In Progress The struggle is real - Cooking contest

[RhazhBash]

Times are tough for a lot of people, and we're gonna have to look for somewhere to cut back on spending. Who knows how long it'll be before restaurant prices double and delivery fees triple.

Since a lot of people might have to start cooking their own meals soon, I decided I'd get everyone to share their favorite meals for surviving hard times. Find the meal that you could eat every day for the rest of your life if times get tough and try out everyone else's struggle meals. It could win you enough money to treat yourself to something nice.


Rules:

1. To enter this challenge, create a thread in Food and Recipes on Discord for your recipe. Post a link to this thread as a reply to this thread. Turns out you can't create a thread if the channel is a thread. Either post the recipe as a reply to this thread or post it in Food and Recipes and post a link to the message in this thread.
2. Make the recipe interesting to read. Cook the recipe, post pics of the process, and talk about what makes it economic.
3. Post recipes that can be made with ingredients available at the average western grocery store and appliance in the average western kitchen. People shouldn't need more than a trip to the grocery store to make it.
4. Only post recipes you came up with or put your own unique spin on. Don't post recipes from other sites.
5. Don't just submit. Try out the other recipes so you know which one to vote for.

Prizes:

Right now I'm giving 30 dollars to first place, and if we get at least 6 entries I'll throw in 15 for second place. Donations to the prize pool are welcome.

I'll accept entries until March 1st then we'll start voting on the winning recipe.

 

[RhazhBash]

I'm not entering but I'll start with a chicken and rice recipe I shared a while ago. What I made ended up being 6ish meals from 10 dollars worth of ingredients. This recipe is super customizable, and it's good for using up what's left in the fridge. I used leg quarters for it because I can get them for less than 2 dollars a pound, but any good meat for braising could work, or you could go beans only if you want.

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One twist you could try on the recipe is to add some hot peppers, diced tomatoes, and taco seasonings.

 

[Pixie Dimitri]

So time to add my submission into this, which is fun as I do enjoy cooking a lot and I do cook more Asian based meals due to easier to avoid my allergies, but will be adding optional toppings that others can have as while the base of the dish is very basic, you can add a lot to it and customise it to your liking really!

So I have an undying love of garlic, when a recipe tells me 2-3 cloves, I will always add 6 at least. I am in love with basic dishes which requires maybe 2 pans/1 pot & 1 pan, as I will admit I am lazy ahaha. Now what makes this dish economic is that while the recipe I will be providing has a few extra ingredients, the base of it only has 9 ingredients and a few most people will already have.

Base Ingredients:
- Pre-made noodles (any works though found friends prefer egg noodles and rice noodles)
- Butter
- 15-30 garlic cloves ( yes 30, as depends on who I am cooking for an how many)
- Fish sauce
- Soy Sauce
- Salt & Pepper
- White granulated sugar/honey (I prefer honey)
- Spring onion
- Grated cheese (something like parmesan though I use Pecorino Romano cheese as allergic to cow dairy)

For two people (as Lordy and I cook and eat together) it is $6-$9.50, so roughly $3-$4.75 per person. The base recipe is great own its own, though I do like to add extra as health requires me to have more stuff.

Extra Ingredients I will be adding:
- Mushrooms
- Broccoli
- Pre-cooked chicken

For two people it is roughly $6.25 – $9.50, which is roughly $3.10 – $4.75 per person.

So for a meal that can be kept in the fridge (I cook for an army I swear), the total all together is roughly $12.25 – $19.00 (per person is roughly $6.10 – $9.50)

All you need:
- Chopping board
- Knife
- 1 pot to cook the noodles
- 1 pan to cook the veg and mix the rest in after
- 1 Wooden spoon to mix with

Now you can be like me and mix the fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar/honey and salt & pepper in a bowl while cooking everything up, but that is up to you!

Additional toppings can be a huge range of things! Say you don't want chicken, you can use a different meat, if you don't eat meat? Tofu or other veggies work! You like peanuts? Add them on top! ( I can't). Want an extra creamy sauce? Add an egg yolk! Hell you can have a fried egg on top! Want spice? Add chilli to it or chilli crisp on top!

With this recipe, you can change it to your liking as long as you keep the main ingredients the same and you can even do prep meals with the base and just change what you add in them for each day!!

 

[Acnologia]

Pizza for broke people:

Requisites:

• An air fryer
• Cheap sliced bread (wonderbread and derivatives work)
• Marinara sauce (pre packaged is ideal)
• Diced mozzarella
• Toppings of choice (cut up hot dogs for non vegetarians, bell peppers and onions for vegetarians)

Instructions:

1. Place bread in air fryer basket
2. Slather marinara sauce on the bread, a little goes a long way (a large amount makes the bread soggy after the cooking process)
3. Place toppings (cut your preferred toppings to size with a knife and a cutting board naturally) on the sauce
4. Put the cheese on the toppings, instead of under the toppings
5. Close the air fryer basket, cook for 7 minutes at 200C(392F or closest to it for Americans).
6. You now have a broke man's pizza.

Coming to price, all ingredients at full quantities cost me roughly 10 USD (the cheese is the most expensive for me). Varies per region. Per slice of pizza bread, it costs 0.4-0.6 USD. The air fryer is the important thing here, and often something that can cost a lot for people, but it's a good investment + the cheapest options can cost as little as 20 USD on discount.

Spoiler: FINAL PRODUCT