/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>10921197
>rice and beans, oats

That is probably the most common route to go on a low budget. If you're doing that though, I'd consider buying in bulk instead of weekly to stretch your money further.

The other stuff I'd be looking at are things to jazz up your staple foods. Cilantro, hot sauce, spices, lime. Also look in to frozen vegetables and you can have a reasonably healthy diet.

If it helps, I'm on a ~1400 calorie OMAD diet right now, and don't spend much more than your $120/mo figure. Here's what I eat:

- 1 bowl of oats prepared in 1 cup of soy milk soy milk, 4 tablespoons peanut butter, 14g crushed pecans, 1 scoop protein powder.

- 8oz pink salmon (I buy the 3.5 pound bags of frozen fillets at walmart)

- 6 cups broccoli (again, I buy the big bag of frozen broccoli and prepare it by steaming)

- 1 sweet potato

- 1 cup soy milk to drink

I spend about $16 a month on soymilk, $3 on oats, $5 on peanut butter, less than $10 on sweet potatoes (I don't know what a bag costs off the top of my head), $50 something on salmon, and $60 something on broccoli.

Again, that's more than your $120 a month limit. More like $150 which would be $37.50 a week. Of course, you could use a cheaper source of protein than I do (ex: eggs) or strictly buy your meats at the bargain price. Whatever is nearing it's sell by date is usually discounted, and you can buy in bulk and freeze it to keep it longer. Also, collect coupons.

Then there's stuff that I don't have to buy all the time like seasoning and hot sauce.

Another option is to go 1/2 POMAD.

Take a half pint of mayonnaise. Stir in 4 scoops of unflavored whey. Add 3 chopped onions. Eat out of a bowl.

This will cost you less than 30 dollars a week, and will provide 2,020 or so calories, >200 grams of fat, and >100 grams of protein.

>>10921226
>soy

>>10921259
>falling for the anti-soy memes

If it bothers you that much, sub it for almond, coconut, or regular milk.

Dairy makes me shit like a goose, so I don't fucks with it.

beans and bread > rice and beans
bake own bread. I recommend making bagels and freezing them.

>>10921226
>>10921257

That's the most fucked up diet I've ever seen on ck and we had a lot. Holy fuck what a disgusting pile, no two piles, of crap. Go back to /fit/ ffs.

>>10921197
I've been living on less each week thanks to LIDL, and you fit right in with the bums and crackwhores roaming the isles

Buy a pack of chicken breasts or thighs, any meat will work really but i prefer chicken.

Put into a slow cooker with 2 jars of cheap curry sauce and some vegetables such as onions and potatoes, peas etc..

Let it cook for around 8 hours on low, serve with white rice.

Dinners for the best part of a week.

Breakfast;

Porridge made with half milk half water, add a bit of sugar in or any dried fruits. I make it on the hob and use 1 cup of liquid to 1/2 cup of oats.

Lunch;

Normally this is rice and some kind of veg just had cold out of a tupperware container. Today is rice, broccoli and donburi sauce (very good with rice) Tomorrow its rice with peas and carrot with hot sauce.

Good bits of kit to have;

Slow cooker,
Food storage containers (old takeaway containers are good)
Large pot and roasting pan
Medium pot for porridge etc..

Keep these staples in;

Rice, oats, pasta, tinned beans, curry powder, hot sauce, soy sauce, salt & pepper, potatoes, milk, bread, some eggs (Lidl or Aldi).

Donburi sauce, better than plain soy with rice and a good change from hot sauce;

http://bebeloveokazu.com/2010/04/29/donburi-sauce/

Frozen meat and veg is cheaper than fresh.

What's like the minimum amount / kind of veggies that I need to stay healthy? Since I'm sure just rice and beans leave huge nutritional holes in my diet.

>>10921226
Honestly thats a pretty straightforward low cost reasonably healthy diet. Looks definitely good for losing weight or maintaining.

Also, I don't get why discussing diets is seen as /fit/ exclusive. We can't just eat loaded mac n cheese every night

>>10921257
wtf

Rice and beans obviously. Make a vegetarian chilli with corn and peppers or something.

Shakshouka is delicious and pretty cheap. (eggs, peppers, canned tomatoes, seasoning, serve with bread)

Make falafel with pita bread. Not expensive at all, just need chickpeas,onions, flour, seasoning.

Stocks/broths.

Lentil Soup.

Oatmeal.

Buy whole chicken and bake it - cheaper.

Buy cheap cuts of meat occasionaly - pork belly is delicous and cheap.

Always have some garlic, onions, rice, beans, potatoes.

As for cheap veggies (atleast where I live): carrots, cucumbers, iceberg lettuce. Peppers are expensive af, so I only use them sometimes. Green leaf veggies are expensive, but you can buy frozen spinach, frozen corn, etc.

Buy some cheap form on unsaturated fats. Olive oil is expensive. Nuts too. Maybe sunflower seeds or chia ? Depends where you live.

