"People who grew up poor what was your favorite poor person meal?" –– This was today's burning question from Redditor jay9063, who might have been looking for some cheap meal suggestions––and we wouldn't blame them.
But for those of us who grew up poor, some of the meals mentioned below hold a rather nostalgic significance. In fact, we might whip some of these up right now.
"Cheap processed cheese..."
GiphyGrilled cheese and tomato soup. Cheap processed cheese melts well. I still Eat this as I'm a poor adult too.
"Bonus points..."
Hotdog wrapped with bread.
Bonus points if you can salvage leftover sauce packets located in random kitchen drawers from previous fast food meals.
"For dinner..."
For dinner we'd often have a mixture of white rice, hamburger meat, and canned cream of mushroom soup. It was actually not too bad.
"When I was really young..."
When I was really young my mom would just cook a huge thing of white rice, and a huge thing of black beans, and we would make it last for about two weeks hopefully. It tasted awful, but every once in a while I would get the opportunity to make it worse by smothering it in soy sauce. It was more like soup and it was disgusting, but at least it was food.
"I also usually..."
Broccoli, cheese, rice, and beans. I still eat it all the time.
I also usually loved meatloaf. The version my mom made was always just whatever cheap ground meat she could get and then whatever random spare bits of food we had in the house. Biting in to that was always an adventure.
"Living in a Vietnamese household..."
Living in a Vietnamese household, you can't go wrong with some rice noodles with soy sauce or fish sauce with lots of lettuce and mint.
"My dad's favorite..."
My dad's favorite was PBJ. He said his family went through a rough time for a few years when he was young, and they had PBJ for dinner every day for a little over a year. And idk why but he still eats them and likes them.
"My mom made something she called..."
My mom made something she called "tater sandwiches" which were just potato slices that she would fry and put on bread. I'd usually put cheese and mayo on mine if we had it and it was definitely my favorite.
I only realized it was a poor people meal when I was older. The first time she did it, it may have been all we had and I was just too little to know.
I'm not well off by any means now, but I still make tater sandwiches once in a blue moon and it makes me feel like a kid again.
"You boil the water..."
Ramen with poached eggs.
You boil the water on the stove, put in the ramen and the seasoning. Let that cook for a minute or so and then crack 2 eggs in there (best done from a bowl rather than just directly cracking them in, so that you don't get any shell and so the egg maintains it's shape). Because of the sodium in the ramen/seasoning, the eggs poach perfectly.
Also if we had it, I'd sauté some onions and garlic, throw in some leftover meat from the dinner the night before, and put them in as well, but when I was super poor, there was nothing better than my ramen/egg combo.
"I still eat it today..."
Grew up very poor. My favourite meal was pretty much always whenever we had enough money for fast food which was very rare.
Otherwise, meat and rice.
Chopped up rump steak Chopped up bacon Onion Cooked in a fry pan with soy sauce added towards the end.
Butter mixed through the rice after the rice is done cooking.
Served together, mixed and eaten.
I still eat it today 'cus it's quite a nice meal for something simple.
Jane Rosenberg
Jane Rosenberg
@arianagrande/Instagram
@arianagrande/Instagram