end of the month food

[Viola]

Wow, not a single meat or dairy-free meal!?!?!

Don't mean to sass but what on earth do you put in YOUR pancakes? When I said "no milk or eggs," I didn't mean "but with steak." lol

I eat rice and pasta all the time I don't think of that as desperation more like a staple.

Don't eat spam. I hear they have a turkey spam now but I'm just fine with not trying it - the idea of something that desperately wishes it was spam is a little too nihilistic for me.

 

[geckoheart]

My Dad was in the Army, there were seven kids. I think we ate "orange noodles" at least once each week. Consisted of a box of seashell pasta mixed with 2 cans of tomato soup. Bake and serve. The noodles cooked with the soup. If we were lucky, Spinkle some parmesan cheese on top...feed a family of nine for $3-4 at today's prices.

 

[RC]

Beans and corn pones. All you need for corn pones is corn meal, water and oil for frying. (Plus butter and salt after they come out of the pan - heaven!)

 

[Opas Coat]

A favorite around here is stir fry. Get a wok, little oil, little of what ever meat you have handy, some veggies and noodles or rice.

 

[davestlouis]

Geckoheart, I think you win so far...those orange noodles sound awful.

I have to add one item that I actually like. This is something my x-father in law makes. Breadcrumb noodles. Take wide egg noodls, boil them, drain, put some butter on them, then sprinkle Italian Style breadcrumbs on them. Not a bad side dish, cheap and filling, and the kids love them. I have eaten them as a whole meal as circumstances dictate.

 

[Harp]

Don't eat spam. I hear they have a turkey spam now but I'm just fine with not trying it - the idea of something that desperately wishes it was spam is a little too nihilistic for me.

...grilled with hash browns, all stuffed inside a roll, served wrapped
within yesterday's sports page. Astigmatic solipsism at its nihilistic best.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

...grilled with hash browns, all stuffed inside a roll, served wrapped
within yesterday's sports page. Astigmatic solipsism at its nihilistic best.

I think Spam is one of those things that you had to have been served as a child in order to -care-(either love or hate) about it as an adult.

Those of us for whom Spam was a non-food item, shrug at the idea of turkey spam....I mean if one is going to eat turkey...eat turkey. Turkey trying to pretend to be a formed chipped mess of meat product? erm why bother

Turkey Spam exists so that health aware Spam fans, will eat more Spam products, not so that new folks will suddenly like Spam.

 

[Harp]

Those of us for whom Spam was a non-food item, shrug at the idea of turkey spam....I mean if one is going to eat turkey...eat turkey. Turkey trying to pretend to be a formed chipped mess of meat product? erm why bother

Salami, sausage, hot dogs, and now Spam.
Where will that ubiquitous buzzard turn up next?

 

[Foofoogal]

legumes were cheap and my mom knew how to cook them really well.

as no. 9 of 11 children I am a bean cooking expert. lol

grilled cheese, vienna

eggs sandwich. definitely.

one time as a child we had to eat dewberries and rice for a week. :eusa_clap
my precious mom. God bless her and dad. Depression era parents. Still here so they kept us alive.

 

[LizzieMaine]

In defense of Spam, it really does make a very satisfying meal. Glaze it in a pan with a brown sugar/mustard sauce, stud it with cloves, bake it in the oven for twenty minutes, and you've got something that's really quite tasty and filling at a fraction of the cost of a full-sized ham. Serve it up with some corn or beans on the side, and there you go. We had this for Thanksgiving one year, and it was actually much better than the usual stringy dried-up turkey.

 

[Foofoogal]

I have put this before but Spam is practically a staple in Hawaii. They celebrate it.
http://www.spamjamhawaii.com/
I would love to go to this.

I made a spam pea salad the other day to take to a social. Caught a guy cleaning out the bowl at the end to take home he loved it so much. lol
One can make it with ham but to me Spam is better.

English peas drained can.
Mayonnaise to mix.
Couple of boiled eggs.
Spam (cut in cubes)
One can add cheese cubes, onions or celery if desired.
On a hot summer day I will fight you for this. lol
I do buy the lower salt spam
I also occasionally love a vienna sandwich or even liver loaf. lol

 

[maggiethespy]

When I was very young, my parents had no money to spare no matter what time of the month it was. We basically lived on rice, beans, and pasta. Sometimes we had meat, but most of the time we ate meat-free meals. Lots of spaghetti and red sauce, and lots of mac n' cheese.

My favorite, which I still have on a regular basis, was tuna mac. I had it for lunch today!

 

[Viola]

Salami, sausage, hot dogs, and now Spam.
Where will that ubiquitous buzzard turn up next?

I like turkey ham fried in a pan with scrambled eggs. Have no idea if it tastes like real ham though I just like how it tastes for itself.

I don't like the smell of bacon or any of its imitations so while my family eats turkey bacon, I refuse. Sometimes violently! lol

 

[Lady Day]

Tonight its beans and rice (with sunflower seeds) with sautéed white onions and fresh garlic. Enough food for 3 days for less than $1.

I consume no animal products so the staples of my diet are mainly nuts, pasta, veggies, beans, and rice. My one splurge is I try to eat half an avocado a day. I love those things.

LD

 

[Diamondback]

Cubesteak, mac 'n' cheese and Hamburger Helper.

Funny thing: other than switching from cubesteak to better cuts and using leaner meats and kicking 'em up with spices and assorted stir-in goodies, guess what the staples of my usual cooking work still are? lol (Sorry, my cooking skills and methods are more like Sandra Lee than Mario Batali.)

 

[Absinthe_1900]

In defense of Spam, it really does make a very satisfying meal. Glaze it in a pan with a brown sugar/mustard sauce, stud it with cloves, bake it in the oven for twenty minutes, and you've got something that's really quite tasty and filling at a fraction of the cost of a full-sized ham. Serve it up with some corn or beans on the side, and there you go. We had this for Thanksgiving one year, and it was actually much better than the usual stringy dried-up turkey.

My Grandmother and my Mom both used to fix it that way, it's great!

 

[Viola]

Oh I just remembered another one my mother eats sometimes; cottage cheese on cold canned beets.

My grandmother was more of a purist and went with the sour cream.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Cottage cheese! I made many a lunch on that when I was a kid -- large curd only, though. That runny small-curd stuff was the bunk.

When we were *really* having a bad month, our Meal Of Last Resort was fried mackerel. You could get them ten for a dollar from any of the kids pulling red-wagonloads of them up the street from the wharf, and my grandmother would filet them out, dredge them in flour, and fry them up in a skillet. They're about the oiliest fish in the world, but they were quite good when doused with Heinz bottled chili sauce. For vegetables, we'd go out back and dig dandelion greens, which I hated and had to be bludgeoned into eating.

Or, if the mackerel weren't biting, my grandfather would roll up his pants, go down to the shore, and dig half a peck of clams. Even then it wasn't legal to clam there, but everybody in the neighborhood knew the Marine Patrol was short staffed.

 

[Viola]

I've eaten red clover cooked like spinach...it's not as good as spinach.

I'm rather fond of canned mackerel, actually. It's oily, true, but a little less strong-smelling than sardines and good on toast.

 

[dnjan]

You can get a large can of small red beans for $1, bag of rice for $1.50, throw in some spices and a dash of liquid smoke and you've got a great meal.

I soak 2 cups of dried beans (preferably black beans), and after cooking them I freeze them in 2-cup quantities. Very cheap. Then, I use a 2 cup container of frozen beans, a can of diced tomatoes, and onion, and whatever else I choose to add. (half pound of smoked sausage, or cilantro, or just some diced habernos). Served over rice, feeds four.