What are some popular American "Poverty Foods" that Europeans might not know about?

I've used jellies to make juice, punch and muffins, Beans and rice were the main foods I'd use for lunches, cabbage w/ carrots or sausage, bakes potatoes, mashed potatoes, muffins with meat baked in or slivers of greens and ham ends, onion soup with vegetables, mushrooms with sautéed veggies. I didn't do dinner when times were lean. We would just have corn bread or muffins to top off before bed.

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inbigtreble30@reddit

Grilled cheese and canned tomato soup.

Kraft macaroni & cheese

Instant ramen noodles

Lol my late husband used to say "it's okay, everyone is wrong sometimes."

Eggs went from under a dollar/doz to over $7 at my local grocery store just in time for the holidays. For people relying on them for cheap protein, it was an adjustment. I don't mean that they were unobtainable, just that they were comparatively expensive.

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Suppafly@reddit

Eggs went from under a dollar/doz to over $7 at my local grocery store just in time for the holidays.

Damn, here in IL, they went from like $2 to $4.50 for a week or two and then went back down to $2 or less. A dozen large is almost always on sale as a loss leader at Kroger.

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inbigtreble30@reddit

It was a bad time to be baking a lot, that's for sure.

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IHaveALittleNeck@reddit

Still cheaper than buying cereal. Made my kids eggs every morning for this reason.

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Suppafly@reddit

Still cheaper than buying cereal. Made my kids eggs every morning for this reason.

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BigBlueMountainStar@reddit

It’s weird you’re writing about this. I’m visiting a mate in south west London in the “little Korea” area, he took me to the local Korean supermarket, and I was astounded by the number of instant ramen option on supply, literally 2 complete aisles of the stuff, and double astounded by the amount of packaging used for it. There doesn’t seem to be any level of environmental awareness present in the Korean pre-packaged food industry.

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cptjeff@reddit

Grew up upper middle class in white suburbia and the extremely cheap bricks were a pantry staple for us and everyone in my peer group. Easy whatever meal or great when someone had a cold.

You'd occasionally see the cups, but the individual tray things were quite rare. "Ramen" meant the cheap blocks, and always chicken. But its cheapness did not stop anyone from eating it.

And as an adult, I still use the cheap bricks, though I dress it up. Egg, shaved salami, and shaved cabbage.

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jorwyn@reddit

I used to buy the huge Costco packs when my son was a teen. He and his friends would go through 3 packs each as an afternoon snack. I was like, "you're all going to die from that sodium!" Hahaha

I go in for the more expensive Sapporo ichiban in original flavor now. It's even better with a little bit of sesame oil and habanero powder in it, but yeah, even now that I make a lot of money, instant ramen is definitely still a thing I eat. The difference is, it's not the only thing I eat like when I was poor.

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serenwipiti@reddit

🦐SHRIMP FLAVOR SUPREMACY🦐

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cptjeff@reddit

The lime chili one, if you can find it, is magnificent. I had some kitchen work done recently so grabbed a bunch of the cups in different flavors to try, and that's my new favorite on its own. Haven't tried it with additions yet.

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Delores_Herbig@reddit

"Ramen" meant the cheap blocks, and always chicken

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jorwyn@reddit

I remember going to keg parties and doing keg stands and thinking, "damn, someone's got money."

Unicorns-and-Glitter@reddit

INSTANT LUNCH IS KING.

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Bhn2253@reddit

Chicken flavor with some shredded cheese and a wallop of Franks Red Hot. Has to be Frank’s, everything else I’ve tried just doesn’t taste right. I still eat it sometimes because it’s good comfort food

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schmelk1000@reddit

Yep. My mom would use food dye to color the noodles green or blue and then cut up a hot dog to look like an octopus on top of the noodles.

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lavender_dumpling@reddit

Yep, my dad grew up eating head cheese, and I'm a huge fan of eating tripe, intestines, and tongue lmao

Can't stand liver though

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Xciv@reddit

eating tripe, intestines, and tongue

As a Chinese American I didn't even know there's Americans out there who eat tripe and intestines.

Ever have Vietnamese Pho noodle soup with tripe? I love it so much. Tripe itself doesn't have much taste but I just love the texture of it.

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indiefolkfan@reddit

Look into "chitlins".

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professorwormb0g@reddit

Italian Americans like tripe. It's definitely a specialty in central NY in old school Italian restaurants.

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Caratteraccio@reddit

Tripe is italian.

Not italian american.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWb6gL2mQa4

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cool_chrissie@reddit

It’s a staple in Mexican food. Ever had menudo? It’s bomb!

