**draft** I had one of those curious moments and looked up "poor people food" in the various search engines and I got nothing good. I expected to see a list and then links to recipes. I guess there's no such thing as "poor people food" just as there's no such thing as an "oatmeal diet" so lets make it up (the reason for doing this list is to come up with the foods/recipes and such so we can eat a little better/tastier and a little more cheaply — we've been getting a little too crazy with our food budget). There is a bad connotation around "poor people food" but I also think that some of the best and most creative food around is based off of the need to eat cheaply — gumbo, collard greens, and red beans are rice are perfect examples. If all goes well I'll turn this into a book. breakfast
- oatmeal
- grits, polenta
- chilaquiles
lunch/dinner
- gumbo
- red beans and rice
- ramen noodles
- macaroni and cheese
- mashed potatoes
- quesadillas
- hummus w/ pita bread
- fried rice (rice w/ some meat or vegetable)
- casseroles (?)
- cheap meats and fish: skirt steak, snapper, mussels (in season), catfish
If you got other suggestions, comment or send me mail :) — Update 11/1 There's a Thrifty Food Plan issued by the USDA. On the low-end, a single adult male can eat on $4.84 a day, females $4.37. On the high end, $9.42/$8.50 a day. They also have a recipe book. I don't think their plans are really good though. The way we all cook and eat is make a big meal and then have left overs for the next day or two, in other words the same meal more than once either once for dinner and again for lunch, or two or three dinners of the same thing.