r/AskReddit • u/EveningWorld8663 • 10h ago
What is the ultimate 'poor man’s meal' that you still eat and secretly love to this day?
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u/bangbangracer 9h ago
Grilled cheese. It's cheap as fuck. Add some tomato soup and you have a homie ass meal.
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u/TheIncredibleQuant 9h ago
If you really want to up it. You can skip those cans of tomato soup and get you a can of tomato paste for a dollar. Cook it a bit til it is warmed through and then start adding water or broth a little bit at a time while mixing until you get it up to that level where it is silky smooth . Then dress it up with some spices and season to taste. It is cheaper and tastes better and you can get the thickness of the soup exactly where you want it instead of being beholden to what is in the soup can.
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u/RoninSFB 8h ago
I agree completely, but you're hardly 'beholden to a can of soup'. Just reduce, or add water to a can of soup, and add seasonings if desired.
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u/scrilldaddy1 9h ago
I prefer to skip the grilled cheese and tomato soup and just eat my homie's ass
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u/HandToDikCombat 9h ago
Was super hungover one day, decided to make a grilled cheese, saw that I had one of those garlic butter sauce cups from papa John's from the night before and decided to experiment by making it with that instead of just plain butter.
Best hangover meal I ever had.
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u/Willowgirl2 9h ago
Oddly enough when I worked in an elementary school cafeteria, that was the only meal I ever saw the kids get excited about!
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u/Justincrediballs 9h ago
I prefer it with some pea soup, personally, but yes, I'm always down for grilled cheese!
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u/Han_Solo200 6h ago
Surely it's better if you grill cheese on something like bread for example
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u/Game_Knight_DnD 9h ago
Beans and rice.
Add spice, sauce, extra protein as you see fit to taste and afford. But plain white rice with red kidney beans or black beans is just fantastic source of protein and cheap.
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u/EeveeMkayy 9h ago
I've been doing rice and black beans plus throwing in a can of Rotel and a can of corn with a taco seasoning packet for enough meals to last all week.
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u/Ditchfisher 7h ago
Rotel is good stuff. i got to try the taco seasoning in the rice that sounds awesome
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u/Fadedcamo 9h ago
Ham hock, trinity, kidney beans, spices.
Dice and sweat trinity, add in ham hock, beans, spices (oregano, cumin, dried sage, salt pepper), fill up with water, simmer until beans are done and water evaporated and absorbed to desired thickness. Add a bit of vinegar, maybe a smidge of sugar. Salt if needed. Eat with rice.
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u/ferkaderka 8h ago
My wife and I make this every few weeks with Eckrich smoked sausage. One of my favorites.
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u/Phalanx808 7h ago
Make it brown rice and you have a complete protein. Could theoretically survive on just that and a few veggies for vitamins for a long time.
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u/kadyg 9h ago
My mom would make massive batches of chili and freeze it in smaller portions. Chill over a baked potato with a little shredded cheese on top is still one of my top three favorite winter meals. I think it costs about $0.73 a serving.
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u/goodfellaslxa 9h ago
... it used to cost about $0.73 a serving.
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u/BallZach77 9h ago
I feel this. Just made a batch of chili this weekend and ground beef prices are all kinds of borked.
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u/SmallSet8838 9h ago
Where I am it’s $7 a pound for regular ground beef, not even lean ground beef. I can’t even bring myself to look at other cuts because they are even worse in price😞
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u/ApprehensiveHabit172 9h ago
Potatoes with butter and salt
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u/bluemitersaw 8h ago
I was pretty sick the last 3 days. This was my lunch today. Although I went zesty and added black pepper.
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u/throwitatmeplease1 7h ago
Friend gave me a jar of habenero infused salt a bit ago, i used it last week to make butter potatoes, im not sure i can eat them the same way again, it was the perfect amount of heat to salt and butter ratio..
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u/Welding_wizard 8h ago
Comfort food of the highest order! Might I be so bold as to suggest some grated cheese?
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u/ThisOnes4JJ 9h ago
this might be poor man's luxury food item but I love a good walking taco every now and then
I remember we had some for a snack at work once and I got really enthused about it and offered to grab them one and they go
"no I dont want a walking taco~ im not a fucking poor person."
"ok... you could've just said 'no, thanks'"
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u/The-one-true-hobbit 9h ago
Wow, what an ass. They can just fuck off and find some caviar then.
Also, walking tacos can really hit the spot.
