With the cost of living continuing to rise, it can be difficult to cook for the whole family without spending a fortune on groceries.
But Lynn Beattie, otherwise known as Mrs Mummypenny, is here to help with three nutritious bargain meals that parents and children will both enjoy.
According to her cost of living series for the Mirror, Lynn recommends making meals from scratch, as this is always a cheaper alternative than pre-made store options, with further savings to be made by shopping for ingredients at Aldi.
She suggests buying the supermarket's Super Six vegetables, a promotion where the retailer picks six fruit and vegetables every fortnight to be lowered in price, as well as using wonky vegetables, frozen and tinned products for recipes.
Costs of ingredients are based on Aldi website prices in February, 2022.
Roasted Vegetable Soup - 15p per portion
This is my absolute favourite soup, feel free to use any roasted vegetable in season - I usually go for the Super Six products to save even more, for example you could easily substitute in cauliflower this week.
My tried and tested recipe loved by the family (and my neighbours!) is a carrot, parsnip and brussels sprout soup.
These ingredients make ten portions of soup. The ingredients cost a total of £1.52 or 15p per portion.
Ingredients:
- 500g brussels sprouts
- 500g carrots
- 500g parsnips
- Two vegetables stock pots
- Two litres of water
- One lemon
- Salt & pepper
- 50ml vegetable oil
Method:
- Pre-heat the oven (Fan) to 200 degrees.
- Peel the carrots and parsnips, roughly chop and place into roasting tray.
- Place the frozen brussels sprouts into a separate roasting tray.
- Drizzle both trays in vegetable oil. Season with salt and pepper.
- Roast the carrots/parsnips/Brussels for 30 minutes, removing from the oven when they're starting to brown and caramelise.
- Transfer to a large saucepan. Add two vegetable stock pots and two litres of water. Bring to boil and simmer for five minutes.
- Blitz with a food processor. Add lemon juice and mix
Two of my favourite bolognese recipes
I have been making this bolognese since I was a teenager, taught by my mum. I have evolved the recipe over the years to perfection in terms of taste and money savings.
This recipe will create enough bolognese to serve eight people. I recommend that you use half of it for a cottage pie and the other half for bolognese and pasta. These ingredients cost a total of £4.79 - or 59p per person.
Ingredients:
- 750g of beef mince meat
- Two tins of chopped tomatoes (Essentials range)
- 15ml Worcester sauce
- 15ml of balsamic vinegar
- 1g each of dried thyme, oregano and basil
- Two wonky onions
- Four cloves of garlic
- 325g wonky mushrooms
- One pot beef stock
- Salt & pepper to taste
Method:
- Prep the vegetables, chop up the onions into small pieces and finely chop the garlic. Slice up the mushrooms.
- Fry the onions, garlic for five minutes until slight brown and caramelised. Add in the mushroom and cook for another couple of minutes.
- Brown off the beef mince in the same pan mixed in with the vegetables until you see no more pink meat.
- Add in the rest of the ingredients, the tinned tomatoes, Worcester sauce, balsamic vinegar, herbs, beef stock, salt & pepper. Mix everything together and leave to bubble away on a medium heat for 20 minutes.
Cottage pie bolognese - 84p per portion
- Extra Ingredients needed for the topping: 2.5kg potatoes, 25g butter, 50ml milk. An extra 95p.
- Peel and boil the potatoes for twenty minutes or when you can push a butter knife through the soft potatoes. Drain, add the milk, butter, and mash together.
- Take a large bowl and line the bowl with half of the bolognese mixture. Put the mashed potato mix onto. Smooth it down and pop into the oven for a further 20 minutes until the topping is crispy at the edges.
The cost per portion of cottage pie to serve four is 84p per person.
Spaghetti bolognese - 65p per portion
- Extra Ingredients needed: a packet of essential spaghetti is 20p in Aldi.
- Boil as per packet instructions and add to the other half of the bolognese you have cooked to make spaghetti bolognese. Or pop the bolognese into the freezer and save for another day or week.
The cost per portion of spaghetti Bolognese to serve four is 65p per portion.
