Whether you’re off to University next month or a family feeling the pinch, here’s a Meal Plan of 5 days of £1 meals to give you some inspiration.
A little bit of a different meal plan today.
Some of you asked for inspiration for students going off to university so here we are! My criteria were:
Very good value (aka CHEAP!)
Easy to keep leftovers or make just 1 portion
No fancy equipment used and simple to make
For reference, I shopped for this Meal Plan in July 2022 at Asda and it cost £22.87.
If you’d like to receive this in your email box every time they come out, click here.
The printable shopping list can be found here.
Remember to check your cupboards before shopping, in case you already have any of the items on the list.
You can find more of my Meal Plans here:
Meal Plan 11 – £30 from Aldi
Meal Plan 10 – £32 (All 10 minute meals!)
Meal Plan 9 – £32 from Aldi
Some notes on Student Cooking
All of the recipes here serve 4 or 6 people, but if you’re cooking for just yourself, all of my recipes on my website can be adjusted by hovering over the number of servings and using the slider bar. Just adjust to 1 if you prefer. (See photo below!)
It’s always worth considering making extra portions and saving for lunch or dinner the next day though as it will save you time, effort and energy. Also bonus if you find dinner ready cooked in the fridge when drunk/hungover (HI STUDENTS!)
Buying frozen vegetables (if you have freezer space) can be a really good way of saving money when cooking just for yourself. (Annoyingly when I shopped for this they were out of stock but I’ve left them on the shopping list with a * as I think they are worth looking for rather than fresh to save money and waste.)
My printable shopping list includes the cheapest options to buy. Obviously if you want to buy higher quality (free range eggs for example) you can substitute in.
The shopping list includes some store cupboard items that aren’t included in the budget that are worth always keeping in your cupboard. They will help you make heaps of other meals.
I normally include a fish dish every week, I haven’t done here as fish can be very expensive, but if you do want one, try my Easy Tuna Pasta Bake. It’s SO easy, a classic.
Monday:
Broccoli Orzo Bake
(Click the link above to go to the recipe)
£0.52 per portion
Frozen or fresh broccoli works well here. Frozen may take a little extra time to cook.
You can easily adjust this recipe to make one portion.
Tuesday:
Cream Cheese Pasta
(Click the link above to go to the recipe)
£1.08 per portion
My cream cheese pack was slightly smaller, but that’s fine, I just used the 200g pack.
Also courgette pack sizes vary. One pack will be enough even if there’s only 2 courgettes, I wouldn’t bother spending money on another whole pack. You will have spare peas to add if you want more veg.
Substitute parmesan for some of the grated cheddar from the shopping list.
Make a single portion or make extra portions for lunches.
Wednesday
Butternut Squash Curry
(Click the link above to go to the recipe)
£1.07 per portion
Serve with extra rice from the bag.
You can use curry powder instead of curry paste depending on what you have. Just use about 1tsp per person or more or less depending on your spice tastes.
You could adjust this recipe to make one portion OR the extra portions freeze brilliantly if you have freezer space.
If you can’t find the cheaper dried red lentils, a can of green lentils also works well. Just drain and rinse them and add as normal (like I did in the video).
Thursday
Chicken Fried Rice
(Click the link above to go to the recipe)
£1.01 per portion
If you’re only cooking one portion of this, you could omit the chicken or use a smaller amount of bacon (leftover from the cream cheese pasta) instead. OR freeze the rest of the leftover uncooked chicken.
Friday
Crustless Quiche
(Click the link above to go to the recipe)
£0.75 per portion
Frozen or fresh broccoli works well here. Frozen may take a little extra time to cook.
You can make smaller portions of this in a smaller dish but leftovers keep well for 3 days in the fridge and make a brilliant, high protein lunch.
If you’d like some extra carbs with this, would suggest buying a pack of baking potatoes and having a jacket potato with it.
Quick reminder:
If you’d like to receive this in your email box every time they come out, click here.
The printable shopping list can be found here.
Hope this was useful, please let me know your feedback!
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