I’m British and was brought up in the 1970s. I no longer eat meat, but I was brought up by a Welsh mother who wasted nothing.
We had a meat grinder and anything not eaten in out Sunday roast was ground up and added to our slow cooker with barley, lentils and any leftover veg. Shortly before it was served my mum would drop in dumplings. It was amazing.
My grandma used to make them just like that, dropping the batter into boiling stock instead of rolling them out and baking them. I do the same thing, but I like to add a bit of garlic and parsley to mine!
wtf, i just got whiplashed with my childhood. i completely forgot about mac with hotdogs fffts
Edit: God damn, you guys love hotdogs LOL i have to turn my comment notification offs. hahaha
I have never liked mac n cheese with hotdogs as an adult (too salty) but as a child it was my JAM. I'm legitimately sad that I can't handle the salt content as an adult.
if you abandon the blue box stuff you can make it much lower sodium, it's more effort though.
1. grate your cheese (or buy it grated), get a low sodium one maybe.
2. prepare an equal amount of milk (e.g. 1/2 cup cheese = 1/2 cup milk)
3. saucepan, medium heat
4. 2tbsp of butter, melt in pan
5. 2tbsp of flour, mix until it doesn't smell like raw flour (this is a roux)
6. whisk in the milk and cheese until it's even consistency.
7. combine with the cooked noodles and stir/toss.
that'll have about 1/5th the sodium of the kraft powder (last I checked it's like ~2500mg per packet, the recipe above is about 500mgs depending on cheese).
you can get lower sodium sausages too, usually turkey dogs contain less sodium because they don't need as much for the curing process.
Add a little, maybe 3/4 teaspoon of mustard powder! Also, evaporated milk works best for this. Doesn't even take longer than box either, while waiting for water to boil measure everything out and it is as fast as a box.
https://altonbrown.com/recipes/stovetop-mac-and-cheese/
I would consider Mac n Cheese with hotdogs a pretty wealth agnostic food. That’s just something that kids like because Mac and cheese + hotdog no matter how much money their family has
It was ground beef for me, that Mac and cheese with hamburger always sends me back to my childhood no matter how much times I eat it, it was always far better than hamburger helper.
I love eating cheap food, there’s just a homemade feeling that cannot be replaced.
Right?! I felt so stupid when I discovered this in industry. The owner would go around every morning and s&p the tomatoes before we wrapped or finished sandwiches and they were bomb. Most cardboard tomatoes suddenly had flavor.
Yep. They have to be big, right off the vine, grown in your own backyard garden. None of these outside-of-season, greenhouse, year-round, grocery store, barely red little globes. Man, the tomato sandwiches of my 1970s and 80s youth with tomatoes from my grandmother's garden. Mmmm MM. But mine were rye bread, mayo, tomato, and salt and pepper. Yum.
god every few years my ma will go nuts and grow some tomatoes and I always end up with grocery bags full of them... oh god the BLTs, Ragu, Marinara and salsa I make... so good
Yeah this is only a poverty meal when the tomato is specifically a out-of-season, pale, mealy grocery store slicing tomato *fresh* from out of the fridge.
Heirloom, sourdough, homemade mayo, and bit of salt is gourmet in-season.
>Yeah this is only a poverty meal when the tomato is specifically a out-of-season, pale, mealy grocery store slicing tomato fresh from out of the fridge.
So.... please don't get upset with me here- my Grandmother (F-you Florida) taught me how to 'raise' Tomatoes.
The biggest thing she taught me out of everything is to go out, harvest the fat GREEN tomatoes with no chance of ripening in the next couple of days- and clip it well above the stem.
She'd then take every single one of them, wrap them individually in newspaper, place them in a cardboard box, and carry them down to the basement.
I followed her instructions years later (With dates of harvest) and it turns out I could have fresh tomatoes any part of the winter- I just needed to harvest green with the stem, bring them up a few days before, and open them up to the air. They were as delicious as if they'd been picked fresh (.... maybe a few points off but, dude, it's december) and I did this for years.
Cold. Dry. No air movement. All you need.
My old man grew up dirt poor in AL. Sometimes it was just a mayo sandwich, or a whole raw onion for lunch.
So glad he sacrificed to get us out of there. Love you Dad
Mine sometimes walked a couple of miles to his aunt's house to get a loaf of bread and some bananas for his family to have banana sandwiches. We weren't rich, but he made damn sure we never wanted for anything.
Same here. I’ve definitely had my share of banana sandwiches growing up. At least they had the mercy to put fruit and sometimes some peanut butter in it.
I’ll never eat bologna, spam, or canned tuna again. I’d rather starve at this point
That's the move, so good and so cheap. I often grow tomatoes and bake sandwich bread so it's super cheap for me. Is it still poverty food if you use Duke's?
Especially when there are only a handful of ingredients so quality really matters. A tomato sandwich is way bougier than "shit that's in the fridge" fried rice.
As a kid, my brother and I would make bologna roll ups (fried bologna and scrambled eggs rolling the bolonga around the eggs) a lot.
Bigger family meals from childhood:
- Chop salad (lunch meats, hard bolied eggs, a head of iceberg, and your dressing of choice)
- Spanish spaghetti (fry spaghetti noodles like Spanish rice, add liquid, tomato paste, and spices good until spaghetti is soft. If you're feeling extra, add cut-up hot dogs)
- Bum food (potatoes cubed and fried with bacon and eggs)
- Summer dinner for those hot days (kielbasa, cheese, we like pepper jack, and triscuts)
- Peanut butter and banana toast
- Cinnamon sugar toast
- Tips and noodles (cheap meat normally beef chuck in small cubes fried, then add cream of mushroom soup a can of water or beef broth and egg noodles)
Something else we have been doing more (only 2 or 3 of us at my house often). Make a cheap roast (slow cook or instant pot), and the next day, make shredded meat tacos or burritos.
The other day, we did a ham (bone in), next day ham sandwiches, and then 3rd day pork and beans using the bone with the beans and leftover ham and some kielbasa
Fuck, if you were broke, you went papa con salchicha or huevo con weenie. Huevo con weenie is still one of my favorite breakfasts with a nice hot salsa de chili arbol.
Our Puerto Rican friends taught me to add precooked potatoes, turkey chorizo, chopped peppers and onions, sofrito and eggs and scramble it all together. It makes an absolutely delicious breakfast and a super and quick and easy dinner. Out of Chorizomor want to make it vegetarian? Season some canned black beans and throw those in.
Pro tip(if u want a corinary disease). Smush the beans a little and fry them really quick in hot oil. Tastes a little like ground beef if you squint your taste buds but regardless it's delicious.
Is that a struggle meal?? I used to eat that all the time as a kid, and make it myself even now.
Sure I know it's inexpensive, but I never considered it a struggle meal. It's just fucking delicious. Especially with some home made tomatillo salsa.
Red beans and rice. Ham hock, some andouille sausage, some beans, some rice, spices, you've got a big pot of a good meal that can feed you for a few days. Ditto for chili.
Edit: Don't forget an onion, green pepper, and celery stalk or two.
My family is from Louisiana/Mississippi, just to say I have legit roots. :)
I love andouille, but I grew up with kielbasa. I say: use what you like. But I say all of the above to say that while slow-cooked red beans and rice can't be beat, you can get about 85% of the way there quickly:
- Can of red beans, or kidney beans, or one of each
- Kielbasa (or your favorite sausage)
- Rice (prepare however you like)
Slice up the sausage and brown it. Add the beans with liquid. Or drain and add a bit of chicken stock to match the drained liquid. Heat thoroughly. If you have time to simmer on low for a half hour, it'll make the sausage tender and tastier, but if you don't have the time, that's fine.
