Flavor does not matter, presentation does not matter but the food shouldn’t make you sick, and should ideally have enough calories per day for the average person to survive (2000 kcal min).
Edit: I am not in any danger of starving or malnutrition, nor am I insolvent. I’m mainly asking this question out of curiosity on how people would approach a solution :)
Makes sense - I always heard of the ol’ rice and beans combo. I was just thinking in terms of avoiding things like vitamin deficiencies - I’m trying to think this from a desert island or fixed shopping price POV.
For the rice, look specifically for “fortified” - it has things like vitamins added in. From there, unless you want to actually track your micro and macro nutrients, your best bet is to just shoot for a good variety, and that’s where things like food pantries will shine, cuz (for most of them at least) their inventory will be changing constantly, so it’ll force you to try things you wouldn’t normally have the desire or financial access to.
This is assuming your local area has food pantries - you’ll have some homework to do to find those kinds of resources. Also look into langar kitchens if there are any Sikh churches near you. I’ve never been to one, but heard nothing but good things.
Not necessarily just rice. The thing is that both beans and cereals contain protein, but each has only some of the essential amino acids, while human body consumes these acids in a particular proportion. Well whaddayaknow, beans and cereals in combination have all of those acids, complementing each other. So wheat or other cereals also work instead of rice.
They even have about 10% protein, which is on par with sausages and such.
Back when I was just off of a stint of homelessness, I had an incredibly cheap rented room where I didn’t have to pay the utilities separately. I survived on 50¢/day… but this was fifteen years ago, so call it a 1USD in today’s money.
I ate popcorn for lunch. I ate either rice and beans or rice and lentils for dinner. I ate day-old bread for breakfast, with a tiny smear of peanut butter. Dinner would include some vegetable bought in bulk — always fresh, not canned or frozen, since fridge access was unreliable.
I spent about five hours a week on shopping, including the walk; cooking; and cleaning my one pot, cutting board, knife, and spoon (I generally ate straight out of the pot). If you want to add my labor cost in, I was making close to minimum wage at the time, so $8.4x5/7=$6/day… wow, really? huh. $6.50/ day, then, but I was having trouble selling my labor at the time and only had part-time work, so that cost may be inflated by the minimum wage or I’m calculating it wrong; I only had part time work, after all.