# Meals for 6 for the price of a box of Cornflakes?



## delgirl (22 Oct 2012)

Mulling over lunch with the chef what meals, much more filling and nutritious than cereal, could be prepared for 6 people (2 adults, 4 children) for the same price as a box of Cornflakes & Milk.

Kelloggs 750g €3.99 + 1 Ltr Avonmore Milk €1.14 = €5.13

(all other prices from Tesco.ie - possibly cheaper in Lidl and Aldi)

*Penne Pasta with Plum Tomato Sauce* 

500g Penne Pasta 1.15
2 x Tesco Value Plum Tomatoes 0.74
1 Onion 0.30
2 cloves of garlic 0.10
Butter / Oil 0.20
Salt, Pepper & Herbs 0.60

*€3.09*

Add Tesco Pork Mince 400g €2.31 *€5.40*

*********************************************

*Courgette &Thyme Risotto* 

Tesco Risotto Rice 300g 1.20
Stock Cube 0.10
Grated Cheese 150g 1.50
2 x Courgette 1.20
Thyme 0.10
Butter 0.40
Onion 0.30

*€4.80*


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## Firefly (22 Oct 2012)

I have a few, but I'll start with a lovely dinner I cooked using a recipe for yesterday's Sunday Times for 4 adults - everything bought in Aldi:

1 x pack of streaky bacon rashers
2 stalks of celery
4 carrots
head of cabbage
half a bag of baby potatoes
Some garlic
chicken stock (homemade from the previous Sunday's roast)

Wouldn't have the exact price but it came in under a fiver, tasted great and there's enough left to feed the little uns this evening

The recipe is behind a paywall, but it is essentially a bacon&cabbage 1-pot meal but done like a stew. Perfect this time of year too.


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## Firefly (22 Oct 2012)

Rachel Allen Home Made burgers - these are delish
. 
http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/516748
I also add in some breadcrumbs to the mix and grow my own herbs so the cost is very low. Aldi are selling 450g Irish Angus steak mince at the moment for 2.99


BBC Good Food cottage pie (if there was only one recipe site in the world this would be it for me) It's fantastic - I made double portions the last time I made it and have enough to feed us all again in the freezer

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/775643/cottage-pie
.
There are so many more..


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## Ciaraella (22 Oct 2012)

Bacon lardons/streaky rashers 
Mushrooms
Spaghetti
Cream

Haven't the prices but i'd be fairly sure you could get the lot for less than a fiver in lidl/aldi and would possibly still have some pasta leftover.


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## truthseeker (22 Oct 2012)

2kg tesco white potatoes - 80 cent per kilo = 1.60
3 tins Tesco Everyday Value Baked Beans - 29 cent per tin = 87 cent
6 Tesco Everyday Value Eggs = 1.09 (theyre even cheaper to bulk buy)
Tesco 16 Irish Pork Sausages 454G (16 sausages) - 1.59 
Total 5.15 

I used the cheapest deals I could see on the Tesco website. You might be able to price it cheaper from LIDL/ALDI.

The above was a typical dinner in my home growing up, we couldnt have afforded proper cuts of meat every day so there would usually be a dinner thrown in with chips/mash, beans, eggs and cheap meat at some stage of the week. Or perhaps on a friday, the above with no sausages but mushrooms instead. In winter it was pepped up with a dollop of gravy - yum!!


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## IsleOfMan (23 Oct 2012)

You are using Tesco everyday value items in the meals but not using Tesco cornflakes. Now there's a challenge!


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## jhegarty (23 Oct 2012)

And yet you already hear the line "But I can't afford to eat healthy, more chicken nuggets anyone ?".


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## truthseeker (23 Oct 2012)

ParkLane said:


> You are using Tesco everyday value items in the meals but not using Tesco cornflakes. Now there's a challenge!



Yeah I thought about that myself.
Lets see:
Tesco Everyday Value Cornflakes 500G - 1.09 - they dont come in 750g but lets price as though they did: 1.64
Tesco Fresh Milk 1Ltr - 75 cent

So now a total of 2.39 for a meal for 6. Anyone?


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## delgirl (23 Oct 2012)

ParkLane said:


> You are using Tesco everyday value items in the meals but not using Tesco cornflakes. Now there's a challenge!


I'm assuming Mrs Cornflakes knows her Cornflakes and buys Kelloggs - Tesco's cornflakes just don't taste the same if you were brought up with Kelloggs!


