Or, how am I going to feed us?
I'm in a senior in high school and my dad, who is the cook, is moving to another state for a job opportunity this year. The four of us remaining are very active/tall and eat an enormous amount of food (9000-10000 cal/day), and I want to figure out the easiest way to keep up this level of nutrition with about $200 a week. So $50 each or like $2 per meal. Any favorites, suggestions, or other thoughts?
Thanks everyone :3
Buy beans in bulk. My girlfriend makes pinto beans in the slow cooker and cornbread in an iron skillet that goes into the oven to bake. Delicious and lasts us for 2-3 meals. She puts ketchup in her beans, but that's because she's the devil.
I have been making this really great bean salad this summer. Two cans of beans, a can of corn (fresh corn might actually be cheaper right now!) chopped red onion, chopped tomato, some vinegar and oil, salt and pepper, any spices you might like. Some cheese and sour cream if you want. Some avocado. You can serve it as is, on rice, on salad, on a bagel with cream cheese, with chips. Use any combination of these ingredients, and anything else you can think of. Oh man it's great! also: once a month or so I put together a big batch of museli. It's like granola without adding sugar or baking it. Raw oats, whatever dried fruit and nuts you want (sunflower seeds and raisins are pretty affordable). I have it with milk every morning with a hardboiled egg or two. I also enjoy BLTs and sausage sandwiches quite a bit. Canned sardines are also amazing. They are very cheap and you can throw em on a salad. Some foods, like the avocado, nuts or meat seem expensive when you're at the store but you seriously need protein and calories and fat and they are completely worth it. There is basically no point in even eating if you are not getting protein and calories and fat. The secret is to get as many versatile items as you can. Try not to get a lot of items that can only be used for one specific kind of meal. Then you can mix and match all week!
Museli is amazing. Avocados too. And canned sardines. I want to hang out with you. BLTs are good, but not cheap. Good bacon is expensive. I don't like processed meats with added nitrites. I know that might sound snooty, but if I'm buying processed meat I'm getting the good stuff.
Oooh yeah this is a good point. The question specifically is asking for cheap meals, and good bacon and sausage does not come cheap. I guess this is where an individual's specific needs and desires come into play. I totally agree that it's important to get meat of high quality. I mean, it's someone's body you are eating here. I only really very recently added bacon to my shopping list because I have decided that for what I am getting I am willing to pay a few more dollars. I am rather thin and find that when I am not eating richer food I need to eat more often. But not everyone is the same, plus I am only feeding myself which changes things considerably.
Yo. Linguine Alla Vongole. You can google the fancy version but I always keep on hand the ingredients for the cheap 15 minute version. When water is boiling, it is ready add linguine. Then in a separate pan (I use a wok) put in 2-4 cans of baby clams, 2-4 cans of some type of canned spiced diced tomatoes (I like garlic and olive oil) and then I add some chopped garlic. All of those things are low on fat/sodium/all the bad stuff and costs less than ten bucks for a meal in total in my area. Add some garlic bread if you would like (I usually do) which will increase the cost a couple of bucks. Putting cheese on it another couple Then put the pasta in bowls and top with the sauce. Put bibs on and spin it around a fork before putting in mouth to ingest. I put Parmesan cheese on and sometimes olive oil if it I find it a bit dry. (They can both be bought in bulk for not a lot.) I just came across this # and that is just the one I could think of quickly buddy but I cook dinner everyday and lots are cheap, easy and healthy so please don't hesitate to ask me if you want more as I have tons. They are not all pasta... although every runner likes pasta right? edit: As well a good shopping tip is to go to the "ethnic" area of your city that has the food you love and go into a safe but shitty grocery store and you will find good cheap ingredients. Bulk buying is good too if you have the space. RIP ducky.
The inaugural #grubski challenge asked us all to make a family sized meal for under $20. There will be a lot of good suggestions here for you with recipes and photos. Good luck and sorry to hear your father is away for a while, that must be rough. Bon appetit:
Make an omelette with avocados and onions, then add a slice of tomato with salt and pepper. If you like greens a big ole side of collards is good too. Sometimes i squirt lime juice on the omelette.
