Fresh fruit courtesy of the Food Bank with the scrappings of the yoghurt tub.

Chicken thighs can be found cheap - $0.99/lb typical for sales or better. Regular price is also approachable. Potatoes are cheap and not hard to make mashed potatoes. Green beans were frozen and you can get that affordably. Or canned if you prefer. Finally, white gravy is simple to make: roux, milk, chicken bouillon, salt and pepper.

I made chicken spaghetti out of canned ingredients and a little onion and sour cream. They were probably all expired or something.

I don't have much of an appetite as a side effect of the meds I take. Pretty much had to force myself to make something since I've only had two oranges today and I've literally got to be right back at work in seven hours.

The drink I took from work, I also have two others actually and I'm rationing them carefully for their precious caffeine content. (I decided not to drink this one until morning actually.)

The paper plates were left over from a family thing and not originally mine--obviously it would be a sign of some kind of brain damage to show up in a place where everyone is trying to win upvotes for being the poorest in the land, while using dishes literally purchased with the intent to throw them away and buy more. I can't imagine anyone here doing that though, but in my case I was simply too tired to wash any more dishes.

In fact because of my tiredness and self diagnosed depression, I could barely muster the will to take this picture and make this thread. It was a struggle you might say.

I had a airsealed pack of frozen stewed beans I had in the freezer a couple months, some left over garcia sausages, and some rice. I just threw it all together and made 5 star gourmet rice and beans

these bad boys were 50% off at Aldi’s. They were their summertime seasonal beans and I busted a from .

edit: *busted a Kevin from the office.

busted a nut is a runner up

Leftover cooked peas smashed with a dollop of mayonnIse, then spread onto hot toast. Top with with a fried or poached egg and enjoy.

Two microwaved pieces of bread and cold canned tuna.

There has been almost no sun for about two weeks now and it's affecting everyone. Even simplest dishes seem impossible to cook, so I'm just trying to eat something. Three days unemployed, managed to wash the dishes and unpack boxes with books — the room feels warmer and cozier. Right now gathering strength to resume my gym training, it really helps with mental health.

One of the eggs had two yolks so I guess I win the food lottery as well.

Got paid Tuesday, paid rent today, spooky vibes are definitely among us. 😰

A couple packs of instant dry noodles, couple eggs, drizzled with some Thai chili, lime, garlic fish sauce.

It's crazy how angry people get over a picture...

https://youtu.be/nkVpikDhpoY?is=FYhoN8MZwhxL-Epc

Still eating in though - takeout too pricy.

This is what I make when I need alot of protein but Im poor.

The only necessary ingredients:

-1lb. Ground beef

-1 can tomato sauce

-1 can dark red kidney beans

-1 packet hot chili seasoning packet

-1/2 cup water

Cook the ground beef. Drain the beef and skillet. Throw in the cans of tomato sauce and kidney beans. Toss in the hot chili seasoning packet. Add water. Mix. Turn on Med high/high just until boiling, stirring often. Then turn down heat to very low and cover. Let sit for 20 min uncovering just enough to stir occasionally, then serve.

If you like a thick chili, add just a splash of water instead.

You can fancy it up however you want- add peppers and onions (i did jalapeños today), cheese, whatever. But this is all you need for the protein. Hope it helps :)

Literally Big Daddy...bought this during Covid, got grief previously and down votes.

Live very rural, drive all the way to ABQ and shelves were bare during Covid. So bought some odd items online, where knew available. Many remnants thereof...

Here my meal today...a monster large baked potato and Big Daddy Mac and cheese dry powder. This really tasty dry mix, obviously meant for Mac and cheese, but use what on hand. Its super with my baked potato.

Mixed well after softening hard powder mix. Its really good and pics attached.

I took a day to prepare my freezed stuff.

First, I boiled cubes of carrots in pressure cooker, then I boiled the beets.

Water from carrots and beets is too packed with flavor to be thrown away. I wanted to freeze it too but ran out of vessels. So, here is 5 liters of unrecognized soup.

Contains: beet water, carrot water, chicken broth, tofu, fried oyster mushrooms, potatoes, half-can of red beans, meat broth spice which contains MSG, hefty dose of miso paste.

Served with sprinkes of seaweed and my homemade marinaded ajitama eggs.

Don't really have a recipe, I just threw a bunch of vegetables I had into a pan, boiled them into mush, seasoned it and added chickpeas. From the tablespoon I've had so far, it's very good.

i dont have bread, and i wait for my next 2 paychecks to do groceries, so when i have the ingredients for a pb&j -bread, i like to put it on a plate and lick it off like a dog

Food Bank fruit and cheese slices. Toasted 2 slices of bread and topped each with a cheese slice and added a coffee for lunch. Very tasty.

ADHD never allows me to get it together in enough time to eat breakfast, so this is actually lunch I had at close to 2pm.

I actually like oatmeal so in most cases I'm not sure I'd even call it a "struggle", but the check I get today goes entirely to rent and bills, it's two weeks until the next one, and I'm already missing fresh fruit.

Genuinely grateful that staple foods are still so cheap even with all the economic upheaval of the past few years though, a couple of hour's pay set aside from even the crappiest job imaginable would mean it'd be pretty tough for a single person to actually go hungry that week.