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In college, I survived on instant ramen noodles. Not great, but inexpensive and filling. I would add some frozen veggies and a fried egg on it (for protein).
That's nasty. You can cook a dish that's both tastier and less expensive if you add tomato powder to taste to the cooked pasta after adding a bit of olive oil. Then, add basil, oregano, and perhaps just a hint of marjoram. If you can restrain yourself let it sit for fifteen to thirty minutes followed by reheating in the microwave which won't harm it
Less expensive isn't always less tasty.
Last edited by Happy in Wyoming; 04-27-2013 at 08:14 PM..
That's nasty. You can cook a dish that's both tastier and less expensive if you add tomato powder to taste to the cooked pasta after adding a bit of olive oil. Then, add basil, oregano, and perhaps just a hint of marjoram. If you can restrain yourself let it sit for fifteen to thirty minutes followed by reheating in the microwave which won't harm it
What is tomato powder? That is NOT anything that I have heard of.
My family was borderline poor. Not starvation or homeless poor, but definitely lower on the economic ladder than many other families. I'm talking late 1940s/early 1950s...
Don't get me wrong. My dad and mom worked hard at the local textile mill. They just lacked formal education (neither made it to junior high school), and were stuck in hard jobs at low pay.
My mom often had to come up with filling meals -- especially toward the end of the month, when money was running low. And she was good at it. Here are some of her "make-do meals" from the hard times I remember...
pancakes with margarine and sugar
ground beef thickened with gravy and poured over stale bread, potatoes, or whatever
bean soup (using navy beans soaked overnight and flavored with bacon scraps)
the leftover roast (beef, pork, or chicken) from Sunday, which became, progressively --
1. Monday -- hot sandwiches
2. Tuesday -- stew
3. Wednesday -- hash
4. Thursday -- thickened gravy over bread or potatoes
5. Friday -- soup (using the bones, etc.)
(Fridays were tough. Saturday was shopping day!!!!)
How about other Forum members? Any poverty menus you'd like to share?
I was born in 1980 which I guess may come as kind of a shock to some by the way I grew up. I would say I grew up in the same boat as you, poor but not in poverty.
However both of my parents grew up extremely poor,my father far worse than my mother.....just a little FYI my Dad was forced to go to work at 5 years old along with with his siblings in order to survive then his mother then kicked him out to fend for himself when he was 13. I always use to think my father was carrying on about how poor he was growing up until I met a man that grew up with my father when I was working at the bank as an adult. He remembered how poor my dad's family was and told me "We were poor but honey I didn't know poor like your Dad did" needless to say I felt horrible for thinking he was carrying on.
Anyway lot of meals we had growing up were very reflective of there up bringing.
We would often eat wild game, heavily relied on on potatoes and rice to stretch meals, mainly ate canned/frozen fruit and vegetables.
Some common meals we ate were...
Beef (or Deer) patty (plain), fried potatoes, canned green beans
Chicken in dumplings (whole chicken boiled until tender with salt and pepper only ) and a plain dough used for dumplings. We usually didn't have any vegetables when we had this meal
Hot Dogs and Sauerkraut with canned corn
On rare occasions my mom would whip up a spice cake from scratch....no frosting
Last edited by sherrenee; 04-28-2013 at 09:37 PM..
What is tomato powder? That is NOT anything that I have heard of.
My version is to dehydrate tomatoes then grind them down into a powder works well when you need a little tomato flavoring. I store mine in an air tight pint canning jar.
What is tomato powder? That is NOT anything that I have heard of.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaxson
My version is to dehydrate tomatoes then grind them down into a powder works well when you need a little tomato flavoring. I store mine in an air tight pint canning jar.
There are dozens of commercial processors as well. The product has been on the market for years. It has many uses in the kitchen.
its an eye-opener reading this thread....many of us were poor, and some things we HAD to eat,,we refuse to eat as adults (i havent had baked beans in over 30 yrs)
ive worked with many old fellas yrs ago saying they had to go in the back yard and kill something to eat...if they were hungry- birds, squirrels, patridge, deer, moose, even fox...
when they got out on their own,,,and was working,,,one guy said "it was so liberating to go into a restaurant and order anything on the menu" it felt like i was a king,,,,and i bought the biggest steak i could buy... and even had dessert..
he said when his kids grew up and they would complain because they didnt have the "right" sneakers,,,he would laugh and say, be thankful you ate tonight,, " when i was your age, i tried to have as many friends as i could, so maybe i'd be invited over to eat dinner with them"
What you are saying about going out and killing something to eat is exactly how my father was raised and survived his childhood...he carried this over into my childhood as well
We grew up very poor, lower lower class. We ate beans, rice and homemade tortillas at least three times a week. My Mom never bought a cut of meat that was high end. All of her roasts were pot roasts and she never bought a steak that needed to be broiled. When I was little, there were six of us kids, the 60's, and my mom did farm labor and so did my older siblings. Ground beef was her favorite meat choice. Sometimes at the end of the month dinner was tortillas with butter or cornbread with gravy. We rarely bought dinner out, maybe once or twice in a year, Mom made everything from scratch and I learned all of her cooking secrets and started helping in the kitchen when I was 5 years old and by highschool I could cook just about anything my mom could.
We had beans and cornbread once a week, but I didn't know it was a poverty meal. It was actually my favorite meal! We actually were poor, but I didn't know it. My mom cooked everything from scratch and we always had a garden and we always had food. We never - and I mean NEVER - ate out.
Same here. Lima beans with hamhock and cornbread, and some green onions from my grandpa's garden. I always used to put ketchup on my limas. It was a good meal to me.
Also... grits, scrambled eggs, and fried bologna. It sounds more like breakfast food but it sure makes for a cheap supper.
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