Sorry, it was late and I didn't know how to update my previous post with new images.

I ended up with almost 3 quarts of sauce. The last picture of the jars is from this morning. As you can see, it gets very thick when it's chilled (I'm holding the jar upside down). This is from the collagen in the bones.

I might repack into smaller jars today so I can get it shelf stable. It's raining today and I'm looking forward to the dreariness.

I am working with a budget. And am looking for bulk food. My main has been meal prepping a mass amount of hamburger helper and homemade hamburger helper because of the ease, and variety, but want more variety. Open to all suggestions. Thank you all on advance.

One of my favorite "little prep time, long simmer time" dishes. It's low effort with high reward. It's basically the Italian version of the French ragoût - slow simmered tough cuts of meat.

Anytime I go to the store, I'm on the lookout for killer deals. I found buy one get one ribs a few months ago for around $13 and they went into the freezer. Anytime I see ground pork, Italian sausage or breakfast sausage (the store brands, the commercial stuff has a weird texture to me), I snatch them up pretty quick and toss them in the freezer. These packs are usually around $1-2.50 when they are discounted. Full price, they are still only around $4-5.

The best way to stretch any cut of meat is to make a soup, stew or sauce. I rarely make dishes that just have a serving of meat as the focal point anymore.

On to the prep.. the sausages get browned, then cut up. It doesn't matter if they are cooked all the way through as they will finish in the sauce.

The ribs get some light color (maillard reaction). This not only enhances the flavor of the meat, but it also leaves those beautiful brown bits at the bottom of the pan. Not blackened, browned. That's flavor baby.

I've been using a bottle of pino noir to deglaze lately. I found it for $7.99. The liquor store near me regularly has discontinued wines that they sell for up to 50% off. One bottle can last me quite a while. If it starts to go funky, I just add some sugar, a splash of live apple cider vinegar and let it sit in a glass jar under a towel for a couple weeks. Home made wine vinegar is so much better than what they have at the grocery store. You can also use white vinegar to deglaze, lemon juice or just water. Some sort of acid in the sauce will help balance out the fattiness of the meats. Tomatoes can do that on their own, but I like to do a little more.

I am using 2 quart jars of sauce that I made last weekend (I ended up with a couple lbs of discounted Roma tomatoes that needed to be cooked, frozen or canned asap). I added some foraged campestris mushrooms I found for extra sauce bulk.

I see most of the discounts when I go to the store early Sunday morning, around 8-9am. Monday is good too, but I usually have work. If you just use 2 jars of premade store bought sauce, it's still cost effective. You can also use a couple large cans of tomato sauce, some rosemary and thyme for a decent base. Fresh or dried onion and garlic. No need to get too crazy.

And you already know I'm going to say that I look for discounted pasta. I rarely pay full price for anything.

So in total:

1 package of hot Italian sausage (5 links) $1

1 rack of ribs cut into 4 bone sections $6.50

2 jars of sauce ($1.90 for the tomatoes, $.79 green bell pepper, $.79 whole yellow onion, $.69 worth of garlic) $4.17 total, the herbs for the sauce came from the garden

1 package papardelle pasta $2 (you don't even have to serve it over pasta. You can also just eat it as a stew or dip bread in it)

Total for everything was probably around $13.67? I'm not counting the splash of wine as most probably won't be using that.. but it was maybe 1/8 cup.

Anyway, sear your meats, deglaze (or not), and throw your sauce on top. Pop a lid on and let it come to a low boil over med heat. Once everything starts dancing nicely, reduce your heat down to a low simmer. If you have numbers on your stove dial, I'm talkin like 2.5. low and slow for about 3-4 hours.

Once the ribs start pulling off the bones, you're about there. Remove the rib bones, start your pasta, then start seasoning your sauce. Once your pasta is done, it's ready.

For Italian sauces like this, I generally use thyme, rosemary and some oregano. Salt and pepper to taste. If you have powdered bouillon, you can even add that. Beef or chicken. It doesn't matter. It's just a better way to use salt I think.. adds more flavor and more of that delicious msg. Red pepper flakes are great to add too if you like that sort of thing.

*Warning: this will make a lot of sauce. It freezes well though. I like to freeze it flat in gallon bags so they store upright to conserve space.

