Low/No budget cooking

This is for anyone on a poverty-level or worse situation.
Are you:
>staring into your fridge and pantry and wondering if you may end up starving
>Little to no money for food
>No idea how to combine what little ingredients you have?

Have no fear for this thread could be your help.
Post tips, tricks or even post what ingredients you have to get some help from others.

Tonight I just got finished making beef fried rice out of
>canned vegetables from the foodbank
>some old half-bag of rice I had tucked away
>beef bullion
>simple seasonings

Now I have 2-3 days of semi-nutritious food until I can go door to door and try to find some work.

What situation are you all in?

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=wiAcJYyLF8U
groceries.asda.com/product/gammon/asda-butchers-selection-smoked-gammon-joint/910000877098
groceries.asda.com/product/vegetables/asda-sliced-leeks/1000005035690
groceries.asda.com/product/vegetables/asda-sliced-carrots/910002599053
groceries.asda.com/product/vegetables/asda-scratch-cook-sliced-red-onion/910002345150
groceries.asda.com/product/herbs/knorr-herb-infusion-pot/910000831298
groceries.asda.com/product/dried-pulses-lentils/asda-dried-red-lentils/910001794651
livestrong.com/article/372479-what-are-the-dangers-of-drinking-distilled-water/
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4223198/
youtube.com/watch?v=qWmgB-w0Qlo
youtube.com/watch?v=Z9HMej4NmBw
twitter.com/SFWRedditVideos

living on 140 a month. and I'm not complaining I know there are other people in worse situations. best advice I can give is pic related. also, eat your veggies

3 ingredient pasta: (this is what I used to make when I got tired of beans, rice, and cabbage when I was poor as fuck)

1 carton sour cream
1 jar salsa
1 pkg. Spaghetti

Cook spaghetti just al dente. Drain, and put back in pot over low heat. Mix together some salsa and sour cream (amounts of each depend on your taste) and gently toss with pasta. Heat over low until hot.
You can add any other seasonings or cheese if you have some, or vegtables, whatever.

Canned beans and Vegetables are a life savior for your nutritional health in these situation.
I fluctuate between 15$-200$ a month depending on if I am on a alcohol or drug bender. I have been getting 80-100$ a month for food recently so it has been refreshing. Why are you on 140$ a month?

Is that any good? The excessive sour-cream seems overpowering, but I do not like sourcream.
What does the combo taste like? and does it work with added southwestern salsa ingredients?

Yeah, it's good. If you don't like sour cream, but still want it to be creamy you could use some other dairy product, but sour cream goes with the salsa really well and it's cheap. The closest other thing to the right flavor and consistency would cream cheese.
And yes, you can add other southwestern ingredients, it's a "recipe" that works on it's own or as a base for other stuff.

Sounds convenient.
I like to get those reduced campbell's soups or just any canned soup.
>Add extra water
>seasonings
>canned vegetables
>possibly beans depending on soup

You can make decent soups by using old campbell's soups as a base.

Also Cumin can make anything taste like Chili if you have it.
Canned vegetables have saved my life on too many occasions.

I also eat salsa and crackers if I am hungry and have them.

Ramsay has you covered. Just buy extra virgin olive oil, fresh lamb, fresh herbs, king prawns etc. YW
youtube.com/watch?v=wiAcJYyLF8U

Ah yes I can get all this to eat on for 2-4 days for only 5-8$

I always have lemon and avocado on hand to flavor things with!
The gas to get to the store would knock off a 1/4 of my food budget for the week.
Christ Ramsey it's just budget food.

I'm living on a credit card until I earn something. I've got good food which will last about a week, but after that: Bags of frozen: Leeks, carrots, chopped onions, £3 for like 2 kilos. Pack of 4 Pierre pots, £1.50. 500g gammon, £5. 500g of red lentils, about a quid. Stick gammon in pressure cooker for half an hour then shred. Fry the veg, add the knorr pot, add the lentils and water, boil for half an hour, add the gammon. It makes an absolute shitload of food, takes 5 mins to reheat. Dull as hell but impossible to go hungry.