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## Leo (23 Oct 2012)

truthseeker said:


> Tesco 16 Irish Pork Sausages 454G (16 sausages) - 1.59...
> I used the cheapest deals I could see on the Tesco website. You might be able to price it cheaper from LIDL/ALDI.


 
Just be careful you're not sacrificing the nutritional value of the ingredients too much. Tesco value sausages only contain 40% pork, the rest is filler, preservatives and stabilisers.


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## Vanilla (23 Oct 2012)

The challenge would be to set a weekly menu for a family which would be both healthy and provide all the nutritional needs and also come in relatively inexpensively.

It's easy to put up a few menus with sausages, mince or no meat, but to put together the full weekly menu, having regard to healthy eating guidelines? Red meat no more than three times a week, oily fish, lots of veg, etc. 

Although we eat very healthily in our house, it certainly wouldnt follow the budget here or even be close. Also I'm too fond of the occasional bit of steak or duck or a nice bit of fresh fish.


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## Purple (23 Oct 2012)

Vanilla said:


> The challenge would be to set a weekly menu for a family which would be both healthy and provide all the nutritional needs and also come in relatively inexpensively.
> 
> It's easy to put up a few menus with sausages, mince or no meat, but to put together the full weekly menu, having regard to healthy eating guidelines? Red meat no more than three times a week, oily fish, lots of veg, etc.
> 
> Although we eat very healthily in our house, it certainly wouldnt follow the budget here or even be close. Also* I'm too fond of the occasional bit of steak or duck or a nice bit of fresh fish*.



Them country folk eat well all the same.


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## truthseeker (23 Oct 2012)

Leo said:


> Just be careful you're not sacrificing the nutritional value of the ingredients too much. Tesco value sausages only contain 40% pork, the rest is filler, preservatives and stabilisers.



That was really just to add a treat to the meal - I hear ya, in my day it would have been better quality sausages or maybe bacon - I just wanted to keep in the price range, really mushrooms would have been a better choice.

I was actually talking to my hubby about this today, we do not budget food. We eat what we want to eat. As in, we eat healthily but price is not a concern, if we feel like fillet steak, we get it. If we feel like out of season strawberries, we get them. That would not have been my experience growing up.


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## ice (23 Oct 2012)

Vanilla said:


> The challenge would be to set a weekly menu for a family which would be both healthy and provide all the nutritional needs and also come in relatively inexpensively.
> 
> It's easy to put up a few menus with sausages, mince or no meat, but to put together the full weekly menu, having regard to healthy eating guidelines? Red meat no more than three times a week, oily fish, lots of veg, etc.
> 
> Although we eat very healthily in our house, it certainly wouldnt follow the budget here or even be close. Also I'm too fond of the occasional bit of steak or duck or a nice bit of fresh fish.



I posted a full weeks menu for 4 for 35 euro a while back but I can't seem to find the thread though


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## Sue Ellen (23 Oct 2012)

ice said:


> I posted a full weeks menu for 4 for 35 euro a while back but I can't seem to find the thread though



See here    I find its better to use Google to search for threads especially in LOS or STB.  You have a few other posts in that threads and can access that in the top right hand corner.


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## IsleOfMan (24 Oct 2012)

We bought a large Tesco chicken on Monday, cost €9.55.
Day 1. We had a roast chicken dinner plus vegetables grown in our garden plus one other bought vegetable.
Day 2. We had the same meal.
Day 3, Today. We are making a chicken stew. 
Days 4 and 5.  We expect to be able to make a chicken curry and a chicken pasta dish out of the remainder.
We have also had some toasted chicken sandwiches.

O.K. after that we will be all chickened out but we got great value out of this and 5 to 6 days eating between two people.


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## Vanilla (24 Oct 2012)

In our house a chicken would not last that long though. We had roast chicken last night ( Aldi, free range about 5.99) with potatoes, carrots, peppers, onions and a few more random veg. The dinner probably cost more like 10 or 11 euro if you count in the veg. There will only be enough left overs for potato cakes OR two adult lunches. I've made chicken stock before with the carcass, but I've plenty of that in the freezer. And anyway, that's just stock. We have 5 to feed in our house but the thread was about feeding 6. So I don't see a chicken lasting as long for 6. 

Also I know I'm using freerange but that's a conscious choice.