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Cobek@reddit

Oh yeah, our recipes just sucked for it (liver and onions, etc) so we didn't carry them over like you guys did. My grandpa was a big fan of liver, intestines and head cheese too.

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Thestolenone@reddit

Up until recently things like that were normal food for poorer people in the Uk- chitterlings (intestine), tripe (stomach), pigs trotters, tongue, heart, brain. People still eat liver and kidneys.

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j33@reddit

Menudo is a Mexican soup made with tripe, I've had it a few times and it's fairly tasty. My friend invited us over on New Years Day awhile back to eat it as a traditional hangover aid.

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Kelekona@reddit

Ever have Vietnamese Pho noodle soup with tripe? I love it so much. Tripe itself doesn't have much taste but I just love the texture of it.

I'm proud of myself for eating around the tripe instead of being too grossed-out to eat what I could. (huge portion.)

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cool_chrissie@reddit

I only buy them when it’s buy one get one at Kroger. $20~ for two big packs. We usually dice them up into 1lb packages and use it for stir fries or stews.

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FivebyFive@reddit

More expensive than it used to be anyway.

And yes so worth it!

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geneb0323@reddit

Absolutely more expensive than it used to be. I want to say I was paying $0.59 a pound on sale 5 or 6 years ago.

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TheyTookByoomba@reddit

$2.49 a pound here in NC, but occasionally can get it for $1/pound on sale which is when I stock up. Same price as pre-covid, but it's on sale way less often.

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I snagged one for $.99 a pound and got about 4 lbs of pulled pork out of it.

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beka13@reddit

I get two at a time from costco and they make so many meals.

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geneb0323@reddit

That's a good idea... I should check the price for them the next time I am at Costco. I have a 9 pound butt in the freezer right now but, once I use it up, I'll check it out.

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Toothless816@reddit

Sausage gravy sprung to mind for me. Flour, milk, cheap meat, and then you can put it on a bunch of different foods to add flavor and calories.

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geri73@reddit

I grew up in a house of five and we didnt have much. When summer vacation came around, my mom did not cook breakfast, lunch, or dinner. We were old enough to cook our own food so we really didnt mind it at all but we did have plenty of food, albeit, goverment cheese and surplus food. Thank god my mom could bake and cook. So we had a lot Koolaid, ramen, bread, margarine, rice, chicken and pork bologna, chicken and pork hotdogs, eggs, powdered milk, and off brand cereal.

Most of the stuff I mentioned above was summer vacation food. Our favorite foods to cook are as follows: Fried bologna or hotdog sandwiches, rice and scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, ramen with cheese and hotsauce, disgusting King Vitamin cereal, mixed powdered milk, koolaid, and for desert, baked cinnamon toast.

Now, when my mom wanted to cook a nice dinner for us, she would use the Government surplus food. Government surplus food consisted of 1980s edition Government cheese and cans of meat that had pictures and the names of the animal it contained. When I think back, it wasnt too bad.

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alltheprettynovas@reddit

omg king vitamin!! flashback. i loved that shit though 😂

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geri73@reddit

My brothers and I loathed that shit. It had a nasty aftertaste and the king looked like a major spaz.

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lazy_merican@reddit

rotisserie chicken=> breast into oil, broth and venagar with noodles for scampi. Dark meat into bean and rice burritos, rind into the pressure cooker to make broth so it all tastes good. Broth also for making refried rice, Mexican or Chinese. Also deer, wild duck, sweet potato’s, ramen with wild onions and eggs. Box mash potatoes, more eggs. Alternatively my wife will make curry with rice and we’ll use the breast meat in that instead of scampi or noodles with white sauce(made from flour water and some $$$Parmesan)

…so… lots of game meat, beans, rice, chicken, and spice + homemade bone broth based stuff.

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$12?!

I just looked at my Walmart app.

1.94 for 16oz of Great Value Peanut butter 1.98 for 18oz of Great Value Grape Jelly. 1.42 for a 20oz loaf of Great Value sandwich bread.

Less than 6 bucks.

I mean sure, you can get fancy and get nicer bread, exotic fruit preserves, or be picky about your peanut butter.

Taco Bell sauce packets are clutch for poverty meals

I spice up even non-poverty foods with taco bell packets sometimes.

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Ikillwhatieat@reddit

Tina's are reliable af. Always c, almost always available

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Chimney-Imp@reddit

When I was a poor college student, those + tapatio basically sustained me for 4 years lol

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lavender_dumpling@reddit

My family is generationally poor, albeit my parents managed to break the cycle.

