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

I either whip up a soup or a salad, and add all the random stuff I can find in the fridge/cabinet to jazz it up... I've even turned other people onto my stuff

A box of Zatarain’s low sodium and a box of Tony Cachere’s red beans and rice (cooked per directions) five spicy Italian sausages, sage, fennel seed, and as much hot pepper sauce, powder etc. as you prefer. Five or six servings for around $12-$15, assuming you already have the herbs and spices. I prefer the flavor and texture of the spicy Italian over andouille sausage. It may not be bona fide Cajun, but it’s delicious!

Endive stew / andijvie stamppot

Cost like 7,50 euro's for 4 - 6 people.

- big head of endive ( 1 euro) or fresh from garden
- 2 / 3 kilo potato ( 3,50 )
- some ( like 250 / 300 kilogram) diced bacon ( 3 euro)

Cook potatoes in salted water. When done throw water out.
In de blender - but not too smooth
Add little butter or oil, add raw (washed & small chopped up) endive and bacon
Add some salt and pepper if you like

Done :)

Beans on toast

I'm low carb and like living off of the Dollar Tree.
You'd be surprised how good Slim Jims can be if you cut them up and brown them before putting them in an egg/egg scramble.
They often have mushrooms and sautéed red peppers if you want to get extra fancy for a couple meals.

I love to have eggs and beef bacon!

It's very convenient as it's easy to cook and I almost always have eggs at home.

However, I do sometimes need to quickly visit tye supermarket to get some beef bacon but it's always worth it.

Delicious 😋

Pasta with tuna, the best thing you can eat

Tacos! Breakfast tacos, hard shelled tacos, soft tacos. Any way they are great!

To all my American friends.... buy a pressure cooker. 1 cup of rice and 1 cup of masoor dal in the pressure cooker feeds 3 - 4 and costs less than one dollar.

Hot dogs and beans. Add brown sugar, pancake syrup, and slice up the hot dogs. Great mix of sweet and savory.

Hotdogs hash. Or also known as the poor man's meal. Slice potatoes and fry. When they are almost done slice hotdogs and finish flying till the hotdogs look a little fried. You can also Sautee onion and garlic to throw in. And salt and pepper. But usually for my family we don't have them cuz they didn't fit in the tight budget.

Easy one: Salad, lettuce, croutons or nuts, boiled eggs and whatever veggies are on sale. Making a big bowl of salad and serve it family style is best. Some people see salad as a side but it can be really filling.

A little more advance: Pineapple fried rice. Rice, egg, pineapple, bell pepper, frozen peas and corn, onion, garlic, soy sauce. May sound like it's expensive but it's not. I always have a big bag of rice at home as well as a large jug of soy sauce. Buying fresh veggies is always cheaper than making some kind of meat. The eggs give you protein and veggies have all sorts of vitamins and minerals.

I think buying food for nutritional value is cheaper. You don't get anything fancy, fruits and veggies are inexpensive, filling and nutritionally rich.

Bagels with Cream Cheese, very cheap and doesn't require much effort.

Breakfast bake. Layer the bottom of a pan with hash brown patties and bake them at 425degrees for ten minutes . Remove and let cool . Add a layer of sliced cheese over the hash browns. Then a layer of cooked ground sausage that has been cooled. Then whip 8 eggs and add what ever else you might like. I add bacon and peppers and mushrooms but you can add whatever you like. Pour the egg mixture over the sausage and add shredded cheese on top. Bake in the oven on 450 degrees for 20 min or until the cheese on top is golden brown. Let cool for few min . Cut and serve. Feeds family of 5.

Box of tri-color rotini, jar of tomato sauce, add some Sriracha, Worcestershire, red paprika to the sauce. If I'm feeling fancy, might add some chopped, fried spam, but only if it's a sweet sauce (stuff's half salt).

Beanie weenies

Instant noodles wit homemade toppings

Spam fried rice- Filipino style or Japanese green curry with chicken, potatoes and veggies. Both are super yummy 😋

Can of chili with a box of Mac and cheese or 2 cans of chili with a brick of cream cheese melt and serve with chips.

I have 2

1. Tuna cassrole: can tuna cream of mushroom soup and pasta butter milk.
-cook pasta
-meanwhile melt 2 tbs butter (season with onion/garlic powder) in a casserole dish
-add the soup n 2/3 cup of milk mix cook for 2 mins mix again cook 2 more mins
-add tuna and pasta (should be cooked by this point) mix cook 2 mins mix cook 2 mins.

The second one

Minute rice cream of mushroom soup milk n beef bouillon

-Cook rice according to box (make servers 2)
-meanwhile in another small pot add soup half can of milk the bouillon n garlic/onion powder. Mix n cook until hot n creamy.
-stir rice once its done cooking
-add to the rice when it cooked mix in well

Both a cheap n quick meal good comfort meal n make good leftovers.