Feed your family for less than a fiver in lockdown with Mrs Crunch’s top shopping tips

FEED your family for less than a fiver a meal using my lockdown shopping list.

With £35 to spend, I’ve created warming options to keep you cosy and fill their tummies in these tough times.

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With basic ingredients from your cupboard and a handful of other items, everything you need to cook well is here.

And try the tasty main course recipes from Morrisons.com.

• Costs based on food for four

Bargain meal ideas

MONDAY

FOR meat-free Monday, make a tasty vegetable chilli using a variety of veg, beans and sauce. Morrisons has frozen sliced mixed peppers, 500g, £1, wonky carrots, 1kg, 35p, and a cauliflower, 95p.

Fry them up and add a tin of Morrisons mixed beans, 300g, 60p, and Morrisons tomato and chilli pasta sauce, 500g, down from 60p to 55p.

Loosen with some water to cook the veg and serve alongside Morrisons easy-cook long grain rice, 95p.

Total: £4.40

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TUESDAY

IT is time for another family favourite. Enjoy a sausage dinner with Heck ten chicken Italia sausages, down from £2.25 to £1.75 at Asda.

Serve with the store’s Frozen for Freshness mixed vegetables, 84p, and Asda’s Grower’s Selection British jacket potatoes, 2kg, down from £1.20 to £1, leaving plenty of spuds for lunch another day.

Total: £3.59

WEDNESDAY

MAKE getting over the midweek hump easier.

Snap up the Co-op’s £5 freezer filler offer, which runs until January 26 and features five Birds Eye products – two crispy chicken grills, four chicken burgers, eight crispy fish fingers, Alphabites and garden peas – as well as Nestle Rowntree four Fruit Pastilles ice lollies.

Total: £5

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THURSDAY

THE Morrisons stir-fry meal deal is a must. Get a pack of stir-fry vegetables, noodles and a sauce for £3, saving up to 70p.

If you want to add meat, chop up pork shoulder steaks from Morrisons, 325g, £1.90.

Total: £4.90

FRIDAY

SPAGHETTI bolognese is on the menu. Cook up skinny beef mince 3 per cent fat, 500g, £3.49; a yellow pepper, 42p; chunky chopped tomatoes with herbs, 400g, 35p; and an onion, 47p for a pack of three, all from Aldi. Serve alongside the store’s spaghetti, 500g, 20p.

Total: £4.93

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SATURDAY

TREAT yourself to a lockdown “fakeaway”. Cook up some Morrisons boneless chicken thigh fillets, 600g, £2.99, with Morrisons tikka masala sauce, 450g, 85p, with two packs of Morrisons pilau micro rice, 49p per pack.

Total: £4.82

SUNDAY

MAKE a mini roast with Tesco’s Willow Farm chicken drumsticks, 900g-1.2kg, £1.42, its Perfectly Imperfect potatoes, 2.5kg, 93p, frozen fine whole green beans, 900g, 53p, and Perfectly Imperfect parsnips 500g, 40p, and Aunt Bessie’s Bramley apple crumble, 500g, £1.35.

Total: £4.63

Add-ons

PUT these great-value family favourites on your shopping list too. Because everyone needs a treat, Morrisons has a double pack of McVitie’s chocolate digestives, 2 x 316g, for £1.50.

Pep up your roast, or simply serve with bangers, peas and gravy – Sainsbury’s 15 Stamford St Food Company Yorkshire puddings are 50p.

Co-op’s Classic Menu lamb hotpot, 700g, currently down to £3, will serve a family of four.

Head to the frozen aisle for Asda’s family chicken and bacon lattice pie, £2.50.

Save 50p on a six-pack of Walkers oven-baked crisps at Morrisons, currently down from £1.50 to £1.

Sausage and beans casserole

Serves four

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Cooking time: 40 mins

YOU NEED:

• 1 pack 6 pork sausages
• 1 tin baked beans, 400g
• 2 carrots, 180g
• 2 onions, 190g
• 3 potatoes, 120g
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 50g tomato puree
• 2 slices streaky bacon, chopped (optional)
• 400ml stock, 1 cube and
• 400ml water

METHOD:

1. Finely chop the onions and carrots. Heat a little oil in a pan, add the sausages and cook until they are browned all over.
2. Remove the sausages and cut in half, then place back in the pan. Add the vegetables and cook until softened (add the bacon now if using).
3. Add the tomato puree and the smoked paprika (or any spice mix such as chilli powder).
4. Add the stock (any that you have will work, or failing that just add 400ml of water), bring to the boil and leave to simmer for about 30 to 35 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened.
5. For quick and easy spuds, put the potatoes in the microwave to cook for five minutes on full power.
6. Preheat oven to 190C, cut microwaved potatoes into chunks, brush with a little oil and season with salt and pepper.
7. Place on a baking tray and roast for 20 minutes. Serve warm, topped with crispy potatoes.

BOXED UP

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Preparation time: 20 mins

Cooking time: 1 hour 40 mins

If you have prepared this recipe ahead of time, cover loosely with foil and reheat at 180C/gas 4 for 25 minutes until piping hot.

YOU NEED:

• 1.2 kg potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 fennel bulb, trimmed and thinly sliced
• 3 tbsp apple sauce
• 30g butter, melted
• 200ml milk
• 284ml Elmlea single light

METHOD:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Layer the sliced potatoes with the sliced fennel in a large ovenproof dish.
2. Blend the apple sauce, melted butter, milk and Elmlea.
3. Pour over the potato and fennel slices. Cover with a lightly buttered sheet of baking parchment, and then foil.
4. Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes before removing the foil and baking parchment.
5. Cook uncovered for a further 20 minutes, or until the top is golden and bubbling.
6. Serve warm or store in the fridge for up to three days.

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