fantasy ultra-budget food shop- ideas for things to make with these ingredients?

[OldFan]

I spend a lot of time planning fantasy budget shops. I think it's that it gives me a feeling of control and self-sufficiency.

So- this is what I worked out is approx the cheapest way someone could arguably meet all their nutritional requirements :

750 ml skimmed milk
2 oranges
98g onion
Wholemeal Bread 2ish slices
118g spinach
Lentils 82g (dry)
Carrot 98g
White rice 65g
Sardines 3 88g tins a week
Salted peanuts average 78g a day- less on days you have sardines, more when you don’t. (These are cheaper than unsalted and there's not much other salt in their diet.)

The exactness of the ingredients is based on for instance having 2kg rice for the month etc.

This is about 1773 cals, other people could alter it for them if they wanted. I maybe need about 1700, I'm on the smaller side of medium and fairly sedentary.

Obviously I think I'd still have a multi-vitamin/mineral supplement if I were eating this, and you'd need some seasonings etc to make it more bearable.

So, what sort of things might you make with some of these ingredients (w cheap seasonings etc?) I see a lot of curry, sardines on toast, lentils on toast (?) , maybe some sort of stew, nasty rice pudding w long grain rice and sweeteners... any other suggestions? I don't like soup.

Tarka dal using red lentils, onion and spices.

Why sei skimmed milk? Whole or semi skimmed would have more nutrition.

Are you actually planning on following this diet?

How much does it cost?

As PP said, don't buy skimmed in the fanasty Shop. In the past when I had to live on a very very cheap diet id buy blue top and water it down. I'd also change spinach out for another type of cheap veg, as it wilts down to nothingness and I'd switch out peanuts got a couple of potatoes!
I'd do dhal and save some in the fridge it goes ridic thick and I'd have it as a spread to put on toast in the mornings.
Rice with carrots and sardines.

Get the super cook app.

You add all the ingredients you have into the pantry, and then it will suggest every possible recipe you can make with any combo of those ingredients.

Spinach because it has a lot of micronutrients that other veg don't. @Oaaz I buy the frozen stuff anyway. I don't eat it for pleasure.

Milk- interesting point, thanks. Though they might not think saturated fat is as bad as they once did, there's still no evidence it helps in any way over unsaturated (for an adult.) Also I just went for that out of habit I guess. But you are right it'd be better value and much better for the rice pud etc. And the person then wouldn't have to buy loads of more expensive nuts for the fat grams.

Peanuts have a lot of micronutrients that potatoes don't. But thinking about it there are more nuts here than most people would want to eat maybe. I mostly put them in for the fat grams although some were for some kind of micronutrient; maybe calcium before I decided to have that much milk. Nuts are another thing I don't actually particularly like (though salted are tastier than unsalted.)

If I were going to swap something for some potatoes it'd be some of the rice.

I suppose the thing with a shop/fantasy shop is usually it does have to be things you don't mind eating. I'd love to be one of those health freaks that can just live mostly on wholesome stuff and be 'happy.'

@Vebrithien ooh will look, thanks.

Might be well off the mark! But if this is more reality than fantasy, I'd really recommend a food Bank/local pantry, been there, got that t-shirt and they're actually lovely.
If this is more a what if situation, I'd switch out anything you weren't wild about, thebest nutrition isn't always the best way if you hate eating it and its making you miserable!

Could you swap the peanuts for peanut butter, then you could have peanut butter on toast.

Actually I'd also swap out the sardines for eggs. Then you could have egg fried rice.

@MeinKraft We're supposed to have 2 140g portions of fish a week, one of them oily. I made it all sardines though as they're easy.

Eggs are very versatile I agree, you can do loads with them.

@Oaaz I think it's kind of like a prepper mindset, 'what would I do if I wanted/needed to get by on a minimal budget?' etc. Of course one of the cheapest is baking with basic flours, but that's probably more cooking than I would bother doing. I have a disability and am unable to work so I suppose it's my way of pre-empting if how much they gave me were to change for the worse.

I actually meal prepped for a change, loads of lentil/chickpea etc curries, but I haven't really touched them. Have got quite a lot of dried pulses so feel I should use them up. They are very good value.

Some of the peanuts would be wizzed in a blender to make peanut butter for the bread (that I would toast).

A couple of days ago I cooked some chicken and aubergine in a peanut sauce - I will be making that again.

Sardines mashed with spinach on toast.

Some sort of fried rice with onion carrot and sardines. And without sardines with spinach sprinkled with peanuts.
Could possibly make some sort of rice ball with sardine or Dahl in the middle

Dahl