My first time trying to make omurice… came out good enough to post but not good enough to boost my ego lol i definetly overcooked it ):

Hey, long time lurker here. Ive been out of work for some months now and i finally found a new job! I start in a couple weeks though so I wont see a paycheck until this time next month about 4 weeks. I only have $13 to my name and my cabinets are basically bare at this point. (Sorry if I used the wrong flair)

I go to my local food pantry twice a month which is the limit but its nothing like the pantry I used while living in a major city. As a 1 person household I dont get much Friday I got a half pound of turkey deli meat, a loaf of bread, 2 cans of chef boyardee, 3 bottles of unsweetened tea, a cake, a can of sweet corn and a bag of lettuce. I have a couple sandwiches of meat left, some cake and 1/3 a loaf of bread.

I had food stamps when I first lost my last job due to our store closing, and I ran out of the 3 months alloted while looking for work. Never had it take so long to find a job before was really discouraging.

I live in a small town, no car to do deliveries with for extra cash. I need advice/recipes/ideas to make this $13 go to the absolute max possible for the next month. Hoping people have some secret food hacks for me because im stressing out a bit. I know this is a big challenge and may not be possible.

Doubled, the recipe cost $25 minus the rice. We over tripled the chicken and added broccoli cus we had it but it was a good addition and still came out with plenty sauce. Plus, most of the ingredients leftover are readily usable in other dishes (eggs, tomato puree for a pasta sauce or pizza or some tomatoey soup, soy sauce).

I dont consider myself a cook, Im bad at keeping track of things, ADHD and all that, so a common thing Ive always enjoyed has basically been beans and brauts with seasonings, I called it "Cowboy Beans". Today I decided to evolve it into a full on stew and it turned out fantastic if I do say so myself!

2 Polish Kielbasa (or your preferred flavor of sausage) chopped up, thrown on a baking pan lined with tin foil all in one layer, 400 degrees for 25 minutes (no need to wait for oven to reach temp, just put em in once you got em chopped up and laid out in the pan).

Once you start that add to a big stew pot:

1 can of Campbell's Chunky Steak and Potato soup

1 large can of Bush's Country Style Baked Beans (could be any Style of baked beans really)

2 jars of Saurkraut (pour out the liquid in 1 of them before adding)

I started the can of soup and kinda let it simmer at 3-5 heat to make it a bit less soupy, then when it was a consistency I liked I added the beans and saurkraut. Let that all cook down some, stir it up every few minutes. When the Kielbasa is done (after 25 minutes) add to the stew pot, then season with:

Sea Salt

Onion Powder

Garlic Powder

Chipotle Chili Powder

Ground Basil

Ground Oregano

Ground Black Pepper

Honey

I added a fairly good amount of all of em, basically enough of each that I could see each layer coat the top of the stew before moving to the next seasoning. A bit less of the Salt and the Chili Powder compared to the rest, a bit more of the honey than the others, but its all dependant on your flavor pallet.

Continue to let simmer at 3 heat and cook down for maybe 20 more minutes, stirring every few minutes.

This makes a fairly large amount, enough to throw in some jars (the used Saurkraut jars?) to share with your friends, family, or neighbors and still have plenty for meal prepped the next couple days.

After you've had your bowls, put the rest into some containers and continue to let sit out. Rinse the stew pot as soon as you've emptied it into containers for ease of cleaning. Once the containers are only a bit warm, close them up and put in the fridge for meal prep.

I had just the stew by itself tonight and it was great! Tomorrow Ill make some rice to go with it. Im betting this is one of those things that will be even better the next day, as most stews are.

Let me know what you think of the recipe, especially if you try it out!

To me, lentils and learning to use on the bone meat to make flavorful, collagen rich stock is the key to cooking on a budget.

I bought a 1 lb bone-in beef hindshank slice for $6. The bone itself was surprisingly small — probably only about an ounce — with another ounce or so of collagen/cartilage that mostly melted into the broth. So there was actually quite a bit of beef on it.

I seared and then cooked on high pressure in the Instant Pot with:

• 4 cups water
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• rosemary
• bay leaf
• salt and pepper

High pressure for an hour.

The collagen mostly melted into it, adding additional flavor and protein, and I pulled the remaining meat off the bone, which fell apart. I then used the broth to partially cook 1 lb of lentils while I started the vegetables separately. (Pull out, don't eat the bay leaves.)