Some popular foods we'd eat are: Salmon patties, bologna sandwich, fried bologna, spam, lots of tilapia, Hoosier stew, cornbread, pot roast, hush puppies, butter beans, lots of corn, Vienna sausages, biscuits and gravy, chicken fried steak, pork steak, catfish, and occasionally blue gill/sun fish.

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RemonterLeTemps@reddit

Your tuna salad sounds good. We ate a tamer version, with mayo, chopped celery, scallions, and a bell pepper. Sometimes a little pickle relish.

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lavender_dumpling@reddit

That was actually the inspiration lol. I just was too lazy to find much anything else to throw in, except for the occasional spinach.

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Coldhearted010@reddit

Shoot, wish I had known that last bit for graduate school...

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lavender_dumpling@reddit

Haha I found it out when I was a poor private living in a literal stone box at my 2nd duty station. Ran 6 miles fairly consistently throughout the week, in addition to lifting weights, and physical labor. I was lean and fairly muscular for someone who just did the bare minimum.

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paczki_uppercut@reddit

boiled ground beef (just a me thing lmao)

I would like to know more.

Instant ramen, enough sodium to kill you, but keeps you going.

Rice and beans.

Honestly, if you just cut back on meat, the whole menu is quite cheap.

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MountTuchanka@reddit

Yeah a ton of food all over the world is made with the intention of being really cheap, the reason why British food catches flak for it is because it’s bland

Hell, tacos used to be really cheap

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MyUsername2459@reddit

tacos used to be really cheap

Still can be. Just don't get fancy with the ingredients.

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pirawalla22@reddit

My local sub is consumed all the time with arguments about exactly what price point turns a taco from "authentic and affordable" (which are supposedly the same thing) to "overpriced white people taco" (since obviously no Mexican person would ever want to sell or eat expensive tacos.) The same ingredients only become fancy when the people making the tacos are white, or presumed to be white for whatever reason, usually the price. It's rather tiresome.

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BeerForThought@reddit

Beef tongue tacos used to be cheap but then gringos like me figured out they are delicious. I won't even bring up Oxtail.

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gatornatortater@reddit

Yea.. 10 years ago I was buying beef and buffalo tongue from the fancy grass fed place at the farmer's market for about half what the local mexican market was charging for industrial beef tongue.

Was fun while it lasted.

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Kelekona@reddit

Chicken-wing soup. A slight PITA to make if one wants to add the meat back in, but the stock/broth is lovely.

Pressure-pot the chicken wings for about 40 minutes or whatever the preset is. Let cool enough to handle and separate the meat from the inedible bits. Add a bag of frozen soup mix... the one with peas, carrots, corn, green beans, maybe lima beans... Make Bisquick dumplings on top.

Whole-carcass stock is good enough for the recipe, but I bet the broth would be good in ramen or hot-pot.

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Feagaimaleata@reddit

Oxtail soup was a regular menu item for our family of 9 kids. When I think about it now, my mum was an amazing cook. Oxtail soup was delicious.

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Gex2-EnterTheGecko@reddit

Tacos still are cheap. Taco seasoning, hot sauce, ground beef, cheese and taco shells in bulk don't cost much.

We're not making fun of British food because we think its expensive. We make fun of it because y'all seem allergic to spices.

Having to import most spices from abroad will do that. Mustard and horseradish are about the only ones you can cultivate without a greenhouse this far north.

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IWasBorn2DoGoBe@reddit

Yeah, and Britain did the whole empire thing and had access to all the spices. British food should be the most diversely spiced food on the planet, lol.

All those colonies and the cuisine did not benefit at all.

(Hard to convey in text, but trying to be lighthearted and inoffensive)

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ferret_80@reddit

being blockaded and forced into rationing for 2 World Wars in 50 years kinda hurts the whole use imported spices thing.

1917-1921, WWI Rationing was in effect
1940-1954 WWII Rationing was in effect.

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IWasBorn2DoGoBe@reddit

Valid.

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Thanks for explaining it to me too.

Scrapple, made from pork offal and cornmeal, Pennsylvania

Brunswick Stew, made with squirrel, Kentucky (modern versions use chicken)

Red Beans and rice, Louisiana

Gumbo, Louisiana

More modern:

Tuna noodle casserole

American Goulash with ground beef

Chile Mac

West9Virus@reddit

That's 100% comfort food!

