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

[bandr]

Slow cooker … follow @jleezer recipes.
This man has literally changed boring means into quick tasty ones. Lots of slow cooker & air fryer recipes on his page or his books. Firm favourites are ;
Chicken noodle curry
chicken , parmasen, garlic & red pesto potatoes
pepperoni & Mozzarella stuff chicken breasts
Or follow Cardiff mum on Instagram, she’s great & meals are really easy ;our favs are ;
Chinese chicken with peppers
tacos
Or simply cook pots are good to transform basic food into flavoursome & tasty food , minimal effort .
Other favs for us are;
Boursin cheese pasta, super quick & easy
spag Bol
carbonara
Stir fry
Sausage & mash
steak & chips / jackets
fajitas

 

[laperladelsur]

Check out Taming Twins on Instagram she does loads of easy meals in under 30 minutes, slow cooker recipes and meal plans. She has a cookbook as well which is brilliant

 

[abstractpsychosis]

Do you batchcook?
- I always batchcook meatballs and different kinds of mince. The trick is to freeze them in a really thin layer so they defrost extra quick.
The mince is super versatile .. can have it simply with pasta or make a 4 minute cous cous, make tex max wraps.. all ready under 15 min.
Look at Nadiya Hussain (lots of online content and Netflix series)

 

[mercuryt]

Have a look at the book What's for dinner? It has 10 weeks of meals all laid out with a shopping list. Most are super simple one pots. I've started using this and have said to my family we will try all 10 weeks and then choose our favourite ones to put in rotation!
I also hate deciding what to cook everyday so this takes out all decision making

 

[xnatex]

Stir fry?
Also recommend slow cooker and batch cooking. As someone else suggested perhaps a big batch of basic mince that you can defrost and change accordingly. Burritos, chilli, bolognaise, keema curry etc

 

[dmbaker]

If I know I've got a heavy week coming up I'll cook in a large batch and make 2 meals instead of 1...I'm a family of 6 so I often buy a lamb leg, split it in 2 (freeze one half and use the other) whack in in a very large pot with veggies, sauces etc (you'll know it as moussaka)...that serves 6 of us for 3 nights and I just need to cook rice when I get home from work. It's healthy, home cooked and as long as I don't do it every week, my teenage kids love it.

 

[andy_pandy]

I buy food waste. I often don't know what I will get, and lots has to be cooked or frozen immediately. So I don't plan, I have go to recipes that adapt to anything.
Slow cooker - add veg and stock. That's stew. Add any meat = meat stew. Add canned tomatoes and curry paste, now it's rogan josh. Add chillies, now it's chilli. Blend, now it's vegetable soup. Savoury bread and butter pudding. Make like the sweet version, but no sugar. Put any veg and meat in, whatever you want. It's particularly nice with fish and asparagus, topped with cheese and a little paprika. Pastry pizza - puff pastry roll on a tray, cover with veg or whatever, add cheese on top, 30 mins at 180, grand. Ramen - boil up whatever veg, add some miso and noodles, at voila, ramen. I get lots of free bread. Cut off crusts. Squash flat with a rolling pin. Now it's pastry. Use a pie press to fill with whatever, dip in beaten egg, bake, and you have pasty, or pie, whatever you like inside. All of these can be bulk made in advance and frozen. I have more, but this is how I can feed 5 people for a week for £20 total, not per person. I don't think I have ever made the same meal twice!

 

[cab1]

@andy_pandy - very inventive - well done!

 

[imaff]

Thank you, sounds amazing. Where do you buy the food waste from

 

[andy_pandy]

@imaff apps Olio and too good to go, and various BBE discounter websites. E.g. approved food, low price foods, motatos.

 

[samuelspulman]

Meal plan, then you won’t have to think about it, and others could start the food before you get in.

 

[tina8462]

I use a lot of the taming twins slow cooker recipes they are fantastic.

 

[sharjoy2011]

Slow cooker and one of those plug in timer things to set it to turn on if you're out the house super early.
I love the slow cooker book by @jleezer

 

[kylewiglebb]

Slow cooker is defo the way to go. I put it on before work knowing dinner is sorted when we get in. Stews, curry, chilli, gammon. Can keep it on warm when you get home and can help themselves whenever they get in from various after school activities. Really makes it so much easier for me

 

[annt]

Have a look at @mkeene5 she shows you how to create multiple meals at once which can then be frozen its a game changer!

 

[deepplaya]

Pressure cooker on the ninja foodi has been a game change for us
Dinners ready so quickly like stewed beef, lasagne, pasta dishes, Bolognese, chicken casserole

 

[secret_vesper]

I’ve use hello fresh,  it’s very expensive once you pass the promotion stage.  But for some fresh ideas with meals that are quick to prepare, it’s great.  I then keep the cards and then buy the ingredients myself and prepare the meals again and again.

 

[vintergaek]

@secret_vesper hello fresh is amazing so easy nd quick x we also used gousto same as u kept all the recipes x

 

[saji467]

Surely, with all those adults in the house, you shouldn’t be the only one cooking

 

[thedaughterofgod]

Instant Pot or Ninja. I once hurriedly chopped the vegs up in 10min, chucked in with ings and pack of cubed stewing steak. Put the IP on and went to attend my daughter's little ceremony. Got home to the stew just about ready. As in falling apart stewing steak within an hour from raw. So basically I dropped her off at 4. Home for 4.10pm. Chopped veg till 4.20. IP on at 4.25. Leave to get back to for 4.30. Ceremony on till 5. Stayed to chat and photos. Dinner is up at 5.30.
If you read here ppl prepare slow cooker grab bags. So you can do the same and chuck one of them in between running around.
Even a pot roast of over 1kg was cooked at pressure for 3min, natural release for 30min. Browning took some time but total about 1.5hr but was fall apart soft. Lentils from dry (forgot to soak, no longer need to with IP) 8-15min.
My friend with the Ninja swears hers does magic Bolognese recipes complete with pasta.