Help feed my family from the stuff I have

Sarah2490

I'm on a mission to sort out my shopping/feeding/wasting/cooking habits as we spend more than I can really afford, waste more than I can afford and I don't really cook

My first 2 challenges are to stop buying expensive 'baby' foods (see my other post) and to eat up the food we have to try to stick to our food budget this month.

I have £40 cash and 5 x healthy start vouchers (£3.10 per voucher for fruit/veg/milk) to last until the 28th (2 weeks). We are a family of 3. I'm a crazy, unorganised mum of a little girl who is 4 and a little baby boy who's 8 months.

My baby boy can not have cows milk/milk products or soya, things with * are ok for him along with any other none dairy things on the list. I get his special formula on prescription so I don't have to budget for this.

I've taken a stock check and this is what I have -

Sugar - about 1/2 a 1kg bag
Custard Powder - nearly full tub*
Porridge & Baby porridge - enough for 6 breakfast for the baby
Daughters Cereals - enough for [STRIKE]6[/STRIKE] 3 breakfasts - daughter spilled some cereal this morning!
[STRIKE]1/2[/STRIKE] 1/4 packet of Rich tea biscuits*
[STRIKE]4[/STRIKE] 3 packs of hula hoops
1/2 box of cracker bites
5 x packets of 4 breakfast biscuits
box of boil in bag white rice - 4 packets
500g bag of basmati rice
500g of Fusilli pasta*
Carton of Passata 500g
Jar of peanut butter - nearly full
[STRIKE]Tin of chopped tomatoes[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Tin of tuna[/STRIKE]
tin of sardines in tomato
Big tin of beans
small selection of herbs & spices
10 x veg oxo

Freezer -
12 x golden syrup pancakes - the small Americam ready to eat ones bought on reduce down on Saturday
2 x Large beer battered fish fillets
1 x large homebake birds eye sausage roll
15 x veggie fingers*
2 x veggie tomato & pesto melts
6 x potato cakes*
half a bag of quorn mince
9 x sausages
18 breaded nuggets*
bag of frozen mash
2k bag of steak cut chips
4 x small pork steaks
3 x small turkey steaks

Fridge
2 x 2l of milk - cravendale good till 28th
Tub of extra light cream cheese
1/2 bag of carrots
[STRIKE]1 courgette[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]1 leek[/STRIKE]
bag of baby new potatoes 750g

I also have ingredient to make a pasta bake for tea that will also make enough to keep for Monday/Tuesday - I don't mind eating the same meal for a few days

I was thinking of using some of the carrots, the courgette, leek and potatoes to batch cook a veggie stew and/or pasta source that I can freeze for my little boy but I have no idea where to start really?

Any meal plans, recipes, tips & tricks would be much appreciated

asparagus1968

Hi.

you have a good stock to start from so that's great.

I'd buy more porridge, breakfasts can be that plus pancakes /toast/ basics jam or peanut butter.

other nutritious breakfast is boiled egg and soldiers.

then i'd go through your list of proteins- meat/ fish/sausage roll/nuggets/pesto melts etc and plan meals around them for each evening (if that's when you have your main meals) leftovers from these can be for lunch the next day.
other lunches could be beans on toast/ fish finger sandwich/ cream cheese on crackers etc

some meals we regularly have, that you can make with what you have got in, with just a few things to buy

spag bol-quorn mince,tomato,onion,garlic and pasta

tuna fried rice- cooked rice mixed with any veg (fresh or frozen) and tin tuna anfd fried with a little oil or butter.

pasta bake / veggie stew- just fry an onion with herbs/garlic or whatever seasoning you have, add chopped veg,and water or dissolved stock cube, cook on a low heat for at least 30 mins.

can add to pasta in an ovenproof dish, sprinkle with cheese (crushed cracker/ breadcrumbs or a bashed bag of plain crisps is good to make a crunchy topping) and pop in oven for 5 mins to melt .

or, can be mixed into cooked rice, or poured over baked potato.

sausage and mash

potato cakes with a poached egg and baked beans

I think once you have individual meals planned you will see you have loads of food there!

meg72

You have a lot in stock, 40.00 cash and 15.50 vouchers.

I would start by making a list of evening meals from what you have

I can see

1.Sausage and mash, using 5 of your sausages, cut into pieces with fried onion and gravy.

2.Toad in the hole using the other 4 sliced lengthwise.

3. Tuna pasta Bake

4. Fish and chips. just take a bit of each for the kids.

5. Pork casserole, just need to buy 1.oo pack of casserole veg (iceland)

6 Nuggets and chips

7 Turkey steaks, chop very small , add some veg and make a pie.

I am very out of touch in feeding a baby, but just used to mash everything we were having.

Good luck with this I think you will be fine

Own_My_Own

Have you tried this site .

http://www.supercook.com/

You add what food you have and it finds recipes. There are other sites that do similar.

Sarah2490

Thanks for all the tips and the link

I think to start with it will be easy to feed us all with the things we have as long as I stick to the plan but as the stock goes down I will need to get creative and will need lots of help with that!

I will keep updating the original post to check off what I have used so I can keep a close eye on what we have to work with

My meal plan for this week for me & my daughter is

*Tuesday - Fish, new potatoes & carrots
*Wednesday - Sausage & Mash plus carrots if there are some left if not beans
*Thursday - Veggie fingers & Chips
*Friday - Nuggets & Chips with bean if not used on Wednesday
Saturday - Pesto melt & rice

For my little boy I am going to make some 2 more batches of home made baby food using some pasta, turkey, rice and veg as the stuff I made Sunday was a hit

I need to get some fruit & veg so will use a voucher or 2 for this

Butterfly_Brain

Can you make pastry, cakes and bread?

Sarah2490

Cakes and pastry yes, bread no as all that proving and kneading drives me crazy lol

My dad always used to call me to make his pastry when he did a pie as my first ever job was in a bakers. I stopped baking when I moved into the house I am in now as the oven was rubbish and everything would burn on the bottom no matter how many times I tweaked the temp/cooking time but I have a new oven and made fairy cakes with my little girl for the first time in it last week and they were perfct

Butterfly_Brain

Use the coupons for milk, veg and fruit, so no outlay there, I don't know if you can use them anywhere as the super six in Aldi is good value plus a lot of their veg has gone down in price as well and 2L of milk is £1, if there is only you and the littlies I should think that you only need a couple of bottles a week.
With £40 I would buy flour, butter and lard for pastry so that you can make pies and pasties and buy some eggs so that you can have them boiled, scrambled, poached, omelette, frittata etc and in cakes.
There is a no knead bread recipe and it works every time, you can use it for anything from bread to pizza bases to fruit buns. Tortillas and flat breads are a doddle to do as well