My favorite quick and super cheap recipe: - Balsamic Vinegar
- Tuna
- Bread
- Cheese Similar to a tuna melt. Instead of mayo, replace it with Balsamic for a slightly healthier alternative. Pan cook it to melt the cheese down and get the balsamic to absorb into the tuna.
As an italian I say pasta, is very easy and fast to do it. My favorites and also the easiest to do are: carbonara; amatriciana; ragu alla bolognese; aglio e olio; pomodoro. Also rice (risotto) is very cheap but is longer to do, I like risotto with saffron, risotto with mushrooms (porcini), risotto with pumpkin. There are a lot of recipes
I assume at that calorie level you're eating mostly carbs, no? In that case, I'd suggest perhaps making tomato sauce in bulk. That way you can freeze portions, and thaw as necessary when you make pasta and/or vegetables. Look up Mario batali's basic tomato sauce recipe. It's simple, delicious, very inexpensive, and can be scaled to however big your pot is.
Blackened Chicken is a staple of mine. Very easy to make, and they reheat well to.
Easy can also be slow. One meal I love to make is chicken with baked potatoes, which is great if you're looking for proteins and calories :) The potatoes take a bit longer (45-60 minutes) than the chicken (30 min). So you put the potatoes in the oven first, wait about 15 min. put the chicken, wait 30 min, and then you're done! No need to peel the potatoes - to complicated - and you can cut them in half and put some butter in them. If you put some oil and salt on the potatoes they get crispy like this: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-bake-a-potato-in-the-oven-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-165615 Oh I'm hungry now.
Cheap and Easy Chili: - 1 Red Onion - 1 kg red kidney beans - 4 large tomatoes, diced (canned or fresh) - meat, if you like (I actually like the veggie version, personally). Chop up the onion, put it in a pot with olive (or other) oil on medium heat. If doing meat, start cooking meat. When the onion turns glassy, add tomatoes and beans, turn heat to low-medium. Add meat when ready. When beans begin to go soft, add spices (I usually use chili powder, cayenne, and salt). Wait another 10 minutes, serve with sour cream and guacamole, if available.
You really can't go wrong with rice and beans. Like others have said, buy them in bulk; just make sure you have the storage vessels/space necessary. Frozen chicken breast is also cheap, easy to find, and easy to cook. It can get boring after a while, so you should try and learn a handful of recipes using those three ingredients as a base. Budgetbytes can be helpful with that.
American paella. Boil some saffron rice and throw a bunch of stuff in it. A big bag is probably $1.50. The bags I buy for myself are like 75 cents. Vegetables, meat, tofu (if you know how to cook it, I don't), I'm not sure you can put the wrong thing in it unless you only have Pixie Sticks and Hershey's syrup.
Some tortillas, rice, and black beans makes for a great meal!
Jumping in on this, get some cheap yellow rice and some refried beans and some cheap chicken thighs. You can make little chickey burritos.
Chicken fried rice. Get rice in bulk (I recommend brown rice, but whatever fits the budget), get chicken in bulk, get veggies and eggs. Throw that chicken in the oven ASAP (I do 425F for 30 minutes, whatever works for you). Cook the eggs so the yolk juuuust stops being runny, remove from heat. While those cool, cook up the rice (about 1 cup per serving, but this recipe is meant to be tinkered with), set aside, it's just gonna hang out. Slice up them eggs, slice up them veggies (onion, carrots, corn, peas - anything you have available), and slice up the chicken once it's out of the oven and cooled. Throw the whole mess into a pan with a knob of butter, season with a touch of salt, some soy sauce, perhaps a dash of parsley or basil. Voila! I'd say it's a decently balanced meal, keeps well, and you can make a ton of it at once. Hopefully this helps a bit! For reference, I like this site's take: http://www.food.com/recipe/chinese-fried-rice-38748