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frithiof

Making cheap food taste good?

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I've recently come into a situation where my food budget has decreased significantly, and I've had to buy healthier food that is not always the best tasting.

What do you guys use to spice things up?

I've found that margarine sprays, lard (the good porky kind, not the icky shortening kind; I like to use it instead of oils when frying), and Lawry's Seasoned Salt (with MSG) help out a lot. Tabasco helps when I make a big mistake and I can't afford to throw the food away.

I used to enjoy using melted butter and garlic as a dipping sauce for things like pizza, fried chicken, french fries, and toast. Now I must suffer and eat vegetables, and fruits, and cook my own meats.

I don't understand how people can survive like this.

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Being a vegetarian,I have no problem eating healthy.But I still like my junk food.Don't use salt,but other spices work pretty good.

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I live near a Walmart.

Their junk food is actually more expensive than their healthy stuff.

These days I've been replacing potato chips with mashed potatoes. Soda with water. Beer with water. (most) Meat with beans and rice. Bacon with those super-cheap precooked breakfast patties. I even made macaroni and cheese from a BOX a couple days ago.

The horror, the horror.

When I was a young man, I could go to McDonald's and get a proper (super sized) meal, with the fries dipped in cow tallow, for less than $3. Where can you get something like that today?

edit: I thought being a vegetarian was considered being a little goofy since you can't get vitamin B12 from veggies and fruits, and folic acid only masks deficiencies. I also thought a large part of being human involved causing other living beings to suffer as much as possible. Historically speaking, some may say I am correct.

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frithiof said:

Now I must suffer and eat vegetables, and fruits, and cook my own meats. I don't understand how people can survive like this.


It's not that hard. Fruits and meats tend to taste just fine on their own. For vegetables I tend to throw them into chili/soups/stews/wraps/salads with some assortment of spices. For example lately squash has been dirt cheap here so I've made squash stew (just cooked pureed squash) with butter and allspice or garam masala.

It sounds like you still just want everything to taste like oil and salt. Your palate will shift eventually.

Bucket said:

Where do you live that healthy food is cheaper than junk food?


Is there a place where factory made food is cheaper than vegetation? The expensive part of healthy eating is all the cooking equipment since one can no longer rely on just a microwave.

Edit: The reply before this one would just you know what to do. You're never match the instant gratification of a McDonalds burger, but due to having actual nutrition will feel better overall.

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Buy produce when it is in season in your area. Squash is great right now. Acorn, summer squash, butternut. Put some cinnamon, cloves and butter in with the mashed-up insides, you'll be hot to trot.

Also for next year you can plant vegetable seeds about a month before the season's last frost warning as long as you keep the seedling pots indoors and in direct sunlight. My plants are titans compared to the neighbors because I germinate them indoors during the last days of winter, then transplant the organisms outdoors in a premium spot, the plants will keep producing for your needs and live vivaciously and potentially produce volunteer plants in future seasons.

I live in southeast Michigan and had great luck with cayenne peppers, Hungarian peppers, banana peppers, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini. Additionally, everything biodegradable I compost into fertilizer for plants that attract pollinators and vegetables,

When it comes to buying meat, get something like lean ground turkey instead of beef.

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Probably one of the most important things there is: keep it simple. There's no need for making complex french/thai/mexican/chinese dishes. Some salt/pepper/chilli should make the work on his own (just keep in mind they have really strong flavors, use them moderately). Vegetables and fruits are absolutely great for giving flavor by themselves. A salad can be as simple as some tomato, lettuce, onion, salt and olive oil. And it's delicious. Just try to not go overboard on your first tries; then, as you gain skills, you'll be able to determine what's the best for each dish, based on your knowledge/experience.

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frithiof said:

I've found that margarine sprays, lard (the good porky kind, not the icky shortening kind; I like to use it instead of oils when frying), and Lawry's Seasoned Salt (with MSG) help out a lot


Get hand-cuffed and go to jail then. The Police Officers will be more than happy to give you free meals with extra hot organic man juice for ya. Your cell-mates will be envious guaranteed (not)!

EDIT:
Cell mates might even add extra toppings for ya too.

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One of the advantages in my country is that food is cheap, very tasty and healthy. Most people around here mainly don't eat processed food and instead go to the farmer's market where they can get cheap but also very good quality and healthy ingredients. Don't you have something similar in the US? No wonder so many people over there are overweight. I eat processed food too but it's not the only kind of food I eat.

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frithiof said:

[..]those super-cheap precooked breakfast patties.

Man, I fucking miss those things. McDonalds has a monopoly on hot breakfast in this country!

Home made fried rice is a delicious and cheap dish.
What you need:
-Rice (duh)
-Peas
-Corn
-Carrots
-1 or 2 Eggs (Tastes good without too)
-Soy sauce
-Butter/grease/lard (small amount)


Boil up some rice, white and brown will both taste great. Boil some peas/corn/finely diced carrots. Fry some eggs. When everything is done, mix it all it a big bowl til everything is evenly spread. Using the same hot pan you fried the eggs in, put a tablespoon of butter/some other grease, put the rice in, and mix in some soy sauce, however much depending on what you like (I usually use about a tablespoon for my large pan). Fry it for about 5 minutes on medium heat, stirring the whole time. Let it cool for a minute and munch down on that shit for the next 2 days. It's cheap and damn good!

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I eat chicken meata often. I'm spicing it up with garlic, curry, paprika and different food creams. In my country, if you are student and you dont have alot of money to use for food, you can buy 1kg bags of macaroni dirt cheap and also canned tuna is super cheap. Vegetables and fruits are also cheap here. I'm glad I have evaded this path because of steady incomes. I think it varies from country to country what is related to cheap food product.