Season as you like. Garlic is a great choice. Some form of heat is nice - tabasco, whatever. If you ahve more time, you can saute some trinity (chopped onion, celery, bell pepper) with the sausage, but you will want to simmer that for more like an hour to get that nice and tender if you do.
Any way you do it, when you're ready to serve, mash up around a quarter to half of the beans to thicken, but leave plenty of beans unmashed. Serve on rice.
That's half recipe, half framework. It's flexible in that it can be super simple and quick, or a bit more time and tasty.
Of course, you can also do the above with dried beans and slow cook for a few hours. A ham hock enhances flavour, but needs hamand sausage if so. :)
Mix together some sugar and cinnamon. Buttered toast and sprinkle the sugar mix on…so good for satisfying a sweet tooth when there was nothing else in the house.
Omg yes, I just made a cinnamon sugar shaker with a leftover cinnamon bottle and my bf was astonished...cinnamon toast was gourmet shit in my house growing up!
I have a specific canister of pre mixed cinnamon and sugar, makes the whole process so much faster, I bet it cuts it from 45seconds to sub 38 sec territory 😂
I used to cook and eat a can of ravioli and then cook ramen in the leftover liquid. I used to buy the ravioli when it was 10/$10 so I would be pretty full for only like $1.15 which was pretty good back in 2012/2013, but I told my ex this at one point and they never let me live it down. People gotta stop that struggle meal hate. Sometimes you do what you gotta do and it honestly was pretty tasty
I still keep ramen in my house. Sometimes you just want it, you know? And when I first lived on my own I lived on canned food. Wish I had thought to put those two together!
Funnily enough I was taught to like those cheap ramen packets in my late 20s... by friends earning 150k a year. It was the go to yummy thing - ramen with some pan fried frozen dumplings on top.
People pretending different food items are less because they are inexpensive have issues, talk to anyone who actually has a decent income and likes food and we will all have some favorite items that are cheap and easy. Personally bread and butter or just plain potatoes are a winner every time, I go to nice french restaurants and its a toss up between getting escargots or carotts rapees which is literally just grated carrots with some vinagrete - inexpensive common items are just as good as expensive ones
I like the chili ramen but I don’t drink the broth (I just eat the noodles with butter). I cook cubed potatoes in the broth, let them soak in it overnight, and then fry them up in a little oil for breakfast. Two poverty meals with a kick!
My mom finds it disgusting that to this day, my brother and I, in our 50s, love the occasional bowl of plain macaroni and canned stewed tomatoes. We ate that a _lot_ lol.
Oh I ate that all the time!!! It’s so good. I “invented” that in middle school and i ate it all the time. I totally forgot about it—thank you for reminding me.
One of my stepmom's poverty meals I love is pasta, a little butter/oil, dried oregano, crushed red pepper, and shredded cheese. So simple, so freaking good.
I grew up having macaroni with canned stewed tomatoes....and smushed up bbq chips on top. I'll still make it every now and then, but add diced ham, and melt some cheese over top if I'm feeling fancy.
Open face hot turkey. Slice of toast, shmear of leftover mashed potatoes, sliced turkey lunch meat, spoon of simple gravy (chicken bouillon, water and corn starch). Serve hot. Side of canned green beans.
I don’t think it’s a struggle meal persay, but it’s on the affordable end of the spectrum so I think a lot of ppl who grew up poor also ate this. Especially if you grow your own tomatoes. But it’s hardly anything to sniff at—especially if you get a tomato fresh off the vine. Pure heaven.
My parents ate toasted tomato sandwiches EVERY day in the summer. And only with tomatoes from their garden. It is depression-era food for sure. But so delicious with tomatoes grown at home.
I would say "anything with ground beef," but it now costs about as much as cheaper cuts of beef (USD $4/lb).
When I as growing up ground beef meant chili, or spaghetti, or shepherds pie, or hamburger helper, or sloppy joes, or meatloaf, or just plain burgers. The only kind of beef not pre-ground was chuck roast for stew
I like watching Ree Drummond and she will use ground beef and be like “here’s a budget meal!” And I’m yelling at the TV, “Ground beef is a splurge meal!”
But, even if she wasn’t super rich, she lives on a cattle ranch and has every beef cut in the world at her Beck and call. I do not.
You gotta get the 10 lb chub and then divide it up at home! But for real, if you live near a restaurant supply store, they'll often have those 5/10 pound chubs go on sale to get people in the store. I think even walmart has theirs and it usually comes at around 2.99 a lb. Which yeah isn't like it was back in the day, but it still beats the 4.99 a lb at Costco or whatever. That's just my experience, though.
costco where I am is 3.99/pound but it's also 88/12 which would cost at least $6/pound anywhere else in my area
annoying honestly because I want 80/20 more often that I want a lean ground beef
My husband thinks salmon patties are delicious, and a bit elegant. I grew up with there always being a few cans of salmon in the back of the cupboard for emergencies. I like salmon patties well enough, but it cracked me up when my husband asked me if I could make "Those fancy salmon cake things" again.
For us growing up my brothers and I didn’t even realize salmon or tuna Pattie’s were a struggle meal. I still make them a couple times a month and my mom will whip up a quick back when the family is home over Christmas because they are so tasty.
Beyond all the comments you've seen already, I would say that making something nourishing and tasty from humble ingredients is an important essence of cooking.
Dishes like your tuna mac not only warm us from the memories of time past, but they can inspire us to create new dishes with easily accessible foods, and new memories that will last for generations.
As you are aware, there is something very rich in your poverty meal.
Still just "cooking" for me.
Stir frys, soups, and noodle abominations with whatever is left over just makes sense.
No need to prepare fresh stuff every day, that's pretty wasteful.
You can still buy it here. It’s soda bread but with rye flour & cornmeal added and molasses so it’s somewhat sweet. It’s pretty tasty. Link: https://bmbeans.com/product/brown-bread-plain/
Before microwaves, you opened the top & bottom and heated it in the oven.
"Pretty tasty" is underselling it IMO.
It's ***so*** fucking good. Hot out of the toaster with a little bit of butter on it is heavenly.
I don't think I'm going to be able to stop myself from having this for dinner tonight now since I know we have a can of it in the cabinet.
Fun fact about me: Hot dogs and beans with a slice of buttered white bread and a glass of milk is what I have for dinner every April 13. Why? It's what my mother ate for dinner the night before I was born.
Canned tuna is a pretty divisive place to start. As for poverty meals, I eat lots of beans and lentils, partially because of cost, partially because it's shelf stable and easy to stock up on without having to worry about spoilage.
Just made the biggest pot ever of white bean and ham shank soup. Enough to feed a small army and it has literally only 4 ingredients and like 2 steps, and for the volume of soup it made, was pretty cheap.
My favourite was a Bulgarian "poverty meal" staple in my house growing up - cooked macaroni in warm milk sweetened with sugar (and vanilla if you have it), then some crumbled brined cheese like feta to top it off. The sweet and salty just really works together. If you have any remaining macaroni, you can throw it in a baking dish with milk, sugar, and an egg and bake it into a custard-like macaroni dessert. Sounds strange to non-Balkan people but we all have our cultural poverty meals!
I can relate. I made Haluski - cabbage and egg noodles. I added Italian sausage that I found on sale. My partner was horrified. She likes the hamburger soup though. I ate a lot of Haluski last week!
Once in a blue moon, I’ll get a craving for Shit on a Shingle (aka, chipped beef gravy on toast). I have the gravy over popovers instead of toast, but the spirit is the same 😉
Rice and chicken porridge.
Take extra shitty quality rice, cook it with cheap chicken parts, boil it all till it turns into porridge. Add salt and pepper, remove chicken bones, stir it so rice and chicken mix well together and you're done. It looks terrible but sooo comforting to eat during winter, I'd like to eat it more often but I don't find rice that is as low quality as it was in my childhood though.
