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
Sous vide before that was a thing…
- Boil-in-the-bag fish in a creamy butter sauce
- Frozen veg
- Pasta
Bring pan of water to the boil, add bag of fish and veg. Wait 10 mins, add pasta, wait another 10 mins. Serve.
Nutritious and tasty, one pan, saved me at uni.
instant oats with a scoop of peanut butter(less sugar, oil and salt) and milo. Initially it looks like prison food and bland AF, but i dont mind since it has grown on and satiates me when i need a quick meal.
Rice and beans, West Africa style.
But I do love a peanut butter burrito.
Macaroni (the kind that’s done after 5 minutes of boiling) and meatballs (out of a bag).
Boil the macaroni and heat the meatballs.
When I was depressed back in university it was always frozen hash browns, microwaved
The flesh of the rich and powerful
For when ramen is just barely too little, i make Alfredo pasta. Make pasta of choice and drain, add sauce from jar, add some capers, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes. Top with parmesan to feel fancy. It’s basically cooking the noodles and 5 minutes of mixing, but tastes like it took longer.
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
Shin ramyun
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.
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?
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…
I meal prep because of the struggle. So mostly just nuking a meal prep. Porridge or pb on toast in a pinch.
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.
-Oatmeal/Cream of wheat with milk and cocoa powder
-Toast with sour cream and salt or honey
-Bread+butter+ fresh vegetable on top: cucumber, radish, tomatoes + spices salt/pepper
-Grated apple +thick pancake batter + cinnamon sugar
