One-pan budget meal plan | Good Food

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7-day one-pan meal plan on a budget

Monday: One-pot chicken & rice

Kickstart the week with this one-pan chicken dinner, featuring chicken thighs, an inexpensive cut of meat. It also features frozen veg to reduce costs further. It’s ready in under an hour and serves four, so it’s a brilliant dish for the whole family. Or, if you’re serving for two or less, it makes an impressive lunch the following day.

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Try more chicken thigh recipes.

Tuesday: Vegan winter one-pan

For Tuesday’s dinner, serve up a bowl of this nourishing plant-based stew. It combines cheap ingredients to bulk it up, such as baby potatoes and leeks, as well as storecupboard greats, like passata. This recipe serves two, but can be easily doubled to serve a family of four. It’s a healthy choice, too, being high in fibre, and low in calories.

See more vegan meal ideas in our budget vegan plan.

Wednesday: One-pan smoky beans & sausage meatballs

With just one pan you can cook up these smoky beans with sausage meatballs for the whole family. Ready on the table in under an hour, this recipe mostly uses cheap, storecupboard ingredients, such as chopped tomatoes, cannellini beans, garlic and onion, plus it’s easily scaled up without increasing the cost by much.

Check out more cannellini bean recipes.

Thursday: One-pan spicy rice

Turn your hand to this simple vegetarian rice dish for Thursday night’s dinner. This super-easy recipe is a useful weeknight backup – it needs practically no preparation and makes use of storecupboard staples to make a nourishing, filling meal. Plus, it’s ready to serve in just 20 minutes, brilliant if you’re short on time.

Choose from more speedy vegetarian meals.

Friday: One-pan pasta

Celebrate the weekend’s arrival with our easy and quick one-pan spaghetti dish, dressed in a simple tomato sauce and served with shop-bought meatballs. The ingredient list for this recipe is kept super short, and you’ll likely have most of them already, such as chopped tomatoes, ketchup and dried spaghetti. It’s both healthy and low in calories, but it still feels like a treat – perfect for the weekend!

Discover more Friday night dinners for weekend feasting.

Saturday: One-pan coconut dhal

Rustle up this versatile coconut dhal for a comforting curry to enjoy on the weekend. If you already have the spices to hand, this dhal is a super-cheap dish to make, as well as the lentils being a fantastic source of fibre. All made in one pan, it can also be used as a base to make other curries – see our favourite dhal recipes for inspiration.

Sunday: Tomato & chorizo rice

Chorizo and sweet smoked paprika flavour this budget storecupboard supper, with pitted green olives stirred through for an extra salty hit. This is a brilliant way to take a can of tomatoes in a new direction, and it’s perfect if you want a flavourful Sunday dinner without any of the effort – it’s ready in just 20 minutes.

See more family rice dishes and chorizo recipes.