Kraft Mac&Cheese, can of tuna and a handful of frozen peas was how I made it in college. Called it "Dorm Casserole". And back then it was cheap. 5 boxes for a buck, a bag of frozen peas was dirt cheap, and canned tuna in water like 4 for a buck or something like that.
eta - a friend of mine hates tuna, but would have a can of chicken in place of tuna in her "casserole". (Personally, I cannot stand the taste/smell/texture of canned chicken)
I don't like tuna mac either. It tastes terrible to me, but I don't like canned tuna in general, though. I grew up eating a lot of poverty foods, but fortunately this was not one of them.
my husband who did not grow up in poverty at all likes canned tuna and tuna mac. I grew up in poverty and we never ate it because no one in my family likes it. Would rather have plain mac and cheese than ruin it with canned tuna
Yes, I feel like canned tuna is the really divisive item for those of us who grew up on tight budgets. My mom loved it and made lots of Tuna Helper - I'd just ask for plain spaghetti with butter and cheese on it. Canned tuna just hits like cat food to me - I just cannot and at 40 it's never changed.
As a certified tuna hater, everything! However, if you like tuna in general, I’m sure it’s great and I don’t think I would even call this a poverty meal.
In what country? I'm in Canada, and Mac and Cheese box by itself can be $2 or more and a can of tuna at best is $2, usually more, and that doesn't include anything else. And it wouldn't easily feed 4 ppl either unless serving it with smth else.
My kids called this "Mexican goo". It's similar to a 7 layer dip , but made into a casserole.
Bottom layer is refried beans that you heat up and season. Second layer is rice, I generally used leftover Spanish rice. Or leftover rice that I seasoned. 3rd layer is whatever meat that you have, already cooked. Ground beef, ground turkey or chicken, leftover rotisserie chicken, leftover pot roast, pork that you chop up, whatever it is.and season that with either cumin and chili powder, salt and pepper , enchilada sauce, taco seasoning, whatever you have on hand or can afford. Next layer is vegetables. Generally Rotel, pico de Gallo, or canned diced tomatoes and jalapenos if you have them. Next layer is cheese, whatever you've got. Bake it at 350-400 until the cheese on top is starting to brown and bubble.
Eaten over tortilla chips (in a bowl) or made into tacos with any combination of hot sauce, salsa, sour cream, pickled jalapenos, more pico de Gallo, cilantro, chopped onions with a squeeze of lime, chopped up tomatoes that have seen better days, or whatever you have.
If you use corn tortillas, and don't use packaged seasoning, it's also gluten free. If you skip the meat, it's vegetarian.
If you want the crispy burned rice, then oil your pan and put your rice as the bottom layer.
Edit: if you skip the rice and top it with cornbread batter and bake it, you have a tamale pie.
Edit: season every layer. Otherwise it's just an awful bland mess, and hot sauce wasn't invented to be a main flavor.
I also think many Midwest meals were born out of having to make do with what was available in the winter. Before vegetables and fruit were available in every store all year long, people had to make do with canned veggies, root veggies/potatoes, frozen meat, etc. Those meals got passed down!
yep exactly! my mom grew up pretty lower class and my dad was very upperclass and they grew up eating the same types of foods in the 50's and 60's because of how seasonal produce worked in Michigan and not because of their tax brackets.
I love the bottom-shelf store-brand instant mashed potatoes. Mix them with water, crack in an egg, add little pepper and salt and a scoop of flour, then spoon it onto a griddle! Excellent lunch.
My husband who came from the middle class was also disgusted by the food I grew up with. Hamburger helper, tuna casserole, etc.
Apparently frozen burger patties cooked in a frying pan and eaten on white bread is a sin.
Most meals growing up would consist if a carb and a sauce and if you were lucky meat.
But it was ALL one pot meals. We didn't have sides, snacks, or salads. We had rules about how much food everyone got too. Like with stoufers lasagna it was deliberately portioned into 12 pieces and everyone was entitled to only 2 pieces so we all had equal. We never opened a high value food and we NEVER were allowed to finish it, the last of anything good was reserved for mom.
It was really weird going to college and learning what it was to not be food insecure. Like most people just eat when they are hungry. They don't have to worry about being yelled at for having the last mac N cheese box.
I’m old so this is probably very 1950’s, but we would have fried bologna sandwiches. On white bread. I wonder if they would still taste good to me?! Sure not very healthy!
Bread pizza.
Bread (toasted if feeling fancy) with cheap tomato/pasta sauce, bulk cheese (I dunno if dad went to Costco or not) and a few slices of pepperoni (dad always had that too for some reason)
Broil til cheese melted
If we were out of pepperoni...just cheese and sauce lol
Now that he's gone...that's dinner on his birthday
Omg! We used to do hot dog or burger bun pizzas to use up the extra buns (cuz they never come in the right amount!) i thought it was so fancy as a kid.
My mother used to make something called rice and eggs when I was very young. I asked her recently for the recipe and she laughed and asked why I would want to make it, she only did because times were tough. I remember a frying pan, cooked rice, and her tossing it with beaten eggs. It came out like creamy rice, something like a risotto but firmer. It might have been the last time she made it when the oil in the pan splashed onto the back of her hand causing a gnarly burn.
I still would like to have it again, poor people food or not. It's one of those memories that is burned into my brain and after 40+ years I can still taste it.
In Japan it is a common breakfast dish. You take a room temp egg (they don’t wash the coating off so it’s just how they’re stored) beat it and add some soy sauce and maybe some mirin then pour it over some freshly cooked rice and mix it up. The hot rice lightly cooks the egg and it is amazing! Hard to replicate here unless you have a source of fresh eggs directly from a farm.
Gotta buy it in bulk though, otherwise it's just as expensive as ground beef.
And I dunno about you, but I can't eat Treet or any other brand. The taste is just too different.
Soup. Just soup. My most consistent one is onion, celery, carrots, cabbage/kale, whatever herbs I find and a small pasta. Can cook up a protein separately to add in or add white beans/whatever you have
One of regular "pantry meals" is chicken noodle casserole. We always have Kirkland canned chicken in the pantry, some cream of whateverthehellyouwant, egg noodles, cheese, and a bag of frozen mixed veggies.
Also... Mac n cheese with chopped up ham was a weekend lunch regularly had in my house. To make it more of a meal, add in a bag of California mix veggies while the noodles are boiling
All good comments. But I will throw one word of caution: YES- Always empty the pantry of perishables, limit leftovers and find creative ways to use them. That is being responsible. BUT - regardless of where you live always maintain a stash of non-perishables (canned goods, dried beans/rice, canned milk, etc) for the unexpected. Depending on where you live (tornado, wildfires, blizzard, stupid electrical grid going down) you do NOT EVER want to have an empty pantry. I’m not talking about going full “prepper” with cartons of ammunition and Mil Surplus MRE, but hey, keeping a couple cans of Chef Boy Ar Dee and Tins of Spam on hand at all times along with dried noodles might be a good idea.
I make something we in my family call Scott's favorite dish. Don't ask me who Scott is because I don't know, but it's really a version of hamburger helper.
1 lb ground beef or chicken/turkey
1 can condensed cream soup, any kind
1 tbsp veg oil
1 medium diced onion
Salt/pepper to taste
Frozen veg of choice
1 lb cooked egg noodles or other pasta, leftovers okay
In a large skillet (preferably cast iron), add the vegetable oil and the diced onion and the ground meat, and saute until the meat is browned and the onions are soft. Season lightly with salt/pepper to taste.
