Fried rice (with veggies and egg), vegetarian jambalaya, pasta with a bunch of stuff added to generic sauce (beans, carrots, peppers), chicken noodle soup or gumbo (you can make enough to eat for 3 days in one go). It's seriously pretty easy to get your food costs south of $3 a day and to eat actual good food. You get fast at it too -- I can do most of the kitchen time on those things in about 20-ish minutes.
Rice & Beans For 2n
olive oil or butter
n yellow onions
3n cloves garlic
n 12-oz cans Goya white beans
n cubes Knorr beef bouillon
n teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
3n teaspoons cumin
n cups rice, preferably sushi rice
Chop onions and fry in oil, over fairly low heat, till glassy. Put in chopped garlic, pepper, cumin, and a little more fat, and stir. Keep heat low. Cook another 2 or 3 minutes, then add beans (don't drain the beans), and stir. Throw in the bouillon cube(s), cover, and cook on lowish heat for at least 10 minutes more. Stir vigilantly to avoid sticking.
[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complete_protein [2] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_and_beans
In the works?
Beef bouillon cube ingredients:
Salt, Monosodium Glutamate, Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil, Beef Fat, Hydrolyzed Protein (Corn, Soy, Wheat), Caramel Color, Yeast Extract, Onion Powder, Water, Beef Extract, Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate, Spice and Coloring, Dried Carrots, Parsley.
Per your serving size:
1340 mg sodium = 56% RDA
The Knorr vegetable cube trades off MSG for partially hydrogenated oil so doesn't seem much more appealing.
Though I did find a Chinese supermarket in Mission with cheap pre-chopped garlic.
Or allow a little bit of sticking at the end and add some white wine to unstick (deglaze) the sticky stuff. Cook away at least half of the wine you added. This little flourish always adds good flavors.
If you happen to be in Thailand, try the street food - satay skewers, spicy soup, deep fried fish cakes...
[ The crispy grasshopper beer snacks are mainly there to shock ]
geek culinary bliss on a budget