate of cheese. Yummy

I make a chicken do three adults three meals each and then the dog gets the scrapings only because hubby won't take the soup. But the soup made the the bones and scraps served with spuds is really filling

And fishcakes made with tinned fish I use cheap cans of pink salmon and a squeeze of anchovey paste to give it more flavour.

There's so many cheap satisfying meals to be had. You just have got in a bit of a rut with your repitoir of dishes. Come join the what you cooking for dinner tonight thread for inspiration. It's helped me

GlynD

Liver is extremely cheap and a great filler. Shin of beef (or hock as some call it) is a cheap cut but can be very good for boiling or in stews/soups. Go to the cheap corner of the supermarket where they sell the stuff that's almost past sell by date. You'll get great meat bargains there which can be frozen if you don't need them straight away.

jackyann

Definitely look for really cheap cuts like the hock that has been suggested. I do brisket in the slow cooker - fantastic flavour - eat it like a roast with loads of veg as you suggested, then stir fry it into a bean-heavy chilli.
I also suggest that you buy a pack of the "bacon off-cuts" that my butcher sells for £1 (you don't find them in supermarkets!) You can fry them up and flavour a lot of dishes with them: scrambled eggs, any sort of pies or soups (if you fry them crisp and sprinkle them on soup it looks posh) and add them to something like this:
I love old-fashioned pease pudding - I make it with "pot veg" ie: onions, carrots & some celery/celeriac if any is about (I like to buy a celeriac and stretch it out because it is so flavoursome). I bake it in the oven and serve it with fried onions & wedge potatoes.

Another cheap cut is trimmed breast of lamb, with plenty of stuffing, and left overs can go into a mainly veggie tagine with lots of chick peas.

Asian shops for spices, pulses etc.

I also recommend corn chowder, a lovely soup, but can be made very thick & chunky for supper:
fry up potatoes & bacon bits, you can add onion if you like, and also if you have a left-over pepper, then add sweetcorn and milk (I do think full fat is best, but sometimes I use my usual milk if I have left-over cream, it also works well with tinned cream or evaporated milk) season with paprika
I do hope that helps

PS: have cross-posted as usual, and must second suki's fishcakes - I add nam pla / chinese fish sauce to mine which really brings out the flavour (and costs me £1.50 for 750ml at my local Chinese store)

oldtractor

We rarely eat meat nowadays. What with the horsemeat scandle and the bacon and sausage thing I'm glad we dont! we eat loads of veg and pulses and some fish. occasionally chicken turkey or pheasant. most recipes can be veggiized eg spag bol. theres lots of info ont his thread re recipes and on the thread generally.
for sandwich fillings instead of ham etc use squashed mixed tinned salad beans and grated carrot

Tink_04

wow thanks everyone there is some great ideas on here might have a look and see if I can get gammon tomorrow and see how many meals I can get out of it then make soupwiththe stock for lunches next week any recipes that would help? if I put the gammon in the sc what do I do with the fat? was hoping for gammon egg and chips tomorrow then gammon mash & veg on Sunday do youthink there would be enough?Thanks again everyone I love the OS board for ideas.

Was hoping to get 4 meals a week with meat for my meal plan next week, hoping to do a veggie curry and another 2 but will look up ideas and somewhat I have in already and do my plan tonight x