Favorite Meal under $2.00

[karl]

Corn pone- canned beans- .99, muffin mix .75<br>Can of beans or chili, few jalapenos, maybe grated cheese, box of corn muffin mix.<br>dump beans, jalapenos, cheese in an 8" casserole pan, mix muffin mix and dump over beans, bake until tooth pick comes out clean(400 for 15-20 min.).&nbsp; makes two to three meals.<br>Some folks gooey it up with molasses or syrup....like mine with Tabasco and a beer.<br><br>

 

[owl]

<P>&nbsp;&nbsp; Best meal under $2.00= two buck chuck at Trader Joes</P>

 

[mockturtle]

Beans &amp; cornbread. <br>

 

[Willy]

Marked-down meat, rice, veggies, buncha&nbsp; sambal (chili, sauce, cayenne pepper, or anything really hot will do), veggies, spices 'n stuff.. and boil the piss outta it. The meat also has to have a bone for the dog.&nbsp; <br>

 

[She]

Rice,spinach,mushroom,(lots)garlic and great northern beans. Throw in pan with tabasco&nbsp;sauce and olive oil. Yummy

 

[Simran]

For me it's beans &amp; rice; hands down. I buy it in a package with the seasonings for around a buck- buck fifty and makes two to three meals for me.<br>An 80cent apple will carry me a long way too.<br>A bowl of oatmeal with a few nuts, raisins &amp; honey goes along way too and it's cheap.<br><br>gus<br><br>

 

[VJG1977]

<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font><span style='line-height: 115%; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>I'll keep this going with my favorite anytime meal, a three egg omelet with ham, onion and cheese. I can usually make this for around a dollar. The nice thing about omelets, you can&nbsp;make it with&nbsp;just about any leftover you have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span></p><p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>

 

[akblack10]

I agree with VLG1977, Omelets are very nice with just about anything! &nbsp;I used leftover chicken curry one time and it was great!<div>-AK</div><div><br></div>

 

[sl1966]

Spanish rice, but only if it's made from the freshest of Spaniards.<div><br></div>

 

[Willy]

&nbsp;I feel I must mention that the 3 all-time cheapest meals (aside from bummin' off friends or relatives) can be had at food banks, soup kitchens, and via dumpster-diving. Bon appetit!<br>

 

[karl]

I make Stovies quite often- great way to use leftovers, there are a thousand recipes.....so far this is my favorite:<br>more or less equal parts of precooked meat ( ground beef, steak chopped, ham, chicken, road kill?<br>Potatoes sliced or cubed<br>onions sliced<br>corn, carrots...whatever sounds good<br>spice to taste<br><br>layer in baking dish starting with taters<br>using gravy mix , your choice of flavor, make a cup or two of gravy - pour it over, cover and bake @350 for 45 min., or until veggies and taters are soft.<br><br><br><br>

 

[sl1966]

a good quick one that is a little over $2 but is more than one meal is Island Spam.<div><br></div><div>1 can spam cubed</div><div>1 cup of rice</div><div>1 onion chopped</div><div>1.5 cup of water</div><div><br></div><div>Toss it all into a pot. Bring to a boil, simmer for 20 minutes. Serve</div><div><br></div><div>Extras you can add</div><div>1 fried egg (fry first add seperately to completed dish)</div><div>half cup of broccoli (cook with everything)</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>

 

[gipsyweaver]

My favorite cheap meal that can be made quickly on a camp stove is my version of a scramble (I think a couple of people have listed something like it):<br><br>take out some frozen spinach and chopped onion and pepper to thaw about 1/2 an hour in advance<br>heat a little oil in a skillet<br>beat two eggs with a little milk or water while it heats<br>put the veggies in the pan and cook through (I like my onions a bit carmelized)<br>Add the eggs, season to taste with salt, pepper, etc. and stir until thoroughly cooked.<br>Serve over a slice or two of bread (or toast if that's an option). Optional toppings: a little cheese or salsa<br><br>The eggs are about $.25, the frozen veggies are about $.25, the milk, oil and seasonings are less than $.20, and the bread is, at most, $.20. Less than a dollar, and if you add some cheese, you have a meal with protein, grain, veggie and dairy.<br><br>My favorite regular cheap meals involve rice or beans, but I don't consider them great choices for a camp stove and limited refrigeration.<br><br>

 

[Trout]

<p style="margin: 0px;">We used to use the Farmers Market in Rochester NY.&nbsp; I could pick up a 50 lb bag of taters for $5 at the time, maybe 10 now.&nbsp; Rice and Beans are the other great stretchers of the food dollar.&nbsp; Combining diferent beans can give you all the amino acids you would get from a meat diet.&nbsp; don't get me wrong, I love my meat, especially the different poultry and pork we grew ourselves.</p><p style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin: 0px;">Our beef usually cost around 2.30 a pound, cut wrapped and in our freezer.&nbsp; It was grass fed and organic by nature.&nbsp; The garden was another goldmine compared to the dollars it took to plant it.&nbsp; We used heirlooom seeds so we could save them from year to year.&nbsp; Not possible with this traveling lifestyle though.</p><p style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin: 0px;">I have been forced into the TV dinner situation for a few weeks.&nbsp; $2.50 a meal for the hungry man, $1 for the snack dinners.</p>

 

[kevinr]

One of my favorite dishes of all time is under $2. I usually make it as a side, but now that I live in a van, I only make one course, and because it's beans and rice, it has everything you need in it. You can easily live off this dish until you are sick of it.<br /><br />1-2 strips bacon<br />1 diced tomato<br />1 can of any kind of beans<br /><br />Fry the bacon till crisp.<br />Add the tomato and beans.<br />Season with salt and pepper and pour over rice.<br /><br />I like it over jasmine rice, which is a buck a pound at WinCo. If you want to go even cheaper and more flavorful, make your own jasmine rice by adding a dried jasmine flower, which you can get under the guise of jasmine tea at most Asian grocers, as well as Trader Joes. I usually also throw in half a sweet onion to brown with the bacon. If it doesn't taste absolutely amazing, add a little more salt until it does.

 

[kevinr]

It's the candy bar of meats. Whenever I'm sad, I turn to bacon.

 

[sl1966]

It also happens to be the gateway meat for vegetarians. A study was done on why, and the shortest explanation is that it speaks to the most primal part of our brains.&nbsp;<br /><br />Personally speaking, making it when vegetarian friends visit me has become one of my favorite pastimes.<br /><br />

 

[twokniveskatie]

Walmart now has a bacon jerky in the trail mix/nut isle. Shelf stable even after opening. We're not talking those thin wimpy strips sold in boxes in the lunch meat and hotdog section. We are talking thick and substantial and Mutt votes "2 paws up!"<br /><br />I keep a couple pouches in my BOB.

 

[karl]

Keeping any in my BOB, or anyplace else for that matter would be an exercise in futility......MT maybe, full- no way.<br />In my next life I will work on will power......

 

[Guest]

heres an idea many of you already do i'm sure:<br />since my kids were little, and when we used to camp alot, i kept a gallon ice cream pail in the van. collected condiment paks for awhile. everywhere we went. they added up quick. then we took off on a trip, we had all sorts of condiments of all kinds. even creamer, butter and honey.<br /><br />i still do this. the pail is full. if we stop at taco bell or somewhere, just get a few extra paks, not being greedy. also throw in sauce paks that come in boxes, mixes. the cheese pak out of mac and cheese makes good cheesy popcorn.<br />this pail is always on the table. lots of neat goodies in there.