Are you poor? Here's a quick, cheap nourishing meal!

Post Reply New Topic

Buy a tin of baked beans and a pack of microwavable rice. Cut a hole in the top of the microwavable rice packet and place carefully into the microwave. Heat it on full power for two minutes. Pour half the tin of baked beans into a microwave-safe dish and cover with a microwave-safe plate. Heat on full power for two minutes. Get a large plate and put the microwavable rice onto the large plate. Put the baked beans on top of the rice. Eat with a breakfast cereal spoon.

Why microwaveable rice? Why not ordinary boiled rice? It's a lot cheaper and IMO tastes a lot better.

Also, why not throw a 1/2lb of beef mince into the mix? It goes great with baked beans and makes it a fully nutritious meal.

I might have to try this one day. Thanks.

Laziness.

David, I challenge you to a duel. Whoever wins gets to keep the Kingdom of Israel. How dare you call me lazy?

I am not sure that I would go down the nutritious route on this one.

On the plus side, the beans provide a good source of fibre, a reasonable amount of fat (and not too much saturated fat), and several important minerals, including Fe, Mn, P and Zn.

On the down side, tinned baked beans have an extraordinarily high amount of sodium, and a high amount of sugar. They provide none of the B vitamin complex, only a trace amount of vitamin A, and not much vitamin C. Rice provides no additional nutritional value other than the carbohydrates.

Adding some fresh vegetables would go a long way to making up for the deficiency. Substituting potatoes for the rice would also be a big help, since they will bring in the vitamin C.

I lived on the streets (in a school bus) in vancouver and didn't have a microwave handy but your right beans and rices
are very nutritious a rice dish I would make is red beans & rice or if I had ground beef I would make dirty rice, a good
source of spices was Taco Bell hot sauce packets, its the only good thing they have. Baked potatoes are very cheap
too, the baker potatoes are a meal in them selves, but much nicer with sour cream and chives

Cheap eats topic

I also like rice and beans. I would also use frozen veg and parboiled brown rice, which can be cooked quickly.

I still like the recipe you provided earlier for minestrone soup.

This is... more complicated than what I am capable of most days.

Yes, I am aware that is really pitiful.

I get round this by pretty much eating the same meal every day. If you can get a set meal into your daily routine, you'll find it a lot easier to prepare food.

You mentioned in another thread that you have a problem remembering that you put your cooker on. I find that preparing the same meals in the same way every day helps me to remember to turn appliances off without thinking about it (that and a mortal fear of setting fire to my flat and damaging my computers!).

Have not owned a microwave in years.

When I lived in my rooming house, I ate a lot of bean and cheeses burritos.

The easiest, quickest, cheap alternative to the microwavable rice is the puffed brown rice that is sold as cereal in plastic bags. No cooking at all! It can be found in the cereal aisle at Walmart for less than $1. It is more nutritious, too. There are no added ingredients. Not as appealing, maybe, but I have found them a nice addition to some soups, and microwavable Indian entrees.

My own nominee for the cheapest, easiest, most nutritious meal is oatmeal, sold in bulk often for less than $1 a pound. Uninspiring, I grant you, but easily modified with raisins, nuts, cinnamon, apple sauce, yogurt, etc. Regular oatmeal cooks fine in the microwave. You don't have to buy the packets which are marketed as "Microwavable." I add the extra ingredients after cooking, to help cool it off, so I can enjoy it sooner.

mmm puffed fried rice

Simply adding pepper turns cold baked beans from slime to lush. No need to head to kitchen, just open tin and eat or pour onto dry bread and eat. All good.

Here is a great site for eating cheap

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/

Here is their menu feeding 4 people for a month for $45
http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/40dollarmenu.htm

I've never thought that puffed brown rice could be anything but cereal. Do you substitute it for rice? It can get really soggy if it's exposed to anything remotely liquidy so watch out. I don't like it when it gets soggy. I wonder what can be done with it? I never thought of it as anything but cereal and it's really terrible in milk.


The best thing about oatmeal is it's so filling. It's great with raisins. A package of Sunmaid boxes isn't too expensive. You can put one in the microwave for ten seconds, then, put it in your bowl of oatmeal and it's so good warmed up like that. Another thing that's great in oatmeal is half and half or cream, but it's way to fattening to add too often.
A really good cheap meal: roasted potatoes. I quarter red potatoes, toss them in a bowl with olive oil, kosher salt and pepper, then, put them on a cookie sheet and into a preheated 425 degree oven. I bake them for thirty minutes, take them out and let them cool for about fifteen minutes. It's cheap and filling. I can find a bag of them from Campbell Farms at SWMC for $2.50, but it might be a "Thanksgiving only" special.