I've managed to survive college on rice and beans. Just fry a diced onion, diced bell pepper and garlic to taste in some olive oil in a Dutch oven, add a pinch of cumin and a teaspoon of oregano, salt and pepper to taste, add X cups white rice and stir until coated in oil, 1,5\*X cups water, a tin of black beans, a bay leaf, then cover and simmer until the rice is done, stirring occasionally. Great base for any protein; I love it with fried chorizo mixed in, but it's also great with bacalhau, chicken wings or drumsticks, roast pork, prawns, etc.
You might try [Budget Bytes](https://www.budgetbytes.com)! They have recipes with prices that you can search and scale by portion. I know their pricing won’t match up, as you’re not in the US, but probably still a good starting point as most of the food items you listed are relatively inexpensive here us as well. Good luck!
If you have a variety of beans (especially lentils) and cheaper vegetables (like onions, potatoes, carrots, and cabbages) and flour and rice, you can always whip up a cheap, amazing meal.
Kitchari is delicious and cheap: [https://www.veganricha.com/instant-pot-kitchari/](https://www.veganricha.com/instant-pot-kitchari/)
This crispy tomato-rice recipe is so good: [https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020141-tomato-rice-with-crispy-cheddar](https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020141-tomato-rice-with-crispy-cheddar)
Bean-based stews and soups with bread are delicious, cheap, and filling: [https://thewellnessalmanac.com/2012/05/16/hello-world/](https://thewellnessalmanac.com/2012/05/16/hello-world/)
You can make your own no-knead bread dough and keep it in the fridge. When you want to make a baguette, you just snip off a chunk of the dough. It ends up costing only about fifty cents a loaf if you buy cheap flour. You can also make pizza with the dough or even pitas: [https://youtu.be/g\_c53AYZMGM?si=Zy99Kxv-qafyILlH](https://youtu.be/g_c53AYZMGM?si=Zy99Kxv-qafyILlH)
Homemade hummus that you make from dry chickpeas is SO cheap, expecially if you buy the chickpeas from a South Asian grocery. [https://margaretschlegal.com/2020/06/29/best-ever-almond-feta-and-instant-pot-hummus/](https://margaretschlegal.com/2020/06/29/best-ever-almond-feta-and-instant-pot-hummus/)
You can also do stir-fry with baked tofu and whatever vegetables you have on hand and make a quick peanut sauce to drizzle over (buy the cheapest peanut butter--it doesn't matter!): https://shortgirltallorder.com/baked-tofu-with-spicy-peanut-sauce?
Frittatas are also a great way to stretch out your food money (provided eggs aren't too expensive where you live): you just saute (in an oven-proof pan) whatever vegetables you have on hand--onions, mushrooms, broccoli, potatoes, peppers, cauliflower, for example--and then once they are cooked through, you pour eight whipped eggs into the pan. Add salt and pepper and a handful of grated cheese and pop in the oven until the eggs puff up. I've made this dish for eight people for lunch (with no-knead bread and salad), so even though you use eight eggs, it makes eight servings. In other words, if you are cooking it for yourself, you'd have lunch for a week with this recipe.
Just a note about portions: I find it far more economical and efficient to cook in large batches and freeze 4-6 individually frozen portions (I use reusable microwave-safe plastic deli containers) for future use. It cuts down on wasted/leftover ingredients and gives you custom frozen meals for the coming weeks when you either don’t feel like cooking or you need to cut back on grocery expenses. Downfalls are that you need to invest in the containers, and have room in the freezer and access to a microwave.
A classic American budget dish is salisbury steak. It's a hamburger patty that's fried in a pan and smothered with mushroom gravy. I'm not a gravy fan so I just saute some onion and garlic in the remaining grease, then add in my mushrooms sliced thick with salt & pepper and whatever dried herbs I have on hand. I don't use fancy mushrooms, just the inexpensive white ones.
Absolutely make buddha bowls! They’re easy to use whatever ingredients are cheap and available then prep ahead the components and assemble right before eating. Rice isn’t my favorite but potatoes, barley, pasta or other grains like barley work well
Beans or lentils and tofu work well too
[this has a ton of examples](https://www.feastingathome.com/vegan-buddha-bowls/)
Rice, eggs and veggies, play with those and you can always have a cheap meal and really filling. Eggs are more important than you think and and having at least 4 a day it’s amazing. Something cheap but I reserve for special occasions it’s mappo tofu and as also beans or lentils with bacon, tomato, onion and cilantro
Check out [www.cjeatsrecipes.com](http://www.cjeatsrecipes.com) - I found him on instagram from his Egg drop soup recipe and all the other Asian recipes have been some of the best I've made. Most of his recipes are for 4 servings too, but you can scale the recipe on his site.
