My weekly food bill is now over the £200 mark, and it still doesn’t seem to be enough to keep these growing children satisfied. I like to bake my own bread, but a loaf just about does sandwiches for everyone for the day, so it’s not as if they can snack on toast or something (well, I’ve relented and bought some trashy white bread today and some pate which will hopefully keep them happy after school. And if there are yoghurts in the fridge they disappear in the blink of an eye. Fruit, especially apples, bananas, grapes and melon don’t last long either. In a week they can get through £7 worth of apples, a bunch of bananas lasts a day!
So I need ideas on how to provide them snacks that will fill them up. We are getting through masses of food at meal times too, this week we have got through 8kgs of potatoes, and we have still run out! Do I just accept that our food bill is going to be extortionate, and that i will be constantly having to shop for yet more snacks, or are there some foods that will give them a feeling of satisfaction.
Boys approaching their teens are notorious. Sorry, mama. :S
Right… How about making up a big batch of pasta salad with tuna for their after-school snack. The pasta needs cooking but that’s about as difficult as it gets, and for a while it was the only way my little brothers ate raw vegetables for many many years (red pepper, spring onion, cherry tomatoes). Because the salad is mostly pasta, it’s fairly cheap! Bean or rice salads might work for you too, without hugely increasing your kitchen time. Think of it as needing to feed them four meals a day, that really helps me to think realistically about what I need to prepare or set out for an afternoon snack (we eat really late in the evening, so an afternoon meal is important for my tinies).
I would concentrate on carb-rich foods tbh, as I know older children can eat a family worth of protein in one meal and still be hungry. Do they eat porridge? That might be a good idea for supper. You could also make those no-bake oat cookies though I’m sure a batch doesn’t last ten minutes with your lot. And what about using the five minute a day bread method, so you make a huge mix of wet dough once a week, chill it, and pull off what you need for each day? You might also have to be resigned to buying more bread, even though your ideal is obviously making most of your needs. You might have to weigh whether not being a short order cook for an army might be a more important ideal, for you.
Do you have a regular meal plan right now? We tend to rotate the following: rissotto, soup and bread, pasta, stew with dumplings, something roast or toad in the hole or similar, stew or chilli or similar with rice, pasta again. I use a whole bag of pasta when we have guests, so I guess you do for any pasta meal? We don’t have a huge amount of money for our food budget, so that’s how we survive - lots of soup and stew, lots of pasta and rice. What kind of pasta dish it is, or what kind of rissotto, and so on, depends on what veg we can get cheaply or what comes in our box if we can afford one.
I guess you also use at least twice as much meat as we do in one meal too, and although I can’t suggest anything much to help with that I *can* recommend stretching mince further by adding ground mushrooms and cooked red lentils. If you alter it just a bit at a time they might not even notice (that’s how I got my family eating cooked mushrooms lol, cheating)! Bulking meat out with LOTS of veg is one way to dramatically bring the budget down. When I cook chicken it’s usually with equal quantities of carrots or leeks or mushrooms or squash in the sauce (or providing a lot of veg and yorkshire pudding on the side). It’s the only way we afford to eat meat.
Our food budget was approaching £100 some weeks when we were feeding three adults and four children. Now it’s back to around £60. I’m pretty good at cheap meals now, but I *know* the children will be eating far more than adult portions in their early teens and frankly it scares me; there is not much wriggle room in that budget!
how about oatcakes with humous? They’re very filling. Or beans on toast, again filling and cheap. Perhaps make an extra loaf of bread for toast and snacking. Another good toast/oatcake topping is cannelini bean pureed with a bit of garlic and thyme. It’s filling because it’s got protein and lots of fibre! I think buying white bread would not be the best way to feed them, as it won’t fill them up much. I would replace all pasta and rice with the wholemeal variety, possibly gradually if they don’t like the taste. I do one third wholemeal pasta and two thirds white. DH hadn’t even noticed it until I told him, and he doesn’t like wholemeal pasta.
How about soups, they contain a lot of liquids which will fill them up too. Throw in beans and seasonal veg which will be the cheapest.
Hopefully the growing spurt will soon slow down a little and people will go down to ‘normal’ quantities!
When I’m being organised I make a big batch of veggie soup to use as an afternoon snack for the girls (from the sounds of it they are much younger than yours, but still want to eat all the time). How about making a big fruit salad to stretch out more expensive fruit like melon or berries with the cheaper fruit like apples oranges etc? Porridge is very filling, so that’s a good snack too. Or maybe some flapjacks (although they are often so yummy it’s easy to keep eating them even when you are full, so they don’t always last long.
You are so lucky that you have such good eaters and you Sarah, how I envy you. Although I have a terrible eater I can sympathise with you as he is always complaining he is hungry and for us we just can’t afford to give him the food he wants.
I have no advice or help I am afraid, other than flapjacks because it is something everyone will eat in our house. I find the whole food and keeping everyone happy exhausting especially on a tight budget.
I love the suggestions here; my DD has weeks like this and she grows about 2 inches; I don’t know where she puts it all.
I tend to favour protein as it keeps fuller for longer. I find pasta and rice are great at the time but within 1/2 hour hollow legs are hungry again.
I second the idea of serving 4-5 meals per day - breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack and supper
Fish is good; tinned pilchards or sardines are reasonably cheap and mashed on toast make a great snack
You could make savoury flapjack with cheese - wonderwoman shared a delicious recipe
Lentils - make some dahl and eat hot or cold with oatcakes
Love the 4-5 meal a day idea too. Thank you. I’ll try and get organised and see how that works out, rather than letting them have free reign in the kitchen and discover nothing left by the end of the weekend!
