I’ve recently been fixated on the idea of struggle meals, probably because I’ve been struggling both financially and mentally. I’ll share a couple of mine:
-Egg on hash brown patty: as simple as it sounds, bake a frozen hash brown patty, cook a sunny side up egg and put it on top. I like to season the egg with salt/msg, pepper, and garlic powder, then add a few drops of Tabasco sauce. Bonus points if you have avocado to spread on the hash brown first
-Flaming Hot Cheetos taco: toast a corn tortilla on both sides on a pan, then add sour cream and shredded cheese and flaming hot Cheetos as the “meat”, add any other taco toppings you like/have (shredded cabbage/lettuce, hot sauce, etc)
Would love to hear everyone else’s struggle meals when you just don’t have the means mentally/financially to put much effort into cooking
For effort: not exactly low effort but you can front-load all the effort by spending a couple hours cooking loads of food (I use a 5L Dutch oven for making pasta sauces, curries, soups, stews, etc). Freeze individual portions. Now you can just take out a portion and thaw it when you want to eat. All the aforementioned foods thaw on the stovetop on low heat so you don’t need the foresight to thaw overnight either. I do like to spend a couple hours making the curry/soup/etc to a good quality, but once you’ve invested that time, you’ve got a good-quality curry/soup/stew/sauce to go with zero effort. Takes time to thaw but you can just stick it into a saucepan on low heat and walk away, do something else, come back and enjoy. If it’s on low heat then you don’t need to worry about leaving it too long unless you’re gone for hours then it might have evaporated too much liquid.
For financial (and somewhat effort) struggle: rice cooker and use lots of rice to bulk out a meal. You can stretch out protein sources, veggies, sauces, curries, etc just by having a high rice ratio on your plate. Even paired with slightly more expensive proteins, bulking out with rice means you can stretch e.g. a duck over many meals to amortise the higher cost. Also rice and beans is a classic poverty food and you can pimp it up a lot with spices and hot sauce—again, the cost of spices and hot sauce gets amortised over many meals so is not that expensive per meal. I buy the big bags of spices as they are cheaper per kg than the little bottles you get at the supermarket.
For a decent while I really liked rice, can of spicy tuna (mine is in oil), add hoisin and siracha as desired. Fried egg was welcome.
I still like it but tuna stinks up the whole house.
muesli and high fat yogurt. paired with instant coffee
Muesli is my breakfast everyday.
Guess I’m struggling.
no struggling is when you cant afford fresh raspberries for fibre and honey for flavor.
Had to look this one up, it’s basically a parfait right?
Microwave nachos. Tortilla chips, shredded cheese, and whatever else you like on nachos. Toss it in the microwave until the cheese melts.
Spaghetti, with salt, butter and garlic.
Whatever your particular preference of potato is for the moment (baked, home fries, mashed, wedges, whatever amount of work you can deal with, but a baked potato is the simplest), shredded cheese, pepper and salt. Cayenne pepper powder if you want some heat, garlic powder if you want some garlic, but those four ingredients – potato, salt, pepper, cheese – are the bare minimum for a tasty, filling meal on very little money and little effort.
Also, potatoes and dairy are about as close to a complete diet as you can get with just 2 foods.
Right? Combine that with the fact potatoes alone are so versatile and cheese such a nice complement to them, and they’re both very hard to screw up, you practically have to be deliberately trying to burn them to a crisp to make them actually inedible. Nothing says “struggle meal” like “you literally can not screw this up unless you fall asleep while it’s cooking”.
And just having even a modest spice shelf makes this twice as good. Season the fuck out of your potatoes and cheese, make some of the most delicious food you’ve ever tasted out of the easiest ingredients you’ve ever used. Salt and pepper are the floor, but they are nowhere near the ceiling. I threw in cayenne and garlic powder as examples for some of what I like, but again, not even close. Experiment, figure out what calls to you, and though you may struggle, you will never taste the struggle.
edit: also, of course, there exists various sauces you could use for dip, or in lieu of, or in complement to covering your potatoes with cheese; but then I feel we’re getting more out of struggle meal territory than anything. So, one more nice thing about the combination of potatoes and cheese is you can always improve on it and put either no effort in or a ton of effort in and you will probably still go “fuck, that was good” afterwards.
I know this is a meme saying this on Lemmy, but my go to is now and always has been beans and toast. It’s cheap, easy to make and when it’s warm it’s almost like a real meal. When I’m struggling, it makes me feel like I actually made dinner, even though it’s just beans from the microwave and toast. I usually have bread in the freezer and cans or jars of beans in tomato sauce in the cupboard, so it’s available when I need it.
That’s a solid meal, I wish I liked beans more since they’re so cheap and healthy
Fellow bean enjoyer here! It’s a hearty meal, especially during winter! And great fiber! Dressing up the beans makes me feel like a gourmand on a struggle day.
If I’m taking my beans “all the way” (lol) here’s what I do:
- entire can of beans into the pot on low-medium low heat. Bachelor’s is my favorite.
- you want the sauce to thicken up a bit and get sort of stodgy for good adherence to the toast, but be sure to stir so the bottom doesn’t burn!
- add something to give an umami boost and deepen the flavor. If I have Marmite I’ll do a very thin layer on the toast itself. A glug of Worcestershire or a dollop of tomato paste into the beans is always nice. Ketchup will do here in a pinch, if you don’t have those. A savory jam might be nice too, like an onion or fig etc. Get creative!