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## delgirl (24 Oct 2012)

Vanilla said:


> The challenge would be to set a weekly menu for a family which would be both healthy and provide all the nutritional needs and also come in relatively inexpensively.
> 
> It's easy to put up a few menus with sausages, mince or no meat, but to put together the full weekly menu, having regard to healthy eating guidelines?


Absolutely correct, in the ideal world and if you have sufficient funds to do so.

The purpose of this thread was to highlight that you don't have to feed your family a box of cereal on any given day as there are healthy and hearty meals, even homemade soup and bread, which can be prepared for the same price.  This equally applies to those who say they don't have money for food and feed their children chicken nuggets made from recovered meat and oven chips with additives on a daily basis.


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## Kine (24 Oct 2012)

jhegarty said:


> And yet you already hear the line "But I can't afford to eat healthy, more chicken nuggets anyone ?".


 
Don't forget Usain Bolt won an Olympic gold on Nuggets!


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## ice (24 Oct 2012)

Thanks Sue Ellen! 

Shopping list

Bag of porridge .99
3 ltr Milk 2.19
Beans x 2 1.10
wholemeal pan 1.19
Cheese 1.49
Eggs 2.20
Bag pasta 1.10
Jar Pesto 1.29
Mozarella .59
Mince 3.00
Chicken 5.00
Tin tuna .89
Tin Salmon .89
Bag carrotts 1.49
Bag potatoes 1.69
fish fingers 1.59 
chop toms (2) .90
Mushrooms .99
Cream cheese .69
Tea bags 1.54
Aldi super 6 x 2 4.20 (Aldi do a selection of bags of fruit and veg for 35 cent each - so this assumes 12 bags)

Total 35.02

Assume breakfast and mid morning snack is the same every day!
Day one
Breakfast
Porridge with milk, cup of tea

Mid morning snack
Fruit from super six 

Lunch
Beans on toast

Spag bol (made with carrotts, chopped tomatoes, mushrooms and onion) with wholemeal pasta

Day Two

Lunch
Fritatta using left over veg from last night and any from super 6

Dinner
Chicken, mash and peas

Day Three
Lunch
Cheese sambo

Dinner
Fish cakes made with leftover mash from last night and super six veg

Day Four
Lunch
Beans on toast 

Dinner
Chicken stew made with left over chicken from day two

Day five
Home made soup from left over veg and bread

Dinner
Pesto wholemeal pasta with mozarella

Day six
Lunch
Soup and Bread

Dinner
Fish fingers, wedges and peas

Day Seven
Pasta with mushroom sauce using cream cheese and mushrooms
Spag bol from freezer (Mondays was a double cook and you froze half of it)


I admit that it would be difficult to keep this up but even if you were to spend 50 per week you would be able to have a healthy enough diet.


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## Firefly (24 Oct 2012)

ParkLane said:


> We bought a large Tesco chicken on Monday, cost €9.55.
> Day 1. We had a roast chicken dinner plus vegetables grown in our garden plus one other bought vegetable.
> Day 2. We had the same meal.
> Day 3, Today. We are making a chicken stew.
> ...


 
Some bird


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## CMCR (25 Oct 2012)

Indeed!  Perhaps it was big bird!


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## liaconn (25 Oct 2012)

Vanilla said:


> In our house a chicken would not last that long though. We had roast chicken last night ( Aldi, free range about 5.99) with potatoes, carrots, peppers, onions and a few more random veg. The dinner probably cost more like 10 or 11 euro if you count in the veg. There will only be enough left overs for potato cakes OR two adult lunches. *I've made chicken stock before with the carcass, but I've plenty of that in the freezer. And anyway, that's just stock. *We have 5 to feed in our house but the thread was about feeding 6. So I don't see a chicken lasting as long for 6.
> 
> Also I know I'm using freerange but that's a conscious choice.


 
Yes but throw in some leftover bits and pieces of veg from the fridge, boil it up, blend it and you have a pot of soup which would provide a lunch for a family of six.


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## Vanilla (25 Oct 2012)

liaconn said:


> Yes but throw in some leftover bits and pieces of veg from the fridge, boil it up, blend it and you have a pot of soup which would provide a lunch for a family of six.


 
Sure, I often do at the weekend. But it's not the basis for the meal. Vegetables are the basis for veg soup, or lentils, or whatever.


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