What's your favorite meal that's so cheap that literally anyone can buy it? I could really use some ideas. Mine would have to be ramen. Keeps you full and is delicious for a great price.
Our favorite inexpensive meals are breakfast items. Sometimes we even have breakfast for dinner. Inexpensive breakfast meal ideas include:Scrambled eggs and toastPancakesFrench toastVegetable cheese omelets or quicheWhen cooked from scratch, the meals above cost very little to make. Eggs are pretty inexpensive, as are the rest of the ingredients needed. Many are pantry items that you may already have on hand.
Beans on toast was always my broke student meal. That and 9p noodles. Since then, I must have invented so many ways to jazz up my beans. My favourites are a bit of chilli powder and a squirt of tomato puree or just grated cheese on top if I have it.
For inexpensive food, I love ramen noodles too. Unfortunately I think there is no nutritional value to them. So for nutritious and inexpensive meals I like to make spaghetti with lots of veggies, fried rice with leftover chicken and veggies, eggs/omlettes are always great, soups like cauliflower or broccoli. I find meat is the most expensive part of a meal, so I'll plan my dinners around what meat is on sale.
@purplepen88 while there's little to no nutritional value to them, you can also boost them by throwing an egg in the mix. @missbishi only if I liked beans... They would be consistent and easy to cook food, but unfortunately I can't enjoy them at all.
McDonald's dollar meal menu. But I recently saw Wendy's meal dealLog In so I changed my mind now it's Wendy's new meal deal! You get chicken, hamburger with bacon, fries and a soda! This has got to be one of the best cheapest meal deals yet and you can find it at Wendy's.
I'd say the cheapest meal I could live on for a really long time even if I was broke is rice and beans. Rice is cheap and so are beans and you get all nutrients you need from the meal which means if circumstances demand that you live on the cheapest meal(s) for an indefinite time, you could choose rice and beans.
We have here the breakfast food called fried rice toppings that is very cheap. It is fried rice with meat - pork or beef - and can also be dried fish. It comes with fried egg, sunny side up. It is just over $1 so anyone can afford except the beggars maybe. I sometimes buy that when I have no time to spend in a fastfood. I take it out so I could eat in the office while scanning my emails for the day.
Ramen is far inferior to unprocessed grains. A truly cheap meal would be home-made tortillas, cornbread, or grits from field/dent corn. I can get cleaned, aflatoxin free corn for about 15 cents per pound. oat groats for 35 cents per pound. grind up the corn and boil water and put it in a thermos overnight, and same with groats. Over 2,000 calories with everything but vitamin c for about 20 cents (all grains to my knowledge lack vit C, including ramen which is wheat, and corn has vitamin A whereas wheat/ramen does not). 20 cents of ramen provides about 500 or less calories, and far inferior nutrition. Plus ramen has loads of fat and virtually no phytosterols/phenols/antioxidants. What's worse is these fats are largely saturated because they are hydrogenated to increase shelf-life. This creates trans- and cis-fats. as long as there is under 500mg of trans fats, LEGALLY they can put zero grams. Wanna find out which companies are liars? Grab anything labeled "0 grams trans fat" then look at the ingredients. if there is ANY partially/fully hydrogenated oils in it, it is basically guaranteed to have both cis AND trans fats, even if in small amounts. You think they want you to know that? There is a reason you can cheaply feed a horse a diet of almost entirely oats and have it be strong and healthy. Americans, by comparison, on average, are sickly and out of shape. Most of their deadly diseases are diseases of affluence, such as diabetic complications and heart disease, whose sole cause is essentially one's diet. Although stress/exercise are a factor, they only modify the cause - poor dietary quality. eat ramen, feel bad and get sick for maybe 1-2 dollars per day. eat unrefined grains/legumes bought in bulk, feel great and be healthy for under a dollar per day. such a diet could easily be under 2 dollars per WEEK there is a reason why people of the poorest nations eat mostly grains, I promise. Also they tend to have virtually no diabetes or heart disease, even if they are sedentary. same with americans/whites that eat mostly unrefined grains/tubers. the most nutritionally complete diet that is fairly cheap is one of potatoes. potatoes are nutritionally complete while being fairly affordable. at 30 cents or less per pound, they are pretty cheap and they store well, like ramen. a study was done wherein 2 marathon runners ate a diet of almost entirely potatoes for 6 months. a potato farmer did a PR thing where he ate ONLY potatoes for 30 days. wanna know what happened to all of them? they were in phenomenal health and lost a bunch of bodyfat. the runners were losing so much fat, the experimenters added oil to the diet for the calories! peruvians eat a diet of almost entirely potatoes, and their ENTIRE POPULATION has almost no diabetes, even in old age. africans eat diets of almost all roots, greens, and grains and heart disease almost doesn't exist there. same with osteoporosis. rural asians seem to have some of the least osteoporosis, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease of any culture. and when any of those peoples adopt a western/american diet, their protection against those diseases go away and begin to resemble that of Americans. these cultures also have essentially no arthritic/autoimmune diseases. some researchers postulate that before the industrial revolution, arthritic diseases may have not existed, even in the oldest of old persons! again, they mostly eat this diet because of poverty... it's all they can afford, and they rarely have access to supermarkets and/or refrigeration. Last I saw, the most efficient dollar/calorie item at McD's was 4.8 calories per penny (plus you get McDiabetes too! [I'm lovin' it!]) ramen is about 22 calories per penny rice about 35 per penny corn is about 60 calories per penny keep in mind ramen and mcd's are calorie dense, nutrition, poor, and low in fiber. what does that mean? a diet of either of those will take twice as many calories to fill you up, which will cost more and cause health issues. brown rice, for instance, when bought in bulk is 50 cents per pound. 2lbs of rice would be 1 mcd's item or maybe 5 packs of ramen. 2lbs of rice once cooked is more than most can eat in a day, and yet, a mcd value item or 5 packs ramen will leave one feeling hungry part or most of the day. plus pulses can be stored for emergencies. emergencies being financial, i mean . having 3 months of food in a closet is a great thing to have after hearing "sorry but we have to let you go." b12 bro although the liver stores lots of b12, over the years it will run out and you will become psychotic; long enough and i think it's fatal. 0.0
My cheap meal is beans and rice. I can make it for a long time eating nothing more than beans and rice. The beans can be red beans or black beans with rice. I also like pinto beans with corn bread or garlic bread to help fill up the tummy. The good thing is beans are high in protein making them good for you.
