Poor Man Meals

[A Casual Fitz]

Tofu is gross

 

[Sonikku]

Can get a lot of mileage out of a $5 chicken at Sams/Tops/Costco etc.

 

[gururu2]

rice a roni Spanish with canned tuna 2.50 will feed 4

tostadas or bean burritos for <.50 will feed 2

kraft box spaghetti dinner at 1.50 will feed 2

 

[disappoint]

Tofu is gross

it's deeeelicious!

 

[Exophase]

It's been a while but I used to get those cheap Totinos pizzas in college. No idea if they're still so cheap anymore...

 

[A Casual Fitz]

It's been a while but I used to get those cheap Totinos pizzas in college. No idea if they're still so cheap anymore...

They are, and just as gross as I like.

 

[nakedfrog]

It's been a while but I used to get those cheap Totinos pizzas in college. No idea if they're still so cheap anymore...

They normally seem to be $1.30 or so here, maybe still a buck on sale.
I just saw a Mama Celeste pizza the other day too.

 

[madoka]

I make a lot more money than you losers, so I tend to spurge more:

- half can of sliced Spam baked in the oven with rice = $2

- Nongshim ramen black with egg = $1.25

- Dinty Moore Beef Stew with rice = $2

- Del Taco's 1/2 pound green bean burrito = $1

 

[DaTT]

it has lots of protein

Wonder who this is?

 

[zinfamous]

If you buy dried beans...you can soak them overnight and you end up with a lot more volume than you started with. The only downside is the amount of time/energy it takes to cook them if you don't have a crock pot.

Meat:
If you're not sick of turkey, now's the time to buy some frozen birds and stash them in the freezer. Turkey is cheap at $.60-.99/pound and can feed you for days. Once again, it takes hours to cook a bird....but the payoff is relatively high considering low work roasting one.

Ham is more expensive, but can be a decent buy if you can find it for less than $1.50 a lb...

I saw Boston Butts for cheap as well recently because it's not summer...so if you do bbq and like to smoke meat, I saw some pork roasts for $.99/lb last week. An 8lb roast will shrink down about 10-15% when you cook it for 6-8 hours in a smoker due to fat melting and dripping...but you can eat that bbq for a few days easy with a $10 investment.

dried black beans can be fully cooked and delicious within 1 hour. No soaking needed.

I'm not that familiar with other dried beans because they are all inferior to the black bean.

 

[Protoman25]

I've not been on ATOT for very long Mayne but I like your threads; for what it's worth, which isn't much.

And as far as poor man meals go fortunately I've never been in a situation where I've had to eat super cheap but I do love me some ramen noodles. Mmm all that sodium fills me right up

 

[wabbitslayer]

Armour Potted Meat and mayo on white loaf bread.

I recommend not reading the ingredient label on the Potted Meat. At least until after you eat.

 

[VirtualLarry]

When I was a poor student in college, I used to eat Veal Parmigiana many nights. No, really!

It was ~$1 for the whole thing! Alas, they don't seem to make that anymore. I wish they made it with chicken instead of veal - I think it would still be very good.

Look up the 6-pack (family size) 2lb Stoughffer's chicken parm packages.

 

[sportage]

Mac & cheese with a can (or two) of tuna tossed in.
Still not bad considering the cost of Kraft mac & cheese these days.

Mom use to toss together a can of spaghetti-O's and cooked hamburger when we were on a campout in the woods. Not bad then taste wise and easy wise, kind of iffy now taste wise.

 

[unokitty]

For years, while I was in college, my only cooking utensil was an electric wok.

For one favorite meal I'd dump a can of chicken noodle soup in the wok. Then, lay chopsticks over the soup and broccoli over the chopsticks. Cook soup, steam broccoli, for six to eight minutes. Add soy sauce as desired.

Wok also made excellent grilled cheese sandwiches. Grill cheese sandwich. Dump can of tomato soup into work. Eat sandwich. Eat Soup

Probably had a negative impact on my health when I went to work at the campus computer center. Bought a Weber Charcoal grill... And got on a first name basis with one of the local butchers...

Uno

 

[sdifox]

Tofu is gross

Depends on prep.

 

[TheGardener]

Spaghetti and Prego. Buy a pound of spaghetti and a cheap sauce. You can feed a family of 4-6 for $2-$3. That is cheap.

I see news or documentary videos of very poor people in foreign countries being given food assistance during some kind of natural disaster. They are fed gruel. Never seen that sold in this country.

Tofu btw is not cheap. I agree on it being gross. If prepared well, it just sucks. But when meat is finally banned, I guess we'll be eating gruel and tofu.

 

[Protoman25]

But when meat is finally banned, I guess we'll be eating gruel and tofu.

Did I miss something? Why would meat be banned?

 

[A Casual Fitz]

Depends on prep.

I'll be open to that. Everytime I've knowingly had it, it's been gross. I'm sure it's been in things before and I wasn't aware.

 

[Hugo Drax]

Is is a serious topic about poor people and how to survive with little money for sustenance.

 

[WelshBloke]

Depends on prep.

Nope. At best it tastes like foam rubber soaked in sauce at worst it tastes like foam rubber.


OP. Buy huge bags of dried pasta and lots of tins of tomatoes. Pasta ala puttanesca, arrabbiata, pasta with oil and garlic...


Come back later and I'll tell you how to cook it.

 

[lxskllr]

I like tofu. Weird texture, but it tastes like what you put it in. 1# of pasta, and a $1 can of spaghetti sauce gives you two huge meals, or 3-4 small meals.

 

[sdifox]

Nope. At best it tastes like foam rubber soaked in sauce at worst it tastes like foam rubber.


OP. Buy huge bags of dried pasta and lots of tins of tomatoes. Pasta ala puttanesca, arrabbiata, pasta with oil and garlic...


Come back later and I'll tell you how to cook it.

I don't know where you have been getting your tofu.

 

[WelshBloke]

I don't know where you have been getting your tofu.

As few places as possible to be honest.

How would you describe the taste? Pretty much nothing with a spongy texture? I'll stick with my foam rubber soaked in sauce description until you can make a better one.

 

[sdifox]

As few places as possible to be honest.

How would you describe the taste? Pretty much nothing with a spongy texture? I'll stick with my foam rubber soaked in sauce description until you can make a better one.

Tofu can be in a soup, stir fried pan fried, deep fried, steamed (again).

Or just add soy sauce, green onion and shaved bonito flakes.