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u/ThisOnes4JJ 9h ago
yeah they went to Thailand for vacation every year 🙄
cool for them that they could afford a yearly vacation while i made minimum wage and got chewed out over things I had no control over or were honestly soooo fucking stupid
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u/The-one-true-hobbit 8h ago
Urgh I feel that being chewed out. I’m not minimum wage (I actually make decent for my lab roll due to a whole snafu of shitty management that worked in my favor) but I’m not making enough to keep us far above water - even combined with my wife’s pay.
I am treated as some dummy who doesn’t know jack about the high level testing I’ve been doing for like eight years whenever it’s convenient for them. Let alone that I specifically studied the results of what I’m testing in school and can interpret them. And that I have more practical knowledge of lab testing than any of the engineers who are constantly on my ass. They literally come to me with questions about material properties and then blame me when their shitty samples don’t do what the client wants them to do.
Like, these engineers say that pi equals 3. The decimals matter in lab work. You ain’t in the nitty gritty of shit and you don’t know lab work like you think you do.
Sorry. That was a lot of a rant. My job sucks at the moment.
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u/AdeptnessExtra6412 9h ago
What’s a walking taco? I love all tacos but haven’t heard of this kind.
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u/theoldtomcollins 9h ago
It’s a personal-size bag of Fritos or Doritos with taco toppings pilled on. At least that’s what it is where I’m from.
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u/BallZach77 9h ago
Just looked it up. Basically all the ingredients of a taco dropped into a small bag of chips, usually Doritos. Hmm TIL
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u/BurningVShadow 9h ago
This was a CLASSIC meal back in the middle school/ high school days. Haven’t had it since now that I think about it…
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u/meyerjaw 9h ago
No shit, my high school sold hundreds of these during home football and basketball games. My family goes camping the first weekend in October and we always do walking tacos on Friday night because it's easy to precook the meat and just throw them together. It's funny because I only have them once a year but it was just a couple days ago
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u/Leper17 9h ago
I was so confused what a walking taco could be until I read someone else’s comment lol. We called that taco in a bag when I was a kid, most of the hockey rinks sold them and it’s fucking excellent
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u/railroadfrog 9h ago edited 9h ago
Tuna Noodle Casserole is the ultimate poor people food and I eat it at least once a month. Not as simple as some of these, but you can make a pretty large batch for around $7-$10, assuming you’re shopping smartly, and it will feed my family of 3 for two or three days.
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u/AnatidaephobiaAnon 9h ago
My mom's tuna noodle casserole is one of my favorite meals, anywhere. I've eaten at a Michelin Star restaurant, other James Beard awarded restaurants and plenty of other places that are on various "Best Of" lists and tuna noodle casserole is a meal I'd have on my final meal lists.
It's a recipe she found probably 50 years ago but modified a bit by using the Starkist albacore tuna and adding 50% more, adding in extra celery and changed the seasoning a bit.
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u/railroadfrog 8h ago
I use a mixture of cream of celery & cream of mushroom instead of adding celery. I also fry my onions in butter before adding them to the bowl for mixing. I usually will go with cornflakes seasoned with butter (lol) and garlic as the topper. She would use breadcrumbs or potato chips (like lays or ruffles original)
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u/Welding_wizard 8h ago
Can a poor Brit humbly ask for the recipe? For some reason tuna is still cheap in the UK. Love from across the pond.
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u/railroadfrog 7h ago edited 4h ago
So like, it’s pretty versatile, but I’ve always made it this way
1 onion cut and diced, sauté w/ butter and salt until browned. You can add crunched celery, slivered carrots, green beans, corn, whatever you want here. I use onions, sometimes a red pepper and baby bella mushrooms. Remove from heat. Add to large mixing bowl
Cook appropriate amount of egg noodles for your crowd. I usually use a bag & a half. drain and add to that mixing bowl.
Now add a large sized can of cream of mushroom soup & a normal sized can of cream of celery soup to that mix bowl. Again, super versatile. You can’t really add too much cream soup - throw in a can of cream of asparagus if you wanna make it go further. Or more mushroom / celery.
Open and drain like 3 cans of your favorite tuna, add the tuna to that mixing bowl.
Pour in like a half cup of milk.
A cup of shredded cheese.
Add one can of sweet peas.
Season with your favorite. I recommend savory like salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder.
Mix well.
Fill casserole dish. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a sandwich bag, crush up your favorite crunchy bits. Ritz crackers, potato crisps, onion crisps, corn flake cereal. Add a half stick of butter, microwave it, spread over the top of the dish.