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Speaking as someone on a budget, I almost only eat rice, pasta, and frozen pizzas. Vegetables are affordable but you only get your money's worth if you can eat them all before they go bad. For vegetables like Onions and Celery, which are better in small amounts can be essential ingredients for most dishes, its hard to use them in time before they get old and mushy unless you're cooking for a family. Fruits, excepting bananas, are way too expensive for how little they fill you up, and it's a shame considering how much health benefits they have.

One thing you can try with vegetables that is tasty and pretty inexpensive, is making soups. My coworker makes Chicken Corn Chowder and Broccoli Cheddar soups by cutting up vegetables in to fine pieces and putting them in a pot with a can of cream of chicken (at my grocery store, $0.49 a can) It's very filling and tastes way better than any other condensed chunky soup you'd get in a can. It takes about an hour to cook, not including prepping the vegetables, but IMO it's worth it.

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Speaking as someone who lives dirt cheap as possible, yet forced to live the good life... its not taste you need to concern yourself, its cheap. I can live off a $1 worth of food per day 'if you call that living.'

I went to Disneyland and their healthy meals were surprisingly cheap compared to how fucking awful Six Flags food is and how costly it is for what is essentially a big order of fries disguised as 'chicken tenders.'

Also in Cali its $13 for a free range 'healthy turkey burger,' well here in IL its $7 - $9 for a turkey burger. I've never seen a non free range turkey.

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You can make some stew/sauce from vegetables, beans and tomatos and then freeze it. If you make enough of it at one time, it can last a month.

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Some of the best cuts of meat our the cheap cuts. Must people tend avoid them because they don't know how to cook cheap cuts. Invest in a dutch oven, slow cooker and learn how to cook cheap cuts. Not only will you save money in the long run, you will be able to make some great meals that will give you plenty of food for a few days.

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My go to list:
Sriracha
soy sauce
garlic
hoisin sauce
oyster sauce
fish sauce
minced ginger
red chilies
teriyaki
cayenne pepper
red curry paste
green curry paste
yellow curry paste
coconut oil
olive oil
red wine
tomato paste
BBQ sauce
Dijon mustard
honey
basil
oregano
butter
lemon juice

You can steam your veggies and then melt a little butter on them, top them with a little basil. You can pretty well put whatever seasoning you want on them afterwards and they will come out great everytime.
Invest in a steamer insert and it will pay for itself over and over again:

If you hate cutting vegetables you can buy a big bag of the frozen stuff. As a bonus you won't have to worry about them rotting in your fridge.

You can use soy sauce and honey together for a Teriyaki style sauce. Goes well with everything, add ginger if you want that extra kick.

Fry your meat in coconut oil, add veggies, curry paste and let it simmer. Put it on top of your brown rice.

Start with simple stir fry recipes. Once you do well with those you will get a taste for what you like and you can start putting different flavors together.

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Oodles of noodles, baby. 3 minutes and you're eating. Throw in just about anything in your fridge. Dirt cheap, unlimited shelf life, fills you up.

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Bucket said:

Where do you live that healthy food is cheaper than junk food?


Pretty much anywhere. Ingredients for actually cooking meals is way cheaper than buying prepared junk.

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Nomad said:

Pretty much anywhere. Ingredients for actually cooking meals is way cheaper than buying prepared junk.


Sure, this is true if you're willing to cook and eat in bulk. Where I live, you can get frozen chicken pot pies for just over a dollar. You can buy the ingredients used for a chicken pot pie too, and pretty cheaply, but you can't buy them in portions small enough to make a single-serve chicken pot pie. If you do buy all the ingredients, you'll have enough to make like 10 or so pies, and if that's what you intend to use them for, they'll probably start to go bad in the amount of time it takes for you to eat all of them, unless you intend to eat one and a half for each meal in the day, which sounds pretty nauseating IMO.

I can never get myself to use an entire onion or a head of lettuce in time before they go bad, so it's a lot like paying 0.99 just to taste it. I can't justify buying it unless I learn to love salads or burgers or hoagies and eat them daily, so I often avoid it and don't prepare any meals that would use them. Whereas, frozen dinners, canned soups, and pasta and whatever, though they cost a little more than fresh ingredients by themselves, you don't have to pay for them again to have them available in your house longer than their expected life.

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Once you factor in the cost of energy, the cost of your time in order to do the shopping, the cooking, the cleaning etc. preparing meals yourself seldom breaks even, at least if you're single.

For a couple or better yet, a traditional family with one member (aka: the wife/woman/mummy) handling all those aspects, it certainly makes more sense.

No wonder that at least in Greece, a major part of a housewife's time was spent all morning in grocers, markets etc. acquiring ingredients in the proper quantities, preparing them, cooking, and cleaning up dishes and pots afterwards, while the husband worked office or factory hours (better yet, public servants get home at 14:00, and along with farmers and free professionals, were among the few that could eat regular meals with their families).

Since this traditional form of the family has been long ago attacked and all but destroyed, so has the traditional way of preparing meals.

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frithiof said:

When I was a young man, I could go to McDonald's and get a proper (super sized) meal

o_o Are you actually claiming that McDonald's is anywhere close to proper food?

As for making cheap but good food, the spice section is your best friend. Admittedly you'll have to invest on a few spices or ready mixes which can cost a bit, but they'll last for a while. With soy, sriracha, teriyaki and an assortment of spices you can easily do lots of tasty foods. Just add in garlic, onions, fresh ginger and, if needed, some other vegetables.



@40oz: You could try cooking for few days at once. Partly because I'm lazy, and partly because I work from home so I need to make my own lunch, I make meals with 2-4 portions at once and just heat the leftovers later.

Of course, it's also difficult to make single portions only when no store here sells meat in such amounts. But at least I won't have to use half onions instead of whole ones.

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