Need all your fantastic help!

mouseymousey99

Hi - Have you tried making meatloaf? You can dress it up like a roast with some gravy. Also a trip to the library and some 'student' type cookery books may give you some ideas? The Paupers Cookbook is great too if they have a copy. As said making your own soup so easy and filling too. You can get tons of ideas from this board. I'm a reformed Lidl queen, I used to be a snob but the place is full of great stuff.
Best wishes

scrimpingbadger

We were in the same predicament and I couldn't figure out where it was all going. Of course - I wasn't meal planning but still. Anyway - this month I am not going (big) shopping oh no, I'm making sure that everything in the cupboards gets eaten (except herbs and spices etc). OK so we've had some weird dinners and no doubt they'll be even stranger by the end of the month. I'm still buying fruit and veg, milk etc. though. I seemed to just keep buying what I always bought and I'm sure there's no real need to have 10 tins of chopped tomatoes in my cupboard. Best of luck with your endeavours. I'm off to eat some bizarre concoction...

Primrose

I know you say your family don't eat many vegetables, but have you tried making different varieties of home-made vegetable soup? You can add lots of "bulky" additions such as lentils, various tinned beans, chic peas, etc. or rashers of bacon, chopped sausaces which make a filling one-course meal which can be served in a bowl. Just serve with a little grated cheese and some toast or bread & butter.

kazmeister

Hi destiny

For whatever reasons I had cupboardfuls and freezers full of food but still didnt know what to do for tea each night and invariably went and bought more spending up to £80 per week. OH didnt help either as when he picked DD up from school they used to go to Mr T's and he would come home with carrier bags of yellow stickered stuff.

I however realised it was ridiculous and started by making a list of everything in the freezer which I now keep in a folder in the kitchen which I have been using for over a year now. I date it when I put it in so I can rotate the older stuff as I used to find stuff that had been in there 2 - 3 years! Recently I have made a list of cupboard contents and I have a lot as well.

I now meal plan as follows
1 x Roast day
1 x Pasta day
1 x Rice day
1 x Meat day
1 x Fish day
1 x Snack day
1 x Other day

This gives us a variety and if you try it you will soon build up loads of different things to do (I have just recently checked my old lists and found that the max amount we have had 1 dish is 6 times in 15 weeks)

I start with the roast (using what I have from the freezer) as usually I can get another meal for the 4 of us (2 kids 8 and 15). So roast pork on Sunday becomes sweet n sour pork eg on Tuesday (which would become Rice day) so thats 2 days done and to the shopping list I have added veg, a jar of sweet n sour sauce ( i use Sharwoods small jar with no bits in) and maybe a pineapple (as hate tinned). Then I find something from the freezer to fill in one of the other days and then only add things to the shopping list that we havent got. To me its a really easy plan to follow and it seems to work and I dont do anything too complicated. Snack day is usually planned around when we have to rush out to sports clubs etc and need something quick.

Heres some ideas
Roast - Chicken, Pork, Beef. Lamb, Turkey
Pasta - Spag bol, Macaroni cheese, Sausage pasta, Pasta Carbonara,
Meat - Cold roast, chips n beans, Pork chops, Lamb chops, Sausage and Mash. Sausage casserole, Shepherds or Cottage pie (made by mincing leftover roast), Toad in the hole, Beef casserole (with dumplings) Liver & Bacon, Spanish Stew, Steak Pie n veg.
Fish - Fish fingers, Tuna/Tomato stew, Grilled Rainbow Trout (both kids love it), Fish cakes, Pan fried cod with HM chips or mash, Fish casserole.
Rice - Chicken Curry, Sweet n Sour, Chilli con Carne (mild for kids) Kebabs with a rice salad, Kedgeree or anything served with rice
Snacks - Sausage Pasta, Hot Dogs, Pizza, Tortilla wraps, Fish n Chips, Omelette, Chicken and Ham rolls, Burgers, Quiche, Jacket Potatoes, Salad
Other - Can be a duplication of any other day, a takeaway, Meal out, or leftovers from the fridge/freezer.

By using this plan I have really reduced the contents of my freezer (but not emptied it yet) and if I see a special offer at least now I have the room to put it in. It also means that I can check what I need for the next day and get it out of the freezer in advance so that when I get in from work at 5 we can have tea on the table by 6 instead of 8!

In addition to the above I love Easycook magazine which comes out every couple of months (new one soon I think) which I get loads of ideas from.

Hope this helps

Kaz

PS This week bought a large ready cooked ham on the bone reduced from £16 to £7.49. I sliced all the meat off it and found there was over 3 1/2 lb so have portioned it up and bagged it for the freezer instead of buying the plastic ham in packets. Value gammon baked makes delicious ham as well which is cheaper in the long run and much nicer to eat. I also buy all the bread and milk I need for the week and freeze it so that I'm not tempted back during the week. Shooping online and having delivered also works as takes temptation out of the way.

furrypig

Wow Kazmeister that s really helpful thank for those meal planning tips they are simple enough for me to follow and my cupboard freezer sounds similar to yours!!

Gonna give it a go!