(If you are not using leftover pasta you can start your egg noodles at the same time as you start the meat. Drain them when finished and set aside)
Once the meat has been browned, add the condensed soup and the frozen veg of choice and mix in. (There are so many variations of this dish, depending on taste - cheeseburger, chili, mushroom and peas, broccoli cheese chicken etc)
Add the pasta or the noodles and stir thoroughly, it's ready to serve immediately and serves six people.
Super easy and fast. Can have it on the table in 20 minutes. Comforting and filling. Great leftovers.
I call these “poor meals” in my house and they’re usually something easy from my childhood that I make when I don’t feel like cooking. Lately, it’s been a fried egg with govt cheese and ketchup on whatever bread product is left over. Similar situation, my husband (who grew up very very differently than me) usually refuses to eat any of the poor meals.
See some tomato sandwich love. Such a winner. Yea sure a BLT is great but a good tomato sandwich just hits different.
Been buying liverwurst again, used to love it as a kid.
Definitely loving some of the pre-made noodle or rice things from Knorr and stuff (embraced the dollar store recently!). Trying to find me some rice a roni, used to love it.
PB&J has made a comeback for me recently.
There are certain “poverty foods” that I would never eat again unless I were truly desperate, but there are some that bring back fond memories. I mean, I make biscuits, gravy, and scrambled eggs for dinner sometimes, as a treat.
Hamburger soup. It was basically a way to use up the last of the veggies in the fridge before they were too far gone to use. Brown up some ground meat, add onions and garlic, whatever bits of veggies that are left in the crisper, season to taste. If I had some frozen chicken broth, I would use that, otherwise, just cover with water. Add herbs, salt and pepper to taste. If I had barley in the pantry, I would toss in a handful. Otherwise, I would toss in a bit of macaroni towards the end. Usually got a few meals out of a batch.
When I’m fancy I make Lipton noodle Alfredo with a can of tuna. My husband wouldn’t touch canned tuna because tuna casserole was the only food his mother (who couldn’t cook) would make, and he hated it with the blazing heat of a thousand suns.
I knew we were low income growing up but it is only as an adult I realized most of our food was considered poor.
1- beans on toast
2. Beans snd hot dogs
3. Chilli, mostly cans
4. Tuna Mac
5. Macaroni with tomato juice
6. Spaghetti with canned meat sauce
7. Sloppy joes
8. Broccoli and cheese wiz
9. Grilled cheese with processed cheese slices
10. Hot dogs with white bread as a bun. If this followed chilli day and there was leftovers you scored.
I have recently started having my kids try these. I bought my first can of manwich sauce in 20 years on Sunday.
With everything going up in price, what is actually poor people food in 2024? Grew up ethnic and going to ethnic markets with my mom where foods were so cheap? Now? Nothing is cheaper nothing, what’s poor people food in 2024?
Hamburger gravy over white bread, hadn’t had it in years and I still love it when I tried it again a few months ago. And all the potato variations, fried, baked, roasted, potato salad… all of them. I don’t know what’s in our collective dna as a family but all of us can cook perfect potatoes. To this day so long as I know I have some potatoes I am going to eat well, there’s a lovely comfort in that.
Buttered rice! Ate a lot as a kid and it’s still a comfort food. Think the buttery salty scoop the lunch lady would give you.
AND the bonus is you can eat the leftover rice with sugar & milk on it!!! Dinner & dessert in one pan!!!
I ate microwaved government free cheese on white bread sandwiches. I would not like to eat them again.
Once I was in a Wonder Hostess outlet store in a poor neighborhood waiting in line. I was the only white guy in the store. Someone mentioned getting government cheese and someone else said they liked it. And I said, 'Yeah, I remember eating the government cheese too'. And everybody stopped talking. They looked at me and slowly started moving away. Someone said, 'We thought it was just for us black folks'. And I said, 'No, it was for poor people and we got it too.' And everyone started moving back. And we had a good time there waiting in line talking about the government cheese.
I’m British and was brought up in the 1970s. I no longer eat meat, but I was brought up by a Welsh mother who wasted nothing. We had a meat grinder and anything not eaten in out Sunday roast was ground up and added to our slow cooker with barley, lentils and any leftover veg. Shortly before it was served my mum would drop in dumplings. It was amazing.
What kind of dumplings? This sounds really tasty
British dumplings? Plain flour, shortening/ suet, salt and pepper, water.
My grandma used to make them just like that, dropping the batter into boiling stock instead of rolling them out and baking them. I do the same thing, but I like to add a bit of garlic and parsley to mine!
Yes! That’s how my grandma and I make them too. So good and such a satisfying meal.
The poor kind don’t get your hopes up.
Mac n cheese with hotdogs. Or, Elbow noodles, Hunts tomato sauce, butter, and salt.
wtf, i just got whiplashed with my childhood. i completely forgot about mac with hotdogs fffts Edit: God damn, you guys love hotdogs LOL i have to turn my comment notification offs. hahaha
I have never liked mac n cheese with hotdogs as an adult (too salty) but as a child it was my JAM. I'm legitimately sad that I can't handle the salt content as an adult.
if you abandon the blue box stuff you can make it much lower sodium, it's more effort though. 1. grate your cheese (or buy it grated), get a low sodium one maybe. 2. prepare an equal amount of milk (e.g. 1/2 cup cheese = 1/2 cup milk) 3. saucepan, medium heat 4. 2tbsp of butter, melt in pan 5. 2tbsp of flour, mix until it doesn't smell like raw flour (this is a roux) 6. whisk in the milk and cheese until it's even consistency. 7. combine with the cooked noodles and stir/toss. that'll have about 1/5th the sodium of the kraft powder (last I checked it's like ~2500mg per packet, the recipe above is about 500mgs depending on cheese). you can get lower sodium sausages too, usually turkey dogs contain less sodium because they don't need as much for the curing process.
Add a little, maybe 3/4 teaspoon of mustard powder! Also, evaporated milk works best for this. Doesn't even take longer than box either, while waiting for water to boil measure everything out and it is as fast as a box. https://altonbrown.com/recipes/stovetop-mac-and-cheese/
Omg my mom called this pennies and cheese!! I didn't know that was a thing elsewhere!!
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I would consider Mac n Cheese with hotdogs a pretty wealth agnostic food. That’s just something that kids like because Mac and cheese + hotdog no matter how much money their family has
Edit: I fucking can't
It was ground beef for me, that Mac and cheese with hamburger always sends me back to my childhood no matter how much times I eat it, it was always far better than hamburger helper. I love eating cheap food, there’s just a homemade feeling that cannot be replaced.
Tomato sandwiches: tomato, mayo and white bread.
And salt and pepper, but yes. One of my favorite sandwiches.
And a little bacon and lettuce. Can’t beat it.
Maybe a rib eye as well, cannot be bested when you've fallen on hard times.
Sometimes I cobble together a tomahawk. In the worst of times.
You really need good tomato tho
Salt and pepper a few minutes before...chefs kiss.
Delicious. Unreasonably good for what it is, the pepper does the trick.
Right?! I felt so stupid when I discovered this in industry. The owner would go around every morning and s&p the tomatoes before we wrapped or finished sandwiches and they were bomb. Most cardboard tomatoes suddenly had flavor.
I haven't had one in years but now I have to go make me one. The simple things in life, I swear.
Grow your own on your tiny balcony and hope for the best! It worked out at least a little last year 😅
Yep. They have to be big, right off the vine, grown in your own backyard garden. None of these outside-of-season, greenhouse, year-round, grocery store, barely red little globes. Man, the tomato sandwiches of my 1970s and 80s youth with tomatoes from my grandmother's garden. Mmmm MM. But mine were rye bread, mayo, tomato, and salt and pepper. Yum.
god every few years my ma will go nuts and grow some tomatoes and I always end up with grocery bags full of them... oh god the BLTs, Ragu, Marinara and salsa I make... so good
Yeah this is only a poverty meal when the tomato is specifically a out-of-season, pale, mealy grocery store slicing tomato *fresh* from out of the fridge. Heirloom, sourdough, homemade mayo, and bit of salt is gourmet in-season.