Very cheap and simple. Just take some instant ramen noodles, add some shredded chicken, and garnish it with cabbage, shredded carrots, half a soft-boiled egg, and scallions. For the broth, I like to throw away the seasoning packet and just use water, since it's so high in sodium. I use a tablespoon of soy sauce and a tablespoon of mirin. It's a little bland, but when you serve it you can drizzle some sriracha or chili oil according to your taste. I promise you that it's delicious.

...

Nice Idea, very nutritious. And pretty low cost if you get a rotisserie chicken, a few packs of ramen, and those veggies.

What is gammon and what is pierre pots?
Also how many days of food do you get for what cost?
Sounds very filling.
Any way to spice up the blandness?

>What is gammon and what is pierre pots?
Pic is gammon. 'Pierre pots' are Knorr stock pots. I use the 'herb infusion' variety. It's actually a really tasty meal, doesn't need any spicing up, but it'll last over a week, by which time you'll be bored to death with it. It was always my go-to meal when I was broke, it's very filling and actually very healthy too.

Nice what was the cost per pot you made of it?
Sounds pretty good.

Why not make a pasta sauce? Is it really cheaper per calorie to buy salsa over there?

I've had times where lentils have saved my economy from going into the red. Just use a liberal amount of stock cubes and spices with anything you make and buy as many dry staples as possible that can be used for cooking.

Probably less than £10. I haven't cooked it for a while. I've just looked online and it's actually cheaper than I'd estimated
groceries.asda.com/product/gammon/asda-butchers-selection-smoked-gammon-joint/910000877098
groceries.asda.com/product/vegetables/asda-sliced-leeks/1000005035690
groceries.asda.com/product/vegetables/asda-sliced-carrots/910002599053
groceries.asda.com/product/vegetables/asda-scratch-cook-sliced-red-onion/910002345150
groceries.asda.com/product/herbs/knorr-herb-infusion-pot/910000831298
groceries.asda.com/product/dried-pulses-lentils/asda-dried-red-lentils/910001794651
Bit of olive oil to fry it, then salt and pepper and you're done. A couple of bowls a day will fill me up and it's a pretty good balance of carbs, fats and protiens.

soups
stews
pies
anything that uses lots of rice or potatoes
baking can be really fucking cheap

>baking can be really fucking cheap
Flour is one of the best foods if you count pure calories per dollar. Baking bread doesn't even need yeast if you got a sourdough starter around, then you'll just need flour and salt.

baking and frying breads can be cheap. Many people have leftover cornmeal, flour or potato flakes laying around. All it takes is some water and salt and some form of fat or oils and BAM you may have a free meal laying around your house.
I once crushed up some old peanuts and flour and in a plastic shopping bag,
Added a bit of salt , sugar and water.
Fried it in some old grease.

Palatable and filling, yet somewhat boring.
But hey fried bread is highly calorie dense.

Salsa is very cheap. There's expensive brands if you want to pay that, , but there's good salsas that cost as little as 50 cents for 4 0z.

Also, it stores for later use, where as vegetables have to be used quickly.

This is true

Poor fucker who also drinks half his money away here. red lentils, pasta, rice, various dried/canned beans, cooking bacon (bacon scraps in the US), chicken thighs, carrots, onions, celery, garlic, cheese, 15% fat minced beef, flour, milk, oats and a cupboard full of dried spices bought as and when I can afford them is pretty much all I eat.

Super poverty poor lentil soup (serves 1)
150g dried red lentils
1 carrot
1 smallish onion
Salt and pepper
-rinse lentils, cut carrot+onion as small as you can be bothered (brunoise cut if you're good with a knife, or just grate them)
-put ingredient in a pot of boiling water, about 1 litre
-boil for 10 minutes then simmer for 15-20 minutes
-add salt and pepper to taste
-transfer to bowl, serve with bread (add 50g lentils at the start if you don't have any bread)

Gammon is basically a big chunk of cured pork, tastes like bacon. It's cheap and salty (soak it in water overnight to remove some of the salt if you want) but it is protein. It's sold in most uk/european supermarkets.

Forget the sourdough starter, learn to make Roti. Indian flatbreads make of nothing but flour, water and salt. Good with soups and stews and can be used as wraps too. I'm not a pajeet, but damn bless those guys for figuring that out.

Butcher-offal-scraps. Often, you'll pay mere cents and they'll throw in all kinds of crap they'd usually throw away.

