r/povertykitchen

This is some of food bank meal saga off of 3 months where it was strictly food banks, only two a month, and limiting myself to 2 meals a day, coffee as a snack, with no excessively fatty foods. For health and definitely cost. Being broke and dieting works out 😭 thankfully doing a little better now, but thought I’d show these beauties that kept me alive.
Sweets are always given out like crazy here so it was a bit hard to refrain when I wasn’t really allowing snacks, but I think I did really good. Being health conscious and broke, I would just trade someone my fatty beef for a leaner chicken and give away the sweets.

1: bbq chicken, rice, peas
2: cfla donated tenders, canned green beans, 3 eggs with canned tomato
3:whole wheat toast and an omelette
4:canned chicken and canned veg fried rice
5:octopus hot dogs, tomato sauce, rice, egg
6: ramen with carrots, celery, egg, and chicken
7:meatballs with yellow rice, tomato sauce, canned green beans and canned chickpeas
8: pork loin, Mac n cheese with almost no milk or butter, canned veggies
9: bbq chicken, canned carrots and peas, Mac n cheese with a lil bit of butter only
10: penne, chicken, canned green beans, tomato, butter
11: mashed potatoes, rice, mixed greens and carrots, chicken, tomatoes
12: cabbage, rice, omelette
13: rice, canned green beans, chicken
14: rice, tomato, canned green beans, pork loin, fries, homemade gravy from beef broth and cornstarch
15: Last is least: vegetarian vegetable soup with added canned green beans and an uncooked hotdog. Hey, it’s food!

Everything was about $25 total. Not crazy or anything, but pretty decent for these days

All we had tonight were some carrots, potatoes, a can of chickpeas, a little leftover red lentil, some dehydrated garlic and bouillon. Just add water and cook until soft.

Don’t neglect the bulk isle! Herbs, spices, salt and pepper can be SO much cheaper than the packaged version. Had this with some toasted white bread. Filling, easy and cheap AF.

• One Head of Broccolini

• One Carrot (I like skinny for small disks)

• One Chicken Breast (Pre-Seasoned Garlic&Herb) \[≈1/2lb\]

• Air Fryer

• Basic Seasonings (Garlic Powder, Salt, Pepper, Italian Seasoning)

• 1/2 tbsp oil

> Start cooking Chicken Breast at 400⁰ for 7 Minutes

> Cut stems off Broccolini, Cut tips off of Carrots and chop into disks.

> Shake Vegetables in a bowl with seasonings and oil

> Place Vegetables on the tray under the Chicken and flip the Chicken

> Lower temperature to 370⁰ for 12 minutes

> After 6 minutes, move the Vegetables around and flip chicken again

> Plate and enjoy

#Note: I think they charged me wrong for the broccoli, the broccolini is about a dollar more per pound, so it would have been a couple cents more.

This is just brown rice, red bell pepper and sweet onion with margarine, black pepper and salt. No money for food until Friday. I personally love this, especially when I have noodles.

Besides this, I'm finishing up the frozen fruit, cottage cheese and oatmeal. That's pretty much what I'm eating until then and I'm grateful!!!!