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
Big Pile of Roasted Vegetables.
Buy a bag of potatoes or other cheap vegetables. Peel (if needed) and chop into bite-sized chunks. Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast at 400°F. Check for doneness/brownness after 30 minutes, and 10 minute increments if they need longer.
Hits all the notes of cheap, easy, tasty, healthy, and filling. Toss with more spices if you want, or add more sauces after. My current favorite is just potatoes with hot honey. You can improve the texture of potatoes by par-boiling them, then tossing them to rough up the exterior so they end up way crispier after roasting.
This is great! I also do the same with any combination of broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, pumpkin, sweet potato, onions, bell peppers, eggplant and zucchini. Diced or grated firm tofu works too, but needs more spices to add some flavor.
The only tricky part is balancing the cut size so everything is cooked at the same time.