We're broke, meal suggestions. .

[ithappened]

Does anyone have any favorite meals when you are really really broke?

We have hit some unexpected hard times and need some ideas for things to eat.

The beans/rice, spaghetti, ramen, cereal loop is getting really really old. I prefer low-fat, veggie friendly and fresh foods but its hard when our budget is so limited.

[Pepper44]

Do you like hummus? You can buy the beans in bulk and the other ingredients are cheap and last awhile. If you make hummus, you can spread that in home made pitas and add veggies. (You can make a lot of pitas with a bag of flour and water and a little yeast!)

You can also buy corn flour and make corn tortillas and use those to make wraps and all kinds of Mexican style meals with veggies and seasoned beans. Or if you don't want to make tortillas, you can by them for just a few dollars!

If you can buy cheese, you have a world of options. I like noodles with peas and chicken breast and cheese melted on top.

Rice with sauteed veggies is cheap, and you can vary it by baking rice with cheese and herbs and chicken breast (assuming you eat meat) and different vegetables.

You can make chili with beans, vegetables, and seasonings.

Soups are usually cheap also. You can buy a carton of organic chicken or veggie broth at Whole Foods for around $2, and that will go a long way as a soup base. I also cook meats in the crock pot then save the broth from that to use in soup.

Pizzas are a cheap meal. Buy a jar of spaghetti sauce, a bag of cheese, and make dough or use naan bread, pita pockets, or english muffins.

We usually have a very limited grocery budget, I know how you feel!

[PlayaMama]

favourites from when i was a kid that i have recycled with organic ingredients.

mac and cheese with frozen peas or hamburger

rice covered with tuna fish in a bechamel sauce (equal amounts 1 tbsp each butter and flour in a pan until melted, add about 1-1/2 cups milk and stir until it thickens and a can of tuna)

hot dogs and baked beans

potatoes and chili with cheese

[mrsjtc]

Do you like lentils?

Lentil stew
Lentil tacos (with homemade tortillas)
Lentil Sausage stew -makes a huge batch with one lb. meat.


Have you ever gone to www.hillbillyhousewife.com? Many of her recipes are not the healthiest but she has a good selection of bean recipes.

[LeahBoo]

My favorite "poor" meal stemmed from a time I was very broke and quite literally had in my cupboard: a bag of rice, a can of pinto beans, a can of corn, and some diced tomatoes (I think I also had a few potatoes and a carton of oatmeal, but I didn't add them). So I mixed them together with chili powder, garlic, onions, salt and pepper. I figured it probably would taste ok, and pretty much just be something to eat. Yum! It made many meals, and I still make it now. Except now I can afford sour cream and/or cheese to put on top.

Other uber cheap meals of mine would have to be egg salad sandwiches and split pea soup.

I remember my grandma (who raised 5 kids in the 50s) saying she used to add extra rice or noodles to casseroles and felt bad about it years later, hoping her kids got enough nutrients. All grew into happy, healthy adults, so she must have done something right. My dad said she could make a can of tuna stretch to make 6 sandwiches (well, that was after lots of pickles and a couple hardboiled eggs ).

If you eat meat, you can take just one chicken thigh and boil it down and make a pot of soup, you can add pretty much any veggie (and lots of them) to chicken soup.

Oh, and hamburger soup. If you eat hamburger. Take a lb of hamburer (or turkey), brown and drain. Put it in a pot with a bunch of water, a chopped onion, about 1/2 a head of cabbage, and salt and pepper. Oh, and tomatoes, I don't know how much. Yum!

[nathansmum]

Baked potatoes cut open, add butter or cheese, add a generous handful of homemade coleslaw on top, drizzle on some olive oil if you need the fats or drop the butter/cheese or vice versa, chop up some boiled eggs on top.

I've also made a tomato based sauce thing and poured that onto the potato as well (tomato, onion, garlic, spinach) and you could add some beans to this if you liked for variation and added protein.

[MittensKittens]

Make your own pizza from scratch - you can have a great pizza using just flower, yeast, canned tomatoes, garlic and cheese. You can make your own gnocchi pretty easily too. Veg fried rice . Egg plant steak... Let me know if you like the sound of any of those, and I will send you recipes. Oh, I also make my own bread. Make your own pesto sauce... Anything can be cheaper if you make it from scratch.

[ithappened]

Egg plant steak

now I'm curious, please share

[MittensKittens]

This is a cheap recipe, and here you've got a more expensive one too.

[SaraCate]

So long as you're not vegan - eggs? I don't know how much they'd be in Europe, but here in Canada I can get 1 doz. supermarket eggs for $2.00. We prefer 'better' eggs, but sometimes the best is the enemy of the good, KWIM? A dozen eggs should feed at *least* six hearty meals - add lots of onions and whatever other veg you like...wrap up in a tortilla, or serve on or beside homemade whole-wheat bread, or as a quiche (it only four eggs and two cups of veg to make a hearty quiche!).

Also - remember that whole grains keep you/yours full longer and fill you faster.

You might see if you can find the "Less is More Cookbook" at your library - that should have lots of ideas for lower-cost meals.

No more ideas right now that haven't been covered...

HTH,
~Sara

[kjbrown92]

baked beans are pretty cheap (a couple slices of bacon, onion, a little tomato paste, dried Navy beans)

My mother used to mix canned tomato soup, can of tomato sauce (like Hunts), a couple of spices, hot dogs cut in quarters lengthwise, simmer until the hot dogs turn into curlicues, and serve over noodles.

My mother also used to add extra macaroni to Kraft macaroni & cheese to extend it.

Tuna macaroni salad or tuna noodle casserole.

Yankee Doodle Macaroni: noodles, ground beef, stewed tomatoes, a couple of spices.

