Meals to feed 2 people for 5 days on £10

Meal planning on Live Below the Line makes the difference between regular (if limited meals) and a last day with only rice and bread left. And maybe not the bread.

 With just a few pounds to spend, using a whole onion in recipes for the first couple of days means there is nothing left for the last couple.

 I crammed a 19p lemon into the budget desperate for flavour in a mass of beige blandness, but had to remember to use it sparingly over 5
meals (juice for 2 days’ of pancakes and a pea & chickpea spread, juice & zest for lemon chicken risotto and the remaining skin chucked into the stock).

 In celebration after finding the £1.50 chicken, I splashed out on a £1 pack of butter that made pastry possible. I’d intended to use it for frying food, and spread liberally on Smartprice bread.

 Then I did the meal plan, realised I could only afford half a pack, and retrieved the chicken skin and fat from the top of the food recycling caddy to render it down for chicken fat to cook with. Not a good moment.

 So, after tweaks, switches, bonus reduced price purchases and many calculations, this is the meal plan for my husband and I for Live Below the Line 2014:

DAY 1

Pancakes with lemon and banana

Cheese sandwiches with carrot sticks

Chickpea, potato and tomato curry with rice

DAY 2

Boiled egg with a piece of toast

Egg fried rice with mixed vegetables

Grilled herby chicken drumsticks with Yorkshire puddings, peas and carrots

DAY 3

Home-made bread and jam

Chicken sandwiches with pea & chickpea spread

Lemon chicken risotto with peas

DAY 4

Porridge with banana

Frittata of onion, peas and potatoes with bread and grated carrot

Cheese and tomato pizza

DAY 5

Apple pancakes

Leftover lunch: soup, bit of chickpea curry & rice or egg sandwich

Celebratory chicken & sweetcorn pie with green beans

SNACKS

Chicken stock with Scotch broth mix

Curried carrot and tomato soup.

Slice of bread each day, to accompany the soup or eat with jam.

 The snacks should stave off the mid-afternoon slump if needed, and help stop me hovering up the children’s leftovers.

Half a fishfinger has never looked so appetising as when I’m doing Live Below the Line.

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