Cheapest meal that you love.

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For me, it's rice and kimchee. I think a big bowl containing both amounts to about 3 or 4 cents, but it's one of my favorite comfort foods.

And in England, at University, I lived off beans on toast. You can't get the same kind of beans (the plain ol' Heinz ones) in America.

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Friday, 1 October 2004 11:30 (nineteen years ago) link

beans on toast, definitely. Cheese on toast is another. Mah is fantastic comfort food, and depending on the season incredibly cheap. Eggs provide a fair few cheap meals, but aren't that cheap once you start buying free range.

There is a definite link between low cost and comfort food!

― Vicky (Vicky), Friday, 1 October 2004 11:54 (nineteen years ago) link

Stovies:

Potatoes
Tin corned beef (the cheaper brand the better)
Onion
Brown sauce

Boil and mash potatoes. Fry onion. Add onion and corned beef to potatoes, with lots of brown sauce and stir till the corned beef has melted. Serve with potato scones or plain bread.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 1 October 2004 12:02 (nineteen years ago) link

sounds tasty, and sounds very similar to corned beef hash, which I haven't had for ages and used to love at uni

― Vicky (Vicky), Friday, 1 October 2004 12:06 (nineteen years ago) link

Canned spaghetti hoops and eggy bread. Not that cheap when compared with rice'n'peas or whatever, but so good when I'm down in the dumps.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Friday, 1 October 2004 12:32 (nineteen years ago) link

I can't decide if cheapest favorite meal and favorite cheap meal are different things or not. Hm. Khao tom is definitely the cheapest -- broken rice (which cost me like seventy cents for five pounds), broth, whatever veggies or leftovers are handy, a little soy sauce and chile.

Red beans and rice is considerably more expensive than that but only by virtue of khao tom being so incredibly cheap -- rb&r is still probably, what, fifty or sixty cents a serving, and much less than that when I lived in New Orleans.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 1 October 2004 13:17 (nineteen years ago) link

Now I got Sir Mix-a-Lot running through my head: "Gimme a sistah, can't resist her; red beans and rice didn't miss her..."

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Friday, 1 October 2004 13:49 (nineteen years ago) link

My acaconda don't want none unless you got buns hon!
word. Macaroni and cheese (either Annie's or homemade) and harvard beets (a can of beets is what? 54 cents? + vinegar, brown sugar, and butter=num num num)

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Friday, 1 October 2004 15:11 (nineteen years ago) link

Black beans and rice, pasta, cheese quesadillas...all my favorite quick things to make at home are pretty cheep.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 1 October 2004 15:12 (nineteen years ago) link

Air sandwiches. Delicious, nutritious, and practically free!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 1 October 2004 17:38 (nineteen years ago) link

cold pork and beans straight from the can when I'm drunk.

― PVC (peeveecee), Friday, 1 October 2004 21:21 (nineteen years ago) link

Air sandwiches. Delicious, nutritious, and practically free!

And in some places, chock full of all sorts of minerals!

― Jaq (Jaq), Friday, 1 October 2004 21:45 (nineteen years ago) link

When I'm at my wits' end, I fall back on my favorite 20¢ meal — a double-hit of ramen, one oriental flavor and one shrimp flavor.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 3 October 2004 15:04 (nineteen years ago) link

A baked (or nuked) potato, butter, salt, pepper. Sour cream and a little cheese if there's any in the house. Very comforting (and cheap, here in potato country).

― Jaq (Jaq), Sunday, 3 October 2004 19:12 (nineteen years ago) link

Idaho? Ireland?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Sunday, 3 October 2004 23:31 (nineteen years ago) link

I always keep the components for: spaghetti with olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and Parmesan around.

it's my favorite quick lunch, and when you break down the cost of ingredients per serving, pretty cheap.

other than that, rice with whatever is hanging around in the fridge will work in a pinch.

― mayo apetrain (mayoape), Monday, 4 October 2004 00:35 (nineteen years ago) link

Potato country = Eastern Washington, near the Idaho border. Thousands of acres of spuds.

― Jaq (Jaq), Monday, 4 October 2004 00:56 (nineteen years ago) link

Where in Eastern Washington? I'm hoping to get out there in the Spring. (I'm in Portland.)

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 4 October 2004 04:49 (nineteen years ago) link

Richland - part of the Tri-cities and in the heart of wine country.

― Jaq (Jaq), Monday, 4 October 2004 11:53 (nineteen years ago) link

Hit the Enter key too soon - come visit! We'll go for a pint or raise a glass (or both). And eat potatoes. We're 3.5 hours up the Columbia Gorge from you (which is a gorgeous drive).

― Jaq (Jaq), Monday, 4 October 2004 12:00 (nineteen years ago) link

Ah, I hear that Richland is the dreamiest of the Tri-Cities. (My band is thinking of touring E. Wash./Idaho, with a stop in Walla Walla, so we'd be in the hood.)

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 4 October 2004 14:11 (nineteen years ago) link

Dreamiest. Hmmmm. Possibly sleepiest :) If you're here on the first Thursday of the month, we can get you booked into the Kennewick art walk!

― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 19:27 (nineteen years ago) link

Ooooo...!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 6 October 2004 21:17 (nineteen years ago) link

Grits and eggs.

― Orbit (Orbit), Sunday, 10 October 2004 02:18 (nineteen years ago) link

one month passes...

How about good old fried spam? A whole can, sliced right into the pan. Maybe with some french bread and a Coke.

― CapnDad, Wednesday, 17 November 2004 23:23 (nineteen years ago) link

Spam's expensive! Cheaper version = fried bologna (aka "round steak").

― the apex of nadirs (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 18 November 2004 02:58 (nineteen years ago) link

High-quality oatmeal with dried cranberries and walnuts, a drop of maple syrum. Just so... amazing!

― Remy (x Jeremy), Thursday, 18 November 2004 07:04 (nineteen years ago) link

What in the world is kimchee?

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 18 November 2004 19:31 (nineteen years ago) link

Superspicyhot Korean pickled cabbage. It hurts so good twice, knowhatImean?

― the apex of nadirs (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 18 November 2004 19:36 (nineteen years ago) link

Ew. Yes, I think I do, thanks William.

Someone else can have my share of that one. I'll take the baked potato with butter and salt. And, at the risk of seeming like a cultural stereotype, I loved a bit of refried cabbage with ketchup on it. Yum.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 18 November 2004 19:44 (nineteen years ago) link

One of the saddest days of my marriage was when we drove to the little restaurant in which we had sealed our love for one another by eating kimchee together, only to find it closed and shuttered. We had been there a mere two weeks previously.

There has since been other kimchee, but never quite as good....

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Friday, 19 November 2004 06:44 (nineteen years ago) link

Okay, my mistake. OEM spam is expensive. But the generic brands from Canada and other places only cost a dollar a can at the discount grocery outlet. I haven't eaten the name-brand stuff in years, it's all the same.

― Richard Haley, Wednesday, 24 November 2004 23:44 (nineteen years ago) link

Fried chickpeas with chilli and garlic, and whatever else happens to be lying around. Smoked paprika U&K.

― Matt (Matt), Friday, 26 November 2004 13:38 (nineteen years ago) link

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