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Poverty/depression recipes?

Gatorgrizz27

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Since Biden seems intent on killing the middle class, America in general, and meat consumption, I figured it might be a good idea to start a thread on how to eat well on the cheap. Get some of these things dialed in before hard times arrive.

Thinking stuff like red beans and rice, biscuits and gravy, etc. Hunting, fishing, and farming, will be part of it, but not talking about “I’ll eat elk steaks every day with fresh veggies from my garden.”
 
I make a thing I call “poverty chili” that I make a big pot of when I want to feed people on the cheap. It’s not dirt cheap, but it’s $20/pot or so if you double the recipe and will make as many bowls.

1 lb Ground pork - brown first
Can of large kidney beans
Can of large crushed tomatoes
Whole sweet onion chopped
Whole green pepper chopped
Beer
Garlic powder
Salt
Black pepper
3 or so Chipotle peppers
Cumin
Chili powder
Cayenne

Simmer it for ~ 25-30 minutes, season to taste, add the last 2 ingredients at the end

Vinegar
Sugar
 
cheap cuts of chicken cooked in a pan, pasta or rice, salt and pepper for seasoning, olive oil if you are feeling fancy, cooked cabage with the same salt/pepper/oil to go along with it.

welcome to depression :flipoff2: it isn't great after eating it enough and the chicken is optional if things get tight, works for breakfast lunch and dinner.
 
Aren't you in Louisiana? Dirty rice, fool. That's majority of what I eat for meal prepping during the work week. I'm not cajun so I use the boxed zatarains stuff, easier than making from scratch anyway. But that with ground turkey and a couple cans of the fire roasted tomatoes from walmart is pretty fucking good.

walmart prices in south Mississippi:
3lb tube of turkey - 8.64
family size dirty rice mix - 2.24
canned tomatoes - .98/can

After it's done I divide it into 9.5oz portions which makes 8 or so meals. Less than $2 for each meal so that's pretty poverty-minded. You won't get super full from it but you can always supplement with bread



If you don't have time for that shit, before the last year I would just cook ground turkey in a skillet then cook a big pot of brown rice and season with Tony's or mesquite seasoning. Even cheaer/easier/faster to prepare
 
I make a thing I call “poverty chili” that I make a big pot of when I want to feed people on the cheap. It’s not dirt cheap, but it’s $20/pot or so if you double the recipe and will make as many bowls.

1 lb Ground pork - brown first
<snip>

Simmer it for ~ 25-30 minutes, season to taste, add the last 2 ingredients at the end

Vinegar
Sugar
Did you sit in my kitchen last night?:eek:

I did the above almost exactly except I did kidney beans from dry.:smokin: And I added two hot links and two fresh jalapenos. Pretty good flavor. Not hugely amused with the texture. But it was a bullshit off the cuff attempt.

I think I was up to ~$10 for a whole pot. Add in a 1 pound loaf of homemade french bread and nice-n-filling.

I've been a cheap bastard for a while and do many bean or rice variants on the cheap.

"Classic" split pea:
2 hot links chopped up
1 bag peas
1 onion
heaping tablespoon of garlic
add salt to last

Swap split peas with black-eyed peas and add jalapenos for black eyed peas.

BS gumbo
2 hot links diced
1 cup chopped chicken
1 cup rice
1 bag frozen ocra
heaping tablespoon of garlic
handful of diced jalapenos
~12 cups of water
chili pepper or cayenne pepper to taste
 
My grandparents came to California from Oklahoma and Arkansas during the depression / dust bowl era. Literally Migrant farm workers. Some of the stuff they would make was suspect and Papa is famous for eating strange shit like putting saltine crackers with milk and peanut butter in a bowl and eat it like cereal.

That said, comfort food for us is a big pot of beans and cornbread.


1 package of Great northern white or Pinto beans I think 1-2 lbs?
2 large onions cut into strips
4-5 cloves of garlic diced
whatever smoked pork product you have, smoked ham hocks are the best but you can also throw in a ham bone, make it as meaty as you like.
put it all in a crock pot and fill to the top of the beans with chicken stock, I like to throw in a can of beer and top off with stock.
More than enough salt from the pork and stock but you can add pepper, chilli flakes, whatever floats your boat as far as spices but usually simple is best. I think originally water was used instead of stock, if you do that you may need to adjust salt levels.
Just cook it till the beans are tender. Usually 6-8 hours in a crock pot, probably less on the stove.

This is pure salty savory goodness, none of this brown sugar sweet bean nonsense. You will be pulling a blazing saddles campfire scene in no time and rattling the rafters with farts.
 
Seems like every family and church cookbook I have is what you’re describing.

Growing up, I remember eating stuff at my grandparents that I haven’t had since they passed. Liver and onions, sweet breads, tongue, etc.
 
Soups were a big staple in my depression era raised grandparents house growing up.


Grandma was always making potato soup, vegetable soup, soup beans and ham, stews, etc. Always made homemade bread, rolls, cornbread, noodles etc too. All made from scratch on the cheap.

Soups are nice too because you can make a large batch and freeze containers of it for lazy nights when you don’t feel like cooking. Or make enough to take in your lunch for a week, etc.

And like others have said, beans and rice are staples of eating on the cheap.
 
