Nutritious and simple meal planning

positivethinking2015

Hi all,

I am in awe of lots of the amazing ideas and inspirations I have only briefly had time to look at here and may I appeal to you for some wisdom please!

As a couple we are reasonably good at eating well and not wasting too much money however we are now faced with an extra mouth to feed in that we are cooking for a relative who is seriously unwell. Now for me food is love and I want to make sure I rise to the challenge of helping someone who is in need whilst not breaking our tight budget.

What nutritious and affordable meals can anyone suggest? I am ideally looking for things which are quick to cook, can be frozen / reheated and don't break the bank whilst being nutritious. I dont ask for much do I! :eek:

If I am repeating a thread which already exists please do point me in the right direction!

mummyjane

Have a look at the Grocery Challenge, the pinned post at the top has links to lots of recipe ideas. Lots of nutritious meals can easily be cooked in a slow cooker if you have one? You can always batch up extra food to be microwaved or chucked in the oven when needed x

jackyann

I understand! I wonder how your relative's illness affects what they can eat - is it about a small appetite, specific restrictions, or needing to be careful about re-heating etc?

I have been in a similar position, also feeding people who worked from home, so needed lunches as well, and these were my friends:

Potatoes:bought in sacks from a local farm, cheap and good. A jacket potato needs only some grated , or creme fraiche with chives chopped in + a winter salad to make a good meal.

Winter salad: a variation on coleslaw, with red onion and cabbage sliced very thinly (mandoline) + grated root vegetables. Lemon juice and oil, and if you like, some dried fruit.

Grow your own herbs - if I can, anyone can. Treat the herb pots from the supermarket as about a dozen seedlings.

Living salad: if you can find a space in the garden, plant out some of the 'living salads'from supermarkets - cheapest way to grow your own summer greens if you're not an avid and organised gardener.

Pulses: soaking dried pulses and cooking them with stock is the best, but I keep a couple of tins by as well. Lentil soup, pease pudding, all very good. I make my own mushy peas from scratch, and we eat them with mashed potato, gravy, and something like faggots, sausages, or roast onions. I know the onions wouldn't suit a little one, and maybe nor an invalid, but can used to stretch the meat.

Apples: we are lucky enough to be given loads of apples in the autumn, round here people often put out 'help yourself' windfalls. I prepare and bottle them (also pears, and when cheap, peaches). Good ones I store. A baked apple is a cheap winter joy (and uses up left over mincemeat)

Roast vegetables: onions, peppers, plenty of garlic & herbs, in season some tomatoes, chunks of leeks, carrots, maybe some chunks of aubergine. I do a batch, then stir into some cous-cous with chunks of feta or goats' cheese, or add tinned tomatoes for a really tasty ratatouille, or dress with oil & balsamic vinegar for an unusual salad.

Soups of all kinds

Stews with the cheapest meats. Unless you hve been told not to, make the day before, leave to cool, skim off fat and thoroughly re-heat.

trailingspouse

Much depends on what you mean by 'nutritious' - some people won't touch red meat, some people won't touch meat at all, some people think low fat spread is real food.

And much depends on what you mean by quick to cook - under 5 minutes? under 30 minutes? Or would something that you can throw together in a couple of minutes then stick in the oven for an hour count as quick, because you're not having to stand over it?

Personally, I'm on the 'small quantities of meat, loads of veg and as little processed food as I can manage' spectrum. And anything under 30 minutes is acceptable.

Mince bulked out with loads of veg (onions, peppers, celery, tomatoes, mushrooms for a spag bol, or carrots, turnips, onions, peas for a savoury mince).

Soup - make stock from the chicken bones and bulk out with lentils, potato, pulses or noodles. And add loads of veggies. You can serve it chunky, or blitz and serve smooth.

To keep it cheap you need to meal plan so that, for example, if you've bought a punnet of mushrooms for a spag bol then you need to plan for something else that will use up the rest of the punnet before they go off (mushrooms on toast, mushroom omelette etc etc).

To be extra nutritious (and only slightly more expensive) swap refined carbs for unrefined - wholemeal bread, wholemeal pasta, brown rice etc. I find that you don't need as much of the unrefined (I would need 4 slices of white bread for sandwiches for lunch, but find that 2 slices of wholemeal is enough), so the cost isn't as high as many people think.

debtfreeforlife

If you're adding one extra person to your usual meals then I'd focus on trying to bulk out what you already cook. Bulk out mince with veg as trailingspouse suggests - the same works for cottage pie. Beans on toast is always good and for me the perfect 'sick' meal - alongside tomato soup! Try stir fries with loads of mushrooms and less or no meat, baked potatoes, curries with chickpeas and veg. I'd also check love food hate waste - they have some great ideas. And it's definitely worth looking at the recipes in the grocery challenge.

purpleivy

A pot of home made soup? If you make bread, then some yummy home made bread alongside.