Like at a local butcher?
We got one about 15 miles towards town, but I never went in. Think he'd part with the stuff for cheap?
I'm in the south so I can fry anything from animal intestines to gizzards. I can make do with some offal. Can they throw in skin, bone and scraps? I can get a ballin soup going with all that too.

>live by the sea
>crabs, limpets, prawns, seaweed in abundance, organic, free range, free
watch hugh fearnley whittingstall on youtube, he collects all kinds of herbs, plants, fruits... stuff growing wild and makes tasty recipes with them all. living off the land won't feed you entirely, but it makes a big dent if you learn what you can and can't eat. this morning i had a stir fry made from wild mushrooms i picked.

Yeah I do some fishing off the boat ramp near my place, and I forage for wild mushrooms and wild onion/garlic.
We even have wild wheat growing in patches around here, although it is not tasty and is a pain to grind.
But when you are broke and have a few hours to kill goin fishing/blackberry pickin/wild plant huntin is worth it.
Man I love where I live.

I would love to also be somewhere that I could trap
>crabs, limpets, prawns, seaweed in abundance
Like you were talking about.
That sounds neat.

yes to all of the above. buckets and buckets of chicken feet, pig ears, skins, snouts, lips etc

I think I have a new idea.
I have a freezer and 20$ so I think after gas prices and booze money I can get a bit of offal to store in the freezer for when I need it.

A chest freezer is worth the money and space. I'm looking at a 50% reduction in funds and I'm glad I can pull food out of the deep freeze. Found a 5 lb. bag of flour in there, too. Went through the pantry, plenty of soup and rice and pasta. Finally got the oven fixed so I can cook things again. Just buy water/milk/eggs/bread.

Glad to know this thread has people trying to help one another.

Bean dash
Red eye
Shit on a shingle
Thrice boilt poke salat

>buy water
what why

>ground beef
>taco seasoning
>cheese
Should I just eat this as a meal?

Sure as long is it is cooked properly.
And don't make it a habit. You need vitamins to survive too.
Although it'll fill you up for the night.

Is there nothing else you can add?

>You need vitamins to survive too.
what are a good source of vitamins? i have some frozen vegetables i try to eat with supper every night but probably not enough
trying not to go further into debt while i wait for this job to hopefully start

If you want to mix it up with beans, make some 3 bean or 5 bean salad. I ate that a lot when I was poverty tier and was tired of eating lentil soup, white bean soup, pinto beans, etc. You can cook up some of the beans from dried form, and use what you need, then freeze the others for later.
Anyway, here's how I like mine:
>1 can green beans, drained and rinsed
>1 can wax beans, drained and rinsed
>1 cup of cooked butterbeans
>1 cup of cooked chickpeas
>1 cup of cooked white beans or pink beans
>1 small red onion, diced
>1/2 red bell pepper, diced
>1 sliced pickled jalapeno or to taste ( optional)
>vinaigrette (use however much you feel you need, and make it however you like, I can give you a simple cheap recipe if you need it)

Mix all that together gently and let sit for at least 2 hours, but longer is better. Then taste it, and add salt and pepper if it needs it. If you have any dried or fresh herbs, it's nice in there too.

No no, Frozen vegetables will be enough.
As long as you are not going meat n cheese every night.

You will make it, although something with flour or some grain could be helpful for calories.
Could you try making a gravy out of the meat grease by adding flour slowly and stirring constantly?
Extra calories and a damn good gravy if done right.

What did you cook it in? a saucepan?

rice + peanut butter + hot sauce
or
ramen +peanut butter + hotsauce

No, no, no. It's like a salad. You mix it all together and marinate it and eat it cold. Have you never had marinated salads before?

Love that ghetto satay

No except Antipasto or Pasta salad
Never had beans in a salad before.

Well, friend, you're missing out.

>ramen +peanut butter + hotsauce
probably turn out better, if the ramen has flavor sachets

I have a third of those ingredients and am going to put it in a notepad file to remember it as a starter ideal.
I love butter/wax/white beans
Chickpeas and green beans are decent-good
and the rest sounds right up my alley too.
Thanks man for the idea.

