Showerthought: My best cheap meal week started with a $1.50 bag of lentils

I made a huge pot of soup and stretched it with rice and frozen spinach for five days straight. What's your go-to 'stretch a meal' ingredient?

3 comments

3 Comments

miles_chen15d ago

Rowan's lentil paste furniture glue is a new one. My own kitchen disasters usually involve rice turning into a weird, sticky cement. The real cheap meal secret is just accepting that some nights dinner will be a weird, edible science project.

david13415d ago

Honestly, that's the real secret to eating cheap. It's not about one magic ingredient, it's about building a pantry of basics that work together. Lentils, rice, beans, and frozen veggies are the foundation for a million different meals.

rowanw9115d ago

My pantry is basically a sad museum of half used condiments and a single can of beans I'm too scared to open. I've tried the whole 'basics' thing but my cooking skills turn lentils into a paste that could glue furniture together. It's a good plan in theory, just needs someone with more talent than me to run it. My cheap meal foundation is usually just cereal for dinner again.