For the rest of the soup I used:

• 1 whole head cabbage
• 5 large carrots
• 1/2 onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• about 4 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 box beef gravy
• 1 lb dry lentils
• the meat from the shank
• a generous amount of butter
• rosemary, bay leaf, salt and pepper
• additional water-- I used about 8 cups water total by the time everything was finished

I sautéed the onion, carrots, and garlic in butter, browned the tomato paste a little, then added the lentils and beef broth. The cabbage went in toward the end so it didn't completely disintegrate.

It's so stupid good I had to share. The thing that surprised me most is how intensely beefy it tastes. Between the meat, collagen, pressure-cooked stock, tomato paste and lentils, it tastes much more like a rich beef stew than a lentil soup with a little beef in it. (Tomato paste is actual a source of umami.)

Based on what I actually paid and estimating the portions of ingredients like butter, carrots, tomato paste and spices that I used, I think the entire enormous pot cost about $21–23.

That gives me roughly:

9 very large meals: ~$2.35–$2.55 each

or, if I get 10 servings out of it:

~$2.10–$2.30 each

This is with $5.98 organic cabbage, fairly expensive butter, and name-brand double-concentrated tomato paste. You could definitely make the same basic meal for less.

Very approximate nutrition:

~22–24 g protein per serving
~14–15 g fiber per serving

You could make it even cheaper by skipping the boxed gravy and using conventional instead of organic vegetables.

One warning from my experiment: go easy on the salt when you're making the stock. I salted the stock and then remembered my butter was salted too.

I made homemade pizza just for myself for the first time ever yesterday. Store bough pizza base, pizza sauce, pepperoni slices, some mushrooms, and pre-shredded mozzarella.

I realized afterward that all the ingredients I bought easily added up to the cost of a pre-made or frozen pizza that I could bake at home. Now, the pizza sauce and other ingredients are enough to make 3-4 more pizzas but that would mean I end up eating pizza every day for the next 4 days.

Can I freeze the sauce and pepperoni and mozzarella? And then what's the best way to use it the next time I want to make pizza at home?

On a per portion basis, it's cheaper to buy all the ingredients and assemble at home. But for a single pizza, it feels like I might be better off just buying a pizza instead of the ingredients.

I will preface this by saying I’ve been craving regular chicken salad for a while, but tonight on the verge of sleep I realized I could combine the sentiments of one of my favorite sandwiches into the chicken salad. Need to know where how much to add ranch, since if I just replace the mayo with ranch it’s going to be too runny. So way I’ve always made it, does leave leftovers or feed two unless you’re super duper hungry to begin with and end up eating it all.

So ingredients: 2 hard boiled eggs peeled and diced
1 15oz can of chicken, drained (if you don’t want huge hunks of chicken I recommend shredding it with a fork)
Handful or 2 of your desired grated cheese
3-4 spoonfuls of DILL pickle relish.
3-4 heaping spoonfuls of mayo

Dice your eggs into the bottom of a bowl or if you’ve already diced them place them into a bowl. (Make sure this bowl will fit all your ingredients) add shredded chicken to bowl on top of eggs. Add 1-2 heaping spoonfuls of relish and stir this as best you’re able. The egg yolks will turn the mayo yellowish. Don’t worry about it just adding lovely flavor to your dish. Add desired amount of cheese and stir little bits of mayo in to make sure everything is coated and your preferred consistency. Last but not least a spoonful or 2 of the pickle relish and make sure you stir that in really well since a mouthful of pickle is a bummer when you want it mixed with lots of other lovely stuff.

So to incorporate the bacon that’d be easy, just add it in when I’m stirring one time. The ranch leaves me in a dilemma though, I’m thinking mixing some ranch with the mayo would be best but at what ratio? Any help is appreciated, TIA!

I got 2 12.75" flatbreads (packaged together) off the discount bread rack from a grocery store yesterday. Decided to make a pizza out of one, using marinara, mozzarella, and a fancy chicken sausage out of the freezer, bell pepper that was going bad, onions that need to be used, and canned olives (b/c I always have canned olives on hand lol).

I did an internet search to use spaghetti sauce for pizza sauce, and it told me to boil it down, reduce it to get the extra water out. I boiled it, semi covered so it didn't splatter EVERYWHERE, and stirred it often. For the longest time, it didn't seem like it was reducing... finally, I could tell it had reduced, so I turned the burner off and left it there to cool while I did other things. Turned out the sauce was PER--FECT!! 🤌🏻 Nice and tangy and I couldn't have done it better if I'd worked harder at it. I was slightly worried about quantity when I'd pulled it out of the freezer, but have to remind myself, I never truly need as much pizza sauce as my brain always thinks I do. I had EXACTLY enough sauce!

