Cheap Food

[Metron]

Barilla Marinara Sauce is really good too... that's what I use on my spagetti.

 

[mercanucaribe]

Get a $20 rice cooker and a 24lb bag of rice.

 

[Staples]

Milk. I usually drink a quart for breakfast since I don't have time to eat.

 

[ponyo]

Pasta is about the cheapest food you can make. It's easy to make different pastas like marina, alfredo, or pesto and it will keep for long time in the fridge or freezer.

Don't buy can or bottle marina sauce. It's expensive and doesn't taste as good. Make your own and freeze the leftovers. Sauce will keep for usually around 3-6 months in the freezer. Just put it in big ziplock bag and freeze it.

112 oz can of whole peeled tomato from Sams or Costco. Usually around $2 or so.
1/2 cup of olive oil
2 medium onions chopped
4-5 cloves of chopped garlic
2 TBsp sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh Basil if you have some
1/2 cup Grated Paramsan cheese

Saute the onion and garlic in olive oil and then add the crushed tomato to the pot. Add sugar, salt, and pepper and cook on high heat until boil and then simmer for about 30 minutes. Take off heat and add basil and cheese if you prefer. Eat and let rest cool and store in fridge or freezer.

You can buy about 6lb cooked meatball for around $10 and microwave it to add to your pasta or make meatball sub using the above marina sauce as the base.

As for the pasta noodles, you can cook like a pound of noodle and eat what you can and simply plastic wrap the rest. It will keep for about 4-5 days in the fridge before going bad.

 

[Staples]

Originally posted by: Toasthead

Originally posted by: Triforceofcourage
Spagetti is tasty and on the cheap

yeah its prolly the cheapest tasty food out there

And my favorite. I can't believe there are none like me who could eat it for years on end and never get sick of it.

 

[funboy6942]

Rice is great because you can mix so much with it. Get some peanut oil and make fried rice with some vegies and maybe a little chicken.
Rick cooked mix in some butter and add salt, garlic powder, onion powder, fresh vegies and your set.
Rice by itself
almost anything you add to rice will taste damn good and cheap too.

 

[SurgicalShark]

OP Ask any Indian (as in from India) we cook all the time at home since we can not eat ham, beef, pork! Lots of things that you can do to save money and eat healthy food!

 

[konakona]

lol this pretty much sums up my diet... rice, vegeterian with some meat, chili, curry, pasta and whatnot...

get some beans when you cook rice, they are one of cheapest and most nutritional food avaialble. cook them with rice, put them in soup... they say these make you fart but i never noticed it that much. only thing that really gives me some serious gas problem is lactose ridden milk. soy milk is way better for your health anyway.

 

[UlricT]

Originally posted by: SurgicalShark
OP Ask any Indian (as in from India) we cook all the time at home since we can not eat ham, beef, pork! Lots of things that you can do to save money and eat healthy food!

Speak for yourself! I :heart: my meat!!

Raw Gound beef + skillet + Soft Tacos = mmmm......

 

[jai6638]

Originally posted by: SurgicalShark
OP Ask any Indian (as in from India) we cook all the time at home since we can not eat ham, beef, pork! Lots of things that you can do to save money and eat healthy food!

yup.... home-made food rules...

 

[scsi drv1]

Originally posted by: Pepsei
Ramen, the cheap kind that even I wouldn't touch.

Chef-boy-rdee's pasta

I would go with the ramen man. cheap and simple!

 

[ttown]

Originally posted by: ttown
Bean and rice burritos

1 Can Refried beens $1
2 cans red beans $1.50
1 can black beans $0.75
10 flour tortillas $2
1 cup brown rice $0.25
salsa/hot sauce $1

10 meals for $6.50 at the most

I usually stock up when beans, salsa are on sale; and when tortillas go on sale for $1 -- that's burrito week.

Also, potatoes with anything -- 10lbs/$1 is common sale price; brown rice $1/bag is common sale price; white rice is even cheaper (for stir fries)

The albertsons flyer for 4/27/05 - 5/3/05 has:
the LARGE cans of Rosarita refried beans: $1
16oz jar of Herdez salsa, $1 -- good stuff!
mission white-corn or fajita style flour tortillas (11.5oz - 36oz), $1

Want a salad to go with it? "Fresh Express" packaged salads, $1
Prefer carrots over salad? 1lb bag of baby carrots, $1

Fancy it up with fresh Hot House tomatoes, $1/lb

cheap, and fairly healty too

 

[shortylickens]

Depending on where you get it, Mac and Cheese can go for 50-75 cents a box.
The problem is, you need to keep milk and butter on hand.

Also amounts to a lot of dishwashing.

