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[asa_phelps]

I'll second the eggs and "breakfast for dinner" comments.

Pancakes are easy and fun to make, filling and cheap.  You can throw in fresh or dried fruit too!  I prefer blueberries and cranberries.

There are many good things you can do with a Crock Pot, including soups and stews, a whole chicken, and pretty good BBQ.

Potatoes are cheap ($5 for 10 lbs!) and surprisingly good for you.  The stuffed baked potato recipe earlier sounds pretty good. 

I spent some time in Grad school eating toast for lunch.  4-6 slices of wheat bread with butter (not margarine) was very filling and pretty cheap too.

I detest most beans and rice type dishes so I find cheap stuff elsewhere.

[expatinuk]

Can of corned beef
Onion
2 small potatoes - chopped into cubes
1/2 cup water

Saute the onion in a frying pan, add corned beef... add water... add potatoes. Cook until potatoes are tender. Server over cooked grits.

Another one:

Can of salmon
serve over cooked grits

And this one:
one can Vienna sausages - chopped
one small onion
can of tomatoes

Saute onion, add tomatoes, add Vienna sausages... cook until heated. Serve over rice.

[thedunvegan]

I have nothing to add that hasn't already been suggested, but thanks OP for starting this thread. There are some great ideas here.
TD

[daurousseau]

How about cheap meals for dining out? In Atlanta, that's Eats. http://www.eatsonponce.net/ Blue collar and student haven.

[mr_mer]

I found a nice resource for home style cooking, since you wanted to cut down on preprocessed foods.

http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/all/cul/hgp/

While some of the pamphlets have silly sounding titles ("99 ways to share the meat") several contain recipes and ideas for using less expensive cuts of meat, beans, root veggies etc.  These recipes should be relatively cheap.

-mm

(edited to correct link)

[svenc]

For those who want cheap and processed:

Start with two boxes of mac & cheese.  Only drain part of the cooking water after the macaroni is cooked.

Add the cheese mix and keep pouring in instant mashed potato flakes until you've reached the desired consistency.

It's cheap.  Add some frozen peas if you need a vegetable in there.

[oseph]

Megadarrah, from Turkey. It's lentils and rice with fried onions in lots of olive oil. Accompanied by yogurt and garlic sauce.

Look it up. It is very good and very cheap.

You can also find the version from the Levant, Mujadara - but second on how tasty it is!

I already posted this over in the Dinner Tonight? thread, but:

Fasolakia

Sauté minced or pressed garlic and sliced onions (sweet if available) in olive oil.  Add a little tomato paste and fry in oil briefly.  Add fresh green beans, a couple of cans of stewed tomatoes (Italian flavored - NOT Mexican flavored), oregano (fresh or dried), and sea salt.  At this stage you can add raw potato wedges (baking potatoes or new potatoes), or you can cook them separately and add them closer to the end.  Cook the green beans (and potatoes and onions) in the tomato mixture until everything is fairly soft.  Cover and refrigerate.  When you get to the potluck, microwave until warm throughout, then place a large block of feta on top, and break it into small pieces with a large spoon, distributing it across the top of the bean mixture.

[cyano]

Banana pancakes. Put two eggs and two bananas in a blender. Fry in a pan as any typical pancake. I usually cook it at low heat because it burns easier than regular pancakes. Works great with the really mushy on sale bananas.

[daurousseau]

For those who want cheap and processed:

Start with two boxes of mac & cheese.  Only drain part of the cooking water after the macaroni is cooked.

Add the cheese mix and keep pouring in instant mashed potato flakes until you've reached the desired consistency.

It's cheap.  Add some frozen peas if you need a vegetable in there.

Trader Joes has the mac & cheese. My kids always want me to bring a couple dozen boxes when I visit.

[stitch]

Banana pancakes. Put two eggs and two bananas in a blender. Fry in a pan as any typical pancake. I usually cook it at low heat because it burns easier than regular pancakes. Works great with the really mushy on sale bananas.

Just eggs and banana?  Isn't that more like a banana omelette?

[daurousseau]

Banana pancakes. Put two eggs and two bananas in a blender. Fry in a pan as any typical pancake. I usually cook it at low heat because it burns easier than regular pancakes. Works great with the really mushy on sale bananas.

Just eggs and banana?  Isn't that more like a banana omelette?

Sounds like fried smoothie.

[inthelab]

I'm surprised there weren't more pasta dishes mentioned here.
Buy the loss-leader food of the week, and if it (they) can be stored, buy in bulk.  You can freeze your own fruits & veggies in a $39 Seal-a-Meal.

At the Lab house, we favor pizza muffins, pasta, and so forth, using jarred marinara sauce we can jazz up.  Lately, really good pasta has been on sale at 10 boxes for $1 if you have the membership card.  We have this once a week or so (I'd have it more, but Labspouse needs his meat, and Labkid #1 runs anemic if she doesn't eat beef often enough).

I've made great tacos using ground up canned chick peas in place of the meat.

[undisciplined]

I made the asparagus and mushroom risotto from the _Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook_ last night. That means I'm having leftovers of the same tonight. It was yummy. Get that rice cooker.

[oseph]

I made the asparagus and mushroom risotto from the _Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook_ last night. That means I'm having leftovers of the same tonight. It was yummy. Get that rice cooker.

I have to ask - how did you make risotto in a rice cooker?