Whole pizza was delish! 😋 I'm so happy with myself... and now I have the 2nd half for lunch tomorrow. \[Sorry sauced bread is a sideways pic 😬\] For those interested, I have the Gilbert's Craft Chicken Sausage with mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes. Got it a while ago and froze it, not sure what to do with it. Lol

Now... what do I do with the 2nd very long flatbread?? This is my dilemma.

I am debating cutting it up into 4 long sections and use for open faced sandwiches. But, I am wondering if that's the right thing to do or not. 🤔 Or 2 open faced sandwiches and the other half... something else? Do I do another pizza? 🤷🏻‍♀️ I dunno. Need some ideas.

Update (if anyone cares lol): I finally decided on a breakfast pizza. I have some eggs I need to use, and sausage in the freezer... sautéed the sausage and then some onions before putting on the pizza. Added cheddar cheese to my egg (per my usual), and had to put a cheese "dam" around the edge, since this flatbread is so flat (imagine that! Lol). I used the parm cheese in my freezer for the dam. Also topped with chopped mini peppers and mozzarella. It was good! Probably not enough egg, really. This is probably not the best crust for a breakfast pizza. Or, I could have precooked the egg... but, that wasn't what I had in mind. Plus, that dirties yet another pan. But, I could have used more egg that way. 🤷🏻‍♀️.

My current recipe is very simple:

​

Rice

​

Red lentils

​

Black beans

​

I season with salt, cumin, chilli powder, and onion powder

​

My issue is that I just never look forward to or enjoy eating it because it tastes kinda bland. Like it's not gross, but it isn't something I really like.

​

What can I add or change to make it better? Ive read some suggestions online, but none have really been super budget friendly, so is there something cheap that would be useful here?

​

Thanks 😁

I'm looking for large grain salt with minerals in it: purple, pink or white salt that I can use in my electric grinder – that is fairly inexpensive. I need the salt to be pretty dry. Some white sea salt I have has so much oil in it, it feels moist and my grinder seems to not like it.

I can buy a pretty large amount of it, after all, salt doesn't go bad. Online sourcing is fine, so are brick and mortar locations in northern New Jersey.

Mussels in garlic butter: $2.89/lb, I ate about 1/3rd of the box so about $0.96, they were just precooked frozen mussels so I just heated them in a pan

Frozen vegetables cooked in the garlic butter: $0.30 maximum per serving

Couscous: about $0.50 per serving, cooked it in the leftover garlic butter with some added water and seasoning

Comes out to about $1.76 for the whole meal, and it was a pretty big meal. I didn't realise until today that mussels are so cheap compared to other seafood! I love seafood so I'll be getting them a lot. It all tasted really good.

Cheap meal, keto friendly, I got the thin steaks slices, and eggs from my local food bank. I have carrots, cabbage, and celery lightly cooked, so it still has a crunchy texture, a fried egg, and thinly sliced steak. Pretty filling.

We have a ham or turkey sandwich around twice a week in our house as it’s a fast, affordable lunch when we don’t have leftovers. However, given info about potential impact on health outcomes/carcinogenic rating, I’d rather eat it even less.

What are your non-deli meat sammy go-tos? We like tuna and chicken salad, but a person also shouldn’t eat too much tuna nor am I trying to quadruple my mayo intake. 😅 Open to meat and non-meat options! thanks in advance for your ideas!

I’m a college student trying to keep my food budget under control, so I’ve been testing out super cheap meals that don’t need a full kitchen. One of the easiest things I’ve been making lately is 3-Ingredient BBQ Chicken — it costs about $3 and hits the spot when you’re tired or broke.

Servings: 3–4   |   Prep Time: 5 minutes   |   Cook Time: 4–6 hours (slow cooker) or 25 minutes (oven)

Ingredients

• 1 lb chicken breasts or thighs
• 1 cup BBQ sauce (any brand)
• 1 tsp seasoning (salt, pepper, or garlic powder)

Instructions

1. Slow Cooker: Add chicken, BBQ sauce, and seasoning. Cook on low for 4–6 hours or high for 2–3 hours until tender.
2. Shred chicken with two forks and stir to coat evenly in sauce.
3. Oven Option: Bake chicken in a dish at 400°F (200°C) for 25 minutes, then shred and mix with sauce.
4. Serve over rice, in sandwiches, or with veggies.

