Hello there! I was wondering if anyone has some low budget meal recipes that they want to share. I wanna save money but I also don’t want to get malnourished on my low budget!
Here’s how I ate for years.
Buy lots of dry grains. Brown rice. Quinoa. Wild rice. Barley.
Buy lots of cheap proteins. Canned beans. Whatever chicken is on sale. Tofu.
Always keep potatoes and onions on hand they last a while in the pantry.
Cook the dry grain, with diced onion. Pour beans on top. Hot sauce or whatever spices. Bake potatoes and any bonus protein you want to have.
Get tired of eating this with Sriracha? Use Frank. Or curry powder.
Dry beans are a lot cheaper than canned (less waste also). If you get a big pressure cooker, you can just soak a bunch of dried beans overnight and it only takes ~30min to cook up a massive pot of beans. Add more water and some stuff like carrots, onions and you’ll have same tasty bean soup. Split peas are great for thickening soup and making it really hearty.
Of course, it’s possible to cook beans/soup in a slow cooker or whatever but personally I love my pressure cooker and I’ve had less issues with burning stuff or uneven cooking as well. Great for steaming vegetables, potatoes (you can have mashed potatoes in ~15min). Can even use a pressure cooker to make rice and it’s very fast.
I cook dried beans a lot and have to say the canned beans are different. Dried beans often split during soaking and the shells are harder. I think for canning they cook the fresh beans directly. About the pressure cooker, I’ve done this too but found that at least for me the beans are more easily digestible when you cook them slowly and for a longer period of time.
Good and Cheap is a free book with healthy recipes that aim to be cheap. It’s almost 10 years old so it might not quite be under $4/day anymore, but for the most part the ingredients in it are still affordable.
Woah. That was WAAAY more vegetarian friendly than I thought. Thanks for that share.
Someone also recommended Budget Bytes, they also have some good vegetarian recipes too if you haven’t checked them out! I’m a sucker for the black bean quesadilla recipe.
Check out Budget Bytes! She prices out what each meal costs per serving. Some really great some here!
Fry up onions and other root vegetables, some bacon or other meats, garlic and any spices you like that benefit from frying. Limit oils and fats to as low levels as you can here, especially animal fats. This is the ‘dry and crunchy’ component, just don’t burn the ingredients, probably don’t add any salt here yet.
In a different pot, reduce some chicken or vegetable stock, add tinned beans, tinned tomatoes + tomato paste, chopped non-root or frozen vegetables, herbs and non-fry spices, maybe wine or a little roux. Bring to temperature for 10 mins. This is the ‘wet’ component, just don’t over-stew the bits you still want texture in. Over-stewing can also lower the vitamin content. And definitely don’t add any salt, at least wait until after reducing the stock.
In a separate tiny container, mix fat, sugar, acid, salt and fresh herbs as a “dressing” to get a desired balance of flavours and compensate for the blandness of the two components. This is the “flavour balancing and boosting” component, the quantities vary based on your ingredients. I’m usually a lemon juice, salt and extra virgin olive oil plus anything growing in my herb pots sort of person, it’s a healthier easy combination, but the dressing is where all the “this could be very unhealthy but it is very tasty/addictive” ingredients go. Use the good butters, cheeses, yoghurts and oils for this bit too, because they will be prominent.
So long as you don’t use really fatty meats or too much oil in frying, the dressing is the only part of the meal you need to worry about using too much of, for your health.
This is my staple formula for most things that covers most nutritional balance requirements, cultures and ingredient combinations, and uses 1 pan, 1 pot and 1 small bowl only.
You can skip any ingredients except the ones in the final dressing, and it will be tasty. You can combine it all and eat as a soup or as separate dry and wet components, also tasty. Maybe roast the vegetables and meats instead of frying or stewing them, it doesn’t matter. So long as you get the dressing flavours right for what you like, cook the ingredients properly, and don’t go ridiculous with the herb and spice combinations, it will be tasty. If you have no idea what herb/spice combination to use, just consult with your favourite cuisine for their regular combinations.
Changing the dressing also drastically alters the final flavour, which helps keep it varied and interesting if you cook in bulk like me. Two different dressings can take the same base ingredients from a Greek meal to a Chinese meal.
As long as you include at least 2 different vegetables (minimum 1 green and 1 other-colour), 1 legume (plus any additional required amino sources to make that a complete protein), and be careful with how much dressing you use at the end, the meal will probably be very nutritious and filling. I typically just use whatever is on special or in season at the shops.
Also, if I use a bunch of root vegetables I don’t include a grain, but if I do include a grain I try for whole grains like brown rice, multigrain/wholemeal breads and pastas.
Eggs, and liver: nature’s multivitamin!
Try to always get some whenever you can fit it in your budget