[frogfactory]

Assuming you already have a reasonable spice rack, this is a really decent, really cheap meal that you can make in serious bulk quantity for not much money:

a) White rice:

Duh.  Boil it.

b) Dahl
A glug of vegetable or sunflower oil, or ghee (which is not cheap).  NOT olive oil
1 onion (two if you're making loads and want to add a garnish)
A few cloves of garlic
About a cubic inch of ginger
A bay leaf
~1 level 1tsp coriander seeds
~1 level tsp cumin seeds
2 shelled cardamom pods (you just want the seeds
<1/4 tsp tumeric
0.5-1 green or red chilli, to your personal preference
0.5-1 baggy of either red lentils or yellow split peas
3-6 tomatoes (you can leave these out if you want)
(optional - a big handful of spinach)
(optional - juice of a lime)
(optional - fresh cilantro/coriander leaf, lots of)
(optional - garam masala of choice)
Salt to taste

1. Add oil to a medium to large saucepan and put on a medium-high flame
2. Stick the lentils in a bowl and rinse them with cold water.  Drain them as best you can **Critical step - if you don't rinse the lentils they will not soften**
3. Chop the onion.  The way I prefer to do this is to halve the onion, chop one half very finely (so it gets mixed up in the masala), and one half fairly coarsely so that you can still identify the onion in the finished dahl.  If you're making loads, chop up half of the second onion coarsely, and reserve half for garnish.
4. Add all the chopped onion to the pan, and fry, stirring occasionally, until it starts to brown.
5. Add the bay leaf, coriander seeds, cumin and cardamom to the pan.  They will start to pop and sizzle a little.  This is good, but don't let them get burnt or they'll ruin the flavour
6. Crush the garlic and grate the ginger (fine grater) into the pan and stir.
7. Chop the chilli and add to the pan (If you like it hot, add another in the last stages of cooking)
8. Add the lentils straight to the pan and stir until they are covered in oil.  They should start to cook a little around the edges before the next step - give it a couple of minutes or the length of time it takes to chop the tomatoes.
9. Chop the tomatoes - you can blanch and peel them if you like, but I leave the skins and seeds in - into smallish chunks.  This isn't too critical, as they'll pretty much break down in the sauce - sometimes I even throw in whole cherry tomatoes instead.  If you prefer to seed your tomatoes, add a little water too
10. Stirring occasionally, allow to cook on medium until the tomatoes start to break down - e.g. the skin starts to peel off
11.  Add the turmeric and stir well
(if you want to add spinach, do it now, and stir well until it's reasonably well 'shrunk')
12. Add water until you have a soupy consistency, and simmer for the length of time it takes to make the potato dish below (barring accidents).  From here on in, keep the pot simmering with the lid off,stir occasionally, and add water whenever the consistency becomes thicker than you like.
(Optional - chop the remaining onion into  thin rings or strips and deep fry either in a fryer or a saucepan of vegetable/sunflower oil until a dark, reddish brown.  It will look completely over cooked and taste a little unpleasantly bitter eaten alone, but are awesome as a topping)
13.  Once the lentils are cooked through (should be soft with no crunch) and you've achieved the consistency you like (somewhere between soup and much, depending on preference), add the lime juice, the additional chilli if it needs it, and salt to taste.  Do not add salt before the lentils are cooked through.  If you need to keep the pot on the hob, add a little more water and turn the heat down.
14.  Just before serving, add the optional cilantro, garam masala and stir.  Sprinkle the optional fried onion on top.
15.  Spoon over rice, or if you like it really thin, serve in a bowl.

c) Potato 'stuff' (as it is known in my family)
This tastes surprisingly good for such a simple recipe.  In fact, I might make it tonight now I've thought of it:
A glug of vegetable oil
0.5-1 onion (probably 0.5 per serving)
As many standard white potatoes as you'd normally allocate for a meal, plus a little more because you'll probably want seconds (I hope).  Slightly waxy (but not as waxy as, say, Jersey Royals) potatoes probably work better than floury types.
1/2 level tsp of white sugar
About 1 tsp yellow mustard seeds (ideally, use the whole spice mix called panch faron [or various other transliterations of the name from Bengali] but it's hard to get, and I've found yellow mustard is a good alternative).
Salt to taste

You need a small to medium saucepan with a lid that fits well for this one.
1. Chop onions to medium sized pieces
2. Cube potatoes into pieces around an inch cubed, erring on the smaller side
3. Add oil to pan, heat on a medium to high flame
4. Add onions and reduce the heat to medium
5. Fry onions until they start to become translucent - don't brown them
6. Add potatoes, sugar and mustard to the pan and stir so that they are coated in the oil and onions
7. Turn the flame down to low, put a tight-fitting lid on the pan, and go check the CHE forum for 5-10 minutes.  Stir no more than every 5 minutes (maybe even less often) - you don't want to let too much moisture escape
8.  Once the potato chunks start to become *slightly* mushy around the edges when you stir them, add a splash of water and turn the flame up a little.
9. Once the potatoes are cooked through - they should be on the slightly mushy side, but not mush - salt to taste and serve


Serve on cracked china with a bottle of Charles Shaw.

If you want more fresh veggies in the meal, also add:

d) The best salad ever

Half an onion, finely chopped
6 decent tomatoes, chopped
A pinch of salt
A bunch of cilantro/coriander leafs, chopped
*under no circumstances add oil to this recipe.  Heathens!*

Mix ingredients and serve


(longest post ever?)