Five healthy ways to bulk out your batch meals to save you time and cash

BATCH cooking saves time and cash, plus can help you enjoy tastier and nutritious meals.

You can also make grub go further by adding cheaper foods to balance out pricier ingredients such as meat.

Here’s how to affordably bulk out your meals so you have more to save and freeze for another day.

OATS: Typically seen as a breakfast meal, but a handful or two can be used to thicken almost any sauce and add substance.

Use fine- milled varieties or blitz in a processor to help them blend in. Packs can be found for less than £1.

PULSES: Packed with protein and nutrients, beans and pulses are an excellent way of adding variety to dinners without breaking the bank.

Kidney beans are often found in chilli con carne but you could add a tin of black beans too (49p at Tesco).

Lentils work well with a cottage pie mix and chickpeas are excellent added to curries.

FRIDGE RAID: Many people follow recipes word for word, but often you can adapt to use up ingredients you already have.

Check your fridge for vegetables that can be added.

Tomatoes, broccoli, peppers and the like are incredibly versatile and work in many sauce-based dinners, helping to cut down on waste and increase the volume of your meal.

FROZEN VEG: Stretch out meals and add nutrients by adding a couple of handfuls of frozen veg such as peas, sweetcorn or broad beans.

Keeping these in the freezer ensures they won’t go bad before you use them and can be used in many dishes.

RICE: Add a couple of handfuls of rice to soup, casseroles and stew for a heartier and fuller meal with extra texture and minimal costs.

POTATOES: Chopped spuds are perfect for adding to curries and stews.

You can par-boil or just make sure you cook sauces long enough to get your potato nice and fluffy.

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