£30 a week, family of 3 and am stuck on meals help!

emilykf

One thing I'd say is that I notice you use boil in the bag rice? I would presume that's fairly expensive compared to normal rice? If you go to an Indian or Chinese supermarket you can get huge bags cheaply, also L1dl do the big bags as well.

shegirl

Wornoutmom wrote: »

Beef Goulash works well in slow cooker - with value rice and a cheap cut of beef you can do for quite cheap.

Gammon joint can be used for two meals - we have Gammon Egg and cheaps one day and then cheese and gammon filled jacket spuds the next. You can even stretch it to 3 meals probably as only 3 of you. Another one I do is to layer potatoes, leek, cheese sauce and leftover gammon and bake.

Tuna Fish cakes? Usually use a white fish but you could use tuna

Pasta bake or lesagne instead of your spag bol, use the same bolognaise with a cheese sauce.

Make your own burgers - only need mince and egg, maybe a few mixed herbs/onion/grated apple you can add what you have . I usually bulk a bit with breadcrumbs so goes further.

Your own chicken nuggets and chips - I coat in flour then egg then crushed cornflakes and bake in oven.

No need to use egg for burgers either,so that makes it a little cheaper still (I've never used an egg for them).To give them more flavour just chuck some onion,garlic (can use granules/Salt) along with mixed herbs into a frying pan until golden then mix into the mince.

mineallmine

Basic meals are popular here so things like

Egg and chips/wedges (slice pots into wedges, par boil, drain, add a little oil and chilli flakes, put on tray, roast)

Gammon, mash, beans

Ham, jacket potato, coleslaw. Or jacket potato and cheese.

A stew takes a bit of prep but uses cheap cuts of meat and can be yummy with thick bread. I buy neck of lamb (with bones on from the butcher), fry, add chopped carrots/parsnips/swede - whatever veg you like. Add stock. Leave it to cook, on low. Don't need to stand over it. You can often buy a stew pack of vegetables in the supermarket.

Hotdogs/sausages with onions, hotdog roll/roll, ketchup and wedges. Waitrose basics pork sausages are nice.

:j

donny-gal

Slow cookers do not need much prep. You can as lazy or not as you like, with only five minors to spare before I used to go to work, I would get some frozen mixed veg out, pop it in the crockpot, put it in the microwave to defrost (fast!!) throw in mince or stewing meat, which was thawed, boil the kettle make stock with stock cube, or pop tin of tomatoes into m/w jug add stock cube to that and boil in m/w, add herbs etc., add to meat and veg turn in go to work. If I do mash it is always two or three days worth at once, either keep in fridge for next day or freeze usually make tablespoon mounds, open freeze then bag. The mince can be used for various dishes, either the following day or freeze so ready cooked for next time. Add lentils and or oats and or grated carrot to mince it does make it go a lot further and never been noticed here. Value mince I do the day before, store in a tall narrow plastic box when cooked, allow to cool, pop in fridge overnight and the remove the thick wedge of fat off the top, and bin. Joints in the SC. just throw then in dry for about 3 hours, melt in the mouth, and juices which come out make the gravy. Brisket I do cook in stock with carrots, etc., Rice Pudding in the SC is equally painless add rice, sugar milk, do grease it first, add cinnamon/nutmeg if liked on top once it starts to thicken.

DG

Seanymph

you have a lot of mince in there - have you considered looking at vegetarian alternatives? Soups are cheap - and filling!

I buy potatoes and onions from the farm shop a sack at a time, so there are lots of basic things that start from there.

I also use tinned beans a lot, like vegetarian chilli with rice (which I buy by the sack at Tesco in the foreign aisle, much cheaper!).

Lilyplonk

I'd suggest occasionally using Turkey, Lamb or Pork Mince instead of Beef Mince. Different herbs/flavourings and you'll notice the difference in taste for a change.

Sometimes do cooked sausages - cut into 3 or 4 - in gravy with mushrooms and onions - topped with mash root veg (spuds with celeriac/parsnips/swede/carrots - whatever is going cheap at the end of the day).

Can substitute the mushrooms/onion gravy with tin baked beans if you like.

Can add a tiny bit of grated cheese, or sliced tomatoes, to the top of the mash. It's known as 'Pig-sty Pie' in my house :rotfl:.

gallygirl

welshmoneylover wrote: »

Hmm.. no mention of the dog!

Not sure how long that would take in a slow cooker .

You could try adding tinned beans - cannelini, pinto, chick peas etc but kidney beans are always the cheapest. If you don't really like cooking buy them tinned - and look in the ethnic section as chick peas are usually cheaper there.

If you add these then you could use less mince, so maybe afford better quality stuff? Alternatively, if the family like them then try doing your basic recipes just with mixed beans and no meat.

I agree with everyone else re the slow cooker. Bung it all in and leave it and it smells great - will be fab when you have little one as you can bung on in the morning when you get 5 minutes and switch off when done then reheat quickly rather than having to cook from scratch each tea time. Bulk cook and freeze so you can save time.

Add lentils - red, green or split peas - as well as beans for variety.

Good luck with little one .

PasturesNew

I work on the basis that if alternatives are too different from what you're doing then you won't be bothered/have the new ingredients, so I'd suggest stuff like:

Change the shepherd's pie by removing the mushrooms and spending the money on a bit of cheese. Remove the carrots. Top the pie with grated cheese and serve the carrots on the side. Not much different, but looks like you did something different.

Boil in the bag rice is a massive overspend... it's rice, in a bag. No need. Just steam/microwave/boil your own rice.

Chilli: Add in grated carrots and a tin of kidney beans, serve with some garlic bread by mixing a squeeze of garlic puree with butter and spreading that onto any random rolls/breakfast muffins you already have.

Chicken curry - jazz it up a bit by lobbing in some frozen peas and/or using a chicken breast instead of thighs. You can also try using fruit and lob in a chopped apple or tin of pineapple.

Sausages - serve inside giant yorkshire puddings, or do a sausage/pasta bake.

fly_dragon_fly

Hello again, thank you s much for all the ideas and for the suggestions, we always have cheese in the house ( I worked in the co op so I get discount still and there is always buy one get one free deals in there) ( and also anything reduced and buy one get one free in the co op still work together, yesterday got the finest co op cheese reduced down to £2.50 but still Bogof so a bargain as it doesn't expire til march sometime) as for burgers etc I usually makes those in the summer but shall start making those again aswell as using my slow cooker a lot more, when I'm at home I shall get my note book out and write all my favourite suggestions frm this and stick it to my fridge and do my meal plans for the month, only two weeks to go so need to start getting organised going to try and cook a weeks worth of food to freeze it this week

jackyann

Think about slow cooking a bacon / ham hock - you can usually carve enough meat off for a meal for 2/3 (small bits) and use the rest as "bacon pieces". I slow cook with a pulse of some kind.
Slow cook a very cheap joint - brisket has been suggested. Lots of variations, and plenty to use up.
Old fashioned pease pudding, topped with fried onions and cheered up with bacon bits / sausages / wedges
I am also a fan of slow roasting a stuffed chicken as a treat (bacon bits in the stuffing makes it even tastier) then using all the bits up over the week and making stock with the carcase.