One Dollar Meal Ideas

MREs are good for camping, hunting, the BOB, etc. I buy the "Entree Only" packages from "The Sportsman's Guide" online catalog. Not cheap, but less than 8 bucks a pop.
Several companies make the "Ready To Eat" rice packets too, in the grocery stores. Like MREs they can be eaten from the pouch, but are much better heated. They last about a year on the shelf, good for camping but not a Long Storage item! Much cheaper than MREs. Add a meat packet, you got a meal fairly cheap.

 

Grits were very expensive to serve due to the difficulty in harvesting them until Eli Whitney invented the "Automatic Grit Picker", sometime in the 1800s. Prior to the grit picker, grits were only picked by hand one at a time, but this made it very easy to select only the very best, ripest grits; the trade-off is that now we get a broader spectrum of the little seeds, including many that still contain the shell and bits of the fine white grit tree bark.

 

I don't know the exact pricing for these, but these are some of the 'standard' poor meals around here:

Tuna Casserole, made of 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 can of tuna, and noodles/rice(cooked preferably).

Hamburger Stroganoff: 1 can of cream of mushroom soup, 1 pound ground meat, 8oz sour cream, and the stroganoff sauce goes over noodles, rice, or mashed potates. I actually like it over toast sometimes.

Breakfast: With our own mini-flock of laying hens, never really get 'short' on eggs. And add hashbrown and pancakes for not much extra cost.

My own 1pan slop dish meal things I like to eat(since they end up lasting me at least 2 meals) is making a seasoned white sauce(I throw in garlic/onion/pepper/salt/italian seasoning/mushrooms for flavor), adding water, bringing to a boil(stirring constantly to prevent the sauce ingredients from sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning), and throwing in noodles. If I added right amount of water, it will still be the same thickness before I added the water. Then I throw some cheese in to make it like an alfredo dish. Sometimes I throw chicken in during the boiling step.

Alternately, I'll take a pound of hamburger from the freezer, add the seasonings mentioned above, and boil it on the stove, and add noodles(or rice), and once the noodles/rice are almost done, I add enough tomato paste to thicken it up and once it's all cooked, I add cheese.

Yes, cheese is a vital ingredient for me. Especially putting it in the little squares in toasted waffles and microwaving them til it's melted.

 

Gourmet Spaghetti with Garlic and Parmesian Cheese

Years ago I had some of the best Spaghetti I've ever eaten, but it also cost and arm & leg because of the restaurant and its reputation. I was single back then.

It wasn't a spaghetti with red/white sauce, per se, but a very simple garlic, parsley, and oil coating topped with fresh parmesian. The perfectly cooked noodles made it memorable, since I had never experienced that before.

That meal cost about $25 in 1995, but it could be made for probably $0.50 per plate if you buy in bulk (and grow your own herbs):

Ingredients:
- spaghetti
- fresh garlic finely chopped
- olive oil
- parsely
- parmesian cheese
- add fresh basil or oregano as you like
- add cooked meat as you like (sausage and/or shrimp is especially good)
- add salt and pepper as you like

Steps:
1. Cook noodles to al dente
2. In a pan, heat olive oil and stir in the ingredients you want heated.
3. Stir heated ingredients into a large bowl to coat the spaghetti. This is where I add the finely chopped garlic, any fresh herbs, and parmesian so they don't get cooked.

It's a little more expensive than Ramen noodles, but probably a lot more healthy for you.

 

Many years ago I was trying to save money ans living bymyself I would bake a whole chicken and 7 to 8 potatoes. That would last 2 good meals. Then throw all the bones onto a pot and boil a couple of hours and pick all the meat off the bones. Then you can make chicken and dumplings and that generally lasted 2 or 3 meals. Left over baked potatoes make excellent potato skins or fry them up for hash brown.

3$ for the chicken .70$ for the potatoes .20 for bullion cubes if needed ,30 for flour for the dumplings. 4 real good meals for around a dollar each.

 

Red beans and rice, cheaper if you buy in bulk. All you need to do is boil them, add your favorite spices, I like New Orleans style with white pepper, black pepper, red pepper, a dash of Tabasco, some garlic powder and onion powder, If you want to get fancy, add some chopped celery, diced bell peppers, and some mild sausage. Good meal when combined with my locally famous corn bread!

 

A 1 lb.bag of Great Northern's, a pone of cornbread, and some greens will feed me for 3-4 days by myself, if I eat that only. Total cost- less than $5.00. Throw in oatmeal for breakfast and noodles for lunch to stretch it out and I can eat almost a week for less than $10-12. It ain't fancy but it will keep ya going when times are tight.