I am the one on food stamps, but must also feed my grown son. Here are some of the things I do. Beans and rice are a great go to, but many people don't realize that different beans taste differently. If you want to switch it up, get a bag of 13 bean (or what ever the mix is), I make my own now. Cook your beans, with salt (yes, salt). You may cook them with a slow cooker, or boil them straight out of the bag (just rinse them first) or bring to a boil, let sit and then boil them, your choice. The cheapest way to go is to get garlic powder and onion powder from the dollar store, add some of that to the beans to taste. If you can get bacon ends, great, if not thick bacon or what ever suits your taste ( it is for flavoring basically). Fry some up, save the grease and put some in the beans. Just before the beans are tender, add a couple of handfuls of rice. You can make this thick or thin, your preference.
Now, with the saved bacon grease, you can fry up a little more bacon and drain. Put to the side. Take a head of cabbage and thinly slice, fry in the bacon grease until tender, add onion and garlic powder to taste. Add in the bacon, and you can eat it this way or use it to make other dishes. If you splurge to get Hoisin sauce, you can put it on tortillas, add the cabbage mixture and you have cheap Moo Shu. If you have Chinese mustard, you can make a cheap version of egg rolls. If you put vinegar on the cabbage mixture you have a cheap sauerkraut. You get the idea.
I also make chili or a chili like soup. I always have TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) on hand. It comes dry and will pick up the flavor of anything you want. To make chili, I cook dry kidney beans with salt, onion and garlic powder. I have some taco seasoning (at the dollar store you may be able to pick up something) and beef bouillon that I soak the TVP in (it will expand, so be careful). I add that to the cooked kidney beans. If I have veggies, I will add them, either cooking with the beans or cooked separately and added later. I've sometimes taken cooked potatoes and added chili over them, you can add raw onions or shredded cheese or plain yogurt, or whatever suits your fancy as a garnish.
The beauty of the above is that they can be frozen after cooking, so dividing them up and reheating makes sure you are not eating the same thing every night.
With the TVP you and be very creative. My son drains tuna fish in a bowl, adds some TVP so it soaks up the tuna water and after a few minutes, adds the tuna into the bowl and mixes it all up, it gives him about another 1/2 can of 'tuna fish'. He can now make his tuna sandwiches. Or you could make a tuna casserole. Or you could make a macaroni and tuna salad.
If you have chicken bouillon, you can make chicken TVP, and make chicken noodle soup. Boil any type of noodle, don't use a lot of water because you can throw in any type of veggie you have along with the chicken TVP and make soup. Depending on price and preference, you could use a can of mixed veggies or a box of frozen mixed veggies.
If you don't shred your own cheese, make sure you get the finest grate you can in the bagged variety. The fine shreds will actually last longer because you will use less. A pinch of the fine stuff will satisfy your eye as well as your mouth, and it will actually be less than the larger shred.
If you use butter or margarine for toast or veggies the spray on butter is actually the cheaper alternative. One or two sprays will do the trick, tastes good and it will also help with your waistline.
Oatmeal is the absolutely cheapest breakfast. Quick cooking oats will easily last you two weeks. We use a leftover scoop (from a drink mix, I think (less than 1/4 cup)) 2 scoops of oatmeal with 4 scoops of water, cook for 2 minutes in the micro. We add things to it, like dried fruit, nuts, jams, my son has even done peanut butter and chocolate, for a dessert. Again, be creative, you can even go savory rather than sweet, kind of like grits.
I hope this is helpful. If I knew what you get from the food pantry, I could be more helpful.
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