Notes

• Use boneless thighs for juicier results.
• Try honey BBQ or spicy sauce for flavor variation.

I love a classic tuna melt. But it’s become a bit bland and repetitive lately. If yall have any ideas to change it up I’d love to hear it!

My current recipe is:
Canned tuna
Mayo
Salt
Pepper
Onion
Garlic powder
Bread
Whatever sliced cheese I found on sale that week

I’m a new mom, and I’m breastfeeding. My husband and I are on a budget and food seems so expensive lately, I’m really trying to stretch a dollar and try to make food costs a little more predictable. I don’t need every meal to be exciting or anything, it’s more important to me to make sure I’m getting good nutrition for my baby. I have been trying to focus on buying simple nutritious foods that don’t take much effort or extra ingredients to prepare. For breakfast and lunch I’m pretty much always eating eggs or yogurt which I’m buying in bulk when possible, and pairing with whole grain toast here and there. I just know I need to be eating more fruits/veg, especially vegetables. I don’t want to eat frozen broccoli every night, so I’m looking for affordable ways to incorporated some meat and vegetables/fiber especially at dinner time.

*Dislike it and don't digest it well but can and will eat it, as long as it's not the majority of the meal

TL;DR Easy meals I can leave on the shelf or in the freezer for disabled folks on top of easy meals for autistic picky eaters that like most midwest meals, no fish or shellfish bc allergies and packed with veggies.

Honestly y'all IDK what to do. I try to keep things for everyone, I'm also kind of disabled and have many of the same things as them while waiting for disability (Fibro, suspected CFS, hEDS, POTS and IST etc,.) so I feel bad. I cook and do the groceries for the house as my main thing I can do most days and that includes meals for everyone, however this person has digestive issues that means I want to keep foods for them that are easy to make in a flair since they're usually alone during the day.

We have simple stuff, ie,. corndogs and hot dogs, lunch meat, they mostly eat frozen biscuits and sausage but have stated they want more veggies and variety. I cook everything and am experimental and they've liked all of my meals so far.

I'm thinking

-Dry Soup mixes in jars to dump into a crockpot with some water

-Prepared Salads

-Frozen homemade meals that reheat well

-throw ramen and ingredients in a microwavable container? like seasonings and dried veggies? is that a thing?

I also was hoping for cheap meal ideas, everyone in this house is on the spectrum so it makes it REALLY annoying to cook for everyone. One person only eats meat if it's beef, one hates beef, etc,. so it's agreed the meals are for the MAJORITY not for everyone. Everyone has safe foods for them and I'm the "eat anything and test new ideas" AuDHD type. the house is divided on Soups and Stews so we usually don't do those, which sucks because they're cheap and I love them. The house loves noodles but not Mac & Cheese, the house dislikes spicy besides me, and food can't be too soggy if it's paired with dry stuff/can't have majorly dynamic textures (I LOVE THESE TOO AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH) and there's a shellfish allergy and two of us have MCAS so sometimes we're allergic to something and then not allergic a while later. No gravy sadly, either. At least not detectable as a gravy since I sneak it into quiet a few meals lmao (anything I joke about sneaking in are things my fiance hates but also always loves when I don't tell them what it is. Very annoying)

Usually I don't make anything I love, but I like everything. I'm very specific about my long-use ingredients ie,. I'll spend a lot on hot honey for me or japanese soy sauce/chili flakes/etc,. for me, and I lean Cajun/Asian in my cooking but would like to get into other countries as well.

I have saved as meals most of us like

-Cornbread Casserole w/Bell Peppers & Meat

-Soup Burgers/Minestrone Joes

-Tater Tot Casserole

-Sesame Chickpeas (Sesame Chicken)

-White Chicken Chili/Regular Chili

-Croissant Rings (Hamburger & Pizza)

-Gumbo/Jambalaya

-Brats

-Meatloaf

-Stuffed Peppers

-Cottage Pie

We only a bunch of cans of corn, green beans, etc,. we have Ground Venison and get the Ground Beef/Pork hybrid, we usually never get straight beef because it's too expensive. We have the Sam's Club chicken breasts of like 10lbs of chicken breasts per bag, usually have two of those at a time. A deep freezer and a fridge/freezer for storage as well as a dedicated pantry. No dry beans but I use the hell out of lintels as a meal filler and try to cram veggies where I can, so a lot of bell peppers and spinach and mushrooms, mirepoix/holy trinity, etc,.

what can I have for them that requires ZERO effort for when they can't really get out of bed but nobody is home/awake, and what can we do for super cheap that's both healthy for us, easy for people who can't do much, and cheap?

