The Escapist Makes; The Poor Man's Cookbook

[Paragon Fury]

So let's say you open your wallet one day to find;

But no fret! The Escapist is here to help, right? So let's share our recipes for those who are a little cash strapped (or cheap bastards, whichever).

We'll set some ground rules first, just so we're all working from the same page.


> We're feeding one single person (male or female) for one week (7 Days)
> That person will have 3 meals (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner) on at least 5 of those 7 days
> Average weekly available money for groceries is $50.00
> No food allergies or religious concerns

So with the basic rules set down...let's have at it, Escapist!

 

[Fat Hippo]

One of my favorite cheap food recipes is Asian noodle stir fry.

Basically you just take some kind of Asian noodles, cook 'em the appropriate amount of time, and then throw them into a frying pan. Naturally, just noodles would be a bit dull, so before you fry the noodles, there are plenty of things that fit well, such as carrots, napa cabbage, onions, garlic, ginger etc. that can be fried beforehand, and then the noodles are tossed on top. Be sure to add things in the right order, so something like napa cabbage is going to take longer than the onions. The noodles themselves don't actually need to be fried for very long.

We're trying to be cheap here, but chicken fits very well. Or even just some bits of bacon, if you need some meat. Also, it's bacon. Why wouldn't you want it?

There are plenty of things it can be spiced with: various fish and oyster sauces, some sesame oil as a garnish. But since we're on a limited budget and might not have those things, soy sauce fits as well (and I'm just gonna assume we have it in the kitchen. And if not, it's still fairly cheap).

But really, this is a good recipe to toss in random shit you have lying around, and therefore never a bad thing for someone on a budget. And if you're really broke, the noodles themselves cost basically nothing, so you won't starve in any case. And you can do something very similar to this with Asian rice, so that'll work too.

Sounds crude? Well, I'm no gourmet chef, but if you do it right it's tasty, nutritious, fast and cheap. I'm not familiar with American grocery prices, so someone else will have to set a price on this.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Simple.

Beef mince, potatoes, carrots, onions, swede/turnip, parsnip, garlic, couple of stock cubes, pepper, cabbage, winter greens. Boil a lot in huge pan. Eat over a few days, repeat when empty.

 

[The Madman]

$50 is pretty decent for a weekly budget, the thing to remember though is that with some stuff you'll have an initial cost but which doesn't need to be re-purchased till a fair bit down the line, for example jam or spices.

Recently got a nice 4 pack of steaks on sale for around $13 bucks and that was great. Spread across 4 meals that works out to around 3ish bucks a meal which is solid value. Add in some nice seasoned rice which is super cheap to buy in bulk, plus a few seasonings for the steak and you've got a total expense of around $5 for an amazing steak dinner if you do it right. Potato's are also super cheap if rice isn't your favourite.

Pasta is another surprisingly delicious and cheap option. The initial cost of a good sized portion of pasta sauce is decent; you'll need minced meat, canned and paste tomato, some veggies, spices and seasonings (A lot of what works on steak works here if you're cheap like I am) among other things which can add up, but make enough and you've got sauce for weeks and the pasta itself is cheap. It's what I'm having tonight in fact and I'd say in the long term it also works out to around $5 a meal.

For breakfasts aside from cereal which is always a cheap healthy option (Depending on brand obviously) I like making French Toast. All you need is eggs, milk, bread, and some good ol' maple syrup for a delicious breakfast with an average cost of around $3ish bucks a meal. Eggs are the most expensive part of that dish but they last a good time and are useful in all sorts of meals, and as a Canadian myself I'm pretty sure the maple syrup is mandatory for my kitchen anyway so I just add it to my living expenses.

Lunch is sandwiches. There's a reason parents make em for kids at school; cheap, easy, reasonably healthy and filling.

And if I'm feeling super cheap I always have a decent selection of Campbell's soups around the kitchen. On sale you can get them for $2 each and they make for a filling meal, so if I really wanted to cheat on the $50 budget I'd just say those for dinner each week but that's also boring as hell.

Spread the initial costs for things that will last across multiple weeks and you can easily stay under $50 a week.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Breakfast? Hahaha, you joke. <.<

Well, I freeze salmon and eat mini-salmon steaks alternating with spaghetti w/ salt and butter days. I drink a LOT of water, have some lentils sitting in reserve for emergency protein and cook whatever I want out of those options for lunch/supper. Morale boosting snacks like cheap potato chips and the occasional ice cream sandwich for desert make the weeks go by a little faster until the income that determines better food consumption kicks in...

If you're asking for a coherent eating plan, you've come to the wrong poor student. >.>

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Tuna and bulk purchases of rice. Rice in a 10kg bag or bigger keeps forever.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Buy spagetti sticks in bulk, and A big jar of bolognaise sauce, and then all you need is a medium amount of mince and you've got enough ingredients to make multiple spagetti bolognaises, the mince will do for a good 2 meals and the spag. and sauce will do for the next 3 or 4 weeks so you only need to repurchase the meat!