Yeah I only use half of the '''flavor''' packets. Most of it is salt.

You're so welcome. It's just another way to get some cheap, tasty nutrition, but it's nice. And you can mix up the beans however you want, I've used all kinds of different beans before.

>>buy water
>what why
Distilled water to drink.

The cost of the yeast is pretty much irrelevant honestly. I was just trying to suggest something that doesn't have you going to the store while still being a leavened bread. Flatbreads are really efficient though and easier and faster to make for one portion.

Speaking of indian breads, I came across a recipe for a potato filled indian once that seemed pretty interesting. It would easily fill you up for less than a dollar.

>spaghetti noodles
>hot sauce
>Peanut butter
>Butter

Wala, you got pad thai

>wala

Is this a meme or are people this dumb?

It's as old as quinky sauce and Irish Stew Guy.
Don't drink distilled water bud
livestrong.com/article/372479-what-are-the-dangers-of-drinking-distilled-water/
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4223198/

I keep rice, beans, onions, garlic and potatoes on deck. Canned fish get stacked too. Then I just get whatever cheap produce like cabbage and carrots, and fresh fruit when I can.

You can’t get food but you can shitpost on the internet?

Hey guys I'm new around here.
I'm starting to live with my family as they're getting quite old and my mom is getting to the point to where she just can't cook every day so I wanna take over the reins slowly and make sure I'm putting some good for in her as well as myself.
I don't need something absolute poverty tier but something in the realm of cheapness where I wont be too sad if I mess up would be helpful. I'm not a total idiot, I can cook meats, boil noodles, etc. but its mostly putting everything together. My mother is also prideful in a sense, she really hates seeing males cook so hopefully I can work around that.

Does Veeky Forums have any general guides?

BBQ and grilling has always been considered a male thing, so you could try grilling her food as a way to break into cooking for her

I'm tired of eating rice and beans all the time.
I've been thinking about trying out some fancy stuff - like bulgur or sorghum, but they are ridiculously overpriced. Luckily I've found a shop where they sell this stuff in a bag twice the size and half the price.
The problem is it's labelled as bird-food. It's pure sorghum, but I'm still on the edge with this. You guys think it's ok?
You guys think I'm gonna turn into a parrot

Thanks for the thread op, this info is always interesting for a poor unifag.
I started using a recipe a which is pretty tasty and only uses
dried split peas, ginger, garlic, and onion. As well as some other spices.
Look up 'indian split pea fritters' and you should be able to find a basic guide.

It goes like this
let a cup of peas soak overnight, drain when prepping
puree aromatics and spices, then add in peas
heat up an ~1inch of oil in heavy wok and fry the mixture in spoonfuls.
serve with lime or other citrus.

Not a full meal, but a pretty damn tasty snack that only costs a few dollars to make if you have a solid spice rack

youtube.com/watch?v=qWmgB-w0Qlo

you care to share a link ?

So a nice aromatic/spiced version of fried peas?
I'm down for that.

I used to fry peas with bacon fat and onion and add it to those Pasta Salad boxes they sell at the store.

Also curious about this. Probably much lower quality than what you would be getting at the grocer.
Are you sure you want to become birdboy?

Fry up some meats or grill up something.
Start with stereotypical MAN-cooking.
Then branch out slowly from there.

cheap if you got any asianstores nearby

saute udon noodless are a blessing
for 4 portions ( or 2 days if youre alone)

300g udon noodles
1 carrot
1 medium onion
grated ginger/powdered ginger to taste
4 tsb soy sauce
1/3 cup water (add chicken stock cubes if you want)
hotsauce if you want

julienne the veg
stirfry with 2 tsp of soy and add the water
once noodles are cooked according to package, drain and add to pan with veg
add last 2 tsp of soy and stir for another 2 mins

add hot sauce if youd like

you can add any other veg if youd like, i usually also add bellpeppers or eggs if i got the extra dosh
goes well with crushed peanuts

>Don't drink distilled water bud
Nonsense.

All I really have in my house are some red potatoes, seasonings , some oil and some sausages.
My check didnt clear on time and thats all i have besides some "cream of" soups.

What can I do with these red potatoes before they go bad?