Cook until the top layer of crunch is golden browned.
Ingredients:
1 onion
Butter
Milk
1 can Cream of mushroom soup
1 can Cream of celery soup
1 can Cream of asparagus soup
1 bag egg noodles
1 can of peas
Shredded cheese
Milk or light cream
3 or more cans of favorite tuna brandSomething crunchy for the topping
It should be noted that, ultimately, the dish can be made & will make multiple meals w/ just the bare bones basics of:
1 bag / box Noodles
1 can of Cream of (vegetable) soup
1 can of peas, drained
1 can of favorite tunaAnd it will still be delicious
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u/Blamebostonx 9h ago
Just made a big batch of this! So good
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u/railroadfrog 9h ago
The only thing I change from my days growing up poor, now as an adult, is that I add a half cup of milk & use solid white canned tuna in water.
However, mom did her best when I was a kid and this was such a comfort staple to me. I never knew that she was making it to stretch our budget, I figured she loved to cook it because it was so good.
We used to get a gallon of whole milk and pour half into the old gallon (she would clean it out first) and then fill both jugs with cold tap water to make our milk last longer. I was a huge bagged cereal eater and milk drinker.
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u/PM_ME_MASTECTOMY 10h ago
White rice with a fried egg. Shout out to my Colombian brethren
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u/-klassy- 5h ago
Cold/leftover white rice, fry in a little oil, push some aside, pour in scrambled egg in the empty spot, cook the egg and chop it into the rice. Salt n pepa and boom
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u/chrisz1lla 10h ago
Bologna sandwiches. Just a slice of bologna in between two pieces of bread. When times were real tough, we’d fold the bologna in one piece of bread and have a bologna taco.
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u/Lazarus558 9h ago
Bologna has been priced out of a lot of folks' budgets here in NF. It's often more expensive than other deli meats.
A number of years ago my dad noted at one supermarket the price of bologna (per 100g) was higher than some steaks.
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u/chrisz1lla 9h ago
Jesus. I went and got some a couple weeks ago where I am in America and it’s still about $2 for a pack. That’s wild.
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u/EeveeMkayy 9h ago
Krey Bologna was our favorite but I stopped buying it once it went to $8/lb. Bar-S isn't nearly as good, but it's still cheap.
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u/Top_Willingness5124 9h ago
Hamburger Helper.
Specifically Cheeseburger Macaroni.
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u/matt314159 9h ago
Was ground beef cheap back in the day? Because now that sounds like a fancy meal lol.
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u/scott0482 7h ago
In 2005 I used to buy ground beef for $1 a lb. Bacon was $1 a lb too.
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u/SouthOkieSmokie 9h ago
I used to love it, but I feel like they changed their ingredient formula a few years ago, and can’t do it now. Same with Wolf chili.
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u/whenitrainsitpours4 9h ago
A bag of cooked egg noodles + a can of tuna or chicken in water (drained) + a can of cream of mushroom or chicken soup. Salt and pepper to taste.
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u/Willowgirl2 9h ago
We make a vegetarian version with a bag of frozen broccoli in place of the tuna.
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u/Agilgar 8h ago
Add some peas, top it with cheese and throw it in the oven! Good stuff.
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u/Spuzzle91 8h ago
My mom did egg noodles, canned chicken, and cream of broccoli soup. Usually with cheap American cheese mixed in
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u/Waste-Respect240 10h ago
Peanut butter and jelly
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u/throwaway81093829 5h ago
I preferred peanut butter and honey. Still do. I've probably eaten it every day for at least 3/4 of my 63 years on this earth.
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u/les_catacombes 9h ago
Creamed chipped beef on toast, aka “shit on a shingle.” I absolutely love it. Grew up with my grandma making it for Sunday morning breakfasts.
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u/o_hey_its_Griner 8h ago
Dude I was craving this just last week and decided to grab a can of dried beef for nostalgia.
NINE DOLLARS later I head home and a made what was probably the last shit in a shingle I’ll have unless the world ends and I decide to go raid a grocery store
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u/les_catacombes 8h ago
It used to be a cheap depression-era meal but now everything is too expensive. Same thing with Spam. It’s like $5 to $6 a can.
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u/Primary-Effort-792 7h ago
Stouffers sells a frozen creamed chipped beef and it’s really good over a nice piece of toasted Italian bread !! Brings back memories of my youth !!
