I'm fcking broke recipes

[miss fortune]

I actually wrote about it in my blog, but I decided to try this site out a while back and make a whole week's worth of meals from a roasted chicken... everything that I used together for the week cost me a little less than $20 and it was good food with left overs

$20 may sound like a lot, but for all of the food that you get from it it you'll be eating quite cheaply

 

[Ivy]

Try hillbillyhousewife.com for lots of cheap-ass recipes!

Recipes | Hillbilly Housewife

 

[NPcomplete]

When I feel particularly poor, I like:
- oatmeal (the minute ones..just add some water, microwave the mixture and voilà!)
- unpleasant cereal that I wouldn't eat otherwise
- toast with bits of vegetables (tomatoes/lettuce/cucumber/grated carrots) and sometimes with cheese

 

[wolfy]

The traditional broke man recipe in Japan is a bowl of rice with a whisked raw egg on top and a dash of soy sauce. I like it.

 

[Ivy]

Raw egg? Ew.

Though I do like to whisk an egg into rice right after it's done cooking and is still hot and can cook the egg.

 

[Thalassa]

Uber cheap: boil/poach eggs when you're boiling your ramen...boil ramen all the way down to noodles if you'd rather have more flavorful noodles and harder boiled eggs instead of soup...hot sauce can give a kick to ramen, or get the chili flavor...also, you can put butter or margarine on chicken flavor ramen if you boil them down to just noodles

still reasonably cheap: a can of refried beans, a can of spinach well drained, some mozzarella or montery jack cheese all heated and mixed together...serve with or without tortillas

OR

buy a bag of dried split peas (need less soaking and prep than dried beans), sautee garlic and onions in butter or oil, add seasonings like rosemary, bay leaves, and salt and pepper while boiling the peas and sauteed veggies together...can add bacon during cooking for flavor if desired, or douse with olive oil when done if vegetarian

has anyone mentioned cream of wheat? it's an alternative to oatmeal, but it costs maybe two dollars more

hmm....also cottage cheese or sardines are good cheaper forms of protein

 

[Amethyst]

If you really have no money to spend at all:

1. Steal some seeds from a garden store that produce something edible
2. Find a 'Freegan' group, if willing to do so. (They eat for free and cook pretty well, too.)
3. Go to garage sales and bargain for cook books they might have, or use the internet at the library to print out recipes (find some dimes on the floor before doing this).

That's all I can think of at the moment, good luck with your provincial culinary endeavors.

 

[Thalassa]

If you really have no money to spend at all:

1. Steal some seeds from a garden store that produce something edible
2. Find a 'Freegan' group, if willing to do so. (They eat for free and cook pretty well, too.)
3. Go to garage sales and bargain for cook books they might have, or use the internet at the library to print out recipes (find some dimes on the floor before doing this).

That's all I can think of at the moment, good luck with your provincial culinary endeavors.

Speaking of stealing, around this time of year (and a little earlier, starting in August typically) if you live in a rural or suburban area you can often find fresh produce just falling off of your neighbors plants that are bound to rot. They won't miss a tomato or four.

Bad, I know.

Food pantries also exist for those who actually need them, if you can bring yourself to go to a church or synagogue.

 

[prplchknz]

Speaking of stealing, around this time of year (and a little earlier, starting in August typically) if you live in a rural or suburban area you can often find fresh produce just falling off of your neighbors plants that are bound to rot. They won't miss a tomato or four.

Bad, I know.

Food pantries also exist for those who actually need them, if you can bring yourself to go to a church or synagogue.

I'm not so bad off i need to go to a food bank.

 

[kyuuei]

It's hard to keep your nutrition when you're poor.. so identifying superfoods can really help you. Things packed with all different kinds of vitamins, nutrients, and things your body needs can really save you.

- Rice is really good at keeping you full.. and it's not expensive. $15 here buys you a huge bag that lasts for effin' ever.
- Beans are a lifesaver when you're broke, so if you don't like them.. start. To be honest, canned beans were never so great tasting to me. I found a bag of dry beans is cheaper, and you can make it taste like whatever you want. A crockpot will cook them to perfection every time.
- Spinach is like a wonder veggie, and a frozen bag is cheap and convenient. Spinach works as a filling, adding, topping, etc. Broccoli is also action packed.
- Eggs not only are versatile and cheap, but they provide protein (I usually found meat to be too expensive when I was really poor) but they've been proven to help you eat less calories (aka feel less hungry throughout the day. Important when you're broke.)
- Sweet potatoes aren't too expensive, taste great, and they provide you with all important vitamin A, something you could lack when not eating meat as well, and calcium. (Sweet potatoes put the yum in calcium.) They also contain vitamin C and potassium, so you'll cover bananas and oranges in one food. They also fill you up rather well :3
- If you're going to splurge a bit, I suggest it be on berries. They're so packed I'm not even going to bother naming what they contain. Trust me, they rock. Especially blueberries.
- Tea is another big thing. Teas are very cheap and provide a number of health benefits.
- Cheap cuts of meat. The local meat market carried cheap leftover-like cuts of meat from time to time, so I got them when ever I could.. and places like walmart sometimes carry things like the ground turkey pre-seasoned on sale. Kroger does this thing where they do 'manager discounts' when things are to expire soon.. so I usually cooked up that day whatever I found.

