I’ve recently been fixated on the idea of struggle meals, probably because I’ve been struggling both financially and mentally. I’ll share a couple of mine:
-Egg on hash brown patty: as simple as it sounds, bake a frozen hash brown patty, cook a sunny side up egg and put it on top. I like to season the egg with salt/msg, pepper, and garlic powder, then add a few drops of Tabasco sauce. Bonus points if you have avocado to spread on the hash brown first
-Flaming Hot Cheetos taco: toast a corn tortilla on both sides on a pan, then add sour cream and shredded cheese and flaming hot Cheetos as the “meat”, add any other taco toppings you like/have (shredded cabbage/lettuce, hot sauce, etc)
Would love to hear everyone else’s struggle meals when you just don’t have the means mentally/financially to put much effort into cooking
- Rice with whatever you have at hand. My normal go-tos are canned vegetables (green beans, sweet corn, carrots) and a can of tuna.
- Sunny side up egg with fries. Leave the yolk runny and dip the fries in it.
- Sausages with (instant) mashed potatoes. Sometimes I add green beans to the mashed potatoes.
- Instant ramen with green onions and a soft boiled egg.
- Roasted vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, Brussels sprouts, bell peppers, pumpkin, eggplant, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.). Most of these also work steamed.
- Pasta with a can of sauce or pesto and Parmesan.
Oatmeal.
MICROWAVE oatmeal.
So good. I’d do that 3 times a day if she’d let me, but she talks a lot about getting a balanced diet and other grown-up things. She’s so great.
Italian American grandmother would make legit pasta e fagioli. Once when she didn’t have the ingredients it was just elbow macaroni and a can of beans. Somewhere along the line baked beans was all she had and it became the favorite.
Been a struggle meal for 4 generations now. Kids call it pasta zhoo.
Boil 1lb elbow macaroni in salty water to al dente. Take pot off the stove. Don’t drain, but scoop off enough water so that it just barely covers the pasta. Pour in a 16oz can of baked beans and mix. Serve with butter and black pepper.
Rice and beans. Can make a massive amount at a time. Adding some sausage or coconut milk makes it even heartier and adds interesting flavors without much effort.
Baguette from the grocery store, brie cheese and some berries. Sounds fancy but it’s easy, and aside from buying the things requires no effort. Tear off chunks of bread with your hands, slap a slice of room temp brie on it, eat. Then eat berries. Cherry tomatoes work too, just eat them whole. Great with a glass of wine if you’re having a Day, but cold water is nice too.
Corned beef hash. Couple of peeled potatoes. Tin of corned beef. A onion (I blend to hide it) enough water to just cover it. Splodge of brown sauce/seasoning.
Rice cooked in microwave (so easy and decent), with chili beans. I make the chili in a big batch and divide it into portions and freeze it.
I second this. I like to keep some red beans and rice in the fridge for when I don’t feel like cooking.
This is my mom’s. She calls it chalupas but it’s not like taco bell’s chalupas. At all. I don’t know where their name came from. These are real chalupas. I think they came from the 50s.
First you take a can of red pinto beans and empty the whole can, juice and all, into a pot. Toss in an 8 Oz thing of cream cheese. Put it on the stove and melt the cream cheese into the bean juices. It’s gonna turn purple.
Get some frito CORN CHIPS. The small ones are better, but ykniw.
Then you kinda layer it. Corn chips, kidney bean creamcheeseslurry, grated cheddar cheese, onion, lettuce, olive, tomato, avocado, salsa, I’m sure I’m missing a few things. I like it, my wife doesn’t so we haven’t had it in a hot minute.