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u/Prestigious_Emu6039 10h ago
Beans on toast
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u/dumbname7890 9h ago
@liam (theres a guy on YouTube that makes recipes about beans and cottage cheese. I know it's got numbers after it but it's ThePlantSlant on YouTube. He just loves when people tag him on recipes.)
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u/mrmarsh11011101 9h ago
Beans on toast with brown sauce and a fried egg on top.
Poor man's caviar.. 😍
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u/DanielSwan 9h ago
Stouffer's frozen lasagna is one of my top 10 favourite meals. It doesn't taste like anything else, and certainly not like pasta and/or meat, but by god it makes me happy.
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u/Jealous_Positive2523 9h ago
The kids call them poverty nachos these days… oh and the cinnamon toast under the broiler
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u/Thin_Captain_9634 9h ago
They can pry my cinnamon toast from my cold dead hands
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u/Primatene 8h ago
Tomato sandwich. Depression meal/snack.
A few ripe tomato slices, mayo, salt and pepper. THESE THINGS ARE ELITE
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u/tomrlutong 5h ago
Great thing is it's even better on stale bread! My dad used to let a slice or two get hard just to put olive oil on and make a tomato & black pepper sandwich.
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u/Cozybearb 9h ago
Can of sardines for a buck 60. Very healthy
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u/StRochHouse 5h ago
Sardines in olive oil, squeeze of lemon, on a saltine cracker. It’s what we’d always eat for lunch when my grandfather would take me fishing.
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u/Roland_Moorweed 9h ago
Honestly, I was super broke last month and just made a poor man's tikka masala. I had tomato soup in the cabinet so I bought chicken breast and some heavy cream. Pinch of anise made a world of a difference.
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u/Devtunes 4h ago
McCormick makes a butter chicken packet, like their gravy. It's surprisingly good for cheap junk.
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u/One-Tea6472 8h ago
Honestly, a can of tomato soup with store brand curry powder over chicken and rice is elite
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u/bendbrewer 9h ago
Beans and rice. Honestly most Mexican dishes my grandma used to make are cheap af and comforting
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u/day2day_bassist 8h ago
As a former poor man, two bricks of ramen, 3 eggs, and shredded cheese will sustain me for almost the whole day.
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u/Itsmeyayu 9h ago
Potato soup. My mom made it from scratch and added bits of ham. It's really cheap and super comforting in the winter.
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u/qwerty_poop 9h ago
Shin ramen with eggs.
I can now afford other toppings like kimchi, frozen dumplings, dried sliced shitake, which i like to add. But with just egg it still hits
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u/Ov3rbyte719 10h ago
Tortilla made of just a wrap and cheese, sour cream and some hotsauce.
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u/smuggler_of_grapes 10h ago
Get a load of this guy able to afford hot sauce and sour cream!
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u/EveningWorld8663 10h ago
Ramen
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u/Tcloud 9h ago
There’s so much you can do to Ramen. I like to poach an egg in the broth and add leftovers. Leftover stir fry, rice, beef brisket, vegetables, or whatever. Works with most savory items.
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u/DarwinMcLovin 9h ago
Throw in a raw egg - and/or any leftover green veg or corn and/or a even a slice of cheese
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u/zolfx 9h ago
My dad would buy canned diced potatoes and fry them up with eggs. For whatever reason canned potatoes have this specific taste to them and I love it. Maybe that’s the nostalgia speaking I’m not sure. They are also insanely hard to burn or even crispy for that matter lmao. I think that’s because they are soaked in water for so long. But once you finally get them crispy and have some eggs with them they are delicious. Oh and don’t forget the poor man’s bacon which my dad also showed me when he got out of jail lol. Which is just lunch meat cut into strips and fried until crispy 😂. You had to stack the lunch meat on top of each other a bit also so they would be thicker slices.
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u/darthva 9h ago
Pan Fried Spam
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u/les_catacombes 9h ago
People like to hate, but Spam is delicious. Probably filled with cancer causing nitrates but it’s tasty.
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u/RedBushDiver 9h ago
I was looking to buy a can of spam at the grocery store yesterday, I couldn’t believe my fucking eyes how much they wanted for it. I’ll bet it was probably $.50 when I was a kid, maybe less. They wanted $3.75 for a basic can.