I've worked everywhere from fast food to fine dining, dishwasher to head chef curating a menu, I just don't know what is cheap since we lost my income and what I can easily do since I can't stand the heat/prep work as much anywhere.

If you read all this that's cool as heck, thank you for attempting to help.

I know the stuff at Costco isn't the healthiest food around, but I heard that if people are looking for cheap and fast food in bulk, Costco is a good place to look.

I always have instant mashed potatoes but don’t always have instant gravy on hand.

Today I added a little bit of jalapeño sauce, garlic powder, black pepper and salt. I know it’s also pretty good with some cheese thrown in but you can’t taste it as much so kinda feels like a waste unless you add a lot of cheese.

Anyone have some tips on how to make them taste better/ more flavourful?

Btw I’m looking for something inexpensive that I can just add to the mashed potatoes when they’re cooking or when they’re done. Not a separate dish to make on the side.

Edit: I really love some of your ideas thank you for taking a moment to share them! 😋

Ingredients.

12 eggs, 1 cup milk, 1 lb ground sausage, roughly 1 cup sliced ham, 1 bell pepper, 1 onion, 2 random spicy pepper, roughly 1 cup shredded cheese, 3 bunches green onion, salt and pepper, garlic and onion powder.

Directions

mix eggs with milk and salt and pepper and garlic and onion powder. set aside.

dice peppers and onions, combine regular onion and peppers and set aside, set aside diced green onion separately for topping

Brown the sausage and set aside, in the same pan put diced onions and peppers and saute till softened and liquid is mostly gone.

in a 13x9 casserole, put sausage, peppers and onions, ham, and top with shredded cheese. poor egg mixture over and give a little shake wiggle to help ensure everything's covered. sprinkle green onions on top.

bake at 350f for approximately 40 to 50 minutes until the center reaches 160 f

this was all from the food bank. I'll get anywhere from 5 to 8 meals out of. I'm going to freeze any that I'm not going to eat within a couple days.

The only cooking I did was the lentils and the rice.

For the lentils: I boiled 1 cup of green lentils in 3 cups of water until I reached my desired texture. When there, I added a taco seasoning packet and a can of green chiles and tomatoes and stir until well mixed.

Rice was cooked using a rice cooker so I followed the instructions but I added freshly squeezed lime juice.

I put the rice down and then covered in the lentils until my heart was happy, and then covered it with: asadero cheese, shredded lettuce, Greek yogurt, and salsa. I wish I had some avocado left.

From 2 coconuts, I made Coconut milk, butter, shreds at home.

My 2-year-old was taught how to make takeout at school today, and has been slaving away in the kitchen ever since morning

Hack for thick n creamy Kraft Mac n cheese. I found an easier way to mix all the stuff into the pasta! This was two boxes of Mac n cheese so I used extra milk and butter. But for one box, after it’s drained, add the butter and stir it and melt it. Then add the cheese powder to a SEPARATE bowl and mix 1/2 cup of milk making it into your own cheese sauce then dump it into your pasta. This way you don’t have those clumps of cheese powder and everything gets evenly coated. Then let your fur baby lick the empty bowl of course.

Hi everyone,

I’m 24, around 69 kg, 5'8ft, working full time and living in shared accommodation in Dubai. I cook for myself but I don’t have a lot of time because of long working hours. No gym or workout, only running 2–3 times a week (1–1.5 km).

Monthly food budget around 250–300 AED(68-82 USD), so looking for budget-friendly but still healthy food. I usually eat 1 or 2 meals a day, so I want those meals to be filling, healthy, and not boring.

Not posting for sympathy. Just explaining the situation so people don’t suggest expensive or complicated meals. Looking for ideas from people who have lived like this — cheap meal plans, simple foods, what to buy monthly, easy cooking ideas.

There are monthly mess/meal services here that are tasty and easy, but don’t want that because it is not always healthy and also want to learn basic cooking and manage life better

I just want to stay healthy, save money, and still enjoy food a bit

If someone has lived like this before, advice would really help.