Brits struggling with soaring food prices are being told of inexpensive ways to bulk up their weekly meals for half the price.
Online healthy food retailer MuscleFood has explored 10 genius ways to help people cut the costs when planning which dishes to eat and with food prices reaching a 14-year high, making meals out of the weekly food shop is becoming a worrying problem for households struggling to make ends meet. We need all the help we can get to bulk up those weekly meals.
Money-saving ways to bulk up meals range from using frozen veggies into lunches and dinners to batch cooking on Sunday evenings.
Tom Bennet, Head of NPD for MuscleFood said: “We wanted to offer people some simple tips on how to cook up some delicious meals without having to splash the cash on ingredients.
“With the cost-of-living crisis deepening, many shoppers are anxious about rising food prices and the impact it has on which meals they can make while on a budget.
“We’ve found simple ways to bulk up weekly meals on a dime, from batching cooking on a Sunday evening to following one pan recipes to feed a group of four.”
Here are MuscleFood’s top tips on how to bulk up your meals on a budget:
Prepare early in the month
Get on top of the food shops early by creating a list of everything you need and planning where you’ll be getting the ingredients from. It will not only help to prevent overspending on unnecessary products, but it can help decide which meals can be frozen early to use later in the month.
Pick and freeze meat weekly
Select a different meat every week to save on wasting all of the pricier meats in a few servings. Once used, freeze the leftovers and defrost it throughout the week to include in a packed lunch or to use in pre-planned meals which will spare an extra fiver on the food shop.
Sunday batch cooking
To cut an extra £30 off the weekly food shop, spend Sunday evening batch cooking and freezing ahead of the week, to make meals worth £1 per portion. Big batches of chicken pasta bake and Spaghetti Bolognese are highly recommended to start out with.
Add fibre to the meals
Have a look at buying big bags of lentils, pulses and chickpeas to include within meals throughout the week to bulk up delicious, healthy meals.
Leftovers for lunches
If you want to stretch your cash even further, put the leftover meats and veggies into sandwiches for the next day to prevent the temptation of buying a meal deal. You’ll find you don’t need a lot of filling to bulk up your sandwich so this should last you a couple of days.
One pan meals
To cook for four people on a budget, explore one pan recipe ideas which can be used twice or more in the week. Make sure to use the golden trio rule when planning the meal – carb, protein and veggies, to help bulk up your meals without using all the items out of the fridge.
Large pasta dishes
Opt for buying the large bags of dried pasta and make sure to cook extra to use as lunch for the next day or a late afternoon sack. Not only will it save throwing out the leftovers, but it’ll cut back on buying a whole list of ingredients for another meal.
Add beans
Beans will bulk up your meal in no time and you can add them to pretty much any tomato dish like chili and bolognese.
Cut up meats
If you’re looking to bulk up something like a pasta dish, then consider cutting up meats like chicken and sausages before throwing them in. You won’t need to use much for the meal to look fuller.
Add Eggs
Adding eggs is a cheap way to bulk up weekly meals and makes it even easier to make a meal more delicious. You can opt for sunny side up or go for the healthier alternative with boiled eggs which works great with salads for lunch.
For cheap and healthy meals to cut the costs of a weekly food shop, head over to MuscleFood.com.
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