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CupBeEmpty@reddit

My Neenaw grew up in the Great Depression and she had some good ones. Biscuits and gravy, chilli with the cheapest cuts of meat and a lot of beans (come at me Texas), just simple PBJ, any of the tinned meat salads (mayo some veggies and whatever protein you can get from a can), potato anything.

Cheapest tinned chicken with mayo and some salt on the cheapest bread.

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Poes_hoes@reddit

Biscuits and gravy makes me chuckle every time I make it from scratch. Nothing like flour, butter, and milk mixed together smothered in a different ratio of flour, butter, and milk mixed together lol

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Blue_Star_Child@reddit

My grandma was the queen of turning any meat into gravy. She was born in the depression in the poorest part of southern Kentucky. She made a mean biscuits and bologna gravey.

Also loved me some fried bologna sandwiches with miracle whip.

cuts of meat

Also uncooked top ramen was a great snack

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ZachMatthews@reddit

Microwave nachos baby.

Corn chips under a heap of shredded cheddar cheese, pickled jalapeños optional. Microwave 30-40 seconds depending on size of said heap.

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hamburger5003@reddit

Idk man tortilla chips are unnecessarily expensive these days

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StillAnAss@reddit

Ok fancy pants with corn chips and actual cheddar cheese.

Potato chips and American cheese is close.

Saltine crackers and melted American cheese sucks but works when there's nothing else

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StunGod@reddit

Oh man yes. I even do 2 layers: first, a big plate of corn chips, then add cheese and (hopefully) Taco meat or a can of refried beans. Then another layer of these. 1.5 minutes in the microwave, then pile on the other stuff like diced chilies, black olives, salsa, sour cream, and whatever you want to throw on.

Macaroni and tomatoes

Macaroni and cheese with pork and beans, served separately on the plate and eaten together in one mouthful or mixed together on the plate

Tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwich

Spaghetti with oil and garlic

Pasta fagiole (pasta and beans)

Beans and greens

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JaneGoodallVS@reddit

Rice and grilled chicken

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Puukkot@reddit

Cheap pancake mix, or the equivalent component ingredients, and whatever you have handy to put on the results. Peanut butter, syrup, jam, or just some butter if times are really tough.

One growing up was knorr chicken flavored rice cooked mostly through then add a can of diced SPAM and fry them together for a bit. Heat up a can of veggies on the side, maybe some white bread with some butter if we were fancy that night. Cost like $3 to feed a family of four a decent meal.

I buy SPAM in bulk, flavor my own rice, and use frozen veggies and can still get 4-5 meals out of $5.

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Johnnyboy10000@reddit

Knorr is excellent.

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In college we ate a lot of Lipton Noodle & Sauce with Jiffy corn muffins.

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the_original_kiki@reddit

Beans and cornbread

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Visible-Shop-1061@reddit

Hot Dogs and Potatoes.

Slice potatoes thin and sauté/fry in a skillet, add thinnish slices of hot dog and brown those up too. My mom realized early on she didn't have to make us kids anything good because we loved that shit.

I have heard this dish called "Poor Man's Meal" on YouTube.

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ShoddyRevolutionary@reddit

Quesadillas. Cheese+Tortilla+Skillet. Add some beans (also cheap!) for a more rounded meal (or at least some protein).

Also. Americans get made of all the time for food that is primarily there to be cheap, like it’s all that exists here.

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Visible-Shop-1061@reddit

yeah quesadillas are great and a great way to learn to cook for people who don't know how to cook at all. It can be an extremely easy dish, basically a Mexican grilled cheese, but you can also make it a full meal with chicken and peppers and onions. I can never bring myself to order a quesadilla anywhere because I know how easy it is to make.

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Fancy-Primary-2070@reddit

When I was a kid --

Cube steak, pasta and margarine, jelly toast.

Now, roast chicken thighs (get them for 99 cents a pound) and roast potatoes. Then I save the extra roasted potatoes and cut them up and grill them up in the same pan I make a couple scrambled eggs in. Extra chicken is good for a chicken sandwich.

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Something I only discovered was a ‘poverty food’ a few years ago that is always reliably delicious: a piece of toast with butter and cinnamon sugar. So good.

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Coderules@reddit

Rice and Beans in a crockpot used to be a staple in my home growing up. Sometimes, we had enough $$ to add in a piece of meat like a ham bone for extra special flavoring.

Also just wanted to comment after reading most of the other comments about "box of mac and cheese", "Hamburger Helper", etc. Doesn't anyone actually cook anymore? You can save lots of $$ and chose better ingredients or you pick up a cookbook.

