Five Top Tips: Longer lasting meals for less

1. Everything Starts with an Onion

Onions are a cheap and affordable staple that last a long time when kept in a cool, dry place. Open any recipe book and rest assured, most meals will start with an onion! As long as you have them in your cupboard, you have the start to almost any meal.

2. One Large Pot Can Feed a Family

Whether you need to invest in one or dig out the one you have at the back of your cupboard, a large “Stock Pot” can enable you to start batch cooking for your family. Cooking a large quantity in one go can save on time and energy. Multiplying the ingredients you’re using will allow you to cook multiple family meals for the week in one go, or you can save the extra portions to create hot lunches with the leftovers.

3. A Tower of Tins

Whether you are a meat eater, veggie or vegan, tinned tomatoes, beans and vegetables are a must-have item for keeping costs low on family meals. Adding tinned beans to meals is a cheap way to add protein and fibre to a dish, whether it be adding tins of kidney beans to a chilli, or chickpeas to a curry. Don’t be shy to add multiple varieties too; the different colours and textures create more exciting meals and make your dish go much further for very little extra cost.

4. Last Minute Lentils

Need a cheap addition to bulk up your meal? Look no further than red lentils. A quick rinse in a sieve and you can add them to any meal. They will soften in as little as 15 minutes, or you can cook them for longer until they melt into your meal, adding extra nutrients and going mostly undetectable (top tip for those with kids!)

5. Choose Your Starch

Batch cooking and eating repeated meals in the week can be made more interesting by choosing a different starch on each occasion. A chilli for example could be eaten one night with rice, another night with a jacket potato, and if you really want to bend the rules, you can mix it in with pasta and top with cheese for a ‘Mexican’ pasta bake – yum!

For more top tips, food facts & recipes:

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