Do you have farmer's markets around? or pick your own places? or somewhere you could do a CSA and get fresh vegetables? Our grocery stores usually have a section with cheaper produce that doesn't quite look as good, but they're great for applesauce, fruit cobblers, etc.

potatoes are cheap (mince over them: ground meat, gravy, mushrooms)

[Kaitnbugsmom]

if you have a kroger nearby and aren't opposed to non organics they have flash frozen store brand veggies 10 packs for $10 right now. I usually steam a pack in the steamer part of my rice cooker {while the rice is cooking mostly but it works without rice in it as well so we do use it other times} and either spread it over rice or in baked potatoes, etc. They also have flash frozen tilapia that comes like 20 servings to a bag for $5 that can be steamed, grilled etc. My 8 year old is a little weird and likes to dice hers up and mix it in with her veggies/rice/even caught her doing it with eggs one time.

[savithny]

Eggs are great for cheap protein.

We do all kinds of things with eggs. Tonight its Dutch Baby pancakes - 5 eggs, a cup of milk and a cup of flour, a stick of butter as the base it cooks in, and I'll top with fresh fruit from the CSA and from our own garden.

We do Huevos Rancheros a lot - toast a tortilla per person, top with mashed beans, then scrambled eggs and salsa. SOmetimes peppers and onions sauteed in oil, too., and sometimes cheese.

[Magelet]

If you can afford it and eat meat, I'd get the cheapest whole chicken you can find, and REALLY stretch it. (While a dinner of roast chicken and veggies is yummy, its not strictly nessicary and uses more meat. better to portion up very small amounts of chicken to throw in other dishes, and then make stock with the carcass. Of course, even with a roast chicken dinner (with LOTS of veggies), we can stretch the rest of the meat for 4-5 dinners (2 of us). We throw little peices of chicken in omelettes (with LOTS of sauted onions) for dinner, in lentil salad, in pilaf, in pasta, just a few bites here and there, little peices, it makes it go much farther.

I love making pilaf, figure its moderately healthy, and very cheap. Saute an onion in some butter or olive oil in the pan you cook your rice in. Add some rice to the hot oil when your onions are cooked (leave them in), and stir until all the rice is coated in oil. Add a small handful of raisins or other dried fruit, (if you chop them up a bit, they go further (more small bites of raisins which is all you really need), and water or stock (veggie chicken or I imagine beef would be good too, never tried it. stock adds a lot of extra nutrients. You can make veggie stock from the trimmings of your veggies, or use the pot liquor (the water left after cooking) and sort of non starchy veggie). Cook the rice until its done, and serve with butter, salt and pepper.

lentil salad, as I said, is good.

Check if your stores sell bargin produce. sometimes, there are really big bags of produce for 99 cents in a local store which is still perfectly ok, either some bits need to be cut off, or it MUST be used tonight, but is perfectly fine for that. even bruised, overripe fruit can be cooked up in a dessert or sweet side like applesauce, which while it may be sweet, is healthy and still pretty full of vitamins.

good luck.

[freestylemama]

vegetarian chili
quiche
honey baked lentils
pancakes and eggs

[ithappened]

something about the joys of living in eastern europe is that eggs are expensive (a dozen for example is about 6$ or more) and anything Mexican/Spanish etc (like tortillas for example, will run you about 5-6$ for 8) I would love a recipe on how to make them yourself. Cilantro also cannot be found anywhere here, people don't even know what it is.

What is cheap here is:
bread
milk/cheeses etc
sausages and most pork/cow meat is cheap (except chicken is expensive)

And yes, I do miss the west coast a lot. I tend to like really low fat almost vegan or vegetarian options which are hard to come up creatively with here.

Sushi I found I can make cheap (veggie of course) and stir fries with the sale bin veggies.. as well as Indian food.. thing is they aren't fast, which I also need to factor in (hello soon to be first time mom!)

We are getting CSA but that won't start till October and its mostly potatoes, peppers and iceberg lettuce (don't ask me why, but its the only salad people eat here )

[nathansmum]

Originally Posted by ithappened

Cilantro also cannot be found anywhere here, people don't even know what it is.

Look for Coriander - it's what it's known as where I am from and quite likely through Europe as well (I only came across the word cilantro on US message boards).

[WC_hapamama]

Here's a flour tortilla recipe that uses lard as the fat... might be cheaper where you are
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Homemad...as/Detail.aspx

I've successfully substituted oil for solid fats in flour tortilla recipes before. Also, if you have access to inexpensive Rye flour, that makes tasty tortillas for wrap style sandwiches.

[rebirth]

veggie or meat sheppards pie will be a good one one you have all those potatoes around.

[savithny]

I'm sorry, I missed that you were not in the US.

Am I reading things right that you are not native to where your'e living?

One thing I'd suggest is talking with the locals you might know about what they eat, and specifically what they grew up eating. You don't have to mention budget restrictions, but it would give you an idea of what is considered reasonable or perhaps frugal locally.

Your description makes it sound Central/Eastern European. There are loads of yummy, reasonably-priced things to eat within that cuisine that you might look into.

Cabbage, of course, is the mainstay of much of that region, and I would expect it is not very expensive. It's really good slowly braised in butter or oil and mixed with noodles. Sauerkraut and sausages with beans, cabbage soups thickened with beans or cream, potato soups pureed with other veggies. Peppers stuffed with rice and a little ground meat or sausage.

I find Indian curries to be relatively quick with canned beans and the right spices on hand - brown my onions, toss in my garlic and spices, a can of tomato sauce and 2-3 cans of beans, let it simmer for awhile unattended, and with rice you've got about 3 dinners for 2 adults. You can chop and stir in greens, too.

Did you know you can cook iceberg lettuce? I haven't tried, but I've seen recipes!