My grandpa used to make a breakfast sausage from the head when he butchered a hog. He called it rolled oat sausage since he added oatmeal to stretch the batch. I helped make it once when I was 4-5 years old.. basically take the whole head, skinned, and put it in the oven and cook it down til the meat fell off the bones.. pull it out and pull all the meat off the skull and run it thru a grinder adding whatever spices and adding oatmeal for filler. it was already cooked so it got packaged into 1# or so ziploc bags and into the freezer. take it out of the freezer and thaw, brown in a cast iron skillet like a patty and eat with eggs or whatever.

It was so damn good and I miss having it but Grandpa never wrote down the recipe so I don't know how to make it.
 
My grandpa used to make a breakfast sausage from the head when he butchered a hog. He called it rolled oat sausage since he added oatmeal to stretch the batch. I helped make it once when I was 4-5 years old.. basically take the whole head, skinned, and put it in the oven and cook it down til the meat fell off the bones.. pull it out and pull all the meat off the skull and run it thru a grinder adding whatever spices and adding oatmeal for filler. it was already cooked so it got packaged into 1# or so ziploc bags and into the freezer. take it out of the freezer and thaw, brown in a cast iron skillet like a patty and eat with eggs or whatever.

It was so damn good and I miss having it but Grandpa never wrote down the recipe so I don't know how to make it.
Did grandpa die from a prions disease? :laughing:
 
Cannonball Stew.....

Sausages,
Onion,
Tinned spaghetti in tomato sauce,
Potatoes
Cheese.

Roughly chop the sausages/onions and brown off in a pan.
Pour cooked sausages/onions into a deep roasting pan and mix with enough spaghetti to make a layer an inch or so thick.
Cook and mash enough potatoes to make an inch or so thick layer ontop of the spaghetti mix.
Sprinkle with cheese (if desired) and bake in the oven till it's piping hot all the way through and the top is going golden.

Prepare comfy chair and get ready to not be able to move for 1-2hrs after eating :flipoff2:
 
Seems like every family and church cookbook I have is what you’re describing.

Growing up, I remember eating stuff at my grandparents that I haven’t had since they passed. Liver and onions, sweet breads, tongue, etc.
The problem is stuff like tongue, heart, ox tails, neck bones, etc now costs as much as sirloin steak. I don’t mind eating it, I‘ve had it all, but I’m not going to pay more for it.
 
I used to put a 3lb bag of frozen chicken into the slow cooker with a jar of salsa, can of black beans or kidney beans etc. You could also replace the salsa with a jar of BBQ sauce.

let it cook on low for a few hours. you have about shredded chicken and beans for about 10-12 small servings. I would portion it out with rice had lunch/dinner for every day of the week ready to go with basically no effort.
 
The problem is stuff like tongue, heart, ox tails, neck bones, etc now costs as much as sirloin steak. I don’t mind eating it, I‘ve had it all, but I’m not going to pay more for it.
The key was the family butchered a pig, steer, and chickens every year. I remember doing this when I was little. My uncles, parents, etc. would get together with my grandparents to do it.
 
Wife makes this hamburger, cubed potato stuff with a bit of salt/pepper/onion powder/garlic powder and some V8 juice to make a tomato sauce kinda thing. Something she dreamed up years ago when we first got married and the freezer and cupboards were kinda bare..
 
My grandparents came to California from Oklahoma and Arkansas during the depression / dust bowl era. Literally Migrant farm workers. Some of the stuff they would make was suspect and Papa is famous for eating strange shit like putting saltine crackers with milk and peanut butter in a bowl and eat it like cereal.

That said, comfort food for us is a big pot of beans and cornbread.


1 package of Great northern white or Pinto beans I think 1-2 lbs?
2 large onions cut into strips
4-5 cloves of garlic diced
whatever smoked pork product you have, smoked ham hocks are the best but you can also throw in a ham bone, make it as meaty as you like.
put it all in a crock pot and fill to the top of the beans with chicken stock, I like to throw in a can of beer and top off with stock.
More than enough salt from the pork and stock but you can add pepper, chilli flakes, whatever floats your boat as far as spices but usually simple is best. I think originally water was used instead of stock, if you do that you may need to adjust salt levels.
Just cook it till the beans are tender. Usually 6-8 hours in a crock pot, probably less on the stove.

This is pure salty savory goodness, none of this brown sugar sweet bean nonsense. You will be pulling a blazing saddles campfire scene in no time and rattling the rafters with farts.
We do the same thing, one of my fave meals ever.
 
Eating supper tonight and thought about this thread lol . White rice and some miso sauce from the local Japanese place. Cant get more poverty than that lol.

508B6EA4-66B1-4C75-BAEB-1AC652AB73BF.jpeg
 
Eating supper tonight and thought about this thread lol . White rice and some miso sauce from the local Japanese place. Cant get more poverty than that lol.

508B6EA4-66B1-4C75-BAEB-1AC652AB73BF.jpeg

That doesn’t count, the point of the thread was “eating decent on the cheap”.

That‘s some shit from Africa. :flipoff2:
 
The 13 bean soup mix and your favorite leftover ham is a good cheap meal. We generally make it with a saved ham bone and ham chunks, but you can use any type of pork. We add some onion to it.
 
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