Cheap food

add turkey* Oops.

Remember that any meal that called for ground beef can be switched out for ground turkey. It's 2 dollars for an entire tube versus the 4-5 you might spend on beef or chicken.

The brand 'Homekist' also makes really cheap family size packs of oatmeal or sandwich cookies which is good for a sweet tooth. If you live near one, hit up the dollar tree. Find out when shipment days are, they get expensive stuff for 1 dollar at times. Big Lots is another great place to find real food for discount prices.

And the biggest tip of all, hit up the food bank(s) in your area before going to the grocery store. What they give out may not seem like anything worthwhile, but if you wait to go shopping afterward, you'll realize you can save money by picking items to go with what the food bank provides. Mine often provides canned tomatoes, soups, and beans which means I only have to pay 2 dollars on meat to make chili for example.

I just thought of one other I don't make anymore because I don't have a freezer to keep it. My aunt taught me to make these. Nasoya sells the wrappers at Walmart for about 2.50 a packet. It's in the vegetable aisle, don't go to a fancy organic store to buy them. These aren't 'cheap' to buy the base materials, but since you can freeze them, they go a long way added to other dishes, even 20 cent ramen.
>Wontons
1 pound of ground meat (Pork is traditional, but you can use beef, chicken, or turkey.)
1 packet of wonton wrappers
1 good size container of dried chopped green onions
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper
Ziploc bags
Combine pepper, salt, green onions, and ground meat in a bowl, stir counter-clockwise or clockwise. Whatever you choose, stir in one direction only.
Take small (extremely tiny, like a tiny bit bigger then your thumbnail) mounds of mixture, and place in wonton wrapper. Fold wonton wrapper according to picture, use water to hold it together. Done.

You should be able to make 30-40 wontons per sitting. Put the finished product in the freezer immediately. There's no need to thaw before cooking. Boiling or baking them is the usual process. However, for a high calorie count, you can fry them in oil for a more substantial product. You use a very tiny amount of meat because otherwise it'll break open and fall apart when you cook it. If this happens, you overstuffed the wrapper. Boil them in broth to add extra flavor as opposed to water.

>tube
slightly off topic but am I the only one who always seems to find way more gristle in tubes of ground turkey and beef than in styrofoam packs?

I think the brand I've always picked up is Jennie-O. I picked up some Butterball ground turkey the other day and it was awful. I mean, there's the little... stringy bits if that's what you are talking about in the ground turkey. (They kind of look like 'flat' strings?) I just take them out while I'm cooking it. It's pretty easy to spot them while the meat is raw.

I guess I just don't complain. It is a 2 dollar tube of meat. Beggars can't be choosers.

I will say if I have the money to buy beef, I always buy it in the Styrofoam package or at the meat counter at Earth-fare if it is on sale. (It's worth checking, sometimes the ground chuck goes on sale as cheap as you'd find it at Walmart.) The tubed ground beef really isn't worth it because it really is full of gristle and it is only a dollar less then the Styrofoam in most cases.

Don't buy the organic meat they started carrying at Walmart. I bought it a few months back for a special meal, and it must be the worst grade of organic meat there is. It was full of literal pieces of bone. It was horrible.

no I was talking more along the lines of what is describing

ah ok I understand

Both posts were me. I buy turkey in a tube, but I buy beef in the Styrofoam. What brand turkey have you bought? Mind you, I live in a rural area so even the cheap meats in my area are better quality then what you would get in an urban city.

If you do live in a rural area, it's cheaper for companies to pay the local farmers for meat then to truck it over from a factory farm because of gas prices. Even our cheap meats may have came from the same farmer selling meat to an organic or specialty store. In the city, pretty much everything comes from a huge factory farm which lowers the quality immensely since there isn't exactly an abundance of small-time farmers nearby.

I've bought honeysuckle white, jennie-o and whatever that brand is that aldi's sells. can't remember which one(s) I bought in a tube though.

Try the Jennie-O in a tube. I prefer them over Butterball and Honeysuckle White. Other then removing the little strings, I can't say I ever remember finding bone and gristle in their tubed meat. If I ever did, it was once in a blue moon.

Confirmed as slug

ok thanks

*pantry cleaner stirfry*

6 cups basmati
pan fried onion, hot peppers
*mystery pantry item* - some ancient canned beets
stirfry together, add 8 eggs
hot sauce and seasoning

Makes about 4 days worth of healthy, high protein dirt cheap stirfry

tastes like shit though.

Chicken, rice, potatoes, and a yellow curry meal kit if I'm tired cause work.

If I'm frisky, sausage chili stretches well. Chicken stir fry over rice, including onions, green beans, baby corn, water chestnuts, and chicken obviously. Served over rice.

Another thing I don't have a name for is: ground beef, 1can rotel, 1can frenched green beans, 1can dark red kidney beans. Uh, garlic and onions, I think some water and a tiny splash of milk to calm down the rotel. Served over rice as usual. It's not the worst and it all combines into something much more stretchable than you might think. It won't be delicious every time or maybe any time but it's like five bucks for two weeks of food.

I'm not giving specifics on the procedures cause really you should be able to figure it out and I think you'll find it tastes better when it's you who did the legwork anyway.

>4 days
or a single meal for me

Most Indian food consists of spices and cheap veggies.
Buy the "main" spices like cumin, turmeric and coriander, 1 Ibs of each spice and your set for a long time. you will need other spices but these three are the leads in a fair amount of dishes.