Tell me your favourite “struggle meal”

[Catsandcannedbeans]

I will define “struggle meal” as something that is either very cheap, or very easy to throw together. Struggle snacks also welcome. I am looking for some to add to my rotation, anything I can batch cook gets a gold star. Anything that incorporates cheap cuts of meat gets two gold stars.

Mine are:
Fairy Bread, Bananas and custard (from a tin), when I was at university I used to make “fajitas” with chickpeas and beans instead of meat. I would make a huge batch and eat it for the whole week. I would normally eat this in the weeks leading up to my next payment as I had spent all my money on… textbooks. I still make it sometimes, but DP and kids don’t like it so I don’t make it often. Obviously the classic beans on toast. I always make a huge batch of jacket potatoes, sometimes I cut them into wedges and reheat them in the air fryer and put cheese and gravy on them (or curry if I have leftovers).

Oooh that looks bloody lovely, I’m going to make that tomorrow! Thank you

Pepper and egg sandwich - sauteed green peppers, onions if you like, scrambled egg, S&P, bread roll
Pasta carbonara made with just pasta and egg, with parmesan and black pepper
Cacio e pepe
Egg fried rice
Shakshuka
Tuna salad sandwich - prep tuna as desired, toast slices of bread, make sandwich
Sardines on toast
Sardines tossed with pasta
Sardines with rice
Noodles with egg/ green onion, sliced mushrooms

My mum struggled when we were young -
to this day I believe they sardine and cheese toasties are incredible and lentil soup and cheese scones is a proper treat. I make make for myself regularly. We dont watch the food budget at all, but I love to bulk everything out with beans and lentils.

And fish finger sandwiches.

As a young student I ate a lot of dippy eggs and soldiers. My ex used to make bean pasta. Lots of beans in a tomato sauce, pasta and cheese. It was so lovely.

I still make tomato spaghetti, or macaroni and cheese. I love anything with rice. I also like french toast sandwiches with soup or salad. I'll also make a whatever meal with what I have already.

When I was a kid a real struggle meal would be tinned tomatoes on a slice of white bread in a bowl.

For my dcs struggle meals ( other than pasta) were rice n peas, beans on toast, a bowl of cereal, sandwiches,jacket potatoes, fish fingers.

Bloody loved a bowl of tinned tomatoes with bread and butter.

I was 1 of 4 kids and my mum had an open door for our friends to come eat whenever, but that meant that often our meals were 'stuff on toast'. She'd set up a production line toasting the bread under the grill then have an assortment of jugs and bowls with baked beans, tinned tomatoes, Fried mushrooms and fried eggs and everyone would add what they wanted to their toast and chow down.

Brown rice, fried onions and tons of grated cheese. Nice with soy sauce or Lea and P

serve with broccoli if you’re rich

Fake nandos is a big hit atm.

Skinless, boneless chicken thighs, done in oven or airfryer. Some nandos style mayo and/or sauce. Serve in a Greek style pitta bread or a wrap with a handful of salad, and either rice or fries or coleslaw or whatever you fancy.

You can jazz the thighs up with a marinade, or one of those shake and bake bags, or just some herbs or whatever.

One of my favourite meals as a kid was mashed potatoes, frozen peas and slices of chopped pork. If we were really lucky mum would cook chips rather than mash.
I told mum recently that this was a favourite meal growing up (as a disgusting child I would put mash and peas on a slice of pork, roll it up then eat). Mum was surprised as it was one of the cheapest meals we had as we were poor.

Ah I forgot my favourite that I always have when dh is out/away as he thinks it’s despicable.

boil in the bag white rice, topped with baked beans (can have plain or change it up by adding bbq sauce to them, or curry powder/ smoked paprika etc)
Tons of mature grated cheddar on top.

Another vote for Nigella's marmite spaghetti. It's probably the cheapest meal we make!

When I was growing up our "struggle dinners" were fried egg with chips or corned beef hash made with a tin of corned beef, an onion and potatoes. Or cheese and onion pie which was essentially mashed potato with grated cheese and cooked onion stirred through, topped with a sheet of pastry and cooked in the oven.

Daal and rice is my go to cheap and easy meal. You can add pretty much any veg that you have hanging around in the fridge so it's great for using up leftovers. You can also swap out the rice for frozen parathas, they're delicious and take a couple of minutes to fry straight from the freezer in a dry pan.

Spag Bol, egg, chips and peas, curry rice and chips, beef stew, corned beef hash

Jacket potato & cheese
Jacket potato, beans & cheese
Pasta, Pesto & Spinach (& possibly bacon)
A bag of stir fry veg with rice
Beans on toast if I've bought some nice bread on the way home

Cheesy Heinz Baked Beans on doorstep toast.

Not exactly cheap but easy - fresh pasta, chicken, pesto and sun dried tomatoes.

Boiled rice, boiled eggs with lots of grated cheese on top.

Plain omelette, mushroom omelette, grated carrots with lemon juice as vinaigrette.

Chicken thighs, potatoes and carrots, sea salt and plenty of black pepper, some dried rosemary if you have it, (also add a bit of onion or shallot if you have it, chopped and mixed in), chop the veg into 2cm. cubes, arrange on a roasting tray with the chicken, add 1cm. cold water, bung in 1 preheated oven for 30 mins. (200 dégrées) then turn everything, add a bit more water if it looks dry, and cook for 10 to 15 more mins.

Lentil soup, blended up to make it creamy. My DD loves it with some bread

Pasta pesto with onions, leeks and shredded chicken/turkey, topped with sprinkly cheese

Chilli or garlic prawns with peas and rice. I buy big bags of frozen prawns — you cook the rice in chicken stock, with the peas, and then when that’s done you fry the prawns straight from frozen with some garlic or chilli flakes.

this reminds me of one of mine — cold corned beef from a tin, mash and pickled beetroot. I absolutely loved it but clearly in retrospect it was a struggle meal!

Mashed potatoes with anything.

Love a mashed potato sandwich.

Mashed potatoes in a bowl of chicken soup.

this is literally what I had tonight. And I threw in some prawns for protein.
I love a JP too but for me this is a lunch meal.