Family Friendly Frugal Meals – Macaroni Cheese….

Never one to leave a bargain sitting on the supermarket shelf, I bought five packs of sausages this week for 39p each reduced from £2 a pack which was all well and good until I got home to put them in my already crammed freezer and realised that I already had three packs of bargain sausages in there already.  So, you can guess what features heavily in this weeks meal plan can’t you?

Monday: Bacon, egg, sausages, chips and beans with toast (because it went down so well last week and because it uses up one pack of sausages)

Tuesday: Macaroni cheese (see below) – served with sausages if I can get away with it!

Wednesday: Sausage Casserole or Sausage Pie

Thursday: Shepherds Pie

Friday: Home made wraps with chilli (from the freezer), cheese and sour cream with home made potato wedges.  I may offer sausages as an alternative for those who don’t fancy chilli.

Saturday: Home made pizza with choose your own toppings – chicken, ham, pineapple, mushrooms etc – I try and throw in a few sliced sausages 

Sunday: Sunday Lunch – Toad in the hole, roasties, veg and Yorkshire puddings

Did you spot the sausages 

Macaroni Cheese

300g (ish) Macaroni
800ml Milk
50g Butter
50g Plain flour
300g Grated Cheese

1. Cook the macaroni (or any other pasta) according to the instructions on the pack
2. While the pasta’s cooking, melt the butter in a pan, add the flour and stir for a few seconds.
3. Gradually mix in the milk and keep stirring until it starts to bubble and thicken.
4. When the white sauce has thickened add most of the cheese to the pan (save a bit for the topping though) and stir until it’s all melted in.
5. Add the drained, cooked pasta to the sauce and stir together before pouring it all into an ovenproof dish and topping it with the rest of the grated cheese.
6. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes until the top goes brown and bubbly.

This is a real comfort meal and it tastes delicious – we often stir in cooked brocolli or ham into the mix before baking it in the oven to add a bit of variation – might try sausages this week lol.

I also wanted to tell you about a challenge I kind of took part in a few weeks ago.  I say kind of because it was the week that I was off work ill with a tummy bug and the rest of the family were feeling a bit iffy as well so I didn’t have the inclination or the energy to stick to the meal plan that I’d so carefully prepared and shopped for….  The idea was to spend £20.00 (given to us by Tesco) in the special offer section of the Tesco website and make at least five meals using what you bought.  I managed to buy the ingredients to make pizza and garlic bread, meatball pasta bake, tuna pasta bake, meatball, in tomato sauce with cheese wraps, sausage and mash pie, macaroni cheese and the kids packed lunches for the week. 

The moral of the story is that shopping by what’s on offer and what you have in is much more cost effective than planning your meals by what you fancy 

For more meal plan ideas, pop over to At home with Mrs M