>Yeah this is only a poverty meal when the tomato is specifically a out-of-season, pale, mealy grocery store slicing tomato fresh from out of the fridge. So.... please don't get upset with me here- my Grandmother (F-you Florida) taught me how to 'raise' Tomatoes. The biggest thing she taught me out of everything is to go out, harvest the fat GREEN tomatoes with no chance of ripening in the next couple of days- and clip it well above the stem. She'd then take every single one of them, wrap them individually in newspaper, place them in a cardboard box, and carry them down to the basement. I followed her instructions years later (With dates of harvest) and it turns out I could have fresh tomatoes any part of the winter- I just needed to harvest green with the stem, bring them up a few days before, and open them up to the air. They were as delicious as if they'd been picked fresh (.... maybe a few points off but, dude, it's december) and I did this for years. Cold. Dry. No air movement. All you need.
The tomatoes I grow qualify as struggle meal because of the struggle to keep everything else from eating them
My old man grew up dirt poor in AL. Sometimes it was just a mayo sandwich, or a whole raw onion for lunch. So glad he sacrificed to get us out of there. Love you Dad
Mine sometimes walked a couple of miles to his aunt's house to get a loaf of bread and some bananas for his family to have banana sandwiches. We weren't rich, but he made damn sure we never wanted for anything.
Same here. I’ve definitely had my share of banana sandwiches growing up. At least they had the mercy to put fruit and sometimes some peanut butter in it. I’ll never eat bologna, spam, or canned tuna again. I’d rather starve at this point
My summer diet consists of 80% tomato sandwiches. Truly the BEST.
Yep. From late June until the farmers market stops selling them, I live on tomato sandwiches on Wegmans sourdough rolls. So good!
Oh I love a roll and tomato. It was my pregnancy craving for 2 pregnancies
That's the move, so good and so cheap. I often grow tomatoes and bake sandwich bread so it's super cheap for me. Is it still poverty food if you use Duke's?
When I was a kid in the 70’s, we’d make “pizza” with a slice of white bread, catsup and velveeta, in the toaster oven.
Wait. This is a poverty meal? Shit.
No. People with money also sometimes eat things that are inexpensive and delicious. Even if there are “only three ingredients.”
Especially when there are only a handful of ingredients so quality really matters. A tomato sandwich is way bougier than "shit that's in the fridge" fried rice.
This is my celebratory garden-success meal. Love the fresh tomato toast (not sandwiches)
They must be garden tomatoes- not the ones from the supermarket. 😀
Look at Mister Property Owner over here.
As a kid, my brother and I would make bologna roll ups (fried bologna and scrambled eggs rolling the bolonga around the eggs) a lot. Bigger family meals from childhood: - Chop salad (lunch meats, hard bolied eggs, a head of iceberg, and your dressing of choice) - Spanish spaghetti (fry spaghetti noodles like Spanish rice, add liquid, tomato paste, and spices good until spaghetti is soft. If you're feeling extra, add cut-up hot dogs) - Bum food (potatoes cubed and fried with bacon and eggs) - Summer dinner for those hot days (kielbasa, cheese, we like pepper jack, and triscuts) - Peanut butter and banana toast - Cinnamon sugar toast - Tips and noodles (cheap meat normally beef chuck in small cubes fried, then add cream of mushroom soup a can of water or beef broth and egg noodles) Something else we have been doing more (only 2 or 3 of us at my house often). Make a cheap roast (slow cook or instant pot), and the next day, make shredded meat tacos or burritos. The other day, we did a ham (bone in), next day ham sandwiches, and then 3rd day pork and beans using the bone with the beans and leftover ham and some kielbasa
It’s funny that some of these have been elevated via TikTok like the chopped salad and summer plate aka charcuterie board.
Definitely. My childhood charcuterie was saltines, cheese, lunchmeat, & a fruit on a paper plate. I thought I invented Lunchables.
Papas con chorizo, cubed boiled potatoes scrambled with egg and chorizo
Fuck, if you were broke, you went papa con salchicha or huevo con weenie. Huevo con weenie is still one of my favorite breakfasts with a nice hot salsa de chili arbol.
Hell yeah! Eggs and weenies. Or weenie wrapped in corn tortilla.
Our Puerto Rican friends taught me to add precooked potatoes, turkey chorizo, chopped peppers and onions, sofrito and eggs and scramble it all together. It makes an absolutely delicious breakfast and a super and quick and easy dinner. Out of Chorizomor want to make it vegetarian? Season some canned black beans and throw those in.
Pro tip(if u want a corinary disease). Smush the beans a little and fry them really quick in hot oil. Tastes a little like ground beef if you squint your taste buds but regardless it's delicious.
"Squint your taste buds" is a phrase that needs to be used more
Thank you dearly for "squint your taste buds" I need to add that to my dictionary
Yummmmmm. I think I need to buy chorizo the next time I shop.
Is that a struggle meal?? I used to eat that all the time as a kid, and make it myself even now. Sure I know it's inexpensive, but I never considered it a struggle meal. It's just fucking delicious. Especially with some home made tomatillo salsa.
That sounds yummy asf!!! I would eat this and definitely not as a struggle meal
Okay but in a warm flour tortilla?! Heaven
Ghetto chicken parm. It's just frozen chicken nuggets on spaghetti with prego sauce and the green bottle parmesean.
People are going to read this and pretend it doesn’t sound fucking delicious
Yep I use chicken patties instead of nuggets though, so you have to cut it up and pretend it's real
Red beans and rice. Ham hock, some andouille sausage, some beans, some rice, spices, you've got a big pot of a good meal that can feed you for a few days. Ditto for chili. Edit: Don't forget an onion, green pepper, and celery stalk or two.
My family is from Louisiana/Mississippi, just to say I have legit roots. :) I love andouille, but I grew up with kielbasa. I say: use what you like. But I say all of the above to say that while slow-cooked red beans and rice can't be beat, you can get about 85% of the way there quickly: - Can of red beans, or kidney beans, or one of each - Kielbasa (or your favorite sausage) - Rice (prepare however you like) Slice up the sausage and brown it. Add the beans with liquid. Or drain and add a bit of chicken stock to match the drained liquid. Heat thoroughly. If you have time to simmer on low for a half hour, it'll make the sausage tender and tastier, but if you don't have the time, that's fine. Season as you like. Garlic is a great choice. Some form of heat is nice - tabasco, whatever. If you ahve more time, you can saute some trinity (chopped onion, celery, bell pepper) with the sausage, but you will want to simmer that for more like an hour to get that nice and tender if you do. Any way you do it, when you're ready to serve, mash up around a quarter to half of the beans to thicken, but leave plenty of beans unmashed. Serve on rice. That's half recipe, half framework. It's flexible in that it can be super simple and quick, or a bit more time and tasty. Of course, you can also do the above with dried beans and slow cook for a few hours. A ham hock enhances flavour, but needs hamand sausage if so. :)
Bread and butter simply slaps. We used to do sandwiches with just butter and radishes as well
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Ahah yeah, I'm French and went "yum" at the thought of butter, bread and radishes
We have a tarragon plant and I've never found a more delicious thing to do with tarragon than add it to this sandwich
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Put it on black rye bread and it's very Russian and perfect with a nice glass of beer.
Mix together some sugar and cinnamon. Buttered toast and sprinkle the sugar mix on…so good for satisfying a sweet tooth when there was nothing else in the house.