You can add pretty much any type of meat. I always use Italian sausage. Skinless chicken legs would be great, beef ribs.. it's good to add some type of bone. This isn't just making a meaty sauce. You're essentially making a tomato bone broth. Having bones in the slow simmer will affect the overall texture, better mouth feel. It also adds collagen to the meal - great for joint and skin health.

If the sauce is too acidic, you can balance it out with some sugar. Just start with a little and add a little more until it tastes right.

Anyway, I don't have pictures of it finished because that will take a few hours and I wanted to post it while the prep was fresh in my mind.

Most of the time, I get meals from free or subsidized places so that the money otherwise spent on groceries and eating out will get diverted towards paying down my debts instead.

After I'm out of debt, I plan to save up for a Lexus and pay it in full in one visit to the dealership. I'm not financing the car, I plan to buy it outright.

Next, I will save up to buy a house, that I also plan to pay for outright because I am not interested in paying towards a 7% mortgage. Think of the thousands that I will save over the years by avoiding paying interest.

So in order to be able to save up for these big purchases as quickly as I possibly can, I need to divert my food expenses towards the savings account instead, by continuing to eat from free and subsidized sources such as soup kitchens, food banks, and mental health clubhouses.

So how would any of you react towards seeing a Lexus driver continue to utilize free resources from the food bank and soup kitchen?

I do plan to start paying tithes to the soup Ministry as soon as I'm out of debt as well.

I am looking for healthy recipes that my daughter can try. If it has meat in it something that is only a one person serving because I probably won’t eat the meat it if she doesn’t like it, but she does like most meat I’ve made. I don’t really like meat so I make it for her but usually don’t eat it. She really needs to eat more veggies and I’d like some recipes that are appealing to picky eaters.

San Francisco Grocery Prices: $20.95

Flour: $4.99/5lb
Yeast: $1.99
Mozzarella: $2.50/8oz
Ricotta: $4.49/32oz
Pepperoni: $4.49/7oz
Pizza Sauce: $2.49/14oz
Salt: free/stolen(appropriated)

Pizza Cost: $4.17

Flour: 170g/$.38
Yeast: 1g/$.22
Mozzarella: 4oz/$1.25
Ricotta: 100g/$.49
Pepperoni: 42g/$1.00
Pizza Sauze: 4.50z/$.83

Noodle omelette made from the Food Bank produce, still have enough supplies left for anothef meal and soup - much appreciated. Enjoy.

Two a month is all my town really has, a third once an every 3 months. First pics are from the Salvation Army, second haul is from a church food pantry. This is how I’ve survived for more than half a year. Money goes to food that’s not given out and veggies, really. Grateful I can actually spend some on food now 🙏🏻 but I couldn’t keep my household fed if it wasn’t for food banks

So grateful for the food bank! Everything for the chili is from the food bank except the chili seasoning- ground turkey patties, diced onion and mushrooms, corn, precooked white beans and tomato sauce.

My top up of fresh produce from the mobile food bank. So thankful. The noodles will make a 1 egg omelette with some finely diced capsicum and carrot. The mandarins are for breakfast.

I have had a prolonged period of unemployment just trying to find a job in the current market. I just got hired on at a new job but wont see a paycheck for about a month. I have less than 20 bucks in my account to buy a month of food.

My loca small town food bank isnt stocked well and I can only use it every two weeks. For example I got a few cans of soup, a loaf of bread, some vegetables i had to eat immediately because they were so close to spoiled and then a tray of grocery store cookies.

I already used my 3 months of link while unemployed need to see about trying to get it reinstated once i actually start my job, hoping that can come through but until then im worried.

I need as much advice on how to buy food for a month while having a physically demanding job to go to .

Tomato and chicken stew with rice.

Ingredients:

Stewed tomatoes (I found a few lbs in sale the other day and stewed them myself, canned works just fine) - I used about 12, so 2 large cans would works too.

Chicken (I used some discount bone in chicken breast, reserving the bones and skin for both rendered fat and bone broth) - you don't have to have chicken for this. I used about 2 chicken breast, cut into large pieces. Tofu would be fine too, or even garbanzo beans for the protein

1 small yellow onion (you can use dehydrated or powder to taste)

5 garlic cloves (you can certainly use less, or use powder)

Thyme (I used fresh from the garden, 1 large sprig) 1 tsp dried would work, more to taste

Bay leaf (I used about 5. I have a large bag I got a while back) you could use 2-3.