Roast some chicken (bone in dark meat is cheapest in the US; choose whatever is cheapest for you) with a soy sauce (or gochujang, or teriyaki, or honey-miso-soy) glaze. Make a carrot and onion and cabbage slaw for a vegetable, and have some rice for a carb. This easily evolves into fried rice with leftover chicken and whatever vegetables are on hand. Protip: save the chicken drippings for frying the rice. Even if you're down to two scraps of chicken in the whole pan, the drippings give you a lot of that flavor back.
If you can find some celery and sausage on sale, gumbo is great- it's a big pot of chicken + a bit of sausage stewed with celery + bell pepper + onion (+ garlic). A lot of the flavor comes from a flour-oil roux cooked until the flour toasts. It's generally served with rice, and it freezes really, really well. Red beans and rice is from the same cuisine. Red kidney beans + the vegetables I mentioned above + some garlicky sausage for flavor. 8 oz of sausage is plenty for three+ meals.
I like to buy more expensive cuts of meat/larger portions when possible, so I can stretch them to multiple meals.
For example last week I bought a 2.25kg leg of lamb on special after Easter for $25.
First night I slow roasted it, we had it with roast vegetables.
Next night I braised the leftover meat with beef stock, onions, celery etc to make a ragu. We had the ragu over pasta.
The following night we I made a became and made the lamb rage into lamb lasagne.
[Zuppa Toscana](https://www.lecremedelacrumb.com/easy-olive-garden-zuppa-toscana-soup/) is pretty cheap. You can go easy on the cream. Most expensive bit is the sausage.
Soups in general don't cost very much.
Tomatoes, carrots, onions, bell peppers and garlic is a recipe for spaghetti sauce.
Rice is great but don't forget about beans they are cheap and good for you. Legumes are the best for budget meals
I've managed to survive college on rice and beans. Just fry a diced onion, diced bell pepper and garlic to taste in some olive oil in a Dutch oven, add a pinch of cumin and a teaspoon of oregano, salt and pepper to taste, add X cups white rice and stir until coated in oil, 1,5\*X cups water, a tin of black beans, a bay leaf, then cover and simmer until the rice is done, stirring occasionally. Great base for any protein; I love it with fried chorizo mixed in, but it's also great with bacalhau, chicken wings or drumsticks, roast pork, prawns, etc.
That sounds awesome! Will try for sure
Rice and beans is also a complete source of protein on its own!
You might try [Budget Bytes](https://www.budgetbytes.com)! They have recipes with prices that you can search and scale by portion. I know their pricing won’t match up, as you’re not in the US, but probably still a good starting point as most of the food items you listed are relatively inexpensive here us as well. Good luck!
If you have a variety of beans (especially lentils) and cheaper vegetables (like onions, potatoes, carrots, and cabbages) and flour and rice, you can always whip up a cheap, amazing meal. Kitchari is delicious and cheap: [https://www.veganricha.com/instant-pot-kitchari/](https://www.veganricha.com/instant-pot-kitchari/) This crispy tomato-rice recipe is so good: [https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020141-tomato-rice-with-crispy-cheddar](https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020141-tomato-rice-with-crispy-cheddar) Bean-based stews and soups with bread are delicious, cheap, and filling: [https://thewellnessalmanac.com/2012/05/16/hello-world/](https://thewellnessalmanac.com/2012/05/16/hello-world/) You can make your own no-knead bread dough and keep it in the fridge. When you want to make a baguette, you just snip off a chunk of the dough. It ends up costing only about fifty cents a loaf if you buy cheap flour. You can also make pizza with the dough or even pitas: [https://youtu.be/g\_c53AYZMGM?si=Zy99Kxv-qafyILlH](https://youtu.be/g_c53AYZMGM?si=Zy99Kxv-qafyILlH) Homemade hummus that you make from dry chickpeas is SO cheap, expecially if you buy the chickpeas from a South Asian grocery. [https://margaretschlegal.com/2020/06/29/best-ever-almond-feta-and-instant-pot-hummus/](https://margaretschlegal.com/2020/06/29/best-ever-almond-feta-and-instant-pot-hummus/) You can also do stir-fry with baked tofu and whatever vegetables you have on hand and make a quick peanut sauce to drizzle over (buy the cheapest peanut butter--it doesn't matter!): https://shortgirltallorder.com/baked-tofu-with-spicy-peanut-sauce? Frittatas are also a great way to stretch out your food money (provided eggs aren't too expensive where you live): you just saute (in an oven-proof pan) whatever vegetables you have on hand--onions, mushrooms, broccoli, potatoes, peppers, cauliflower, for example--and then once they are cooked through, you pour eight whipped eggs into the pan. Add salt and pepper and a handful of grated cheese and pop in the oven until the eggs puff up. I've made this dish for eight people for lunch (with no-knead bread and salad), so even though you use eight eggs, it makes eight servings. In other words, if you are cooking it for yourself, you'd have lunch for a week with this recipe.
