Hey Pandas, What’s Your Best Go-To Cheap Meal? (Closed)

eggs on toast with some topping : sesame seeds, green onions, sriracha, grated cheese, ...

Pasta and sauce. There are so many price ranges for sauce and it's easy to doctor it up. Add sausage, beef, chicken, mushrooms, fresh herbs. It's inexpensive, filling and easy to put together.

Potatoes. Maybe with a bit of oil and herbs. Soup, mash, boiled, baked, fried, dep fried… All of it can fill you up on a low budget.

I've just made it for lunch as a side dish, my MIL taught me this one. Grate an onion and 2 potatoes into a bowl, add an egg, tbsp oil, some flour, seasoning, anything else you'd like in (I prefer it plain), some cheese if you have left around (again, I do it plain). Leave in fridge for a while and deep-fry by grabbing spoonfuls to make a bite. Voila, enriched hash browns

lentils. with some olive oil, salt and whatever frozen herbs i had.

it was my go to meal when i was young and in University.

Ghetto pizza. You can use regular bread, hamburger buns, or my personal fave garlic bread.

Just add some traditional traditional spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce, whatever you prefer or have on hand & some shredded cheese.
You can have whatever toppings you have available I am prefer

kind of depends if it is just for me or if i am making something for the family. if just for myself i would have to say either a fried egg sandwich or ramen. the latter is actually a meal as i usually toss in any veg i have available to round it out. if making something for my family then it would be what i refer to as my 'garbage soup. usually it would be a chicken veg as i save all my carcasses from roasted chicken and veg scraps in the freezer. the name came from my son when he was little and found my bags of bird and veg and asked why i was saving garbage in the freezer. can't get any simpler or cheaper than basically

Cooking with leftovers - Always cheaper to do something with them
instead of throwing it away.

Potato soup with leftover veggies :

- Stirfry or cook (leftover) leak or broccoli or cauliflower or zucchini
- Add like 4 / 5 potatoes and water and boil for 20 / 30 min
- Spice up with stock cube or salt/pepper
- Put through a blender
- add some cream cheese into the mix or other leftover cheese
- And leftover bacon or chicken are also optional

Baked potato, before it's finished sautee some bacon and onions, maybe some frozen mushrooms, herbs and garlic. Cut the potatoes in half, mash the mix with some butter and put back in the skins and back in the oven. Five minutes, bring 'em out and pour everything in the frying pan, the bacon stuff over them...

Homemade "hamburger helper". A box of elbow macaroni or rotini, bechamel sauce, grated cheddar mix from Aldi's, ground turkey, and one yellow onion. I sautee the thinly sliced onion until it's soft, then I throw in the ground turkey and season with salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. Set it aside. Then, I make the bechamel sauce with butter, all purpose flour, and 2% milk (that's what I usually buy). Add in the grated cheddar mix and nutmeg until the sauce is smooth and cheesy. Add the cooked macaroni/rotini and cooked ground turkey + onion. A big pot of comfort food that will last more than one day.

Two ramen noodle packs, cooked with the seasoning packets, drained. Add a pat of butter and Parmesan cheese. Ramen Alfredo.

Two packages of Ramen Noodle Soup. Slice veggies into the water before boiling, also add an appropriate bouillon cube (chicken bullion cube with chicken ramen, etc.) This makes a huge, very filling, and healthy meal - for about 75 cents.

Beans, cheese and rice burrito

Egg rice. Fry two eggs very lightly (you want as much of the yolk as possible to still be liquid) and mix it into a bowl of rice. I like to add soy sauce and ketchup to mine, but I imagine you could go one way or the other or shake it up in another way. The egg yolk does amazing things for the texture.

Spaghetti. I can feed my family of 4 for under $10. Then I make homemade garlic bread too.

A can of black beans and tortilla chips. You can add more expensive ingredients to it, but in a pinch a can of black beans eaten with a few tortilla chips does the trick. bonus points that you can throw the canned beans in the microwave for under a minute and have a fulfilling meal.

French toast casserole. Serves 10 for less than $10.
1 Loaf of bread. 1 dozen eggs. 1 1/2 cups milk. 1/2 cup brown sugar. 1 stick of butter. 1 tbsp vanilla. Cinnamon to taste.
Melt butter, mix with sugar and pour into lasagna pan.
Cube the bread and put in pan. Mix eggs, milk, and vanilla.
Pour mix over cubes in a lasagna pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon, and sugar if you like.
Bake covered at 350 for 30 minutes. Remove cover for last ten minutes for a crisp top.
Breakfast for dinner!

Any kind of pasta, I usually use spaghetti or penne. Italian dressing. Hot or cold. I started making this in the 80’s with Fat Free Italian dressing. We didn’t really understand the carb thing then.

Sautéed vegetables (typically, white cabbage) with soy sauce and a kick of hot sauce. I still collect every single sachet or pod of soy sauce to add flavor my meals! First fry a bit of garlic in oil. Then add chopped onion, then after 2 minutes the cabbage sliced into ribbons. Add 2 sachets of soy sauce and a dash of hot sauce and let cook for 10'. Serve with a side of rice.

Spaghetti or gnocchi, olive oil, salt, pepper (and any other spices you like/have around) and fresh herbs - I'm lucky I have a garden but even a tiny pot on a windowsill will do to grow your own. Dried herbs will work but not as tasty!