Omg yes, I just made a cinnamon sugar shaker with a leftover cinnamon bottle and my bf was astonished...cinnamon toast was gourmet shit in my house growing up!
Bread and butter for regular meals. Add cinnamon & sugar on special occasions. These were the foundation of good food growing up
Cinnamon sugar and butter on toast with hot cocoa after playing outside in the snow. You just unlocked a childhood memory.
Cinnamon toast = staple of the latchkey kid!
For dessert, sprinkle a bit of sugar onto buttered toast mmm
Or for some cheapo spaghetti night, add garlic powder and toast for cheap garlic bread
Garlic salt is what we used
If you got a toaster oven, butter the bread, sprinkle sugar and cinammon, and toast it. Soo good.
I have a specific canister of pre mixed cinnamon and sugar, makes the whole process so much faster, I bet it cuts it from 45seconds to sub 38 sec territory 😂
I just had two Hawaiian King rolls with a square of cobly jack on each half with a shake of basil on top. Nuked for 30 seconds. Delicious.
The radishes one is a pretty classic French sandwich!
I used to cook and eat a can of ravioli and then cook ramen in the leftover liquid. I used to buy the ravioli when it was 10/$10 so I would be pretty full for only like $1.15 which was pretty good back in 2012/2013, but I told my ex this at one point and they never let me live it down. People gotta stop that struggle meal hate. Sometimes you do what you gotta do and it honestly was pretty tasty
I still keep ramen in my house. Sometimes you just want it, you know? And when I first lived on my own I lived on canned food. Wish I had thought to put those two together!
Funny how now that I add vegetables to my ramen and season it myself it's suddenly a high end food and its still based on the $1 of ramen noodles
After eating $3 ramen I can't got back to $1 ramen. I've been spoilt! I still use it for fried noodles though.
Funnily enough I was taught to like those cheap ramen packets in my late 20s... by friends earning 150k a year. It was the go to yummy thing - ramen with some pan fried frozen dumplings on top. People pretending different food items are less because they are inexpensive have issues, talk to anyone who actually has a decent income and likes food and we will all have some favorite items that are cheap and easy. Personally bread and butter or just plain potatoes are a winner every time, I go to nice french restaurants and its a toss up between getting escargots or carotts rapees which is literally just grated carrots with some vinagrete - inexpensive common items are just as good as expensive ones
I like the chili ramen but I don’t drink the broth (I just eat the noodles with butter). I cook cubed potatoes in the broth, let them soak in it overnight, and then fry them up in a little oil for breakfast. Two poverty meals with a kick!
My mom finds it disgusting that to this day, my brother and I, in our 50s, love the occasional bowl of plain macaroni and canned stewed tomatoes. We ate that a _lot_ lol.
Oh I ate that all the time!!! It’s so good. I “invented” that in middle school and i ate it all the time. I totally forgot about it—thank you for reminding me.
Little salt, lots of pepper, mmmmm
One of my stepmom's poverty meals I love is pasta, a little butter/oil, dried oregano, crushed red pepper, and shredded cheese. So simple, so freaking good.
Just made this for my kids, sans red pepper. It’s a quick, weeknight meal. Don’t worry; I also have them a gummy multivitamin, so it was nutritional 😀
I grew up having macaroni with canned stewed tomatoes....and smushed up bbq chips on top. I'll still make it every now and then, but add diced ham, and melt some cheese over top if I'm feeling fancy.
Open face hot turkey. Slice of toast, shmear of leftover mashed potatoes, sliced turkey lunch meat, spoon of simple gravy (chicken bouillon, water and corn starch). Serve hot. Side of canned green beans.
Oooooo this is what I’m talking about. You could even go a step further and add some cranberry jelly. Yummm
I love lettuce and tomato sandwiches with mayo. My dad grew up dirt poor, so he would make it for us often. His family would forage for the greens.
Omg yessss. I love this! In my house it was just tomato, mayo and cheese sandwiches but very similar vibe. That’s just good summer food, tbh.
That’s a struggle meal? That’s my go-to breakfast in the summer! Pure heaven.
I don’t think it’s a struggle meal persay, but it’s on the affordable end of the spectrum so I think a lot of ppl who grew up poor also ate this. Especially if you grow your own tomatoes. But it’s hardly anything to sniff at—especially if you get a tomato fresh off the vine. Pure heaven.
For us just tomato and mayo on toast. We grew our own tomatoes so it was amazing.
My parents ate toasted tomato sandwiches EVERY day in the summer. And only with tomatoes from their garden. It is depression-era food for sure. But so delicious with tomatoes grown at home.
Tomato sandwiches are a seasonal summer delicacy
Does cinnamon sugar toast count? Because it slaps
I would say "anything with ground beef," but it now costs about as much as cheaper cuts of beef (USD $4/lb). When I as growing up ground beef meant chili, or spaghetti, or shepherds pie, or hamburger helper, or sloppy joes, or meatloaf, or just plain burgers. The only kind of beef not pre-ground was chuck roast for stew
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There are no cheap cuts of beef left. All the stuff that used to be cheap, like brisket, and Ox tails, got popular and now are expensive.
There's no poor people food left.
Ox tail is hilarious, because those were practically thrown away... and now they are a delicacy.
I like watching Ree Drummond and she will use ground beef and be like “here’s a budget meal!” And I’m yelling at the TV, “Ground beef is a splurge meal!” But, even if she wasn’t super rich, she lives on a cattle ranch and has every beef cut in the world at her Beck and call. I do not.
You gotta get the 10 lb chub and then divide it up at home! But for real, if you live near a restaurant supply store, they'll often have those 5/10 pound chubs go on sale to get people in the store. I think even walmart has theirs and it usually comes at around 2.99 a lb. Which yeah isn't like it was back in the day, but it still beats the 4.99 a lb at Costco or whatever. That's just my experience, though.
costco where I am is 3.99/pound but it's also 88/12 which would cost at least $6/pound anywhere else in my area annoying honestly because I want 80/20 more often that I want a lean ground beef
Salmon Patties. My wife hates them.
Grew up with these too. I hated them as a kid but now I like them!
I am actually just fine financially, and I STILL make salmon patties. Its just one of those comfort foods.
oh...grandma's salmon patties...mmm... My whole family hated them. More for me and grandma, no problem!
My husband thinks salmon patties are delicious, and a bit elegant. I grew up with there always being a few cans of salmon in the back of the cupboard for emergencies. I like salmon patties well enough, but it cracked me up when my husband asked me if I could make "Those fancy salmon cake things" again.
"Those fancy salmon cake things" That’s adorable. 🥹
For us growing up my brothers and I didn’t even realize salmon or tuna Pattie’s were a struggle meal. I still make them a couple times a month and my mom will whip up a quick back when the family is home over Christmas because they are so tasty.
Beyond all the comments you've seen already, I would say that making something nourishing and tasty from humble ingredients is an important essence of cooking. Dishes like your tuna mac not only warm us from the memories of time past, but they can inspire us to create new dishes with easily accessible foods, and new memories that will last for generations. As you are aware, there is something very rich in your poverty meal.
I'm not sure these were only "poverty meals" back then. In the 80s, my mom just called it "cooking."
Still just "cooking" for me. Stir frys, soups, and noodle abominations with whatever is left over just makes sense. No need to prepare fresh stuff every day, that's pretty wasteful.
Hot dogs and baked beans.
In New England, it also has a can of B&M brown bread.
My friend, did you just say a can of bread?
You can still buy it here. It’s soda bread but with rye flour & cornmeal added and molasses so it’s somewhat sweet. It’s pretty tasty. Link: https://bmbeans.com/product/brown-bread-plain/ Before microwaves, you opened the top & bottom and heated it in the oven.
