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Nah, I'm more looking for a way to eat cheap for a month (maybe two) while still getting enough protein that I don't start wasting. Food is expensive, and dairy here is also expensive, but a months worth of cottage cheese is cheaper than a months worth of any meat. I'll see if I can move some things around in my budget to get a more wholesome diet, though.
Dried beans. Their cheap AF. Nutritious AF. I make up a pot of soup every couple of days. Soak you beans the night before. Boil next day.
Start a new pot off with butter. Sauteed up onion, carrot, and/or celery(all cheap AF, all optional). Add In meat if you like. Sear outsides but don't worry about cooking all the way through. Add chicken stock (or water) and boiled beans. Simmer covered 30 min-ish. Add in frozen spinach, cook another 5. Salt and season to taste.
Congrats! You just made a pot of bomb ass soup. For like 3$! You can eat for days off that pot. Delicious AND nutritious. Your gut likes variety, give it to it.
Try potatoes. They're ridiculously cheap (where I am) and loaded with nutrients.
That's actually where I draw the line, unfortunately. Potatoes are cheap here as well but everything about them makes me feel sick to my stomach. I might start baking bread though. If I were to make my own cottage cheese it should be cheaper than storebought and I could use the whey in place of water for added protein in the bread.
Lentils, rice, and beans together can form a very inexpensive but nutrient rich base for a lot of meals.
I have pretty much taken to making my own stuff to save money and bread is way easier than you think if you are ok with it not being super special but with some money saved they can get a little more fun. I just recently did little buns with mustard and onion powder that was way better than burger buns from the store for way cheaper.
Literally yeast water salt and flour is enough to make pizza dough. If you have a jar of active dry yeast it will last forever it feels and if you just put some in a new jar with some water and flour you can just keep it growing forever and literally not bother buying more. Then sauce and cheese and throw it on a pan you had preheating in the oven.
And milk that's starting to sour you should absolutely try to make into a quick cheese or something cause it's likely not bad just chemically changing. Just a little vinegar and you can make cheese or if you are baking use it instead of water and the sour flavor actually helps them taste better.
Chive pancakes can also be made cheap and be a nice thing to make a lot of freeze and use as a filling snack/side.
Ugh, I wish I was in the States. Aldi won't come to Canada due to "price fixing" and "manipulative" grocers. Who are, unsurprisingly, a large contributor to my inability to afford nutritious food.
Don't forget to check food pantries. Many nonprofit foodbanks don't gate based on income, particularly those operated by churches. It's often stuff that's close to expiration, or very cheap brands that you might not want to eat, but it's better than literally only eating cream cheese and will give you more variety of calories and nutrients to work with
I think there's a food bank in the town near to me. I'll have to inquire about if they serve the surrounding area, but I'm guessing not due to a large low-income population.
As for brands, the only brand of food that I've ever stuck with unequivocally is Philadelphia cream cheese. Not out of loyalty but because nothing can stack up to it. I'll eat own brand for everything besides cream cheese.
I will add in that adding some cheap meat and some cheap veggies of any kind to stretch a meal absolutely makes it way more filling and can let you get second and 3rd meals from it.
Also potatoes are insane. I tossed a few under a bush during the winter and just realized I see their sprouts coming out from underneath it in several spots. And a single potato I tried to purposefully grow is wildly outperforming the basil I'm trying to grow. A bowl and some straw could probably grow these things with a little water and fertilizer.
Some neighbors did an experiment one year where they got a 3lb bag of potatoes, cut them all in half then tossed half of them into a garbage bin full of dirt and ate the other half, placed said bin of dirt and potatoes at thw side of the house and periodically watered it. They ended up with more potatoes than they knew what to do with and declared "never again"
Edit: just realized I half described that story already. I'll just add they had moved to the area from Idaho not long before trying this
LOL just wanted to see if there was anything special about Idaho I guess. But nah it's how we bred the potatoes. As long as it's cool enough they will grow anywhere.
Unfortunately, "cheap meat' is an oxymoron in my country. "Cheap veggies" almost is as well, but it's getting a bit better on that front (shoutout to Odd Bunch; I wish you'd expand west). I'll see what I can do about incorporating tatties into my diet since multiple people have recommended them. I'm aware that they're cheap, but they generally make me feel sick to my stomach. Happen to have some good tips on how I might "hide" them in meals?
You can use them to make bread actually. And thicken a soup. Some of my favorite ways to hide them. And that should help disperse whatever is happening with them.
I think you might have a gastro issue with them. Potatoes are so high in basically everything that they can upset your stomach, and it not be a grease thing. Unless you are getting really grean skinned potatoes full of solanine you might actually be best using them sparingly.
You could look into yams. Sweeter but usually still cheap and pretty darn healthy. I would also say grow peas or green beans. They sprout in days and will harvest for month/s.
Unfortunately if you struggle with potatoes you might also struggle with eggplant that also tends to be cheap.
If you have zucchini I love to just cut them in half and scoop out some of the inside center and mix that with breadcrumbs and sauce and some cheese put it back in the zucchini boat and bake them. They store well and are pretty filling.
I get food insecurity. I once had to feed my whole family on the budget of just my paper route because of a drunk Mom. It's not fun. But if you let me know what is cheap around you maybe we can figure out something if you want.
Oh no, it's not a gastro thing. I can tell you that for certain. The taste and texture makes my stomach do somersaults. Normally you see that type of thing when you've eaten something and became sick recently after (my neuro prof back in the day had a funny anecdote about whiskey and his inability to drink it after a particularly rowdy night) so I'm wondering if that's what's happening. Or maybe I just really can't stand potatoes.
I've never heard of potato bread before! I'll give it a go. As for eggplant, I'm not the biggest on it and it's actually a bit expensive here. But zucchini? A m a z i n g. Got some growing right now. Unfortunately that doesn't help me for a wee while, so I might pick a couple up if I have the money. I like to eat em chopped up with a Greek dressing. Can also shred em and put em in baking (chocolate zucchini muffin :> ) but I can't quite afford anything so extravagant right now.
As for what's cheap - basically nothing, lately. I really should move to somewhere that doesn't have an oligarchical food industry, but that's a long term thing. Either way, I do appreciate the offer but I'm not sure I'm comfortable accepting. It's endlessly kind, but I feel I should try to work with what I have before I take from someone else.
Haha alright that's a new one but I get it. Scalloped potatoes are awesome though just layers of potatoes and onion and some milk and spices baked until tender. Can add anything to them and it's hard to be certain what the flavor is after it all melds together.
But I hope you try and enjoy the potato bread. I love it and do it for simple grilled cheese sandwiches cause is pretty filling.
I wish you all the best luck and hope you get the chance to make some zucchini bread soon and good crop yield!