Eat with your fingers like the tired fellow your are. Or a fork, I don’t care
I buy the 2lb bags of golden curry flakes for struggle meals. They usually look something like this
- Set a kettle to boil (bonus for electric kettle)
- Start a cup of rice (I use a rice cooker, I don’t think it would count as a struggle meal without)
- In a bowl, mix curry flakes with boiling water in ~1:3 curry to water ratio. Stir till smooth. Bonus: make a tea or coffee or whatever hot drink floats your boat as well
- (Optional) reheat some frozen veggies or leftovers or whatever
- Dump your rice and optionally veggies/leftovers into your bowl of curry sauce, mix, eat.
The flesh of the rich and powerful
I know this is a meme saying this on Lemmy, but my go to is now and always has been beans and toast. It’s cheap, easy to make and when it’s warm it’s almost like a real meal. When I’m struggling, it makes me feel like I actually made dinner, even though it’s just beans from the microwave and toast. I usually have bread in the freezer and cans or jars of beans in tomato sauce in the cupboard, so it’s available when I need it.
Fellow bean enjoyer here! It’s a hearty meal, especially during winter! And great fiber! Dressing up the beans makes me feel like a gourmand on a struggle day.
If I’m taking my beans “all the way” (lol) here’s what I do:
- entire can of beans into the pot on low-medium low heat. Bachelor’s is my favorite.
- you want the sauce to thicken up a bit and get sort of stodgy for good adherence to the toast, but be sure to stir so the bottom doesn’t burn!
- add something to give an umami boost and deepen the flavor. If I have Marmite I’ll do a very thin layer on the toast itself. A glug of Worcestershire or a dollop of tomato paste into the beans is always nice. Ketchup will do here in a pinch, if you don’t have those. A savory jam might be nice too, like an onion or fig etc. Get creative!
- toast 2 slices of bread, apply optional butter and/or marmite, and place together in a V shape in a bowl
- spoon your cooked beans into the center onto the toast pieces, such that half the toast is covered
- next, grate Parmesan. I like parmigiano Reggiano, but something else will do if I don’t have that
- grind lots of black pepper over the top
- allow to cool, don’t burn yourself :)
🤌🤌chef’s kiss
That’s a solid meal, I wish I liked beans more since they’re so cheap and healthy
muesli and high fat yogurt. paired with instant coffee
Muesli is my breakfast everyday.
Guess I’m struggling.
no struggling is when you cant afford fresh raspberries for fibre and honey for flavor.
Had to look this one up, it’s basically a parfait right?
Spaghetti, with salt, butter and garlic.
Whatever your particular preference of potato is for the moment (baked, home fries, mashed, wedges, whatever amount of work you can deal with, but a baked potato is the simplest), shredded cheese, pepper and salt. Cayenne pepper powder if you want some heat, garlic powder if you want some garlic, but those four ingredients – potato, salt, pepper, cheese – are the bare minimum for a tasty, filling meal on very little money and little effort.
Also, potatoes and dairy are about as close to a complete diet as you can get with just 2 foods.
Right? Combine that with the fact potatoes alone are so versatile and cheese such a nice complement to them, and they’re both very hard to screw up, you practically have to be deliberately trying to burn them to a crisp to make them actually inedible. Nothing says “struggle meal” like “you literally can not screw this up unless you fall asleep while it’s cooking”.
And just having even a modest spice shelf makes this twice as good. Season the fuck out of your potatoes and cheese, make some of the most delicious food you’ve ever tasted out of the easiest ingredients you’ve ever used. Salt and pepper are the floor, but they are nowhere near the ceiling. I threw in cayenne and garlic powder as examples for some of what I like, but again, not even close. Experiment, figure out what calls to you, and though you may struggle, you will never taste the struggle.
edit: also, of course, there exists various sauces you could use for dip, or in lieu of, or in complement to covering your potatoes with cheese; but then I feel we’re getting more out of struggle meal territory than anything. So, one more nice thing about the combination of potatoes and cheese is you can always improve on it and put either no effort in or a ton of effort in and you will probably still go “fuck, that was good” afterwards.
Microwave nachos. Tortilla chips, shredded cheese, and whatever else you like on nachos. Toss it in the microwave until the cheese melts.