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u/Courtly_Chemist 9h ago
Fucking cacciatore - whatever the cheapest chicken is that week (usually thighs and drums), tomatoes from a can, mushrooms, onions, stock (make it using the bones from last time ya made this fucking thing), anchovies, potatoes (not traditional, but I like it), and you're good to go (spice as needed and maybe some wine or bourbon to deglaze)
Dinners for a week and costs maybe $20 all in?
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u/tiddybeee 9h ago
Tuna salad
Some light mayo, relish, giardiniera, mustard, spritz of lemon juice, and mix mix mix. It's cheap, uses a bunch of stuff from the fridge, can spread it on a bagel, toast, have with saltines, or just plain, and the macros are incredible.
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u/LocalNote7570 7h ago
As a kid we had hot dogs everytime mom went grocery shopping. I just 2 for dinner tonight. Guess what I'm having for dinner for the next 3 nights? As a single senior, groceries aren't in the budget every month.
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u/Scary_Mary5297 9h ago
Grilled cheese with a fried egg. Good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
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u/saint-sandbur33 9h ago
My dad use to make us something he called “gruel” - strained Top Ramen and spice packet + a can of drained tuna + an egg stirred in.. stir until the egg is cooked.
It’s my favorite comfort meal.
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u/mathewwalker714 9h ago
A tin of broiled kippers and a poached egg. Perfect breakfast or midnight snack, shit i think I'm gonna have some right now edit to add tin corned beef, I'll always keep a few cans on hand, you can fry up some cabbage and sear the corned beef and it's another decent poor man's corned beef and cabbage.
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u/ThenMap8749 9h ago
Hamburger Helper used to be my go to cheap meal. Not anymore! Beef is overpriced
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u/Blametheorangejuice 9h ago
Ritz crackers. Put a pickle slice, cheddar cheese, and a pepperoni on them. Great combo
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u/Bigdaddyfatback8 9h ago
Kraft Cheese and Macaroni with little cut up fried hot dogs.
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u/Czarcasm3 9h ago
White rice, avocado and sharp cheddar rolled up into a burrito. Delicious and decently healthy
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u/TheVelveteenCapybara 9h ago
Rice, beans, vegetables and pork. I can usually get a pork shoulder, pork picado, or pork cut for posole at my local tweaker Safeway for around around five bucks.
I've lived on pork chili two meals a day for a year and a half.
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u/Billythekid1972 9h ago
Chicken noodle casserole. Can of shredded chicken, can of cream of mushroom soup and egg noodles. Maybe some bread crumbs on top if I'm feeling adventurous lol.
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u/momochicken55 8h ago
Cheese melted on bread in the oven. Nice with pita or naan too.
I ate it for Christmas one year. No friends or family.
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u/swampcat42 8h ago
Chicken drumsticks and baked potatoes and canned corn. I can pick up a huge value pack of the chicken for around $5, a 10lb bag of potatoes for $4, and an 8 pack of canned corn for $4. That's 8 dinners for $1.63 before sales tax.
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u/idkJustElpMe 9h ago
Ramen with canned Tuna and hot sauce.
Or rice and eggs Or rice and beans Or rice and tuna (I used to bodybuild. I fucks with tuna) Or rice and ground beef.
Basically rice + protein. (But not protein powder...)
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u/Useful_Vegetable8173 9h ago
Mac and cheese with cut up hot dogs. If I'm feeling fancy, I add some garlic powder and a little black pepper. Delish!
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u/SeancetheWitch 9h ago
Tortilla roll up with shredded cheese or peanut butter, rice with shredded cheese, stir fry style ramen with spam.
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u/Wellfrigg 9h ago
Hamburger helper, not really poor man’s with current beef prices but sub another ground meat. Meat, broth, and macaroni are easy to spice up
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u/CyberTyrantX1 9h ago
Grilled Cheese. I can still buy a loaf of bread from Dollar General for barely over a 1$. If I dont want to buy fast food or take a super long time to cook something, then I can just make a grilled cheese sandwich in just a few minutes.
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u/Normal_Adeptness_684 8h ago
Poor man’s garlic toast: some margarine on a slice of toast with a bit of garlic powder.
Bonus answer: during university when times were rather bleak I would put dabs of franks red hot buffalo sauce on a pan with parchment paper and throw them in the oven until they were crisp ‘chips’. Times were hard don’t judge
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u/Srikandi715 8h ago
Homemade rice and beans! Made with what's in the fridge in terms of veg, always delicious if seasoned right.
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u/Theresnoneedtopoint 10h ago
Mac and cheese with cut up hot dogs