You’ve given me alot of food for thought (pardon the pun), and hopefully some of those snack ideas will work out much cheaper than them raiding the cake and biscuit tin constantly!
I have bought catering pack of scone mix (just add water; makes 60 scones) for 99p, bread roll mix - £1.49 for 60 rolls, good quality pasta £3 for 3kg, etc. There is usually stuff like crisps, couscous, etc. too.
No food ideas to add - but I bet it’s because they are burning so much energy staying warm! (Except I’d go with protein rather than carbs on the evidence of my kids - they’ll just keep on eating carbs when they’re in the mood - protein actually satisfies them!) They might calm down again once the weather warms up a bit…...
I once grew 9 or 10 inches in 12 months. This is what I ate during my growing years
Breatfast - 4 weetabix and sometimes toast
Morning Break - Yoghurt and crisps
Lunch - 4 slices of bread with ham or cheese, fruit, chocolate biscuit, cake
After school snack - 2 slices of toast and hot chocolate in winter or milk shake in summer
Dinner - Something pretty filling and always with pudding
Before Bed - one or two bowls of cereal
So your lot are normal. I would say that cereal and things like crumble where big hits with us. They were filling and kept us going for a while. You can make crumble slices by putting crumble mix on the base, fruit in the middle and then more crumble on top making it portable or good with custard when at home.
Have you tried any of the website where you get short dated foods? http://www.approvedfood.co.uk/ is one we’ve used. You can large quantities of things for a fraction of the price. And I don’t really care how old sealed dried or canned goods are, they are normally fine.
Just a quick thought but maybe hard boil a load of eggs and keep in fridge, they make a good filling snack, also scotch type pancakes are popular here, perhaps with Jam, or rice cakes with peanut butter, or my fave but hated by most people…peanut butter and banana sandwiches!!!
Protien does tend to fill more, although it’s not cheap, saying that, adding fat to carbs will make them more satisfying. So to pasta salad add an oil based dressing, mayonnaise, yoghurt dressing, sour cream and chives etc.
Rather than letting them snack on fruit, makes big bowls of fruit salad and dish some up with whipped cream, yoghurt etc, again more satisying.
Obviously I have just the one and he’s only 5, but this is typical day with Rye:
Breakfast: adult size portion of porridge made with coconut milk, desccicated coconut added and a tsp of honey. Homemade juice (usually a mixture of apples, carrot, greens, ginger and lemon/lime)
Snack: 4 ryvitas with butter and cream cheese, carrot sticks, celery sticks, apple slices, raisins. Banana Milkshake.
Lunch: Soup and 2 or 3 slices of bread with butter. Full fat yoghurt and fruit.
Snack: Homemade Juice, nut nuggets (or similar) and dips (I make a ranch dressing type dip) Or I’ll cover mini naans with tomatoe pasta and cheese and grill.
Tea: Pasta with a full fat sauce and lots of veggies and a protien, be it meat, pulses or cheese. Dessert: rice pudding is popular, but I also make berry crumbles.
Supper: Hot coconut milk with honey and cinnamon (or sometimes hot chocolate) with toast and a banana mashed into it.
Rye basically eats every 2-3 hours.
I do not use fat free yoghurt etc because it has tons of sugar in it which leads to cravings for more. So I always use full fat (or I make full fat yoghurt - making it myself is much cheaper)
I have bought a burger press, not necessary but it means i can make nice quarter pounder shaped nut burgers and the like and chuck them in the freezer, and they make really tasty snacks/meals.
I also make pasties, usually with lentils, or potato and cheese.. really filling.
I also have hard boiled eggs usually in the fridge - handy for knocking up into egg mayo for sarnies, or simple cutting into quarters with veggie sticks , ryvita etc for snacks.
I dont’ use any cereal because I do not think they are filling, and they usually have a ton of crap in them, the only “cereal” I use these days is porridge.
I also find it crucial to make sure Rye has drunk enough water, otherwise he just eats and eats.
When my lads were 12/13/14/15 they were the same. I found that a mix of protein and carbs filled them longer, so stuff like baked potatoes and tinned tuna. They could eat six eggs each, scarmbled so three eggs scrambled with three slices of toast was cheaper and filling.
Mmm Joxy, I want to come and live at your house. You are so lucky that Rye eats such lovely food. I have no problem with ds2 but the eldest for example for te just had pasta and a yoghurt. He will complain he is hungry soon and I just won’t know what to give him.
I have exactly the same problem as you.Mine come in from school and its like a hurricane has hit the kitchen and left nothing in its wake. They are also increadibly grouchy until they have filled that HOLE.If Im organised Ill make flapjacks/scones or such like for when they get home but to be honest mostly Im not-especially now we have the new baby.I try to make extra when Im making lunch for myself and little daughter.So then there is extra soup/pasta whatever for when they get in.I make a big batch of bread twice a week,always planning to freeze some,but it never gets that far. Oat cakes and hummus are popular .Also nuts,my son comes in every day from school and helps himself to a large bowl of nuts.It is rather expensive but as we are vegetarian I kind of feel he needs the protein. I must say, I recon I spend at least £200 a week too. When my mother in law came to stay recently she was shocked at how much they ate,she must have a bad memory because surely her kids must have been the same.I think its normal.
I would also agree with the making sure they have had a drink idea. Mine will often be less hungry after a large glass of water or milk.