There's my two cents.

 

[Moiety]

Water and meditation. My friend nows a guy that survives on that apparently....

 

[kyuuei]

^ Being broke is the best time to start properly hydrating yourself. I think I was better hydrated when I was broke than when I was in the desert working!

 

[Rajah]

You need:
Rotisserie chicken ($4-$8; I go for them on sale at Publix)
Onion
Butter or margarine

Day 1: Get a rotisserie chicken. Eat chicken and whatever side dish you want. I go for steamed veggies or mashed potatoes. Strip remaining chicken meat from bone.

Day 2-?: Boil chicken bones and skin in a big pot of water. After a while, strain bones and skin and throw away. The rotisserie seasoning helps make a kick-ass broth. Add a chopped onion to the broth. Boil forever. Add your remaining chopped chicken meat. Also add butter or margarine - the recipe calls for a stick, but go with what you want. Then chop up a bunch of flour tortillas into dumpling-sized pieces. Dredge them in flour. Add to the pot. The tortillas will plump up and turn into makeshift dumplings. Season with pepper. You have a big pot of decent chicken and dumpling soup with, like, no real work.

This makes a bunch of food for very little money.

 

[figsfiggyfigs]

Chopped zucchini, stir-fried in sesame oil, soy sauce, and garlic.
I like it with plain yogurt.
I know, i'm weird.

 

[Rajah]

Thank you, FMW, for reminding me to include Bologna Wednesday ($5!) in this thread.

 

[CzeCze]

Good suggestions. I don't like cooking with meat and am not a hue carnivore with the exception of eggs. I cook pretty cheaply and quickly mostly for convenience but also for health. My go to recipes : rice or noodles for start and frozen veggies and eggs. Avocado is a splurge buts adds much.

Ill often add yolky egg to rice with dried seaweed or furikake or make asian noodles and toss with egg, seaweed and avocado. And some seasoning sauce. Delish.

 

[CzeCze]

Also, I drink a lot of tea with soy/milk and soymilk.

Toast with something creamy like Nutella or old-fashioned nut butte and milk are very satisfying and filling.

I just had a super quick, easy meal - tacos. A pack of small corn tortillas can be bought for a buck and some change and will last several meals for just 1. The taco fillings are rice, corn, beans and whatever else you wanna throw in. I add lots of spice for kick.

Here's my go to shopping list:

Staples
Rice
Beans
Noodles
Corn (frozen)
Eggs
Kale/Spinach (frozen)
Soymilk
Whole grain bread
Sweet Potatoes
Okra (fresh, I don't like the frozen kind)
Avocado
Cheese (light )
Onions
Apples
Tofu
Dumpling/potstickers (frozen)
Coffee or Tea

I also shop like this because there is less chance of spoilage and there's a lot of versatility. If you don't mind limited variety, you can live on stir fries, omelettes, tacos, toast, and strange sandwiches (cheese + veggie = a melt). LOL. You can prep/cook all these meals in 15 minutes or less.

If you get even lazier than that, cans of low sodium soup cost about a buck each.

A really cheap "baked" dessert? Bananas dipped in pancake batter Or bananas wrapped in asian dumpling sheets and fried/sauteed.

Also - random but true cucumbers keep well and taste good in stirfries

I just realized how limited my cooking skills are. LOL.

 

[INTP]

i came up with this when there was nothing to eat but one big onion, garlic and dark spaghetti.

chop the onion and garlic(dont be afraid to over do this because its fried and wont taste bad even if there is much of it) and put them on a hot frying pan, let them get just a little bit softer, then add olive oil(i have some with basil in it and i think it really helped this to be delicious, maybe you could add little chopped basil with normal olive oil). heat them for a little, then add grill spice mix, some dried paprika(i have this smoked paprika also that really helped alot with the normal paprika), soy sauce and what ever spices you like. then just heat them until they are fried enough for your liking.

when i cook spaghetti i like to add some spices on the boiling water to give it just a hint more taste, i suggest you to do this also if you cook this, especially if you use normal spaghetti instead of dark.

it was so tasty that i have cooked this few times after, even tho i had other stuff to eat too

 

[CrystalViolet]

When I was virtually homeless...I ate rice. Lots and lots of rice and egg. Beans are good, so are lentils(lentils are super filling and cheap), with tomato pasta sauce and chilli. I refused to go dumpster diving, but a nice old greek man let me in on the fact his church gave out meals where you could get seconds and could save it for tea. It was actually pretty descent greek food. The old pensioners went there. The only embarrassing thing about it was the priest recognised from me one of the hospitals I used to work at. We used to catch each other smoking when I worked there. Also had a couple of friends who worked at Macca's who used grab some of the wasted food for me some times. If you can swallow your pride you won't starve. Mooching off people works too. Did lots of mooching. I pay and I will pay it forward.
Oh and cheap ass two minute noodles. Better than nothing. They are like 40 cents a packet.

 

[INTP]

Oh and cheap ass two minute noodles. Better than nothing. They are like 40 cents a packet.

noodles

i was just making this when i read this: