I’m sorry you’re in the situation you’re in. You deserve better. I hope you’re finding good options from others, here’s my submission:

Vegetarian/vegan option: A bowl of rice with black beans on top. A healthy spoonful or two of sofrito. Some diced jalapenos (I like to briefly cook them in a pan with a little oil, but maybe don’t do that if you don’t know what you’re getting into).

Toast a few corn tortillas (I use the oil from the jalapenos, gives the tortillas extra spice). You can toast them as short or as long as you want, I like it when they have a slight crisp but are still foldable.

Use the tortillas to scoop up the food in the bowl. It’s really best if you skip a spoon and just use the tortillas/your hands. Trust me on this, it adds to the experience. Plus you can’t use your phone or anything because you’re using your hands to eat, and it’s best to focus on your food while eating instead of a device.

I prepare the rice ahead of time, but you could also just microwave a thing of minute rice. Canned black beans because I don’t have the mental energy for dried beans. A rice cooker makes cooking rice so easy I never buy minute rice, but that also would be an expense you might not be able to spare. Honestly depending on how tight money is, if you buy your rice and beans dry you’ll save a bunch of money.

I ate that every day for about two years due to a medication making to hard to stomach a lot of foods. Never got old, still regularly make it because it’s easy, filling, and healthy.

Another option: fried rice. Bag of frozen veggies, rice, egg, you can throw in other random stuff. MSG is cheap and takes it to the next level. I’m a goblin, so I’ll go to the Asian market and just try different savory sauces. Maybe don’t do that.

If you’re boiling rice, you can add an equal serving count of lentils to the same pot and increase the amount of water, it cooks for about the same length of time and then you have two macronutrients in one, all you need is some vegetables for a full balanced meal. Peas and carrots are easy, or broccoli is good and adds some iron which is important for vegetarians.

Also, peanut butter sandwiches are a good cheap option for handling cravings. Opt for whole grain bread if it’s in your budget. Real whole grain, not white bread with just enough whole grains thrown in so they could include it on the label. The bread itself should be brown. It’s more filling and has more nutrients.

Here’s a recipe for dal I use, I eat it with a store bought naan bread. You can add whatever protein you like.

🛒 Ingredients

• 1 cup of red lentils
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• ¼ teaspoon of turmeric
• ½ onion
• 8 cloves of garlic
• ⅓ stick of butter
• ½ tomato
• 1 green chili
• 1 teaspoon of red chili powder
• 1 teaspoon of coriander powder
• 1 teaspoon of fenugreek leaves
• 1 teaspoon of cumin powder

📖 Recipe

1. Pre-soak 1 cup of red lentils for 1-2 hours.
2. Boil 4 cups of water and add the lentils, 1 teaspoon of salt and ¼ teaspoon of turmeric.
3. Leave the lentils on a medium to low heat for 20-25 minutes to make the Dal.
4. Take it off the heat and start making the Tarka.
5. Finely dice ½ an onion, 8 cloves of garlic, slice 1 green chilli and chop ½ a medium tomato…
6. Add ⅓ stick of butter to a pan and heat it up on a medium to low heat.
7. Add the diced garlic into a pan and fry it until lightly golden.
8. Add the onion and green chilli into the pan.
9. Next, add the ½ tomato into the pan.
10. Add 1 teaspoon of red chilli powder, 1 teaspoon of coriander powder, 1 teaspoon of fenugreek leaves and 1 teaspoon of cumin powder.
11. Give it all a good stir in.
12. Pour in ¼ cup of water.
13. Add some fresh coriander to the Tarka.
14. Pour the Tarka into the Dal.
15. Stir it in and leave to cook on medium to low heat for a few minutes.
16. Add in another cup of water if it needs thinning.

If you’ve got eggs and leftover rice, mix some eggs, rice, and sweet chili sauce. The eggs and chili sauce are the most expensive part of the meal, most likely.

Just scramble 1-2 eggs and then mix in some rice and heat through. Then pour into a bowl and add some of the sauce.

Don’t know whether you consider eggs vegetarian, though.

Otherwise, if you have tortillas and salsa, heating something like a can of black beans and corn and then adding a little salsa is something I’ve done. Salsa, bean, and corn wraps. Not the best thing ever, but it was what it was.

if you have a rice cooker you can cook lentils with the rice and they are so small it cooks right up. Can add any veg or spices you like and the key with the rice cooker is the harder something is to cook the smaller you need to cut it up. I know you said veg but you can throw raw chicken in if its cut up small enough without poisoning yourself. I put that in just to showcase the cutting things ups small. You just can’t beat beans and rice for macronutrients vs cost. If you want to go for a superfood that is not to expensive buckwheat is amazing.

Any tinned beans are ready to eat, just rinse and heat a little (a minute in the microwave, give or take). I’m super time poor, So lately I’ve been mixing a few varieties of beans, with some just defrosted peas and corn, and some dip and corn chips, if im feeling fancy. Damn it’s yummo!

I use about 1/2 cup peas corn, microwave for 30 sec to 1 min, in a little water, drain.

Pour in 1/3c (odd) of whatever beans you like (I go with black beans, chick peas, and lentils)

Microwave 30 seconds.

Add lemon juice to taste. Pour on whatever dressing you want for flavour. (Tzatziki, 2tbsp or vinegarette, or salsa, endless options)

Then you can use it like a chunky salsa / dip, eat with corn chips. Or as is.

Or eat with rice or noodles.

I have at times added cheese or a chicken schnitzel.

Black Beans and Rice

Cook 2 cups of rice (rice cooker makes this easy)

Ingredients: 2 cans black beans 1 chopped green pepper 1 chopped onion 1 table spoon butter or oil

Spices: 1 Bay leaf 1 tsp black pepper 1 tbl spoon sugar 1 tsp vinegar (or lime juice) 2 tsp cumin (other potential spices: allspice, ginger)

Garnish: Sour creme (optional) Chopped green onion (optional)

Cook onion and green pepper together with butter/oil Add beans and spices Add sausage if using Add spices Cook together about 45 minutes on low, stirring occasionally Serve over the rice, garnish with sour cream and green onion if desired

Cheap and quick:

• Polenta

Cheap:

• Soups
• Salads
• Fried rice
• Bean chili
• Gnocchi
• Baked potatoes

Quick:

• Sandwiches
• Liver steak
• Wraps

Tips: Buy things butcheries throw away and make broth with them (scoop out fat when cold and use in place of butter or oil, use the broth to make soup). Make your own mayo. Buy vegetables you normally wouldn’t when they are cheap, and figure out a recipe for them, or pickle them in jars! Get away with throwing as little away as you can, make stock with scraps (make sure they are clean of any dirt). Walk and take note of any plants or trees yielding edible fruits, nuts and leaves, take note of when it’s best to harvest them, you never know what you have until you start looking. Get a small planter (or cut one out of a large plastic container) and try growing some plants from seeds you’d normally throw away, feed them kitchen scraps and leaves, it may take some time to get going, but it’s worth it for the nutrition and freebies.

Mix in a pack of taco seasoning with brown rice and it tastes like tacos without needing the meat. Tho rice takes a bit to cook

Cowboy chicken. Recipes are all over online, but I love it, usually presented as a one skillet meal so easy, and very filling!

Cut up chicken, coat in chili powder and smoked paprika, then sear. Dump in corn, beans, veggies and simmer for a bit. That’s it.

Got a crockpot/slowcooker? If so, throw a thawed chicken breast in there, season it with paprika, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper and add a small jar of salsa. Set it to low and go to work.

When you come home. Shred it with a fork. You now have pulled chicken. Put it on a bun and add some bbq sauce. Bon apetit.

But wait. There’s more

Day two: slice some peppers and onions. Use the same seasoning on the peppers and onions and move them around in a scorching hot pan. Toss in leftover shredded chicken to warm up and absorb the flavor. I like to squirt some lime juice on it right at the end. Put that on a tortilla and enjoy your chicken fajitas.

Easy and delish and not from frozen. Do multiple breasts and freeze the leftovers for future quick meals.

Buy a bunch of silicon containers or boxes that are both freezer and microwave safe. Take the biggest pot you have and make a massive portion of food. Eat 2-3 times, freeze the rest in individual meal portions. Repeat 1-2 times and you have a massive storage of cheap, healthy, delicious food.

Suitable dishes:

• Indian curry
• Thai curry
• Japanese curry
• any other curry, just experiment
• soups
• pasta Bolognese etc.

Big upgrade for your nutrition and kind of fun to cook such massive portions, while also allowing you to be lazy 9/10 days

yes.

ditch the frozen pizza and make your own dough. it tastes way better and is much cheaper.

6 cups of flour

3 cups of water

1-1/2 tablespoons of yeast

1 1/2 tablespoons spoons of salt

mix it all in a bowl, cover it and let it sit for about an hour. once it’s risen, put it in the fridge. it will be ready to use the next day, but it will keep for a few weeks.

i like to make pies with 450 grams of dough, it makes for a good 15” pizza. i use tomato sauce from fruit that we grow, but ive heard greet things about san marizano tomato sauce in a can.

i have lots more to say, but i don’t want to type it all out if you’re thinking ‘yeah, fuck that guy - i’m never gonna do that’, so if you want more info, lmk.

Find your local asian market, but ramen noodles in bulk. Chop up some veggies, saute them in the pan before you make the noodles. Crack an egg in there. You can buy bulk mushroom powder for cheap too, put that in there. Go to your local grocery and buy the cheapest meat, slice it up and throw that in before the veggies.

Is it going to be culinarily coherent? Maybe, maybe not. Are you going to eat it? Probably. Is it going to hit your macros? More or less.

cheapest meals you’ll ever find.

• beans
• rice
• seasonings
• ramen

also if you can, grow your own veggies. yellow summer squash dries really well and can be used in lots of dishes.

winter squash like butternut stay good for 6-10 months in the right conditions and can literally fill a meal.

carrots are easy to grow and high in nutrients, they can be stored for several months as well.

make sure you keep all your scraps and reintroduce them back into the soil as fertilizer. I would dry them and grind them in a blender along with egg shells, a bit of coffee grounds, dried fruit peels (like banana, orange, apple, etc). sprinkle over soil and mulch over that(could be dried leaves or hardwood mulch), and water.

if you grow eggplant, the leaves can be dried and boiled to create a weak insecticide since the plant is related to tobacco.

fight powdery mildew with vinegar and water. A 1/10 solution weak should be good enough.

if squash bugs or other pests are a problem, get a torch and burn them and the eggs off your plants. if you’re vigilant when they first show up, you won’t have to work so hard later. remember, the point is to “cook” them, not cremate your plant.

if space is a concern, grow things that crawl. greenbeans, peas, tomatoes, acorn squash, yellow squash, zucchini. all can be grown from pots on trellis. make sure they get plenty of light, water, and nutrients. careful with some squash though, they can crossbreed if they’re in the same family.

think of it this way. you spend $10-20 on heirloom seeds and take the seeds from your best harvest every year, you’ll never have to buy those vegetables again. $10-20 dollars, for a lifetime of food.