poor people food

Stay away as much as possible from anything pre-prepared. Dried beans, pastas, and rice are your friends. Most people throw away a horrific amount of food. We actually enjoy turning leftovers into something else, whether it be in a casserole, a pasta dish, or a fried rice concoction. Omelets are a good way to use up stuff, too.

You can also throw just about anything left over in a soft tortilla. Drop your favorite hot sauce on it and it transforms into another dish, entirely. Some things go well with Frank's hot sauce (my standard go-to) or for a little more kick, sriracha.

Don't overlook those cheaper cuts of beef or pork. Slow cooking in a dutch oven with some onions, carrots, celery, and a little tomato paste and wine can make you think you're dining in a 5 star establishment. Seriously.

There used to be a show on Food network with Gordon Elliot called "Doorknock Dinners" that was one of my favorites, and actually inspired me. He'd show up at some random house with a chef, and they'd talk their way in to cook a meal with whatever ingredients they could find on hand. I still like to do Doorknock Dinner night where I clean out the fridge and slap something together with whatever we find. it's not always stellar, but it's usually an adventure. Haven't killed a family member, yet.

Now I don't know that I'd call it "poor people food" but something about throwing away what I've paid for really grinds my gears. Where it gets REALLY expensive is when you throw it away rather than use it.

I buy cheese in block form so I have to shred it myself.
When it's $2.99-$3.99 for an 8oz shredded bag it's worth it.
And it's great for big slices in sandwiches.

When I make tacos I use the left over meat in a 3 bean chili.
I cook a whole chicken or get the rotisserie chicken and use meat in chicken quesodillas and the rest goes to chicken soup.
After making baked ham I make split pea soup.
Roast of corned beef turns into hash.

My fav cheap meal it baked macaroni and cheese with cracker crumbs soaked in butter on top.

Ramen noodles
awesome with peanut butter and jelly sandwich!
or to make a "spread" with. Cheese crackers and whatever else you throw into the noodles. Had skittles in it once lmao! True story. Wasnt great, but not revolting

SPAM MEAT

Now I don't know that I'd call it "poor people food" but something about throwing away what I've paid for really grinds my gears. Where it gets REALLY expensive is when you throw it away rather than use it.

reply to post by yeahright


Yes I can't stand to see food thrown away either. Unfortunately, as a restaurant server I see a lot of this. Sorry to say this it sounds so critical, but it's true. People with money are the biggest culprits, it's like they think they are too good to carry a box out of a restaurant. Trowing away 1/2 of a 20$ meal makes me want to vomit.


Someone mentioned buying the whole pork loin on sale, and slicing it for chops and roasts. I do that and It is awesome!! I Love to figure out how cheap it becomes per meal (2-3$ for a fam of 5, can't beat it). I also buy whole chickens and hams when they are at their best price, and I butcher them myself.

reply to post by Skywatcher2011

Originally posted by Skywatcher2011
Oh yeah...most important cheap food....home grown veggies

You Ain't Lyin!!

I'm going to teach my self canning next summer. I put the rest of our banana peppers in a brine recipe last week with onions and garlic. They were going to waste, and now they are super de-lish..


SPAM? never tried it.

reply to post by MidnightSunshine


That's a great tip - never buy your meat already butchered. DIY baby, DIY.

I never throw away chicken bones, even after they've been roasted. The roasted kind makes roasted chicken stock, and that's one of my favorites. I haven't bought a can of broth in years. It tastes like dirty feet anyway. And if you put the bones in a slow-cooker for a couple of days, the stock is heavenly.

Once in a blue moon, random things are sold in bulk for a really good price so I grab those, like the 10-lb bag of rice for $10. I had no idea this thing would be the size of a small suitcase, but we're still eating the heck out of it, and I smile my smug smile every time, thinking "there goes a few pennies".

Some farm stands sell old produce - as in, you need to eat this stuff in the next 8 hours or it'll be invisible because that's pretty much the final stage of rot - and I check those out three or four days a week. I spend about $5 a week (most bags are $1) for produce that if purchased at a grocer would cost at least $20.

I bake my own breads, cakes and cookies - no baked items are ever, ever purchased. Their markup is insane, and bread baking in your oven is one of the most intoxicating scents around. I order the cheapest yeast around from the nuts.com website.