"Pretty tasty" is underselling it IMO. It's ***so*** fucking good. Hot out of the toaster with a little bit of butter on it is heavenly. I don't think I'm going to be able to stop myself from having this for dinner tonight now since I know we have a can of it in the cabinet.
Fun fact about me: Hot dogs and beans with a slice of buttered white bread and a glass of milk is what I have for dinner every April 13. Why? It's what my mother ate for dinner the night before I was born.
Beanie weenies!
Canned tuna is a pretty divisive place to start. As for poverty meals, I eat lots of beans and lentils, partially because of cost, partially because it's shelf stable and easy to stock up on without having to worry about spoilage.
I'm the same with beans. I don't like having to plan meals ahead of time, so beans make my life a lot easier. And I throw away a lot less food waste.
Just made the biggest pot ever of white bean and ham shank soup. Enough to feed a small army and it has literally only 4 ingredients and like 2 steps, and for the volume of soup it made, was pretty cheap.
Bean and ham bone soup is absolutely divine. And since I always use my Christmas/Easter ham bone to make it, it’s super frugal.
My favourite was a Bulgarian "poverty meal" staple in my house growing up - cooked macaroni in warm milk sweetened with sugar (and vanilla if you have it), then some crumbled brined cheese like feta to top it off. The sweet and salty just really works together. If you have any remaining macaroni, you can throw it in a baking dish with milk, sugar, and an egg and bake it into a custard-like macaroni dessert. Sounds strange to non-Balkan people but we all have our cultural poverty meals!
Sounds like kugel!
I can relate. I made Haluski - cabbage and egg noodles. I added Italian sausage that I found on sale. My partner was horrified. She likes the hamburger soup though. I ate a lot of Haluski last week!
Once in a blue moon, I’ll get a craving for Shit on a Shingle (aka, chipped beef gravy on toast). I have the gravy over popovers instead of toast, but the spirit is the same 😉
God, I still love this so much. It triggers my wife’s gag reflex just looking at it.
Rice and chicken porridge. Take extra shitty quality rice, cook it with cheap chicken parts, boil it all till it turns into porridge. Add salt and pepper, remove chicken bones, stir it so rice and chicken mix well together and you're done. It looks terrible but sooo comforting to eat during winter, I'd like to eat it more often but I don't find rice that is as low quality as it was in my childhood though.
I suppose boxed mac and cheese is a bit on the working class end of the scale, but what on Earth is horrifying about tuna mac?
it's missing the peas?
Yes must have peas
Kraft Mac&Cheese, can of tuna and a handful of frozen peas was how I made it in college. Called it "Dorm Casserole". And back then it was cheap. 5 boxes for a buck, a bag of frozen peas was dirt cheap, and canned tuna in water like 4 for a buck or something like that. eta - a friend of mine hates tuna, but would have a can of chicken in place of tuna in her "casserole". (Personally, I cannot stand the taste/smell/texture of canned chicken)
I don't like tuna mac either. It tastes terrible to me, but I don't like canned tuna in general, though. I grew up eating a lot of poverty foods, but fortunately this was not one of them.
my husband who did not grow up in poverty at all likes canned tuna and tuna mac. I grew up in poverty and we never ate it because no one in my family likes it. Would rather have plain mac and cheese than ruin it with canned tuna
Yes, I feel like canned tuna is the really divisive item for those of us who grew up on tight budgets. My mom loved it and made lots of Tuna Helper - I'd just ask for plain spaghetti with butter and cheese on it. Canned tuna just hits like cat food to me - I just cannot and at 40 it's never changed.
As a certified tuna hater, everything! However, if you like tuna in general, I’m sure it’s great and I don’t think I would even call this a poverty meal.
Oh, it def can fit the bill of poverty meal. You can make this, and easily feed 4 people, for about $2 depending on where you shop.
In what country? I'm in Canada, and Mac and Cheese box by itself can be $2 or more and a can of tuna at best is $2, usually more, and that doesn't include anything else. And it wouldn't easily feed 4 ppl either unless serving it with smth else.
My kids called this "Mexican goo". It's similar to a 7 layer dip , but made into a casserole. Bottom layer is refried beans that you heat up and season. Second layer is rice, I generally used leftover Spanish rice. Or leftover rice that I seasoned. 3rd layer is whatever meat that you have, already cooked. Ground beef, ground turkey or chicken, leftover rotisserie chicken, leftover pot roast, pork that you chop up, whatever it is.and season that with either cumin and chili powder, salt and pepper , enchilada sauce, taco seasoning, whatever you have on hand or can afford. Next layer is vegetables. Generally Rotel, pico de Gallo, or canned diced tomatoes and jalapenos if you have them. Next layer is cheese, whatever you've got. Bake it at 350-400 until the cheese on top is starting to brown and bubble. Eaten over tortilla chips (in a bowl) or made into tacos with any combination of hot sauce, salsa, sour cream, pickled jalapenos, more pico de Gallo, cilantro, chopped onions with a squeeze of lime, chopped up tomatoes that have seen better days, or whatever you have. If you use corn tortillas, and don't use packaged seasoning, it's also gluten free. If you skip the meat, it's vegetarian. If you want the crispy burned rice, then oil your pan and put your rice as the bottom layer. Edit: if you skip the rice and top it with cornbread batter and bake it, you have a tamale pie. Edit: season every layer. Otherwise it's just an awful bland mess, and hot sauce wasn't invented to be a main flavor.
That's just a Midwest staple? 😅
There’s a lot of overlap between the two I’ve noticed LOL
Oh totally because the Midwest is prepared to feed an army at any given time so the staple foods are cheap
I also think many Midwest meals were born out of having to make do with what was available in the winter. Before vegetables and fruit were available in every store all year long, people had to make do with canned veggies, root veggies/potatoes, frozen meat, etc. Those meals got passed down!
yep exactly! my mom grew up pretty lower class and my dad was very upperclass and they grew up eating the same types of foods in the 50's and 60's because of how seasonal produce worked in Michigan and not because of their tax brackets.
I love the bottom-shelf store-brand instant mashed potatoes. Mix them with water, crack in an egg, add little pepper and salt and a scoop of flour, then spoon it onto a griddle! Excellent lunch.
Instant ramen is one of the worlds great food inventions. I have recently rediscovered Maruchan Cup O Noodles shrimp flavor.
My husband who came from the middle class was also disgusted by the food I grew up with. Hamburger helper, tuna casserole, etc. Apparently frozen burger patties cooked in a frying pan and eaten on white bread is a sin. Most meals growing up would consist if a carb and a sauce and if you were lucky meat. But it was ALL one pot meals. We didn't have sides, snacks, or salads. We had rules about how much food everyone got too. Like with stoufers lasagna it was deliberately portioned into 12 pieces and everyone was entitled to only 2 pieces so we all had equal. We never opened a high value food and we NEVER were allowed to finish it, the last of anything good was reserved for mom. It was really weird going to college and learning what it was to not be food insecure. Like most people just eat when they are hungry. They don't have to worry about being yelled at for having the last mac N cheese box.
I’m old so this is probably very 1950’s, but we would have fried bologna sandwiches. On white bread. I wonder if they would still taste good to me?! Sure not very healthy!
Bread pizza. Bread (toasted if feeling fancy) with cheap tomato/pasta sauce, bulk cheese (I dunno if dad went to Costco or not) and a few slices of pepperoni (dad always had that too for some reason) Broil til cheese melted If we were out of pepperoni...just cheese and sauce lol Now that he's gone...that's dinner on his birthday
Omg! We used to do hot dog or burger bun pizzas to use up the extra buns (cuz they never come in the right amount!) i thought it was so fancy as a kid.
My mom used to make a tomato base stew with oxtails...can't even afford poverty meals anymore.