- toast 2 slices of bread, apply optional butter and/or marmite, and place together in a V shape in a bowl
- spoon your cooked beans into the center onto the toast pieces, such that half the toast is covered
- next, grate Parmesan. I like parmigiano Reggiano, but something else will do if I don’t have that
- grind lots of black pepper over the top
- allow to cool, don’t burn yourself :)
🤌🤌chef’s kiss
The flesh of the rich and powerful
These are my go-tos:
Better Jarred Spaghetti:
Cook up some ground pork and add, cayenne, paprika, pepper flakes, and cavenders greek seasoning. Deglaze with any alcohol or stock on hand and melt in butter. Add and simmer tomato sauce of choice for a bit with the pork to bring it together. Finish with sugar to balance acidity. Bonus if you have any herbs or cheese for garnish.Garlic Chili Crisp Ramen:
On top of 1 beef and 1 chicken instant ramen (cooked and drained) place scallions, ginger, garlic, chili crisp, and a tiny bit of any vinegar (black vinegar is best). Pour hot oil (any kind) over the top then mix. Bonus with any leftover meats or veggies you can use. Extra bonus if you have sesame oil or seesame seeds to garnish.Black Bean Nachos:
Tortilla chips, shredded cheese, hot sauce of choice, goya sazon seasoning, black beans. Bonus if you have any extra veg like white onion, jalapeno, or tomatoes.Cook a bag of microwave rice(like uncle Ben’s), warm up a can chilli on stove top, add shredded cheese and mix it all up. It’s very filling, kinda healthy, taste decent and is like 3 dollars…
[off topic?]
Get a 5 quart/liter pot. I like to make a pot of chili / soup/ strew and freeze meal size portions.
Takes about seven minutes to microwave a pint sized container.
edit = many people in small places don’t have a good sized freezer. It’s actually a great investment.
I do the same thing. I’ve been perfecting my chili recipe for decades. I’ve nailed the last few batches. Cumin is the magic herb for chili, otherwise it just tastes sort of generic. I also add cocoa powder, and red wine.
I generally alternate between big batches of chili, and big batches of spaghetti sauce. Just brown a bunch of ground meat (I use beef/ pork, but you could use turkey or chicken, or nothing at all), and a bunch of sliced mushrooms, a whole bunch of Italian herbs and garlic, and add 2 cans of crushed tomatoes. A few ounces of red wine is nice. Then just let it simmer all day, and keep adding herbs throughout, balancing the flavors until it’s perfect.
Microwave rice, frozen veges. Boil the jug and pour hot water over the frozen veg to defrost. Microwave rice, strain veg and microwave if necessary. Mix together with mayonnaise or whatever. Can add eggs.
Microwave rice is amazing. It’s the absolute best fallback food, and it takes very little effort to add things to it to make it more healthy and filling.
This is the way…. Rice with whatever you have at hand. Some canned vegetables (green beans, sweet corn, carrots, etc.) work pretty good, and it’s even less effort than frozen ones.
A can of tuna, if you want to get fancy, is the perfect match.
I only add mayo if everything is cold/room temp.
Frozen wonton soup.
Throw frozen Chicken broth into pot and thaw, add a dash of soy sauce until it tastes and looks right, add frozen dumplings or wontons and frozen veggies. Finish with some pepper. Done in 10-15 mins.
I like making my own broth then I freeze it in ~750ml containers. The secret to a good broth is bringing it to a boil very slowly to separate the fat and concentrate the flavours.
Makes 2-4 servings depending wontons.
Ooh I like to make my own broth and freeze it too. Usually whatever’s left of a rotisserie chicken plus random veggie parts that I throw into a ziplock in the freezer until the chicken parts are available. Do you save the separated fat or toss it out? I’ve always been uncertain if I should skim it off or keep it for a richer broth base
I know you can use it, but I usually toss it with the bones and stuff.
I tried saving it and using it for roux but I never did, so now I just don’t bother.
This is my mom’s. She calls it chalupas but it’s not like taco bell’s chalupas. At all. I don’t know where their name came from. These are real chalupas. I think they came from the 50s.
First you take a can of red pinto beans and empty the whole can, juice and all, into a pot. Toss in an 8 Oz thing of cream cheese. Put it on the stove and melt the cream cheese into the bean juices. It’s gonna turn purple.
Get some frito CORN CHIPS. The small ones are better, but ykniw.
Then you kinda layer it. Corn chips, kidney bean creamcheeseslurry, grated cheddar cheese, onion, lettuce, olive, tomato, avocado, salsa, I’m sure I’m missing a few things. I like it, my wife doesn’t so we haven’t had it in a hot minute.
Eat with your fingers like the tired fellow your are. Or a fork, I don’t care
ideal struggle meal coincides with when i end up with an amount of leftovers that isnt enough to be a meal on its own, in which case i either:
- mix it with an egg or two to create some sort of unholy omelet/pancake
- put them into a big sandwich (extras + toasted optional)
- put it as toppings on “pizza” (in quotes because this is almost never done with an actual pizza base)
but if i don’t have leftovers i do my Quickie Noods, which is frozen veggies, whatever noodle can be cooked through in <5mins (usually rice noodle or thin egg noodle), and scrambly egg/tofu all mixed up in a hot pan or wok. i do the veggies & egg/tofu while the noodles are cooking so i can just wham them in fast when they are done! i also usually throw in a bit of curry powder, soy sauce & sesame oil but doing it with just minced garlic + red pepper flakes is also good! i fucking hate cooking but this takes less than 10 mins and is reasonably balanced (compared to a grilly chee anyway) so it is very much a go-to for me.