To keep up with having some variety available, I stock lots of fresh produce that lasts when properly stored, like ginger, potatoes, onions and apples. Citrus fruit lasts much, much longer if each piece is individually wrapped in tissue paper. Cans of curry paste and coconut milk can make a piece of chicken, onion and pepper stretch out to feed six people with some rice, and it's tasty too! When things go on sale I buy as much as I reasonably can.

reply to post by chasingbrahman


Cans of curry paste and coconut milk can make a piece of chicken, onion and pepper stretch out to feed six people with some rice, and it's tasty too!


Wow never bought curry paste or coconut milk are they cheap? What do you do with all this, sounds good??

My favorite poor people meal...

Hamburger Helper Stroganoff, frozen snap peas, and canned yams. The price for the whole meal is variable ( There are generic options for the Hamburger Helper, canned peas rather than frozen, not adding real sour cream - as I tend to do ).

Add in a slice or two of buttered bread? Awesome feast!

When I make this ( I'm single and alone ) it feeds me for 2-3 days. IMO it actually tastes better after it's been refrigerated and reheated. Excellent leftovers.

~Heff

Mine, crackers and cheese with mayo/hot sauce and or green onions/jalepenos sliced on top of cheese.

Soups.

Just getting chicken slices and having sandwhiches.

Peanut Butter and Jam, and Rice as stand byes.

Handmade french fries.

Kids, always try to have bananas, fruit juice, as natural as possible, lots of potatoes to make a variety of ways, noodle soups and eggs on hand.

We try to have a nice cooked meal, ie. spaghetti, stir fry, burritos/tacos, chili, etc, at least once a week.

Milk and cereal. We spend nearly 200 dollars on milk/monthly, 5 boys, and a foster child plus a few of his friends unofficially add up.

pancakes is the old standbye, or french toast, but I can no longer stand up and deliver tons of homemade food, I have chronic fatigue, and now rheumatoid arthritis that suddenly got chronic, not accute, all at once, so have mobility issues.

Another thing, no matter how poor I am, I buy Canadian. Ie. if Canadian tomatoes are way more by the pound, I buy Canadian tomatoes I look for Canadian Potatoes, or Okanagan ones, and will not buy American Potatoes no matter what.

I do not ever intend to be purchase US, because of the radiating food and GMO. And their chocolate tainted by child slave labor.

I am aware that the same things can happen in Canada, BUT, its illegal and against our constitution, and therefore ALL KARMA FALLS ON THE BAD GUY BREAKING THE LAW, OR SUBVERTING LAWS FOR THEIR GOALS, AND NOT ME. ALL FALLS ON THEM.

Furthermore, if ever, the situation arises where a person has the money to launch major court cases against illegal evil villainous mistreatment of human rights in the food industry, I can HANDLE TAKING CANADIAN CORPS TO COURT EASIER THAN US ONES.

So I stick with Canadian, for they wear the KARMA. I know what our Constitution says about Equality. Its not written/worded as, you are equal at the ballot box. Its is SUBSTANTIVE EQUALITY. So their abuse is illegal, but I can only deal with Canadian issues, should I ever have the means to do what I would do if I did.

reply to post by MidnightSunshine


How many are you shopping for?

I'm a single guy and I hate buying vegetables; they go bad before I eat them all, and I don't want to go shopping every day. Also, my freezer doesn't freeze things all the way, so frozen vegetables are out.

So, instead of buying three or four tomatoes, I buy canned diced tomatoes that can sit on the shelf forever. When I open a can, I squish the juice out and drink it while eating the pressed tomatoes on sandwiches. You'd be surprise just how juicy those sandwiches are (in a good way! lol).

Roast of corned beef turns into hash.

reply to post by obnoxiouschick

Don't know where you live, but in Massachusetts, we almost need a bank loan to buy a corned beef! Gawd, I would eat that every day if it wasn't so frikkin' expensive.

Originally posted by k21968
reply to post by Trueman

 

Labor day I made a vow to stop buying my lunch at work. (around $8 a day) Gas prices are killing me and with my long communte (an hour each way) I had to find a way to cut back. I figured $8 a day x 20 days of work a month = 3 tanks of gas!!

I bring those cup of noodle things (3 for a dollar), microwave popcorn (got it on sale for 5 bags for a dollar), spaghettios, ravioli etc ($1 a can). I spend on average $1.50 for my lunch each day. I do treat myself every other Friday on payday and buy my lunch.

