1 box pasta, rice, or whatever other starch. 2 cans of veggies, which veggies is a matter of taste. Cheese, whatever they like and isn't too pricey. Optionally meat, if you have room in the budget since we're trying to do this on the cheap. Shop sales since meat is usually the most expensive thing.

Preheat oven. Mix all ingredients and toss in baking dish, either topping with the cheese or mixing the cheese in as well and topping with some breadcrumbs or similar. Bake.

This is filling, cheap to make, holds up for a few days so you can have leftovers, and the actual time you are directly acting to cook it is minimal. Vary each of the parts and you have a distinct dish in the class.

For a variation, use mashed potatoes (even cheap boxed ones), carrots, peas, and ground beef. Swap out the cheese for a jar of gravy and that's Shepard's pie.

[–] CarbonScored@hexbear.net 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I grew up in a povertous household that had the exact meal you describe about 300 days out of the year. Sure - If you're used to making your own meals, this is fine.

But to a lot of people this will still be a lot of time, thought and energy they don't feel able to give. And a lot of people who never learned cooking skills will feel daunted by it. If you're dealing with a lot of stress at work and/or chaos at home, you'll easily forget to turn off the baking and burn the whole dinner. It's complex when compared to most of these products which are "open, (optionally microwave/add milk/etc) and eat."

Without meat or copious cheese you'll also start running low on protein, prompting need to complicate your dishes further by exploring weird foods you've never heard of or know how to prepare, like chickpeas.

I agree that kind of recipe is a good and relatively easy meal in the grand scheme of meals, but unfortunately it's just rarely that straightforward.

[–] Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

But to a lot of people this will still be a lot of time, thought and energy they don’t feel able to give.

Part of the reason I was very vague about specific ingredients is because you can basically drop nearly anything of the general type into each slot and the result will generally work. Meaning it doesn't take much thought, because just about anything will work passably.

And a lot of people who never learned cooking skills will feel daunted by it.

Part of the point is that it requires limited cooking skills - literally preheat the oven, mix the ingredients in a baking dish, when the oven dings put it in and set the timer. You may need to experiment the first couple of times because ovens and ingredients differ a little, but it's pretty forgiving.

If you’re dealing with a lot of stress at work and/or chaos at home, you’ll easily forget to turn off the baking and burn the whole dinner.

That's why there's an oven timer on virtually all ovens, and you can set a timer on your phone as well. This also isn't something you'll burn if you go slightly over, it's pretty forgiving. And if you do burn it a little, it's probably just a crust on the top you can remove and save the rest of the pan.

It’s complex when compared to most of these products which are “open, (optionally microwave/add milk/etc) and eat.”

Yeah, but literally everything is. Unfortunately to eat better than instant garbage you have to put forth more effort than opening the package. But the whole point of the basic recipe structure I threw out is that you set the oven, can do all the prep work in less time than it takes the oven to preheat, set the timer on the oven when you put it in and now you've got at least a little time to relax/spend with the kids/spouse while it sits in the oven and cooks and you end up with real food to eat.

The main reason I laid out a casserole style dish instead of a stew or a curry is because a casserole goes in the oven and thus doesn't require as much direct attention.

However, just last night I made a fancied up version of quick and cheap curry, but it's a bit more complicated than the previous casserole (still doable in half an hour and doable by someone with limited cooking skills). For that you'll need:

1 can coconut milk (ethnic foods section in most grocery stores, near other Asian stuff)

1 can tomato paste

1 Tbsp garam masala (this is a spice blend you can find at most grocery stores, either with the other spices or in the ethnic foods section near other Asian stuff)

Some kind of protein (I used chicken last night, I've made this with beef, tofu, and even mixed proteins before)

2 cans of veggies (used carrots and potatoes last night)

a few tablespoons of some kind of fat to fry the protein with - I used butter last night, I've used olive oil or even vegetable oil in the past.

Step 1: Heat up your fat in a saute pan (this is the one that looks like a skillet, but has a taller wall around the outside and usually a second handle on the far side from the handle - you can use a fry pan, but a saute pan is more convenient because this is the only pan we'll be using to cook and the taller wall makes it easier to stir later on without spilling while not being too much of a pot to be comfortable to fry in)

Step 2: Cut your protein into pieces and fry it in the pan until it's browned and cooked through.

Step 3: Remove the protein from the pan and set it aside on a plate.

Step 4: Empty the can of tomato paste and the tablespoon of garam masala spice mix into the pan with the remaining fat and whatever drippings your protein left behind.

Step 5: Reduce heat to low while stirring until the tomato paste turns a darker red and starts to loosen up.

Step 6: Empty the can of coconut milk into the pan, stir until everything is thoroughly mixed.

Step 7: Drain your canned veggies, then add the veggies to the pan and put the protein back in the pan.

Step 8: Let simmer on low, stirring occasionally until the sauce thickens to the point that it's about as thick as an especially thick BBQ sauce.

Serve over rice, I recommend 90 second microwave rice, basmati rice if your store has it. You could actually cook rice on the stove at the same time if you wanted (you boil water, add the rice, get it back to a boil, then cover, drop the heat to low and don't touch it for about 15 minutes) if you wanted to save money, but I'm trying to minimize time, effort, cleanup and how forgiving the recipe is here and I'm at around 20 minutes, one pan, one plate, a tablespoon and a spoon to stir and serve with.

When I say "fancied up", I marinated my meat (chicken, used Angry Orchard Mango Ginger, soy sauce, and the same spices I was going to use in the sauce as the marinade) and added a few more spices to the process - garlic, chili powder, paprika, and curry powder all added at the same time as the garam masala.

Another cheap cooking tip - marinate beef in cheap lite beer overnight, the alcohol will help tenderize it and flavor it and a lot of cheaper cuts become a lot better as a consequence.

Without meat or copious cheese you’ll also start running low on protein, prompting need to complicate your dishes further by exploring weird foods you’ve never heard of or know how to prepare, like chickpeas.

You'll note I specifically mentioned both, depending on budget. The general casserole structure is flexible enough that you buy meat on sale and whatever you get you can make work. If you've got freezer space, post-holiday clearance sales are great for ham. If you're willing to learn a little bit and put up with a single weird food, tofu is extremely flexible and also cheap (about $1.50/lb around here), but I'd probably add a can of soup or jar of gravy into the mix of a casserole that tried to use tofu as it tends to soak up moisture (and flavor) like a sponge and you don't want the result to be dry. I'd probably use more tofu at home, but my wife finds the texture unpleasant.