Quick, Healthy, and Budget-Friendly Meal Ideas for Busy Family of 5

@misteryman As Christina said the book is good but I think most recipes are online. I prep all dry ingredients and put in slow cooker the night before so I can just add meat in the morning.
My other tip is slow cooker liners from Amazon, never wash the slow cooker again!
 
We're not in until 6.30 Tuesday and Thursday so we have curry. I buy diced cooked chicken from Iceland (400g packets, 3 for £10). Then I buy Pataks curry sauce as it's low in calories. The other day we generally have Bolognese. My husband and I have it with rice and salad. Daughter with spaghetti. Both meals can be cooked before hand and just heated up when we get in.
Iceland do some lovely kebabs. Satay, chicken breast, Cajun. We have them with salad for lunch but you could serve with wraps and salad and it's a really tasty meal. They cook in the oven in 30/35 minutes so you can be doing other stuff.
 
Make a basic ragu, and then you have a base to make spag bol, chilli, a pasta bake or a curry depending on what else you add. You can freeze that and use it a sauce to add meat to. I have a ninja and it's so easy to get a decent meal in no time, and if you have used the pressure cooker it has a keep warm function so people can eat when they are ready to. Ibatxh cook soup at the weekend for our work lunch.
 
Slow cooker, prepare the night before, leave dish in fridge, stick it on in the morning, curry, chilli, spaghetti Bolognese, casserole. Air fryer, meals much quicker. Fresh pasta takes minutes, can make a sauce and freeze
 
Have you thought of freezer dump bags
So you pick a day to prep the bags (initially until you have a backlog of stock in the freezer) further down the line you can prep as you go so say you buy a tray chicken breasts you could prep meals using this then could days later if you buy chicken thigh prep the meals using this
Anyway freezer dump bags are where you put all the ingredients for a meal or part a meal in a zip lock bag and freeze that way you either pull out in the morning to defrost then after throw on a tray and cook or there some dump bags that can be cooked from frozen so things like fajitas you put the chicken strips the sliced fpeppers and onion the fajita seasoning in a zip lock bag so comes to cooking you bung it on a baking tray or chuck in a pan fry to cook and stick it on wraps or freeze the ingredients for tray bakes in zip lock bags like I do a chicken thigh one so in the bag there's thighs peppers onions tomatoes and loads of spices and baby potatoes good drizzle oil too and I put a little bag of spinach in the ziplock bag so the whole bag gets emptied or dumped in a baking dish i remove the little bag of spinach and sit to the side the tray goes in the oven then 10 mins before it's ready I stir in the spinach full dinner done with very little effort there's loads of ideas for dump bags online a little bit of prep can save a family alot of time and stress come feeding time and bonus if you stick instruction on the bag anyone can then "cook" dinner
 
I’d say definitely spend a bit of time batch cooking one night or at weekend. Like curry spaghetti Bol, chilli Can leave out in the morning and heat up or cook pasta etc to go with it. Or having something really quick like fish and chips with veg frozen or batter yourself and quickly chop veg and potatoes, takes 5 min to prep. Or chicken tray bake just season and chop veg and put all in one tray! Cooked chicken quick diner, home made pizza. If time in the morning can use slow cooker too
 
Fry off chicken and put to one side (or don't if you're using leftovers) 300g
Fry off an onion, then garlic, then pepper, celery and chopped up chorizo or smoked sausage (about 75g) etc
Add tbsp cajun seasoning (or make your own paprika, little bit of cayenne, salt, pepper, oregano, ground coriander, garlic powder)
Add the chicken that you fried off earlier or left overs
Add rice and stir around to coat it in the seasoning (200g rice)
Add tin of tomatoes
Add chicken stock (I use about 350ml) simmer until rice is cooked Add more water if it gets dry (about 20m)
2 adults 2 kids so may want to adjust measurements for larger family
I pre chop all veg and meat beforehand to save time then just a matter of chucking it all in a pan
 
Slow cooker and catch cook- I get the I don’t feel like what set but no way would I be booking daily-get yourself the largest slow cooker. Also the silver trays with lids from Tesco are great
Bolognaise double portion slow cooker - other proportion make meat lasagne and then freeze cook on eve u want
Butter chicken serve with Nan ( can double portion)
Lamb tagine
Sweet pot chilli
Chicken stew
On night cooking chicken satay ( can make sauce ahead marinate then grill) ( can double and freeze portion)
Veg fahijas 10 min in oven can prep veg night before
Really good cook books
1) roasting Tin quick and easy can get from most libraries receipes great for chucking in roasting tin cooking in oven
Pinch of nom quick easy lots of batch cook but literally I double everything the. 2-3 times a week pull a frozen meal out night before and defrost the microwave
 
Also fish pie fish macaroni dhaal
Paella -Schwartz so good packet flavourings makes home cook food a little easier
We also have staples in freezer chicken breast sausages bacon frozen ginger so easy to cook with
 
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