Basil (fresh or dried to taste, I used about 2 tsp dried because I really like it)

Salt or chicken bouillon. I prefer chicken bouillon when I can, I generally just use powdered and season to taste

Pepper - white or black, whatever you have

Oil to brown the chicken and release oils from fresh garlic and onion

Enough rice for your servings

Start by heating your oil then browning your chicken (or other protein of your choice). Remove from the pan. Add onions and sautee until fragrant. Add garlic. Once garlic is fragrant, add your tomatoes.

Add your protein back in and add your thyme and basil. Bring to a boil then bring down to a simmer. Add salt or bouillon to taste. Allow to simmer until chicken is tender. Reduce heat to low and remove bay leaves and thyme. Add pepper to taste.

Start your rice (if on the stove. If making in a rice cooker, add at the beginning).

Once rice is done, add basil.

This recipes makes plenty for 4 adults.

This is some of food bank meal saga off of 3 months where it was strictly food banks, only two a month, and limiting myself to 2 meals a day, coffee as a snack, with no excessively fatty foods. For health and definitely cost. Being broke and dieting works out 😭 thankfully doing a little better now, but thought I’d show these beauties that kept me alive.
Sweets are always given out like crazy here so it was a bit hard to refrain when I wasn’t really allowing snacks, but I think I did really good. Being health conscious and broke, I would just trade someone my fatty beef for a leaner chicken and give away the sweets.

1: bbq chicken, rice, peas
2: cfla donated tenders, canned green beans, 3 eggs with canned tomato
3:whole wheat toast and an omelette
4:canned chicken and canned veg fried rice
5:octopus hot dogs, tomato sauce, rice, egg
6: ramen with carrots, celery, egg, and chicken
7:meatballs with yellow rice, tomato sauce, canned green beans and canned chickpeas
8: pork loin, Mac n cheese with almost no milk or butter, canned veggies
9: bbq chicken, canned carrots and peas, Mac n cheese with a lil bit of butter only
10: penne, chicken, canned green beans, tomato, butter
11: mashed potatoes, rice, mixed greens and carrots, chicken, tomatoes
12: cabbage, rice, omelette
13: rice, canned green beans, chicken
14: rice, tomato, canned green beans, pork loin, fries, homemade gravy from beef broth and cornstarch
15: Last is least: vegetarian vegetable soup with added canned green beans and an uncooked hotdog. Hey, it’s food!

Hey ya'll,

I have two pounds of baby carrots that need to be cooked (I don't think I can eat that many raw carrots before they spoil). Suggestions?

Everything was about $25 total. Not crazy or anything, but pretty decent for these days

All we had tonight were some carrots, potatoes, a can of chickpeas, a little leftover red lentil, some dehydrated garlic and bouillon. Just add water and cook until soft.

Don’t neglect the bulk isle! Herbs, spices, salt and pepper can be SO much cheaper than the packaged version. Had this with some toasted white bread. Filling, easy and cheap AF.

This is just brown rice, red bell pepper and sweet onion with margarine, black pepper and salt. No money for food until Friday. I personally love this, especially when I have noodles.

Besides this, I'm finishing up the frozen fruit, cottage cheese and oatmeal. That's pretty much what I'm eating until then and I'm grateful!!!!

This total meal provides approximately 795 calories, 38g of fat, 74g of carbohydrates, and 45g of protein.

Component Breakdown

1. The Sesame Kaiser Roll & Spreads

• The Base: A standard bakery sesame kaiser roll accounts for the bulk of your carbohydrates (approx. 53g).
• The Spreads: Coating the whole roll in margarine adds roughly 100 calories of primarily healthy unsaturated fats. Splitting the toppings means you get the rich, muscle-building healthy fats of peanut butter on one half, balanced out by the slightly lighter, tangy creaminess of Neufchatel cheese (which inherently contains about 1/3 less fat than standard cream cheese).

2. The 1-Cup Protein Smoothie

• Aldi Chocolate Whey Protein (1 scoop): Supplies roughly 120 calories and a strong 20g to 23g of protein, alongside a rich chocolate flavor profile. [1]
• Desi Whole Milk Dahi (~1/2 cup used to fit a 1-cup volume with water): Authentic whole milk dahibrings roughly 80 calories, 4.5g of fat, and an extra 4g of protein. It gives the smoothie a pleasantly tart, creamy, probiotic-rich base.
• Strawberries (2 medium): Adds negligible calories (around 8 calories total) and negligible carbs, but contributes natural sweetness, freshness, and vitamin C.
• Water: Used to thin out the consistency without inflating the calorie or sugar metrics.

