• grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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    37 minutes ago

    I eat cheap all the time, but rice and beans is the classic. If you can afford a can of tomatoes and some spices, then you can upgrade this to rajma masala. That’s one of my fav post workout meals. Throw in some alliums, and other vegetables as you can (frozen is often p cheap).

    Actually just look up vegan Indian recipes and source ingredients as cheaply as you can. Like dried beans, lentils, chickpeas, and spices — ideally purchased from bulk store — and you’ll be healthy and satisfied for less money than you would believe.

  • Boomer Humor Doomergod@lemmy.world
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    55 minutes ago

    My favorite food when I was poor was something I called bachelor chow.

    Cubed and fried spam, a can of baked beans, and some rice. I’d get two or three meals out of it.

  • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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    2 hours ago

    Pasta and sauce. As long as you have a few basic herbs and spices on hand (garlic powder, Italian seasonings, salt pepper), you can buy a can of crushed tomatoes, and a box of pasta, and you can have several delicious, filling meals for less than 5 bucks total. Spend a little more and toss in ground beef, ground pork, or mushrooms, or a combination of all three.

    Aldi has the ingredients for really cheap. You can even buy a pound of ground pork for only about $3. The spices are only about a buck each.

    • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      A bag of onions and a jar of minced garlic punch above their price tag for pasta enhancement as well.

      I like to saute the onion (diced) until golden and translucent, then add a scoop of the minced garlic, then just as it starts to brown, dump in the sauce, Italian seasoning, and stir at a very low simmer while the noodles cook.

      Add some pasta water to the sauce before you strain so it sticks to the noodles better.

  • The Hobbyist@lemmy.zip
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    2 hours ago

    Oats are underrated. Dirt cheap, with calories and nutrients. Super easy and fast to cook. Can be cooked in water or milk. Can be made sweet (e.g. with apple and cinnamon, drop the sugar) or savory (e.g. curry powder, or tomato etc).

    And it definitely fills your stomach.

  • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    Lentils, beans, onion, rice. Lentils and beans need to be soaked for a long time before cooking, but they’re DIRT CHEAP, and they are actually super tasty. Just get used to it and you’ll find it’s basically comfort food. You can eat it with anything, but lentils and onion and rice is amazing, especially with some condiments or whatever

    • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 hours ago

      As a side note, it’s a good investment to buy a pressure cooker at least for the beans since it cuts the cooking time to about 10 minutes (and this is assuming you’ve soaked the beans for at least 12H).

      Pressure cookers will also cut down the cooking time of things that need longer cooking to not be too hard to chew, such as cheap pieces of beef.

      Also consider chickpeas along with beans and lentils since you can cook them in the same way and they’re the same kind of thing (pulses).

  • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.works
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    1 hour ago

    I’m grateful I haven’t reached my college level of broke (yet), but with the economy absolutely booming right now under our current leadership, money is very tight. I’m pretty good at figuring out meals with some budget to work with.

    Not sure if this only applies to Costco prices right now, but rounding up I got a 4.5lb bag of quinoa ~$13, a 5 pound bag of red beans for $10, and a 5 pound bag of red onions for $6. So a total of ~$29. Depending on how many people you’re feeding you can stretch that several weeks. If you go with rice instead of quinoa it’s cheaper and also still gives you a complete protein when you combine it with beans.

    My father in law always said he lived for an entire year in college eating nothing but potatoes. I wouldn’t recommend trying that but I guess it’s an option?

    Also recently made a loaf of bread for the first time. All you need is flour, yeast, oil and water (forgot you do also need salt and a small amount of sugar to activate the yeast. I’ve used juice from different fruits (grapes, oranges) as an activator when I didn’t have sugar, but never tried that with bread specifically).

    Chickpeas and lentils are very cheap and can be used to make a lot of recipes. Buy some taco seasoning, tortillas, and lentils. Make a giant pot of that, and it will last a while. Lentils are pretty similar in texture to ground beef, so it works pretty well. This may sound weird but lentils are also really good as a meat substitute in spaghetti.

    It gets really boring eating the same thing everyday, so I’ve also used this website to make some really good meals: https://www.budgetbytes.com/ They have a ton of options for both meat and vegetarian meals.

    This was like 10 years ago, (so shit is definitely more expensive now) but when I was between jobs I had to make $50 for groceries for two last a little over 2 weeks. I went through the recipes on there and found a bunch that sounded good and contained the same core ingredients. Made a list of core and extra ingredients I would need (garlic, ginger, etc) and then went to Walmart and got everything I needed within budget.

    The mujaddara was and still is my favorite. I always end up needing to double the water the recipe calls for to cook the lentils and rice. I will also say it is definitely a time consuming recipe compared to the others I tried. Make it on a day when you can set aside enough time to slow cook and caramelize the onions instead of sauteing. That is definitely the key. https://www.budgetbytes.com/mujaddara/

    Also keep in mind if you buy something like fresh ginger, onions, or mushrooms, but don’t end up using all of it right away, you can chop it up and freeze it for later so it doesn’t go bad.

    I’ve stored chopped frozen ginger by itself in a ziplock bag. It seemed fine to me but apparently you’re supposed to put it in oil and then freeze it. Some people use ice cube trays and make small aliquots of oil and ginger or other herbs.

    I’ve been told repeatedly you shouldn’t freeze onion, but when you’re broke and need to make what you have last, whatever. It might lose some flavor and texture, but I always saute onion anyway. If I was trying to eat it raw (or caramelize it later) I could see that being a no.

    Mushrooms have to be cooked first before freezing (as far as I know). Chop and saute with olive oil and a little bit of butter or coconut oil (there is something about the extra fat that helps preserve it when frozen). After cooking, spread out on a nonstick surface or sheet of parchment paper, put them in the freezer and then once they’re frozen, move them to an airtight container.

  • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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    3 hours ago

    Ramen with frozen vegetables mixed in.

    Bean tacos.

    Some kind of dish using chicken thighs as you can buy the thighs for cheap.

    If ground beef is cheap, cottage pie.

    Various pasta dishes

    • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      Bad choices, apart from the oatmeal, and even then thats not great. You can get by cheaper with lentils and beans while increasing nutritional value by a few thousand percent.

      • WaffleWarrior@lemmy.zip
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        3 hours ago

        The carbs have a place in a healthy diet. Nothing wrong with rice or noodles. The Ramen if it’s instant is crap though

  • Retro_unlimited@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    While chicken from Walmart (or Costco) about $5 and it becomes 4-8 meals.

    Air pop popcorn. Buy popcorn by the huge bags, so I only buy every few years.

    Rice is cheap. Bread is cheap. Pancakes. Bananas (it’s like $1 for the week)

    Also check out your local food bank, lots of free stuff to fill the kitchen, then you just have to buy a few staples that are missing from the food bank items. (The one near me doesn’t have milk, eggs, meat, etc. but they have plenty of vegetables and fruit and some snacks) also a monthly box filled with canned foods.

  • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    Sandwiches and soup. I always preferred tuna, but grilled cheese or ham and cheese are solid too.

      • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
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        1 hour ago

        A can of tuna is about a dollar, that’s probably good for 2 sandwiches.

        I think that qualifies as cheap. I mean 1 tuna sandwich probably costs about the same amount as a pack of ramen, and it contains actual food.