>>10921226
SOY

>>10921257
Wtf?
This has to be bait. Just mayo, whey powder, and chopped onion in a bowl? At least you won't have time for all of your friends to desert you because you'll probably die before finishing the bowl.

>>10921226
>peanut butter in oats
hmm sounds like it could be nice, I'm going to try it out I do eat a lot of oats

>>10921197
>$30 a week max
I do this some weeks. Not because I'm a poorfag, but because I'm a cheap bastard who would rather spend my money on other things. Tips:

- It helps to have a collection of recipes that allow you to mix up the basic beans + rice/pasta theme. Look up Mediterranean/Middle-Eastern and South Asian recipes for inspiration. You will not be eating a Western diet of meat plus side dishes on this budget very often.

- Find a cheap source for the expensive shit like olive oil and spices, then stock the fuck up. The supermarket is NOT your friend here.

- Seasonal veggies will be cheap, so learn what to do with them, maybe even to the point of buying a bunch in season and processing them for canning/freezing so you can use them out of season. You want to be able to round out your diet with a variety of vegetables. If you can have a garden and grow your own do so. Remember most vegetables are tasty sauteed with olive oil, garlic and salt.

- If you need animal protein consider it an indulgence. Tasty, cheap indulgences on this front are eggs, sardines and maybe some meat here and there if it's on sale. To be truly cheap your diet will be mostly vegetarian. To keep things flavorful you will be more liberal with the salt, olive oil, garlic, spices, etc.

- Watch for when citrus gets cheap. If suddenly lemons are 4/$1 or limes ate 5+/$1 buy some. Use them. You don't want to get fucking scurvy.

- Consider a pressure cooker to cut the costs of your beans in half. Also useful for cutting the time of any long simmering dishes down to one third. Regardless plan on spending at least an hour a day cooking from scratch. That will really slash your grocery bills.

- If you like bread bake your own. The markup on bread is stupid. Bake a lot - it freezes well.

- Eat your fucking leftovers, and get clever about turning them into other meals. Get into the habit of making too much rice or pasta so two days later you can use it up making fried rice or a frittata.

>>10921197

>>10921543

>>10921546

What country are you in?
if you are in britain go to lidl/aldi

>>10921534
Solid advice here.

As far as meats go, there are some cheap meats that you can afford even when they aren't on sale. Treat them like a flavoring to make your rice & beans more tasty. I.e. chicken necks or smoked ham hocks.

Rotisserie chickens are good value for money.

for cheap spices hit up "immigrant" supermarkets, especially Indian and Asian. Mexican too. They also have good prices on dry staples like rice, beans, and legumes (Indian markets especially--chickpeas, lentils, etc.)

The biggest keys are always cooking from scratch (it's amazing how cheap this is) and minimizing what you throw away. Embrace leftovers. Re-purpose them by cooking them in different ways to avoid monotony.

>>10921352
Getting volume and variety on a budget can be annoying,for veg. You might want to look into pickling cheaper vegetables in bulk - cabbages, onions, etc. Lacto-fermentation just needs salt, water, time, containers, and some attention to detail, and the probiotics can't hurt. Price and variety wise, frozen vegetables suck in my area, so at any given time I'm eating my way through a quart jar of sauerkraut, a quart jar of basic cabbage kimchi, and another quart jar of whatever fermentation recipe I'm messing around with.

>>10921197
29 oz tomato sauce
1 clove garlic
1/2 a medium red onion
Basil
Cayenne pepper
Italian seasoning
Salt
Pepper
Pinch brown sugar

Makes a decent spicy marinara for a couple bucks. Add meat and carrots or make meatballs for more texture.

Can also be used for lasagna with ground meat and cheese while still being cheap.6

Boil split peas and buckwheat, blend coarsely, throw in some diced fried onions and diced sauteed cabbage/carrots.
Split peas taste really good with buckwheat imo, and they have great macros and micros. If I had all the money in the world I'd still keep this as a staple.

>>10921564
>The biggest keys are always cooking from scratch (it's amazing how cheap this is) and minimizing what you throw away. Embrace leftovers. Re-purpose them by cooking them in different ways to avoid monotony.
Yeah, this is a big one. If you think about a lot of the best super-cheap great-grandma tier recipes many of them were things to do with leftovers. Not all of them work in a cooking for one scenario, but the ideas apply. Every scrap of food not eaten at this meal should be on its way to becoming part of a meal in the near future. Gotta think like that if you want to eat cheap.

>>10921698
I don't think I've ever once used leftovers to make another meal

I just eat the leftovers cause I always cook bulk

do people just throw out leftovers or something? I don't get how this is a tip

I look for either discount stuff that needs to sell out that day, or stuff that' on sale.

I got about a pound of hamburger for $3 because it didn't sell. Split it in half when I got home and froze some, cooked the other portion into a patty and some ground beef for a taco.

