Cooking poor
Not poorly. It was delicious. But poor.
I have very little income right now, being disabled, out of work, with no disability checks coming in. I invited my mom over for dinner tonight. The menu: Sloppy Joes and wine.
Not an American? Sloppy Joes are comfort food, frequently (at least when I was growing up) served as school lunch. Wikipedia: “There is probably no Joe after whom it is named — but … “Joe” is a name that suggests, to an American, a person of proletarian character and unassailable genuineness.” Can’t beat that with a stick. Er, switch. Er, Louisville Slugger.
Ingredients sourced at the 99¢ Only store and low-cost Valu Mart grocery store. So I worked it out: she had half a hamburger bun, lean beef, sloppy joe sauce, Tabasco Chipotle sauce (yum!), and half a glass of wine (she’s watching her diet.) $0.72. Very low in fat, high in protein, and not too bad in the way of sodium.
I feel like Thoreau, detailing cent-by-cent analyses of what it’s like to live simply. I’m not about to start leaving my front door open or anything, but it’s awfully rewarding to do something like that.
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February 21st, 2008 at 8:29 am
Rice is dirt cheap. Black beans are similarly dirt cheap. Both are filling. Black beans and rice plus Smoked Chipotle Tabasco equals win.
February 21st, 2008 at 10:04 am
Rice is dirt cheap. Black beans are similarly dirt cheap.
Yeah, knew that one. And when I was vegan, the evening ritual of de-stoning beans and the morning ritual of putting them on to soak was comforting.
At Mexican restaurants, in my experience, they look at you really strangely if you say, “Actually, could you just bring me beans & rice, no cheese?” After seeing their expression, you sometimes have to add, “I’ll pay you for them, I have money.”
February 21st, 2008 at 10:04 am
Also consider pasta. A bag of spaghetti can last you for several meals, and if you top it with butter and salt instead of sauce can feed you for approximately a quarter.
You can never go wrong with Top Ramen either!
February 21st, 2008 at 10:14 am
Also consider pasta. A bag of spaghetti can last you for several meals, and if you top it with butter and salt instead of sauce can feed you for approximately a quarter.
Yeah, another vegan standby, except I used olive oil, and splurged on a garlic clove and some crushed red chilies (adds a trivial amount of anything — food value, money, calories…)
You can never go wrong with Top Ramen either!
Delicious convenience food! Unfortunately, they deep-fry the noodles in hydrogenated palm oil! Sometimes I wish they wouldn’t do that, and then I realize that it might not be delicious if they didn’t. Still, 8.3¢ apiece is hard to beat for “just add water” food. Or “food”, as the case may be.
February 21st, 2008 at 10:20 am
If you’re not an American, I realized I didn’t tell you what Sloppy Joes actually are. In the version with which I’m most familiar, it’s ground meat and seasoned tomato sauce cooked and reduced to make a weak, runny (”sloppy”) chili. This is then added to the top of open-faced hamburger buns. For mine, I use fat-free sauce, extra lean meat, and toast the buns.
It’s not dissimilar to Chinese Mapo doufu. If you are from a different cultural background, do you have a similar dish?
February 21st, 2008 at 3:34 pm
“If you are from a different cultural background, do you have a similar dish?”
So basically your looking for a gelatinous protein poured over a starch?
I’m guessing Welsh Rarebit qualifies. Goulashes of all varieties? Stews?
I’m sure every culture has a comfort/filling food for the poor and those facing the end of the month.
February 21st, 2008 at 5:04 pm
By gelatinous, I assume you mean congealed?
Steak and kidney pie?
Cincinnati (sp. took five tries) chili?
Yorkshire pudding and gravy?
Mashed potatoes and gravy?
Beans on toast?
One could widen the envelope as far as one likes, I suppose, but I was thinking, specifically, a ground meat sauce over a starch. Except that Mapo doufu is meat sauce over a starchy-seeming protein. So I really don’t know.
February 25th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
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