I just quit eating off the lunch truck today. The prices were good enough where I'd buy a steak sub for supper too. Problem is, the driver of this truck loves to not show up from time to time, and seeing as lunch ends at 12:30, this guy always shows up at 12:20. I hate sucking down lunch in a hurry.

So, today I bought four cans of Underwood chicken spread and brought them to work. All I have to do is put mustard on bread and bring that to work each day.

The lunch truck subs were $5.00, add a $1.50 for a drink = $6.50.
Underwood sandwiches come to a little more than a dollar, and a sale on store bought soda ($1.50 for a two liter that will last two or three days), and I'm really saving some money there.

The lunch truck

Originally posted by yeahright
Stay away as much as possible from anything pre-prepared. Dried beans, pastas, and rice are your friends. Most people throw away a horrific amount of food.

This is the best advice ever

Now OP let me tell you about canned sardines and rice or pasta.

Yes to some of you that is revolting, but I tells ya, maybe because something
is wrong with me (I don't know), I LOVE THIS STUFF.

You buy canned sardine (I happen to use a radiation detector on each one at home
just in case because of all the fukushima crap)

You can find canned sardines in oil for as low as 1.25 a can.

You boil some macaroni or rice, and cool it down a little, you take the sardines and
oil from a can and spread over rice or macaroni.

The GOOD: Omega 3, proteins, oils, carbs
The BAD : BPA from the can, and aluminum from the can.

So as long as you don't do it too often, it is good munching.

reply to post by jiggerj


It takes a little planning, but if you can grow some of your own vegetables, especially the ones that store or can well, you can go a long way to supplement a healthy diet on the cheap. There is an up front cost for the canner and jars and stuff, but once you have them, you can reuse them as long as they aren't chipped. You still need to buy new lids every year, though.

Also, there are ways to get meat protein in a healthy way by buying it on sale and stretching it with other ingredients. Turkeys are about to go on sale for the holidays. In my area, we can expect them to go as low as 49ç a pound as a loss leader in grocery stores. We will pick up several and freeze them. A small turkey will feed us for around 5-7 meals. This is where a freezer really is invaluable. Store bags of leftover meat or stock in the freezer for an easy, fast protein or soup making option later.

Someone mentioned bread baking. Again, it's pretty easy if you eat bread. (we stopped). But if bread is a staple, you only need water, flour, salt, butter, and yeast and you can make a loaf for like around 50ç. We have a bread machine we only use now for when we're having someone stay and they like bread. But it takes me 4 minutes to dump in the ingredients and it's done 4 hours later. You could make it before you go off to work and have it hot and ready when you get home.

But the real key is cooking from scratch. It always costs more to buy pre-made food. Plus, the cheap factory foods are filled with goodness knows what. It really takes very little time to cook a good meal from scratch. Doesn't need to be fancy with a million ingredients.

Originally posted by jiggerj

Roast of corned beef turns into hash.

reply to post by obnoxiouschick

 

Don't know where you live, but in Massachusetts, we almost need a bank loan to buy a corned beef! Gawd, I would eat that every day if it wasn't so frikkin' expensive.

you didn't realize it in the other thread
you guys know what we call people from mass right ..... just kidding
I'm in little rhody
I get the corned beef only around St. Patty day when they're on sale
sometimes I make the hash with the canned stuff but it isn't really the same
The general idea I was going for was that almost all meals get used up in some way or transformed.

In some cultures, they eat bugs....so grab a shovel and a bucket and go get some juicy, tasty arthropods

reply to post by Trueman


Yes, I am so sorry . I lost power for 10 days in 2007, made the freezer a tragedy. Still over all, it does help save money. You will recover, although you may have weather ptsd, for years, I still do. Praying for you guys.

I eat a lot of beans and rice. Dried beans are great if you use the quick soak method.

I simmer them just under a boil in a pot of water for about an hour and a half or so, or until they're soft. Keep it covered so the water doesn't evaporate.

While that's going, rinse and soak your rice until the beans are soft. Heat a pan, fry some onions and garlic, other veggies if you have 'em. Strain and add your beans, add some soy sauce or other flavorings if you have them. If not some salt and pepper.

Leave it on low while you cook your rice.

Empty the water you were soaking it in, add twice the water to rice. So if you're making a cup of rice add two cups of water. Boil until the water is just about gone, it should look all bubbly and hole should be starting to appear in the rice. Cover and take the rice off the heat for ten minutes or so.

From there you can add it to your stir fry and fry the rice for a bit or just put it on a plate and top with the beans and veggies.