While I was there, I also got some big ass buns from the bakery for $2, and cut those into three pieces each.

The middle came out for some bread and butter later as a side, and I used the top and bottom as my buns for the patty.

Anything extra went in the freezer.

As for veggies, I only get the cheap stuff, and just a single serving. Only ends up costing like a buck or two, and sometimes you can make two meals if it's a lot, like a cheap bag or carrots or something.

>>10921197
Raw eggs for breakfast.

>>10921711
>do people just throw out leftovers or something
Yes. Tons of people.

And then there's the ever-popular:
>I bought X ingredient because this one recipe I wanted called for it but I didn't know what to do with the rest of it so it went bad and I threw it out.
Never throwing food away applies to ingredients too, not just leftovers from dishes you already cooked.

>>10921734
This, on all three counts.

>>10921734
>Yes. Tons of people.
Not sure if I believe people are this fucking dumb.

>>10921759
Are you fucking kidding?! People are incredibly dumb. And among the higher levels of the American middle class being wasteful is actually kind of a status symbol. How many lights on your fucking xmas tree, how many square feet your McMansion is, driving an SUV when you only really need a car... That goes for food as well. There are a lot of people who happily throw leftovers in the garbage because the idea of eating them is beneath them. Or they buy food and let it go bad in the fridge because they only do any real cooking once or twice a week. They feel no shame about this because they can afford to do so.

>>10921770
>American
oh ok, nvm then

>>10921759
I can take a quick look at the pic you saved and posted and conclude that yes, people really are really fucking dumb.

>>10921772
>>conspicuous consumption is limited to the US
lol at that.

>>10921775
>hating on Spurdo in a 4chan thread

>>10921778
>conspicuous consumption
The idea isn't fundamentally stupid, though. If you work on Wall St pulling down well over a million a year the Armani shoes, the Brooks Brothers suits and the place in the Hamptons just go with the territory. As does going out every now and then for prix fixe dinners that cost $300+ per person. No big deal. But that's worlds away from not even knowing what Armani shoes look like, but still throwing half the roast chicken you bought at the upscale supermarket for $12 away because you feel like eating the same thing two days in a row is beneath you.

>>10921775
you need to go back

>>10921813
>The idea isn't fundamentally stupid, though.
I didn't claim that it was.

>>10921947
But wasting food as a form of conspicuous consumption certainly is stupid. And rampant.

Eggs are the cheapest protein out there. 12 for 99p in Lidl.

>>10923134
Unless you mix rice and lentils

I spend like 40$ every two weeks doing keto wtf are all of you eating thats so expensive

500g brussel sprouts 3$
1kg cauliflower 6$
60eggs 7$
500ml organic sour cream 4$
2kg Napa cabbage 5$
1kg organic beef 10$ or 5kg chicken thighs
1kg lettuce 3$
1kg frozen broccoli 4$
500g cheese of choice usually cheddar/jack/mozz 3$
4liter peanut oil 11$ (every 6 months or so)
1kg Organic butter 6$ (every 5 months)

Sometimes I don't eat all the meat so I freeze and and don't have to buy it the next week freeing me up like this week when I bought 3kg of blueberries and froze them all or I buy protein powder or almonds

If I went back to eating rice with my meals id spend even less than that

>>10921257
I am in tears laughing at this. Absolutely vile.

Crushed ice

>>10921257
The absolute state of /fit/fags.
Why can't you retards just eat normal food in bigger quantities?

>>10923499
It honestly isn't that bad. The protein thickens it up and the onions provide a bit of texture. Serve it at room temperature and it's a bit like a rich, savory pudding.

Rice and beans are the best, but if you're looking for a cheap way to eat fish I make bacalaitos, they taste like fish and chips.

Ingredients
>One package (like 400g) of saltfish like salted cod, or you can be an ultra-poorfag and use salted pollock which is half the price
>500ml white flour
>500ml water
>Two small spoons of baking powder
>One small spoon of Goya Adobo seasoning mix or you could use a mixture of salt, cumin, paprika, oregano, ground coriander, garlic powder and black pepper. Watch the salt, stockfish is salty on its own!
>5 cloves of garlic
>A few sprigs of cilantro

Directions
>Soak the fish overnight in water, changing the water every couple hours when possible like before bed, when you wake up etc. Do at least 3 changes.
>The following day, boil the fish for ten minutes, then cool it and remove any skin and bones. Shred the meat of the fish as finely as you can
>Mash the garlic and cilantro in a mortar and pestle, or use a food processor, or just chop it as finely as you can
>Whisk all of the ingredients together into a batter
>Heat 1cm of oil in a deep skillet, and ladle in small amounts of batter. Fry on both sides until golden brown and cooked thoroughly, then drain before serving

Makes about 12, so 6 portions.

>>10921257
Does it matter which kind of onion I use?

>>10923859
I like white onion, but some prefer red.