Suggestions for cheap/ filling meals for teenager sons who never fill up!

terra_ferma

In terms of budgeting you can work out a weekly/daily budget with them based on the household income, and give each this budget to use to make a virtual shop using My Supermarket, in that way they would soon realise how much everything costs and the fact that they need to budget, like the rest of the world.
It will help them learn how to work out a budget once they move out and start living on their own

jess1974

I feel your pain, i also have 2 ravenous teenage boys and feeding them is costing me a fortune......i no longer buy tuna, i have in my cupboard soup, beans, noodles etc, and if they are hungry in between meals, can rustle something up xx

Valli

When DS is at home I often do a stew (in the slow cooker) with dumplings. That fills him up.

I prep the veg/meat the night before and just fling it all in. Never bother with the precooking but it goes on at 7am and is ready by 4. I usually leave instructions (stir and add dumplings at *time* will be ready from *time* turn it to low and PUT THE LID BACK ON;))

(He's at uni atm. I am spending MUCH less on food)

kezlou

I feel your pain my partner and 13 yr old are bottomless pits.
They litterally pick the fridge clean.

I make sure we have plenty of bread, cheese, sandwich meat and milk in.

Pasta salad
Green salad
Cous cous
Quiche
Pasties
Pies
Sausage or cheese rolls
Boiled eggs

Are good to have ready so they can pick and grab.

I find if I make pancakes and leave in the microwave they work really well.
Plenty of beans, tuna, cornbeef and sweetcorn and mayo always easy to grab.
Ds1 now likes porridge and, showed him how to make it in the microwave. Takes a couple of minutes to make.

Not sure if thats any good for you

catandy

going to adapt some of the ideas given and see how we go - and yes carb based meals are the way to go - at least that way they feel full up for a bit.


also cutting down on buying tins of / packs of stuff they can open - eat in one sitting and then are still hungry


thanks for all the suggestions

mhoc

Interesting question. My youngest is like this, he now lives and works away but when he comes home it is like a plague of locusts have gone through. I think he still needs to eat every 2 hours like a baby does I have to start stocking up weeks before hand if he is due home to make sure there is enough food in the house.

When you are out of work that is when the main food demolition must go on so how about putting a list on the fridge of things they can and cannot eat - start at the top with any unrestricted items like breakfast cereals, fruit, tinned soup, toast, sandwiches, baked potatoes etc and at the bottom things that are on the banned list like expensive tins of tuna.

If there is time I would make sandwiches up for them, you can do this the night before, cling film them and leave them in the fridge with an eat me sticker on - that way at least they will be proper sandwiches and there will be less mess in the kitchen.

Homemade soup is another good thing, do a vast pan full so they can just heat it up and eat as much as they want - you can get soup mix which is various beans and lentils in the supermarket and then add carrots, onions and cubes of potatoes. This could also be frozen into cubes for them just to warm up.

I also used to do jellies with canned fruit in and left to set in small ramekins - 2 colours and peaches or bananas. These were help yourself puds and I would also do these the night before.

Also I used to do a vast bowl of fruit salad using canned fruit, frozen fruit and left over oranges and bananas which they could help themselves to.

poorly_scammo

Another thing to try is to switch to items which are low on the glycaemic index. These foods include wholemeal pasta and rice. The logic to using these is that they cause blood sugar levels to rise and fall slowly so you keep fuller for longer and don't get cravings. http://www.bda.uk.com/foodfacts/GIDiet.pdf

parsonswife8

You can get relatively cheap pasta. Cook up some beef mince with tomato based sauce, chicken with a creamy/mushroom based sauce and lamb mince with added veg, made into a large shepherds pie and portioned out, with baked beans.


Portion out some of the beef mince and the chicken to have on the pasta.


Curry some beef mince and chicken and cook some rice. Buy a few nan breads.


Make a few homemade pizzas or buy some pizza frozen bases and leave a jar of tomato passata, some shredded ham, thin sliced pepperoni, grated cheese and a few olives. Tell them how to cook them, what temperature and for how long.


Make a pot of chicken soup with veg. Buy some sliced bread or make a loaf.


Get some fruit like bananas and apples for them to eat.


Homemade popcorn is also really cheap.


Fish fingers and homemade mashed potatoes and frozen peas..


Make some beef chilli with mince and beans and chillies. Buy some wraps for burritos. Tortilla chips as well.


I haven't had time to read the previous posts so sorry if I am repeating things. Just hoping to help.

kboss2010

My good old stand-by -

*pasta, bacon, peas and cream -

mounds of cheap white pasta, a large tub of cream, two handfuls of frozen peas, a large sliced onion and either chopped up £1 for 6 slices farmfoods frozen bacon or chunks of cheap tinned ham.

Boil the pasta and peas, fry the bacon/ham with the onions then drain, mix in a pan and add the cream with some salt and pepper until the cream thickens to a sauce.

*HM cheese and tomato pasta

*cheap bread with cheap jam/marmalade

*soy and sweet chilli sauce stir fried with cooked rice and cheap root veg

*HM scones - cheap, filling and can make them sweet or savoury (e.g. Cheap sultanas/currants or grated cheese) - I used to whip up a batch every time I cooked dinner when my OH lived with me, especially if I was making shortcrust pastry as it's the same ingredients minus the cheese! Took me 5 minutes.

*Pickled beetroot/onions/piccalilly - my Gran used to buy the HUGE jars from kwik save for my uncle who could eat a horse. These days I'm guessing Farmfoods/Iceland probably do them.

*cornbread - American style sweet recipes with buttermilk are great alternative to cakes and you can get 1 litre of buttermilk for £1 in the Polish section of the fridges at Asda (in a yellow and white bottle with a cow on it) and 1kg of yellow cornmeal for £1 in the ethnic food section too!

*Chunky veg soup - use potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, tinned pulses and cabbage. Thicken stock with cornflour (FYI it's different from cornmeal for anyone unfamiliar with either)

*Chapatis made from besan (chickpea flour) - £1.50 per kg in the ethnic food section of Asda - mix flour with cold water and a pinch of salt to create the dough then make into a roughly round flat shape and dry fry in a frying pan. Trust me these are delicious and also incredibly filling. Great to dunk in soup too. I make mine about 1 cm thick.

bluebag

Pancakes are great for filling up teens. Savory or sweet. cheap to make and can be filled with all sorts.

Baked potato is another that fills with a variety or stuff that can go with them.

Biscuit barrel type biscuits seem to fill the sweet tooth craving without too much bad stuff and are quite cheap.