cheap food ideas

[lost illusions]

Lets see them ideas that we can eat

 

[Redt2go]

Like to cook?

 

[lost illusions]

Rice chex lightly brushed with real butter and coated with either cinnamon sugar or carnation instant breakfast

 

[lost illusions]

Like to cook?

Yes or quick snacks

 

[LiveSlowDieFast]

I like to eat tomato scrambled eggs for breakfast. It takes like 10 minutes to make:

Put a pan on medium heat, add some butter and once it coats the entire pan, add half a can of chopped tomatoes and let it cook for 5 minutes

Meanwhile, crack two eggs into a cup or bowl, add some salt and pepper, and stir with egg beater

After the 5 minutes, turn off the heat or put it on a low setting and add the scrambled egg mass into the pan and mix with the tomatoes. Put some toast into the toaster in the meantime

 

[iHeartRockArt]

https://www.simplystacie.net/2016/05/chocolate-peanut-butter-ramen-bars/
Ramen Noodles Rock! Even for desserts!

 

[stellabelle]

Spaghetti is always a cheap favorite.
Or ramen noodles w egg.

 

[leaps]

Spaghetti is always a cheap favorite.
Or ramen noodles w egg.

Or ramen noodles with broccoli

 

[lost illusions]

Does anyone like real jalapenos wrapped in bacon and filled with cream cheese?

 

[stellabelle]

Does anyone like real jalapenos wrapped in bacon and filled with cream cheese?

Never had

 

[stellabelle]

Fried egg on a waffle is good too.

 

[leaps]

Peanut butter and syrup on a pancake

 

[leaps]

Spam sandwich

 

[DownInaHole]

rice & beans are a complete protein.

 

[iHeartRockArt]

I've also made a sort of hamburger helper when I didn't have actual hamburger helper...out of Ramen. I called it my "cheese burger casserole." Make the ramen soup, then strain the broth off of it and set aside. Cook the hamburger with chopped onion till onions are tender, season to your liking, add the noodles to the hamburger. Cook a few slices of bacon, chop it up. Then add a small amount of the broth back into it to moisten the meat and noodles, add the bacon and some cheese...then top with cheese. Bake in a casserole dish at 350 for 20 mins.

 

[lost illusions]

Never had

Homemade poppers are one of my favorite, sometimes I'll use a makeshift smoker and cook em under low temp

 

[lost illusions]

I've also made a sort of hamburger helper when I didn't have actual hamburger helper...out of Ramen. I called it my "cheese burger casserole." Make the ramen soup, then strain the broth off of it and set aside. Cook the hamburger with chopped onion till onions are tender, season to your liking, add the noodles to the hamburger. Cook a few slices of bacon, chop it up. Then add a small amount of the broth back into it to moisten the meat and noodles, add the bacon and some cheese...then top with cheese. Bake in a casserole dish at 350 for 20 mins.

I've done this, its pretty good

 

[iHeartRockArt]

Homemade poppers are one of my favorite, sometimes I'll use a makeshift smoker and cook em under low temp

I love jalapeño poppers. I can't have bacon, but I love them with cheddar or cream cheese and dipped in batter and fried.

 

[lost illusions]

I love jalapeño poppers. I can't have bacon, but I love them with cheddar or cream cheese and dipped in batter and fried.

I've never used batter before

 

[Kyrok]

Ramen with celery, hotdog, ginger
Ground beef, beans, tomato, onions over spaghetti
5 bean soup, with cumin, coriander
Cabbage, onion, tomato soup
Stuffed cabbage ... rice, tomato, etc.
A million versions of beans & rice
Cheap frozen pizza, add your own toppings

 

[Minudah]

I take tofu and just put some kind of sauce on it, like soy sauce or hot sauce. Quick simple filling meal that's cheap in some places

 

[hablakadabra]

Tuna, cottage cheese, capers, salt, pepper
Throw a can of tuna in a bowl, add cottage cheese until its a thick paste. Mix in the capers.
Put it on some crispbread or toast.
Season with salt&pepper to your liking.
Healthy, quick and tastes good.

 

[lost illusions]

I take tofu and just put some kind of sauce on it, like soy sauce or hot sauce. Quick simple filling meal that's cheap in some places

What is tofu?

 

[lost illusions]

Tuna, cottage cheese, capers, salt, pepper
Throw a can of tuna in a bowl, add cottage cheese until its a thick paste. Mix in the capers.
Put it on some crispbread or toast.
Season with salt&pepper to your liking.
Healthy, quick and tastes good.

Interesting

I've made tuna patties before. Tuna, mayo, flower and a pan of butter

 

[anelakapu]

Spam musubi- slice of spam and sticky rice wrapped in seaweed..or pretty much anything drowning in tapatio

 

[FTL.Wanderer]

This is one of my favorite topics! First, if someone has a stable enough environment, they can grow vegetables in containers on a deck or balcony. There are fantastic vertical gardening systems that can feed 6+ people off of the space of a tiny New York apartment faux balcony. And I developed a water recycling system to process (light) gray water for edible and decorative/protective plants even in the hellish heat of California's Central Valley, so you can save on your water bill even more easily if you live outside the desert.

