So I thought we could complie a list of super cheap foods we all make. Times be tough but maybe we could all post some things that requires few ingredients. I'll put some in the comments to get started.
hummus is kind of expensive if you buy it pre-made
so pick up a thrift store blender and soak some chickpeas baybee
stuff-is-about-to-go-out-of-date vegan chilli:
- tomatoes
- beans
- carrots
- mushrooms
- onions
- chilli powder
- other spices you happen to have
Depends on the store. Produce is usually easy cause you just gotta remove a sticker. My closest one is bring your own bag, no door scanners and a nice organic section alcove right by the front door. Figure out the store and get creative. You can open boxes of frozen stuff and take off with the bag inside. Start small and get confidence, play metal gear VR missions (I always picture my soliton radar when "shopping") as in learn to figure lines of sight and where someone may be on another aisle when you walk by and how to do so while looking normal.
That's doesn't sound like a problem. That sounds like a gameshow.
I make a big pot of beans and rice each week for a mutual aid food share we do here locally, have it down to a science where I can start 2-3 pots of coffee to fill a carafe and cook this in about an hour. If you do twice the recipe it can last about a week for lunch and dinner if you're just eating it on its own.
I love this dish because it's very much just buy fresh produce each time you make it, and everything else is stuff you can keep on hand for a while.
"Food share" beans and rice
- 1 cup rice (brown is ideal for extra protein)
- 1 cup dried black beans, soaked with bay leaf (or 1 small can of black beans if you don't want to deal with dried beans)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 medium sized yellow onion
- 2 green bell peppers
- 1 packet "sazon goya" (look up how to make it yourself, goya is run by a trump loving fascist)
- 1 tbsp white wine (cooking wine) or white wine vinegar
- 1/2 tbsp oregano
- 3/4 cup water
over medium-high heat, cook onions, garlic, peppers until tender
mix in black beans with soaking water, white wine, oregano, sazon goya seasonsing, water, stir and bring back to a boil for a couple minutes
mix in rice, eat right away or let rest for a bit for rice to soak in extra water
Hey I make pretty much the exact same recipe, except I add a stick of celery to the onions, garlic and bell pepper mixture. It's really good!
Also the sazon seasoning mix is just a mixture of ground coriander, cumin, salt, black pepper, oregano, garlic and anatto seeds (achiote). Very easy to make yourself if you can get all the ingredients.
Don't forget the MSG ;)
I got this recipe off of a Goya can initially, that's where the sazon mixture came from :)
Will have to try adding in some celery as well!
Yeah MSG just makes everything better lol. Can't forget that!
The celery/onion/bell pepper mixture is just soo good in a ton of food. Adding garlic just puts it all together. I honestly prefer it to the carrot/onion/celery mix used in a lot of dishes.
Pasta:
Boil pasta
Slightly more involved pasta:
While pasta is cooking, fry some tomatoes with oil under a closed lid, when they get mushy - add chopped garlic, onion, pepper (whichever one you like). add cooked pasta after couple of minutes, and mix for a minute with a strong heat, to remove water. Have to play with heat settings not to destroy veggies a little bit
Pasta, butter, salt, pepper. Garlic powder or lemon pepper if I'm feeling fancy. Fucking delicious shit
Highly recommend adding any mexican blend cheese you may have lying around.
Cheese + Siracha :chefs-kiss:
Grab some tomatoes, cut them in half, put them face up in a baking sheet, sprinkle some salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil and forget about them in the oven for about an hour, an hour and a half. Fantastic low calorie snack, flavor bomb when added to salads or sandwiches. Or just eat them cold as a side dish. Just unbelievably good.
Same goes for onions, but don't even slice or peel them. Just put that shit in the oven and leave it there for like 45min-1h, and it becomes something way tastier than it has any right to be.
I bought a overstocked resteraunt bag of onions like, eighty pounds for five dollars oe something. That video put in fucking work
As someone who loves tomatoes, the best tomatoes you can get are homegrown "heirloom" tomatoes. Modern commercial tomatoes have been genetically bred to ripen faster but taste worse. "the mutation that promoted uniform ripening had also knocked out a gene needed for the full development of sugars in the fruit." Many heirloom tomato breeds don't have that mutation, so they taste better.
It's just about the perfect time to plant tomatoes. I plant 4-5 different breeds of tomato plants every year. Then mid summer, I have delicious tomatoes. You can buy the tomato plants from your local plant nursery.
If we are doing struggle chow. I been making something like roman soldier's rations. I started making it back when I was getting foodstamps and I make it till today because I can't get the emotional energy going to cook anything else.
1lb chickpeas. Barly would be authentic but not necessary. 2 onions 1 cabbage 1 bag carrots
Some bits of tofu or stew meat as preferred. Whatver scraps are laying about. Old vegetable bits, left overs, whatever you got.
Throw it in a crockpot before bed. Serve with toast and some leafs in the morning.
A crackpot full lasts me about a week or so. A ton of protein and vitamins. Hardly any work and costs under 20 depending on whats to hand at thr market.
For extra struggle power. Take the stew mix in some kinda sauce and serve over rice. Still plenty of nutrients, but extra cheap calories. A crocpot full would last two weeks like that.
It is pretty much the platonic form of pesant food. So, depending on locality there would be different inclusions but outside of staple grains something like this is what our ancestors ate most the time.
This is actuly a lazy version of a recipe I got from an anarchist podcast.
Lentil soup
- lentils
- water
- salt
- oregano
- garlic (optional)
Clean then boil lentils. Once soft add salt, oregano and garlic. Boom lentil soup.
Aglio olio
- pasta
- olive oil
- garlic
- chilli flakes
- parsely
- water
- salt
Boil the water with salt. Add pasta, once cooked drain but safe like a cup of noodle water. In pan heat olive oil, add chopped garlic, chili flakes and parsley. Add noodle water to oil. Reduce for a bit. Mix the pasta with oil and done.
Tortillas
- 4 cups flour
- 2 tbs oil
- pinch baking powder
- tsp salt
- warm water
So mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the oil as slowly pour warm water bit by bit as you mix and knead with your hand. Keep adding and mixing slowly and methodically. Don't go over board with water since you want a dough not batter.
When making a ball use it to scrape the sides to incorporate the flour and dough together. Add water as needed but I repeat don't just dump it in. If too watery add some more flour.
Make balls of dough and let rest for like an hour. Then roll into tortillas, be sure to flour board and flip tortilla slowly. Heat on a pan on med to high heat flip and done.
-pasta
-olive oil
-canned chicken
-Parmesan
-
Boil water; cook pasta
-
Drain
-
Add canned chicken, olive oil, and parmesan
-
Stir
Sustenance :big-cool:
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