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Scotts_Thot@reddit

TIL I grew up on poverty food

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MiserableProduct@reddit

Red beans and rice. My grandma was from New Orleans and she taught me how to make them. Got me through college.

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chtrace@reddit

Potato and egg breakfast taco. 1 small potato, 3 eggs, 4 tortillas and you have a breakfast of champions for really cheap. If you are high rolling, you can add a little cheese and bacon bits.

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Top_Row_5116@reddit

Ramen noodles is probably the pinnacle or poor people food. But from my experience, there's also Peanut Butter & Jelly Rollups, Mustard Sandwiches, Spaghetti with no sauce just cheese, and like, those tiny chicken noodle soup cans that have 1 very small piece of chicken, 3 noodles, and the rest is broth.

Grew up poor, stayed poor in college. These are my go to's.

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boredbitch2020@reddit

Peanutbutter jelly on white bread

Beans cooked with ham bone

Cornbread and certainly cornpone

Cream of wheat. I haven't been able to find it in Europe

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secondmoosekiteer@reddit

When i was a kid in the nineties, it was hamburger helper and a can of green beans. You can make a pack of ground beef stretch a long time like that, freezing portions of cooked meat. It's sad tho.

My favorite is grilled cheese and tomato soup,

but when I'm really hard up i buy a loaf of bread, a thing of peanut butter, and a pack of lunch meat. Maybe some tomatoes. A can or two of black eyed peas. That's about $20 right there and with a few hoecakes, that will all go a long way.

As i have mentioned elsewhere in this comment section, my poverty casserole is:

Store brand mac n cheese dinner made with an extra 1/4 c milk, Shredded cheddar if you got it, a handful of frozen peas, a can of cream of mush or celery soup, and a can of tuna. I calculated it years ago to cost $6 for about 4 servings. Im sure it's gone yo with inflation but it's fairly balanced and delicious and cheap. Cook pasta, mix everything and bake at 325 for 20 mins.

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit

Poke Salad:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytolacca_americana

https://www.southernliving.com/what-is-poke-salad-6824774

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East-Fix2620@reddit

Hamburger Helper
Hot Dogs beans and rice
Rice and Eggs with bacon
Frozen Salibury Steak

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Kineth@reddit

With the advent of the internet and increased international business, I have to think that there's less that are unknown to Europeans.

That said, Spam. I have to think ramen is pretty well known at this point, though I do think people, in general should understand that you can just treat it as a template and can add spices, veggies and an egg to it to turn it into an elegant poverty meal.

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LilyHex@reddit

My grandparents who lived through the Great Depression had a few meals that they taught my parents. My dad liked "Shit on a Shingle" which was ground hamburger or breakfast sausage fried up and then just adding flour and a bit of water or milk to that to make a gravy.

Then he'd make some mashed potatoes and pour the gravy mix onto that. We usually did have quite a bit of frozen cheap ground hamburger meat around, and then flour and instant mashed potatoes aren't terribly pricey.

He also liked pinto bean "soup" which was just pinto beans slow cooked all day with either a chunk of ham or some bacon and an onion tossed in. I LOVE that! It's genuinely my favorite food ever, but it's definitely an acquired taste. The beans are a few bucks for a huge back, the onion is usually around a dollar or so, and the meat is as expensive as you wanna invest in for it. You can get a good-sized piece of ham or some cheap bacon for this and make enough to last you a few days for less than $10. I usually make enough to eat it for about three days.

Ramen is another good "staple", it's cheap and tasty. You can spruce it up very easily as well. I like to buy green onions and toss them in a glass with some water and let them grow like that, and you can take clippings off it, and boil up an egg and even the cheapest ramen packets become quite a good deal more filling.

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silviazbitch@reddit

Hot hogs benedict. Cook split hot dogs on a skillet and serve on English muffins with poached eggs and hollandaise sauce made from a packet.

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Prowindowlicker@reddit

Rice and beans. Cheap and easy. Throw some cheese on it and it tases even better.

flootytootybri@reddit

We used to eat A LOT of hamburger helper in the 2008/2009 recession. Don’t think I could ever eat it again lol

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Seaforme@reddit

Peanut butter sandwich was a go to growing up

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Sahellio@reddit

Peanut butter and jelly

Sloppy joe

Taquitos

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Old_Science4946@reddit

sautéed onions over pasta

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VampireGremlin@reddit

I grew up eating struggle meals because well I'm poor. lol

Red beans and rice with sausage.

Macaroni with Spam.