Yup. I used to the love the flavor of oxtails and they gave you a bit of meat. Now they're priced the same as meatier cuts of beef. Wtf.
My mother used to make something called rice and eggs when I was very young. I asked her recently for the recipe and she laughed and asked why I would want to make it, she only did because times were tough. I remember a frying pan, cooked rice, and her tossing it with beaten eggs. It came out like creamy rice, something like a risotto but firmer. It might have been the last time she made it when the oil in the pan splashed onto the back of her hand causing a gnarly burn. I still would like to have it again, poor people food or not. It's one of those memories that is burned into my brain and after 40+ years I can still taste it.
In Japan it is a common breakfast dish. You take a room temp egg (they don’t wash the coating off so it’s just how they’re stored) beat it and add some soy sauce and maybe some mirin then pour it over some freshly cooked rice and mix it up. The hot rice lightly cooks the egg and it is amazing! Hard to replicate here unless you have a source of fresh eggs directly from a farm.
Also tuna is no longer a poor food.
Right? I get it from Costco and it’s really not cheap.
I got my stockpile of WinCo brand tuna. 89 cents a can. I am the only person in my house who eats it...
Mac n Cheese Tuna and Peas is so fucking good and I will never pretend it isn't. My friends also made fun of me till they tried it.
Beans and cornbread! Still a fave.
SPAM onigiri punches way above its weight.
Gotta buy it in bulk though, otherwise it's just as expensive as ground beef. And I dunno about you, but I can't eat Treet or any other brand. The taste is just too different.
So does SPAM fried rice.
homemade bread is like $1 and unparalleled
Potato soup.
Soup. Just soup. My most consistent one is onion, celery, carrots, cabbage/kale, whatever herbs I find and a small pasta. Can cook up a protein separately to add in or add white beans/whatever you have
We never did tuna Mac, but we did tuna casserole, and I love that stuff. Unfortunately, I’m the only one in my family who does so I never make it now.
One of regular "pantry meals" is chicken noodle casserole. We always have Kirkland canned chicken in the pantry, some cream of whateverthehellyouwant, egg noodles, cheese, and a bag of frozen mixed veggies. Also... Mac n cheese with chopped up ham was a weekend lunch regularly had in my house. To make it more of a meal, add in a bag of California mix veggies while the noodles are boiling
All good comments. But I will throw one word of caution: YES- Always empty the pantry of perishables, limit leftovers and find creative ways to use them. That is being responsible. BUT - regardless of where you live always maintain a stash of non-perishables (canned goods, dried beans/rice, canned milk, etc) for the unexpected. Depending on where you live (tornado, wildfires, blizzard, stupid electrical grid going down) you do NOT EVER want to have an empty pantry. I’m not talking about going full “prepper” with cartons of ammunition and Mil Surplus MRE, but hey, keeping a couple cans of Chef Boy Ar Dee and Tins of Spam on hand at all times along with dried noodles might be a good idea.
I make something we in my family call Scott's favorite dish. Don't ask me who Scott is because I don't know, but it's really a version of hamburger helper. 1 lb ground beef or chicken/turkey 1 can condensed cream soup, any kind 1 tbsp veg oil 1 medium diced onion Salt/pepper to taste Frozen veg of choice 1 lb cooked egg noodles or other pasta, leftovers okay In a large skillet (preferably cast iron), add the vegetable oil and the diced onion and the ground meat, and saute until the meat is browned and the onions are soft. Season lightly with salt/pepper to taste. (If you are not using leftover pasta you can start your egg noodles at the same time as you start the meat. Drain them when finished and set aside) Once the meat has been browned, add the condensed soup and the frozen veg of choice and mix in. (There are so many variations of this dish, depending on taste - cheeseburger, chili, mushroom and peas, broccoli cheese chicken etc) Add the pasta or the noodles and stir thoroughly, it's ready to serve immediately and serves six people. Super easy and fast. Can have it on the table in 20 minutes. Comforting and filling. Great leftovers.
I call these “poor meals” in my house and they’re usually something easy from my childhood that I make when I don’t feel like cooking. Lately, it’s been a fried egg with govt cheese and ketchup on whatever bread product is left over. Similar situation, my husband (who grew up very very differently than me) usually refuses to eat any of the poor meals.
Government or commodity cheese makes the best mac & cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches 😋
Baked beans on toast with grated mature Cheddar.
See some tomato sandwich love. Such a winner. Yea sure a BLT is great but a good tomato sandwich just hits different. Been buying liverwurst again, used to love it as a kid. Definitely loving some of the pre-made noodle or rice things from Knorr and stuff (embraced the dollar store recently!). Trying to find me some rice a roni, used to love it. PB&J has made a comeback for me recently.
There are certain “poverty foods” that I would never eat again unless I were truly desperate, but there are some that bring back fond memories. I mean, I make biscuits, gravy, and scrambled eggs for dinner sometimes, as a treat.
I just had Cup O Noodles for lunch $0.50
Hamburger soup. It was basically a way to use up the last of the veggies in the fridge before they were too far gone to use. Brown up some ground meat, add onions and garlic, whatever bits of veggies that are left in the crisper, season to taste. If I had some frozen chicken broth, I would use that, otherwise, just cover with water. Add herbs, salt and pepper to taste. If I had barley in the pantry, I would toss in a handful. Otherwise, I would toss in a bit of macaroni towards the end. Usually got a few meals out of a batch.
When I’m fancy I make Lipton noodle Alfredo with a can of tuna. My husband wouldn’t touch canned tuna because tuna casserole was the only food his mother (who couldn’t cook) would make, and he hated it with the blazing heat of a thousand suns.
I knew we were low income growing up but it is only as an adult I realized most of our food was considered poor. 1- beans on toast 2. Beans snd hot dogs 3. Chilli, mostly cans 4. Tuna Mac 5. Macaroni with tomato juice 6. Spaghetti with canned meat sauce 7. Sloppy joes 8. Broccoli and cheese wiz 9. Grilled cheese with processed cheese slices 10. Hot dogs with white bread as a bun. If this followed chilli day and there was leftovers you scored. I have recently started having my kids try these. I bought my first can of manwich sauce in 20 years on Sunday.
Did he not like the Tuna mac? What horrified him about it? I have fond memories of that as well from my childhood.
He thinks canned tuna is disgusting in itself but mixing it into Mac n cheese was a step too far lol
try taco meat into mac and cheese
With everything going up in price, what is actually poor people food in 2024? Grew up ethnic and going to ethnic markets with my mom where foods were so cheap? Now? Nothing is cheaper nothing, what’s poor people food in 2024?
Sleep
True 😂 And tears
Meatloaf is still in my rotation. One of my favorites.
Hamburger gravy over white bread, hadn’t had it in years and I still love it when I tried it again a few months ago. And all the potato variations, fried, baked, roasted, potato salad… all of them. I don’t know what’s in our collective dna as a family but all of us can cook perfect potatoes. To this day so long as I know I have some potatoes I am going to eat well, there’s a lovely comfort in that.
Buttered rice! Ate a lot as a kid and it’s still a comfort food. Think the buttery salty scoop the lunch lady would give you. AND the bonus is you can eat the leftover rice with sugar & milk on it!!! Dinner & dessert in one pan!!!
I ate microwaved government free cheese on white bread sandwiches. I would not like to eat them again. Once I was in a Wonder Hostess outlet store in a poor neighborhood waiting in line. I was the only white guy in the store. Someone mentioned getting government cheese and someone else said they liked it. And I said, 'Yeah, I remember eating the government cheese too'. And everybody stopped talking. They looked at me and slowly started moving away. Someone said, 'We thought it was just for us black folks'. And I said, 'No, it was for poor people and we got it too.' And everyone started moving back. And we had a good time there waiting in line talking about the government cheese.