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).

Just remembered another which is my variation of goldenrod eggs.

Chopped boiled eggs on toast and covered with a basic white sauce and I usually season it with salt, pepper and some paprika over the top.

Goldenrod eggs are meant to have the yolks removed and pushed through mesh then added on top of the sauce but that's too much work for me when I swear it tastes the same my way with the yolks under the sauce.

Sausage and mash. So easy and quick.
Bolognase, made with mince, onion, tinned tomatoes, oxo cube.
Egg, chips and beans.
Omlette
Chicken kiev (ready made) and salad.
Actually thay is pretty much my entire repetoire and I tend to buy anything more exotic ready made 😂

Depends on the struggle - emotional or financial or physical.

Emotional, corned beef and ketchup sandwich, fish finger ditto, poached egg on toast, oven chip butty with mayo and ketchup.

Financial, pasta all the way. Anchovies and garlic, cherry toms, lump of boursin, bit of tuna make a variety of sauces.

Physical, when ill soups hit the spot. Heinz tomato or a chicken soup made by someone who knows what they're doing! Whole juice made in the blender with fruit or veg knocking around the freezer.

Corned beef hash
Eggy bread pizza (crumb stale bread, mix with eggs, milk, herbs, add cheese, empty into a frying pan, add any toppings / bits from fridge, cook base on hob, then finish under grill - lovely!)
Ramen noodles with added chopped hot dog sausages
Pasta bake - pasta, cheese, tin tomatoes, any stray bits from fridge - oven bake
Mac and cheese
Anything pie if I have roll out pastry at the ready

Chicken fajita pasta bake.

Chicken thighs Passata packet of fajita spice mix 2 peppers in slow cooker 6 hours low. Stir in two table spoons of soft cheese. Mix in cooked pasta. Yummy

My autistic son's absolute favourite and the easiest and cheapest to do

Pasta with marmite and butter. Grated cheese if there is any

Chilli con carne. Chop some onions, fry them with some beef, chuck them in a pot with chopped tomatoes and kidney beans and assorted spices. Leave pot in oven for 2 hours.

Jobs a good 'un.

Freeze the left overs (that don't exist because I ate 2kgs of chilli)

Oh and I always do a pasta bake to use stuff up
Onions, peppers, squishy tomatoes, spinach, celery, tinned tomatoes bits of whatever meat and cheese I have and bake it in the oven
Even a bit of bacon or ham goes well in it

Fusilli pasta with a specific tomato and herb sauce, fried bacon and grated cheese. A meal of kings that started at uni and has continued into my Mum life now 2 decades later. I always make sure I have the specific jar of sauce in the cupboard. Easy and stress-free, plus tastes bloody delish!

I‘m such a basic cook that I think all my meals qualify as struggle meals from a convenience point of view. Regular choices are:

scrambled eggs and anything
baked potato, cheese and salad
salad, olives, smoked salmon and rye bread
baked salmon and vegetables
soup and salad
often a big salad and tinned fish (mackeral, sardines or whatever)
on a bad day - a big bowl of sugary granola

Egg, chips & beans

Jacket potato substitute for when you’re too hungry / it’s too late to wait for it to bake:

Make mashed potato and just add the filling on top.

Extra struggle: Use instant smash.

Pasta bake with ready made cheese sauce, tuna and other stuff thrown in

My struggle snacks for when I'm REALLY tired/lazy are:

Microwave jacket potato with beans
Cheese and fruit
Sage and onion stuffing from farm shop
Noodles
Microwave rice with beans
Fruit with bio yoghurt
Instant mash

For meals it's the usuals like Omelette or poached eggs + salad
Pasta
Sausages, mash and peas
Thai curry kit with tofu/prawns and vegetables
Etc etc

Soup and crumble, using whatever's in the fridge.

Fish finger sandwhich

Egg Fried Rice again

lentil sauce for spaghetti

1c steamed frozen mixed veg (pear/carrots/green beans/corn)
1/2c brown and wild rice blend (cooked) mixed in
1-2 soft poached eggs on top
1tbsp extra virgin olive oil drizzled over
seasoned with a good pinch of good salt

A meal from my athlete training days. Cheap. Filling. Covers the macros. Still make it.

I've just remembered my mum's 'struggle meals' (we were poor growing up and this was the sixties when the variety of food just wasn't about in the shops).

Liver and onions (I still love liver)
Left over meat topped with mash (called shepherds pie, but really it was whatever we'd had roast on Sunday put through the mincer)
Fry up (bacon, sausage, egg, cheese, bread, mushrooms - basically whatever was in the fridge)

And, because chicken was expensive back in the day, my mum could have given Mumsnet lessons on how to stretch a chicken! She'd cook the last little pickings up in a white sauce with a can of sweetcorn and sometimes shove it in a pastry case and call it 'quiche'.

@Vroomfondleswaistcoat your mum's shepherd's pie sounds far better than what we make with minced meat. I bet it's closer to the origins of the dish too.

Ahh, struggle meals, I remember those! 😁 When DP and I first got together and I wasn’t working, those were the days…

anyway. Cut sausages into small pieces, fry them. Boil loads of pasta. Then put the sausages aside and fry some onions (chopped into feathers). Add minced garlic and paprika, one can of tomatoes, some mixed herbs, throw in the sausages and pasta, and there you have it.

Egg on toast is my go to.

If I want more veg, I keep chopped onion and garlic in the freezer and add these to a chopped potato, a tin of tomatoes, a handful of red lentils and some curry powder to make a sort of Dahl in about 20 minutes.

DH talks fondly of baked beano. Baked beans, topped with mash & cheese then baked like a shepherd's pie.

Thanks guys! Some of these will definitely be added to our lazy day rotation!

Quesadilla - made with wraps and whatever is lurking.
Pancakes - how could I forget pancakes?

Roasted Mediterranean vegetables- dig out any pot of mixed veg that work (onion, garlic, peppers, courgettes, tomatoes, aubergine if you must...) and chop into the same size chunks (size doesn't matter - just that they're similar enough to cook in the same amount of time). Toss in some olive oil and seasoning (dash of balsamic if you have it, any oregano/basil/thyme/rosemary type herbs, but absolutely fine if you can only add the salt and pepper). Roast. Can be frozen before cooking, used as a base to cook chicken or fish or roasted alone, leftovers can be frozen to use again as side veg or in pasta sauce.