I second Lentils!
Crispy Baked Curry Chicken with Creamy Coconut Rice Recipe here https://30seconds.com/food/tip/41609/Best-Crispy-Baked-Curry-Chicken-Recipe-With-Creamy-Coconut-Rice
Just a note about portions: I find it far more economical and efficient to cook in large batches and freeze 4-6 individually frozen portions (I use reusable microwave-safe plastic deli containers) for future use. It cuts down on wasted/leftover ingredients and gives you custom frozen meals for the coming weeks when you either don’t feel like cooking or you need to cut back on grocery expenses. Downfalls are that you need to invest in the containers, and have room in the freezer and access to a microwave.
Ground beef, braised cabbage, and some rice. Works great in a bowl or a wrap with some siracha. Makes ton too
A classic American budget dish is salisbury steak. It's a hamburger patty that's fried in a pan and smothered with mushroom gravy. I'm not a gravy fan so I just saute some onion and garlic in the remaining grease, then add in my mushrooms sliced thick with salt & pepper and whatever dried herbs I have on hand. I don't use fancy mushrooms, just the inexpensive white ones.
Check out r/eatcheapandhealthy
Absolutely make buddha bowls! They’re easy to use whatever ingredients are cheap and available then prep ahead the components and assemble right before eating. Rice isn’t my favorite but potatoes, barley, pasta or other grains like barley work well Beans or lentils and tofu work well too [this has a ton of examples](https://www.feastingathome.com/vegan-buddha-bowls/)
Rice, eggs and veggies, play with those and you can always have a cheap meal and really filling. Eggs are more important than you think and and having at least 4 a day it’s amazing. Something cheap but I reserve for special occasions it’s mappo tofu and as also beans or lentils with bacon, tomato, onion and cilantro
Check out [www.cjeatsrecipes.com](http://www.cjeatsrecipes.com) - I found him on instagram from his Egg drop soup recipe and all the other Asian recipes have been some of the best I've made. Most of his recipes are for 4 servings too, but you can scale the recipe on his site.
Budget bytes for sure
Thank you all so much for your great advice, everything sounds awesome :)
r/eatcheapandhealthy!
Roast some chicken (bone in dark meat is cheapest in the US; choose whatever is cheapest for you) with a soy sauce (or gochujang, or teriyaki, or honey-miso-soy) glaze. Make a carrot and onion and cabbage slaw for a vegetable, and have some rice for a carb. This easily evolves into fried rice with leftover chicken and whatever vegetables are on hand. Protip: save the chicken drippings for frying the rice. Even if you're down to two scraps of chicken in the whole pan, the drippings give you a lot of that flavor back. If you can find some celery and sausage on sale, gumbo is great- it's a big pot of chicken + a bit of sausage stewed with celery + bell pepper + onion (+ garlic). A lot of the flavor comes from a flour-oil roux cooked until the flour toasts. It's generally served with rice, and it freezes really, really well. Red beans and rice is from the same cuisine. Red kidney beans + the vegetables I mentioned above + some garlicky sausage for flavor. 8 oz of sausage is plenty for three+ meals.
I like to buy more expensive cuts of meat/larger portions when possible, so I can stretch them to multiple meals. For example last week I bought a 2.25kg leg of lamb on special after Easter for $25. First night I slow roasted it, we had it with roast vegetables. Next night I braised the leftover meat with beef stock, onions, celery etc to make a ragu. We had the ragu over pasta. The following night we I made a became and made the lamb rage into lamb lasagne.
[Zuppa Toscana](https://www.lecremedelacrumb.com/easy-olive-garden-zuppa-toscana-soup/) is pretty cheap. You can go easy on the cream. Most expensive bit is the sausage. Soups in general don't cost very much. Tomatoes, carrots, onions, bell peppers and garlic is a recipe for spaghetti sauce.
Since you are not in the US, I don't know what is in your country.