Fried Spam with egg.

Tomato sandwich.

Hamburger helper.

Rice with chicken.

Ramen.

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OneTinSoldier567@reddit

Grits. Depending on what you top them with they are good for any meal and a snack. My wife's family put cheese in them for breakfast or dinner. I go for a spoon of sugar and a little cinnamon at breakfast and cheese at dinner. Works for rice as well of course. Peanut butter! The poor person's topping. Toast, pancakes, waffles, whatever you use butter, jelly or syrup on, peanut butter is better and usually cheaper. Also does not need refrigeratoring after opening. Canned meats like ham. It's $4 from Amazon and again unopened is shelf stable. I medium dice and brown it quickly. Then use it a little at a time to flavor dishes. Pot of soup beans with a couple of ounces of ham gives you meat taste and bean protein. Also mix with rice and it on your favorite or cheapest flat bread and roll it up and eat. Also works to add a meat flavor to cheap frozen pizza.

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jorwyn@reddit

"Ghetto mac" as my friends and I used to call it.

You get the cheapest mac and cheese, hot dogs, and chili. Make the mac and cheese, add chili and cut up hot dogs, mix in and heat.

It's so filling, and while each of these things are honestly pretty gross alone, it's tasty. I remember when my 2 roommates and I could have a whole meal for $3. I think it's about $6 now. That's still really cheap.

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breathless_RACEHORSE@reddit

Soup, especially condensed soup, has always been a staple. Campbell's used to be even more affordable than it is now. I remember spending about a quarter a can in college, and to make it, you only need a bowl and a kettle.

It's a bit more now, but as long as you avoid the "fancy" soups with all kinds of add-ins, basic soup is still a good meal.

I think someone mentioned grilled cheese and tomato soup already. It was a fall/winter staple that filled and warmed you coming in out of the snow.

That was good on it's own, but if I wanted meat, I'd buy a cheap smoked sausage ($3-$4), dice it up tiny. Kernel of corn size. Fry it up until cooked really well, then add it to maybe half the rice mix along with all that sausage grease.

That way you have rice with veggies, and a meaty rice dish too. Of course you can add any seasonings you have handy, but the portion with meat really doesn't need it.

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Key_Set_7249@reddit

Goetta

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sluttypidge@reddit

Poor Man's Pankcakes.

My poverty specialty was "fat spaghetti". Which was about 4lbs of spaghetti boiled with a stick of butter, then drained, then another stick of butter melted in with 2-3lbs of shredded mozzarella mixed and melted into it. Then douse that shit with italian dressing.

It would feed my roommate and me for about a week and cost about $13 at the time, so it was the perfect thing to make the week before rent was due.

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Same_Agent_3465@reddit

A staple Minnesotan dish that came from the Great Depression was Tater Tot Hotdish. Basically, it's just some hamburger meat, frozen veggies, tater tots, and some cream of mushroom/ chicken soup. Although, I'd say we eat this dish no matter if we were poor or not.

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surfdad67@reddit

Sardines in oil on saltine crackers, smoked oysters in oil on saltines, Vienna sausages

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StunGod@reddit

I'm not bragging, but this worked for me:

A bag of Success Rice fully boiled, then mix in a can of Campbell's Cream of Something (pick chicken, mushroom, broccoli, or whatever).

jcmib@reddit

Vienna Sausages

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dylanwojo@reddit

Hot Dogs in Kraft Mac & Cheese

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IHaveALittleNeck@reddit

Tuna with macaroni

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Unique_Mind2033@reddit

"government cheese"

For protein I would buy those Buddig lunch meats.

Sloppy Joes with cheap ground beef and corn over rice would last a few meals .

Hot dish. Pair it with rye bread and butter and that'll last 5 meals or so.

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dillhavarti@reddit

sloppy Joes, hamburger helper

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Fit-Vanilla-3405@reddit

My Italian grandma used to make us ‘prisoner pasta’ which was spaghetti or macaroni with dried herbs and spices and olive oil (this was before it got super expensive and fancy) and the dried Parmesan (aka shaky cheese).

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SnapHackelPop@reddit

Sometimes you just want a few pre cut slices of bologna, man

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rileyoneill@reddit

Growing up I used to hear old people sometimes reference a Hoover stew that was consumed during the Great Depression. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLZlPXNZGqk

My grandmother would sometimes make stuff like this even though by the time I came around she was certainly not poor.

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Ok_Perception1131@reddit

Steak ems

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Crazyboutdogs@reddit

Cinnamon bread and Fried bologna