But for people who don't want to garden, buying dried legumes and whole grains in bulk is still phenomenally cheap. At my local food coop, French lentils (a fancier legume) cost $1.09/pound bulk. And you can Google the soil to plant contamination dynamics for lentils; they're among the cleanest (fewest contaminants) plants. Fancy jasmine brown rice at my coop costs $1.04/pound bulk. There are even cheaper options--like phytonutrient dense kidney and black beans and long grain brown rice. Organic whole steel cut oats are ridiculously cheap at our coop--$0.39/pound. Together, the legumes and grains supply complementary amino acids (L-methionine for the legumes and lysine for the grains...).

For desserts, fresh fruit that's on deep discount freezes for pennies on the dollar and because it's so ripe makes a sweet treat that rivals the far more expensive and less nourishing stuff sold in groceries' frozen sections.

In the spring and summer, local farmer's markets offer seasonal produce at terrific prices relative to supermarket prices. I buy large quantities and share with neighbors. And you can pick berries that would otherwise rot at locally owned farms (sometimes even wild--careful, local contaminants...) during their high season so cheaply it makes supermarket prices seem criminal.

During the winter, equally nutrient dense (to fresh) frozen vegetables bought in bulk on sale can save over 80% off typical prices (frozen chard, kale, spinach). And if you grow your own in containers (tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, cabbage, broccoli...), you can pickle--preserves nutrients and even enhances profile of some vitamins while adding probiotics.

Finally, some produce you can get a nearly infinite return on--like sectioning garlic, turmeric, ginger... or collecting and propagating seeds of easy to grow non-sweet fruit like avocados (requires right temperature) and gobs of peppers.

There are tons more ideas... When I lived in Seattle, my neighbors and I started a local community garden. In exchange for just four hours of work a month, each of us had more than enough food to get by year round. Every community ought to have a collective garden to prevent food shortage. A tiny plot of land can produce so much food that even local homeless can have health-supporting, filling nutrition much of which doesn't even require cooking.

Good luck!

 

[lost illusions]

This is one of my favorite topics! First, if someone has a stable enough environment, they can grow vegetables in containers on a deck or balcony. There are fantastic vertical gardening systems that can feed 6+ people off of the space of a tiny New York apartment faux balcony. And I developed a water recycling system to process (light) gray water for edible and decorative/protective plants even in the hellish heat of California's Central Valley, so you can save on your water bill even more easily if you live outside the desert.

But for people who don't want to garden, buying dried legumes and whole grains in bulk is still phenomenally cheap. At my local food coop, French lentils (a fancier legume) cost $1.09/pound bulk. And you can Google the soil to plant contamination dynamics for lentils; they're among the cleanest (fewest contaminants) plants. Fancy jasmine brown rice at my coop costs $1.04/pound bulk. There are even cheaper options--like phytonutrient dense kidney and black beans and long grain brown rice. Organic whole steel cut oats are ridiculously cheap at our coop--$0.39/pound. Together, the legumes and grains supply complementary amino acids (L-methionine for the legumes and lysine for the grains...).

For desserts, fresh fruit that's on deep discount freezes for pennies on the dollar and because it's so ripe makes a sweet treat that rivals the far more expensive and less nourishing stuff sold in groceries' frozen sections.

In the spring and summer, local farmer's markets offer seasonal produce at terrific prices relative to supermarket prices. I buy large quantities and share with neighbors. And you can pick berries that would otherwise rot at locally owned farms (sometimes even wild--careful, local contaminants...) during their high season so cheaply it makes supermarket prices seem criminal.

During the winter, equally nutrient dense (to fresh) frozen vegetables bought in bulk on sale can save over 80% off typical prices (frozen chard, kale, spinach). And if you grow your own in containers (tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, cabbage, broccoli...), you can pickle--preserves nutrients and even enhances profile of some vitamins while adding probiotics.

Finally, some produce you can get a nearly infinite return on--like sectioning garlic, turmeric, ginger... or collecting and propagating seeds of easy to grow non-sweet fruit like avocados (requires right temperature) and gobs of peppers.

There are tons more ideas... When I lived in Seattle, my neighbors and I started a local community garden. In exchange for just four hours of work a month, each of us had more than enough food to get by year round. Every community ought to have a collective garden to prevent food shortage. A tiny plot of land can produce so much food that even local homeless can have health-supporting, filling nutrition much of which doesn't even require cooking.

Good luck!

I liked growing onoins, garlic, hot peppers and tomatoes. I'm farely good at it

 

[creationisdeath]

These cheap ramen thingies will eventually kill you - painfully. I can recommend rice. You will hate it after a while but it's cheap and better than the boatloads of MSG you find in ramen.

 

[Minudah]

What is tofu?

I don't really know exactly. I just know it's a large, thick white block made out of soybeans that's popular in East Asia, especially Japan, and that it's a lot cheaper than meat. But some countries subsidize meat so heavily that it ends up being "cheaper" than tofu, which is stupid because those subsidies pay for over 95% of the price of meat to get to that point. Glad tofu is the cheaper option where I live.

 

[Tristesse]

and that it's a lot cheaper than meat.

Yes, Tofu has always been the cheapest dish on the restaurant menu here...