Help please, food shop...

samanthaneww2d

I see you have tinned potatoes cheese and egg a frittata using the potatoes would be filling . puttanesca is quick and cheap just need olives capers and tomatoes and chilli flakes or maybe omit capers if too expensive olives are cheap at aldi .
soups are good you can make with anything really. Carrot and ground coriander would be easy to do if you have that in your spice rack.
I would buy pasta and rice and potatoes as earlier post says £2 for a big sack if you have a morrisons nearby. make sure you get enough protein tinned beans ( kidney beans etc are great ) quorn mince is £1.40 atm at morrisons as well.
do you eat curries ? again super cheap and make with what you have.

you can make chapattis with flour ( plain flour) like others have suggested check out a girl called jack .

carlymummy

Thanks everyone for all the ideas much appreciated and taking note before I meal plan.
Liney - I should have explained better my youngest only gets the free school meals because he's in year 1 (the government bought in the free school meals until year 2) my other 2 boys aren't entitled at 11 and 13 that's why they take a butty to school, plus they can eat them whilst kicking a ball

hilstep2000

If you can get a tin of corned beef, you can make a casserole that is delicious! Chill the tin till it's hard. Slice the corned beef up, slice an onion or leeks if you have them, and slice a load of potatoes, add peas or other green veg. Put a layer of corned beef, a layer of onions and green veg, and then a layer of potatoes in a dish. Keep going till full, finish with a layer of potatoes. Pour an Oxo over the lot. Stick in the oven and cook for about 40 minutes till the potatoes are soft.
My Mum used to make this, I do too, I think it's a wartime thing, but it really tastes good!:T

SailorSam

carlymummy wrote: »

that's why they take a butty to school, plus they can eat them whilst kicking a ball

Instead of butties for lunch, it's easy to make a rice salad in a little plastic box, some cooked rice, bit of frozen veg, corn, peas, peppers whatever. maybe cheese or tuna, chicken or sliced sausage / hotdogs. Whatever the lads like.

Butterfly_Brain

A small chicken is £2.75 in Aldi at the moment and you will easily get two meals plus a stock from one chicken.

So a roast one day followed by a chicken curry, chow mein, stir fry, sweet and sour, spanish style, pie or pasties.

Make a chicken noodle soup out of the stock from the carcass if you have any left over meat just add it to the stock with some sweetcorn and broken spaghetti, top it up with water and simmer until the spaghetti is cooked. Alternatively make a cream of chicken soup the base is a basic white sauce (1oz flour, 1oz butter and 300ml of milk plus the stock) I make mine the Delia way, that is I put everything into the pan whisk well and then turn on the heat added to the hot stock whisking all of the time then I add meat and veggies of choice.

I bought a sack of Morrisons potatoes this week as well 12.5 kgs approx 25lbs for £2, that will last us a couple of weeks easily and we are a family of five adults, one is veggie and one fussy eater (DD's BF.)

We love potato scones which are cheap and easy to make, lovely served with a fried egg, fried tomatoes and bacon great as a Saturday brunch or Sunday brekkie.

They are also tasty with jam or syrup

Potato Scones
[FONT=&quot]Makes 12 pieces[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]450g (1lb) Floury potatoes, peeled and boiled [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]¼ tsp salt[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2oz butter[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]4oz self raising flour[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Mash potatoes, add salt and butter and flour to give a stiff mixture.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Turn out onto floured surface, knead lightly and roll out to a thickness of 1cm (1/2inch).[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Cut into triangles and cook on a hot greased griddle or frying pan for 4-5 min on each side.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Serve hot[/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]* You can freeze them as well, just reheat thoroughly in the oven[/FONT]


Pancakes for breakfast is another cheap idea, we prefer English style with lemon and sugar but you could do American style ones, the Jamie Oliver recipe is the easiest 1 mug flour, 1egg and one mug of milk. beat well and add spoonfuls to a hot pan,turn down the heat to medium flip when bubbles appear, serve with syrup or whatever takes your fancy.


Buy a bag of red lentils to bulk out mince or stews, plus you can make a dhal or lentil bolognaise, cheese and lentil loaf, lentil burgers etc.
I always bulk mince, stews and pies out with lots of veggies as well as a good handful of lentils.


Lunch boxes don't have to be sarnies, how about HM meatballs with salad with a HM potato salad or make pasties, vegetables in a cheese sauce go down well here even with DH so does tuna and sweetcorn in a white sauce, in fact you can put anything in a pasty.
Tuna balls are portable, lovely hot or cold and the kids love them basically tuna mixed with mash and sweetcorn, dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and fried until golden.

Cold pizza is always a hit with children, so you could slip a slice into their lunch box.

Always have a piece of fruit in the lunch box and bottles of water are better than juice or fizz.

Make a batch of cakes at the weekend and freeze them to last the week for lunch boxes or make some twinks hob nobs and keep them in an airtight tin................Beware they are exceedingly moreish

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/471992

Don't buy bottled water, it is overly expensive just get the kids a water bottle each and chill the water overnight in the fridge.
My lot don't like cold pasta but if your family likes it how about a pasta salad


Look on the £20 a week thread for lots of cheap meal ideas
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4148389

carlymummy

Thanks again for all your replies and suggestions, I am well on the way to coming up with a meal plan now mainly involving pasta and tuna Thankfully it'll only be for a few weeks anyway, just makes you realise though how tough it really can be for some.

Magpye

RAS wrote: »

Check that you can use your £6 off voucher and nectar points on the same purchase; a lot of these promos are "no other promotion."

Should not be a problem, and the £6 off will combine with other vouchers like double nectar points and manufacturer's MOCs - check the coupons thread in the shopping forum before you go off shopping.

(Sainsbury's MOC till spits also combine with lower-spend MOCs, so a £6 off £40 and a £4 off £40 will be accepted together - the till accepts them but no guarantees on the till operator unfortunately. )