Massive bags of rice are also excellent, they'll keep for ages. Tinned curry is very cheap, comes in several different flavours takes no effort to prepare and is fairly decent. You can even supplement it with a sliced pepper to add a bit of substance.

Big bags of frozen oven chips are also pretty good, and again they'll keep pretty much indefinitely. Buy a 4 pack of fish fillets, and a big bag of frozen mixed veg and that's another good meal that will last for more than a week.

The trick is to buy your fillers in bulk. Rice, Pasta and oven chips, and the biggest bags of frozen veg. you can find. Then it's simply a matter of alternating the meals, and you're golden.

 

[Callate]

As a student, I ate a fair amount of:
combine 4 cups cooked rice with 1/2 of a cooked package of frozen "fiesta style" frozen vegetables (beans + rice= easily absorbed protein.) Dress with soy sauce, Mongolian fire oil, and a dash of ginger.

Quick, tasty, reasonably nutritious, and less than $1 a serving once the condiments used to dress it are purchased (said condiments should last for at least a month.) Even with the condiments is still comes in under budget if you ate it 3/7.

 

[carnex]

I wish that I had 50$ weekly, but you can manage eating really healthy with less.

My breakfasts are home made mix of rye, oats and barley flakes, dried cranberry, (4-5 spoons of this 1:1:1:1 mix) milled linen seeds (one spoon) and some fatty fruits like peanuts, almonds etc (one spoon) with yoghurt (not greek youghurt, continental one that's more liquid and without sweeteners)

Lunches are mostly vegetables (fresh, steemed and fried on tomato squeze (pain filtered tomato juice without and additions except salt for stabilization)) with plain cheese (unprocesed, white dairy cheese) and some lean meat (favorite would be palin grilled chicken breast, pike (fish), canned tuna in water, turkey breast) or mushrooms.

Dinner is usualy leftover from lunch (i make something like 500-700 grams of vegetables for me daily) and some fruit (grapefruit, apple preferably)

Breakfast ends up at less than 1USD, lunch 3-5USD, dinner 0-1USD. And trust me, it's just about as heathy as it can get and you can make it hands off. Both steaming and cooking on tomato is done by leaving it alone for set ammount of time.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Simple.

Beef mince, potatoes, carrots, onions, swede/turnip, parsnip, garlic, couple of stock cubes, pepper, cabbage, winter greens. Boil a lot in huge pan. Eat over a few days, repeat when empty.

Buying those ingredients here would put you well over the $50 limit for the week.

 

[Veldel]

Buy a bag of jasmine rice and Ramen cup and a thing of normal Ramen pack you then cook the rice and enough Ramen to fill half cup with rice in other half stir and done very filling and super cheap

Rice: 8$
Cup of Ramen 29 cents
Pack of Ramen like 3$


Rice cooker if being fancy 10$ one time

Now if you want a bit more add some veggies or lunch meat or a egg


Also all of it should last you atleast 2 weeks which means about 6 dollers a week on food.

Tho a 8$ bag of jasmine could last 3-4 weeks

So in reality about 3-4 dollers a week

Iv lived like this before...

 

[baddude1337]

Should we not also take into account where to buy the goods from? I mean, here in the UK, £50 will go a long way in Aldi, compared to if I went to Tescos to shop.

(Aldi is great BTW, most if it's stuff is actually better than the branded stuff it's ripped off of, for a fraction of the price. I can get a pack of 20 frozen sausages for £1 in Aldi, for example, compared to £2.50 for Tesco brand sausages. Plenty of potential meals from that.).

OT: Well, really, canned goods, like baked beans (especially those are are meals in a tin, like big breakfast beans), packeted rice and pasta are sustainable if you are on low income for a bit.

 

[maninahat]

There are lots of easy things to do to save money, as will be shown above. What you should avoid doing:
Meat can cost a lot. Don't buy chicken breasts or beef. Go to a butchers and see if you can get chicken livers or pig hearts or some such.

 

[Twintix]

I don't know how it is in the US, but in Sweden, cabbage is fairly cheap all year around and can make for some delicious meals if you know how to handle it.

Or how about beans and oats? Oatmeal is a good breakfast item and also good for you. And beans can provide the protein that you'd get from meat while costing less.

 

[Hoplon]

Simple.

Beef mince, potatoes, carrots, onions, swede/turnip, parsnip, garlic, couple of stock cubes, pepper, cabbage, winter greens. Boil a lot in huge pan. Eat over a few days, repeat when empty.

Buying those ingredients here would put you well over the $50 limit for the week.

the fook do you shop? that's like £20/$30 worth of stuff tops. probably less.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Simple.

Beef mince, potatoes, carrots, onions, swede/turnip, parsnip, garlic, couple of stock cubes, pepper, cabbage, winter greens. Boil a lot in huge pan. Eat over a few days, repeat when empty.

Buying those ingredients here would put you well over the $50 limit for the week.

Holy shit, that's expensive, I thought the US was supposed to have cheap food?