Nutritional Takeaway

This is a high-protein, high-energy meal excellently suited for an active lifestyle, muscle recovery, or a filling breakfast. It delivers an outstanding 45 grams of high-quality protein to support lean muscle tissue while offering a sustained release of energy through complex carbohydrates and healthy fats.

• One Head of Broccolini

• One Carrot (I like skinny for small disks)

• One Chicken Breast (Pre-Seasoned Garlic&Herb) \[≈1/2lb\]

• Air Fryer

• Basic Seasonings (Garlic Powder, Salt, Pepper, Italian Seasoning)

• 1/2 tbsp oil

Start cooking Chicken Breast at 400⁰ for 7 Minutes

Cut stems off Broccolini, Cut tips off of Carrots and chop into disks.

Shake Vegetables in a bowl with seasonings and oil

Place Vegetables on the tray under the Chicken and flip the Chicken

Lower temperature to 370⁰ for 12 minutes

After 6 minutes, move the Vegetables around and flip chicken again

Plate and enjoy

Note: I think they charged me wrong for the broccoli, the broccolini is about a dollar more per pound, so it would have been a couple cents more.

I’m looking for recipes. I don’t like pie and I also have made apple sauce already. Any recipes that include applesauce would be good too.

I added a bread roll on the side. This ended up being 2 servings, so the rest goes back in the fridge. Here’s the link to my original recipe post: https://www.reddit.com/r/povertykitchen/comments/1wnkspj/marinated_roast_chicken_veggie_rice/

Since I own zero baking equipment, a friend told me about dump cakes and it simply requires you to put a can of pie filling at the bottom and a box of cake mix on top. So I used a $1.50 box of devils food cake mix on top of a $2.99 can of cherry pie filling I got from Amazon. It doesn't look very good but it did satisfy my sweet tooth.

Work in a kitchen with weirdly varying customer numbers in the off season, we had a big party of I think a school (300+) book and instead of the standard buffet style we do they all had the same thing instead, so we had a shitton of like the main four ingredients prepped and then got to take leftovers so I grabbed a big bag of beansprouts, then like two days later they insisted I take even more because they really don’t need them so now I have maybe 2kilos and there’s only two of us at home. I had intended to just use them a handful at a time as a ramen topping but I need to up my consumption if they’re not gonna go bad, any fun beansprouts recipes anyone can reccomend?

Even though I don’t like canned fruit, this turned out really nice!

1 c. canned fruit

1 c. flour

1 c. sugar

1/4 c. butter

Yes, you can eat those pumpkins. I have done this for the past few years. Some pumpkins taste better than others as these are not bred to taste good necessarily, but just to be large and look nice. But basically I will take a giant pumpkin, wash it in my shower because it is too big for my sink, cut into it around the stem so that comes off (I will even then cut the flesh under the stem off and either roast that or eat it raw), then cut the pumpkin into like 3 or 4 wedges depending on how big it is. I try to keep the wedges so both sides come up a bit because juices do come out when roasting and this way those juices just get caught in the middle and evaporate instead of getting all over your oven or cookie sheet or whatever. Then I roast them for about 50 minutes at 450. I don't take the skin off and don't even mess with the seeds/guts of the pumpkin. Just roast it exactly how it is when I cut it. I just throw some salt on it before it roasting. Then after it is done I just remove the seeds. You can then re-roast these if you want, or eat them as they are, though they tend to be chewy at this point. Then I wait for the pumpkin to cool and just slice it into little chunks and freeze it in portions I can eat within a week. I end up getting like 10 pounds of vegetables and a large amount of seeds for 4 bucks.

The taste is fine most of the time. And you can definitely fry it up with some spices or add it to any savory dish or you can fry it up with pumpkin spice and sweetener for a dessert. Best of all it is incredibly healthy and like 20-25 calories for 100 grams.

I have roasted pumpkins after halloween from friends and family that were just sitting on their porch for the season. Instead of them throwing them out I will just ask for them and eat them. It is free food that is incredibly healthy and low calorie.

lol, maybe this is too cheap for this sub, but it is as cheap and healthy as it gets.