Fry the sausage. Cube the potatoes and fry them in the sausage oil. If you had some onion, you could chop them and fry with the potatoes.

diff user,
srsly dont mate

Third user. Really. Don't.

i went from real un feed to real feed. and so can you.
leighthealion @ paypal.

Going to have to try that.
thanks man

No it tastes bad
Spring water in a gallon jug is better than distilled water in a jug.

I wouldn't mind eating cheaper if it didn't entail getting random or poor quality food when going for the cheapest possible alternative.

The cheapest I can get is usually:
Not sourced in my nation
Pesticided to oblivion
Prone to have unusable bits
Filled with water/brine
Weird spots of blood or tendons
Poor quality check ups (I often read on the news the piss cheap products have bits of plastic in them and such so they recall it)

If I only eat in-season local stuff it would reduce my choices significantly. Obviously it's still better to get "cheap" (as in potatoes, pasta etc) in decent quality and make budget food on that but that's practically what I'm already doing.

It's an old as fuck joke, faggot.

I found it in a cookbook my mother has, but some googling gives me the name aloo parantha which it may or may not have been. It's better that you google yourself because I haven't made or tried it myself.

youtube.com/watch?v=Z9HMej4NmBw

i came here to post this. add a little orange juice, garlic and ginger powder (like from a spice can that you have sitting in your cabinet), a little soy sauce. mix with whatever musty ass veggies you have sitting in the back of your fridge. good eatin right therr

What would that even taste like.

Underrated. It's an act of futility to teach dumb people skills.
>but i'm not dumb, user!
If you're poor you're dumb, sorry to be the one to break it to you.

Buy a crockpot from a Goodwill or equivalent thrift store, now you can slow cook any meat/vegetable combo and make anything edible with some seasoning knowledge.

Idk about you but my internet bill is like a $20 a month, it wouldn't change that much getting 67¢ more a day to eat for.

Same as this guy.
Internet is cheaper than food for me at 18$ and change a month.

So not a poorfag but have some cheap good tasting recipes

- one can of kidney beans
- one small can of corn
- one small can of tomato paste
- one union
- one chicken filet (in smalls squares)
- wraps

1. cut the union, and bake it with some oil
2. add the chicken
3. add some herbs (fairly easy to mix your own mexican spice mix)
4. add tomato paste
5. add the kidney beans and corn.
6. heat the wraps

Voila, optional is adding cheese.
Above dish would give you enough for 2 days.

You mean Wala? What is that silly Italian spelling.
What is a union too?

my internet phone is 80.00 bucks. but i suck up alot of bandwidth. so if they arent saying anything i'm not saying anything. literally five streams constantly all day.

i haven't done any poverty cooking in a while. because when i had money i spent most of it on food. so now i have tons of stuff.

got a bunch of chicken legs and thighs for .79c a lb, and because I eat once a day at most I got enough to last 2 months

dried is better and cheaper, but you gotta soak them first, thats the down side

beans are cheap, rice, soup, corn n fruit too.

chop potatoes, dowse in oil, cover in spices, bake for 45 min at 400deg f
throw the sausages in too if you like or cook separate

good advice. I would cube, then toss with the sausage oil & salt, pepper then cook in the oven.
Would be easier to cook evenly.

Man I fucking love rice

don't you live in a first world country with clean drinking water?

have you ever considered getting a real job? no, not the one you have now. a REAL job. one that will pay you enough to eat properly, and go to college alongside and learn a trade skill.

Organ meat and eggs. Enjoy your calories, protein, and nutrients. Typical veggies are cheap; as are grains.

And don't give me that dietary cholesterol bullshit; unless you already have a problem shit like sodium and cholestrol are a non-issue with an other-wise balanced diet.

Got some ground beef I saved from the freezer and combined it with pretty much every vegetable leftover and some leftover frozen spaghetti sauce in frozen about a week ago.

Made a delicious soup (added some canned Rotel) and some cornbread with leftover fresh jalapeño and cheddar.

Just buy things according to sales and generally if you make things from scratch it is generally cheaper, by a large margin. This will feed us for at least 2-3 days.

During the winter soups and stews reign supreme.

>tfw I can never have cornbread ever again

The last thing I ate before i got the stomach flu was chili and cornbread. Just thinking about cornbread and the batter makes me nauseous