Whats the one cheap ingredient that is under rated but can make recipes next level good?

Trying to eat better and stay a bit healthier without my grocery bill is depressingly bad, like I am not exactly living on the breadline, but it has just gotten so bad lately I am trying to cut back on things and get the costs as low as possible.
I've been making my own homemade stock from scraps, and adding red lentils (not black or brown) to beef up any dishes that need ground meat, also using corriander powder to make things taste meatier. The texture is waaaaay better than using black lentils. So here I am beggin reddit for more ideas similar to this, that I haven't thought of to make cash stretch further and still be healthy.
I saw a couple of reels on IG of some guy making a tater tot casserole with rotissery chicken and as much as that would be great and cheap, that is far from healthy... so I'd like to avoid the commercial cheap empty food as long or as much as possible

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u/HollowedSparrow — 3 days ago

[TOMT][Snack][2000s] Louisiana cheese curl snack from the 90s/early 2000s. NOT Cheetos, a local brand, bright yellow bag

I havent seen this anywhere, and had it a few times when I was a kid in the late 90s early 2000s visiting Louisiana. Hella crunchy, hella cheesy. Like they were perfect. I just don't know if they still exist or what they were called. I think they were a local brand?

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u/HollowedSparrow — 4 days ago

Re:watching this and nothing pisses me off more than how Nero was treated.

I honestly think that Nero deserved better.
I love how he dresses like a lil ole tio that fixes things on the weekend, and he has this thing about him. Turned his life around. Did the things and the deeper Gemma gets her claws in, the worse his life gets. The deeper he gets dragged back into the abyss.

Every single friggin time he's close to the exit she pulls him back with a crisis, a need, something, or gets jax to do something stupid.

What makes it even worse is that Nero is what Jax could have become, like he could have been a Nero, out living the clean life working a the autobody shop, doing the dad and husband thing.

Literally anything Gemma touches turns to shit because shes selfish, she literally leaves everyone worse off.

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u/HollowedSparrow — 4 days ago