metabolic requirements for protein is roughly 5% of calories. even white rice, lower in amino acids than brown or other common cultivars, has 9%, almost doubling needs. even an athlete such as myself--i do regular strength conditioning and run about 6-8miles per day--gets enough protein due to extra food consumed. excess protein will oxidize in the bloodstream, damaging the arteries. the whole "get lots of protein" narrative is based on advertising, not prudence/science/reality. protein is, ironically, one of the few things that OVER 99.9% of americans that are eating enough food get enough of. excess protein stresses the liver, pancreas, kidneys, and endothelial cells and causes "leaky gut." however, plant protein may not do bad things, maybe only from animal sources.
Chorizo and potatoes with onions. Greasy goodness that's filling and lasts several days. This is roughly $5 USD.
Well you can't beat plain old spaghetti for a cheap meal. If I don't have meat I will make my version of pasta primavera which are any type of veggies I have, topped with spag sauce and a little parm cheese. It is a good way to use up let over veggies, and also have a good inexpensive meal that is quite nutritious. Yes, red beans and rice are good too, or add some sausage and seasonings for a jambalya type dish. There are a lot of cheap meals that are probably healthier than regular meals. Many are cooked from scratch and don't have a lot of added salt.
Rice and beans is definitely a cheap meal but you don't get nearly all of your necessary nutrients from it. You get quite a bit of protein though Pasta is super cheap too. Veggies. I just don't know how to narrow down to one cheap meal when all of my meals are pretty cheap. My fave at the moment is a vegan burrito bowl thingy I make, which incorporates the rice and beans too. You can make a loooooot of cheap meals from your healthy staples.
This is a difficult one for me to too - mainly because - as I cook everything from scratch and only eat totally natural foods - the majority of which are incredibly cheap to buy - everything I eat could easily be described as inexpensive and as all are exceptionally delicious and tasty in their own way - it would to be hard to single out one meal over another - as all are equally enjoyable. In fact if on a super tight budget - you really can't go too far wrong - so long as you always have beans, lentils, chickpeas, rice and pasta along with a few herbs and spices in the store cupboard - particularly as with a bit of creativity - you can easily turn those basic ingredients into tasty, very substantial, healthy meals at very little cost - just by combining one or all those ingredients together and adding a little bit of almost anything you fancy. For example - just adding any one of the following - a few seasonal vegetables, a can of tomatoes or tuna, a dash of olive oil, a clove or two of garlic, herbs, grated cheese or even an egg - can easily turn those staples into a nutritious tasty meal that can be eaten anyway you want - hot, cold, stuffed into pitta pockets, tacos or crusty bread, piled on top of jacket potatoes, as hot or cold salads, casseroles or even served as soups etc, etc.
I have lots of favorite cheap meals partly because most food I eat are either cheap or I make them on my own using cheap yet healthy produce. In my case, my most favorite cheap meal is good ol' ham and cheese rolls. They're easy to prepare and they are very delicious as well.
It can be tough to eat beans and rice repeatedly. Once in a while I am in the mood for them, but if I am on a strict budget, it's a struggle to eat them on a daily basis. Pasta on the other hand, I can get by with a bit longer, before I start getting sick of it. While the jarred variety of tomato sauces are convenient and making your own tomato sauce from scratch is nice, if you're really in a pinch, the cheapest canned tomato sauces aren't all that bad. Same goes for the shelf stable Parmesan cheese in lieu of the fresh stuff - not my favorite, but in a pinch budget wise, it's a reasonable compromise to save a few dollars. While I enjoy making a basic meat sauce with my pasta, ground beef gets expensive and I avoid the really cheap ground beef (sold in logs) since that stuff is rather gross. Instead I will wait for mushrooms to be marked down for a quick sale and simply saute them and add them to the sauce for a "meaty" texture and some extra flavor. Canned tuna fish is also a great addition to tomato sauce for some extra cheap protein and nutrition.
Canned goods, hotdogs, and fishballs. I don't really cook, so I buy cheap home cooked meals most of the time aside from a chicken and rice meal.
Where are you getting the 9p noodles from? They used to be that a few years ago but they have all gone up. The cheapest place is Aldi at 18p now. Please let me in on your secret! Ramen is a favorite of mine, but so is pasta mixed with some tomato puree, olive oil and then a spoon of mayonnaise and some veggies. It's a quick meal and also very cheap and can be eaten hot or cold. I have to admit I like marmite on toast with beans on top, it's a comfort food favorite too and is actually good for you.
This is where I have to admit that I graduated back in 1999! It's certainly a sign of the times that cheap noodles have doubled in price since then. Home Bargains do a 5 pack for 69p at the moment but they are pretty grim. Aldi noodles are great though, I don't live close to one of their stores but when I get the opportunity to visit, I'll always buy 10 noodle packs for the cupboard.