 

[Landroval]

oatmeal, pasta

 

[yoda291]

oatmeal easily...the kind that comes in a big ole canister and maybe some syrups/fruits. Oatmeal has gobs of soluble fiber which means you can stretch it like crazy with more water letting it soak in and it will make you feel full for a long long time.

 

[z0mb13]

ramen for sure... but its not healthy..

 

[konakona]

Originally posted by: z0mb13
ramen for sure... but its not healthy..

i hear people say this time and again.. but why? how is this any unhealthier than fast food? fast food is bad since it has excess fat, cholestrol for most part. ramen may lack some essential nutrients, but thats something that can be addressed with added fruit and veggies to go with it. i dont think ramen is THAT unhealthy per se. heck, you are not even supposed to be eating more than 1 can of tuna in 3 days!

 

[2cpuminimum]

ramen and fast food are both unhealthy. Ramen may be cheap per package but per oz it's no great bargain. Tuna is high in mercury and relatively expensive compared to beans or eggs. Potatoes are the cheapest source of carbohydrate, while beans and eggs are the cheapest source of protein. Use olive oil when making pizza, canola oil when making most anything else. Only use butter for baking. Get a variety of different inexpensive beans.

Chives are easy to grow and can often replace onions. Grow your own berries and tomatoes (I know, tomatoes are berries).

I found being vegetarian to be cheaper than eating meat.

Lots of rice is cheap, get brown rice it's better for you.
They rotate the sales on vegetables... buy whatever is cheap and then look for recipes online.

It's cheaper to make bread than buy it, and it's easy.

Don't buy processed prepackaged foods, it's always cheaper to make it.

Make a pizza, it's easy Make the dough in large batches and freeze it for later.

qft

Though by me potatoes cost $3.5/ 10 pound bag, it's cheaper to buy frozen fries.

Vegetarian chilli is really easy to make. bump

 

[KingPhil]

Spaghetti.........

Chinese Food..........

Tour of Italy from Olive Garden.... (just load up on bread sticks and pasta fagiolio, take dinner home)

Taco Dip 1- package cream cheese smeared in bottom of 8x8 dish, salsa poured on top of cream cheese, shredded cheese sprinkled all over top, baked at 350 for 20 mins or so........... YUM!

 

[jds2006]

cheezits

 

[cavemanmoron]

Originally posted by: Pepsei
Ramen, the cheap kind that even I wouldn't touch.

Chef-boy-rdee's pasta

Pb/j

rice,ugh,
Pasta!

 

[konakona]

ramen and fast food are both unhealthy. Ramen may be cheap per package but per oz it's no great bargain. Tuna is high in mercury and relatively expensive compared to beans or eggs. Potatoes are the cheapest source of carbohydrate, while beans and eggs are the cheapest source of protein. Use olive oil when making pizza, canola oil when making most anything else. Only use butter for baking. Get a variety of different inexpensive beans.

Chives are easy to grow and can often replace onions. Grow your own berries and tomatoes (I know, tomatoes are berries).

i pretty much do exactly as you wrote there... potatoes, beans, onions and eggs happen to be the primary ingridients in my cooking, with some salary, cabbage, cucumber, peppers or mushrooms depending on availability. canola oil is the only kind of oil we buy, and i never use butter, really.

i was just pointing out ramen isnt that harmful per se, it is more of what it lacks (vitamins, fiber and whatnot) than it what it has in excess (fat, cholestrol). it may have a good amount of sodium and preservatives in it, but so do most other things out there. living off of ramen exclusively would be a terribly unhealthy choice, but ramen is nowhere near as unheatly as fastfood imo.

 

[SilentZero]

A plate lunch at L&L's or Zippys.

 

[iluvtruenos]

Originally posted by: rbloedow

Originally posted by: calvinbiss
buy power bars (or something similar) in bulk. I typically subsitute a power bar with a V8/Fruit Juice/Odwalla for one meal everyday. Its a good way to get protein and other nutrients without alot of fat or unnecesary calories. Plus its much better than the cafeteria food at school

I :heart: odwalla That, and Bolthouse Farms' juice drinks, and vanilla chai tea

Are you gay?

 

[iluvtruenos]

Just eat a lot of foods that are eaten in third world countries.

When people emigrate from there, they take the culture with them, so you can find the food they eat there for a price close to what they charge there.

Oh, and find a non-franchise restaurant, something privately owned, and work out a deal with the manager. They buy stuff in bulk so cheap that even you'd wonder how.

Example:
potatoes $0.50/10lbs
tomatos $0.50/10lbs
chicken breast: $0.25/lb.

I asked my boss today, so those prices are up to date. I'm sure if someone came in and asked him for 10lbs of chicken for even 35 cents he'd agree since he usually buys 100lbs/week.