Instant grits. Virtually no nutritional value, but solves the hunger. Don't recommend it unless out of options.
Cornbread and milk Egg fried rice Ramen with the extra hot sauce Cucumbers and salt Bean burritos Syrup sandwich Any cheap meat with gravy on top of rice I ain't gone lie I still eat some of those just because...for the culture.
My roommate in college use to just boil pasta and eat it like that. No salt, no sauce, just boiled pasta. He wasn't poor, just incompetent.
Dried beans, usually black or red or pinto, and brown rice. Soak the beans overnight. Get an onion (they were cheap, the beans were cheap - heck, everything was cheap in the 1960's) and slice up some of it to toss into a big pot I had (the one I soaked the beans in) along with whatever else I could manage. Salt and pepper, of course, and some spices if I had them. Bring them to a boil and then turn it down and simmer it for hours. I had another pot with a lid to cook the rice in when the beans looked ready. I could have beans and rice for days after that. If I could find a decent sausage for cheap, I'd slice up some of that, brown it in a fry pan I had, and add it to a day's beans and rice meal(s) and let that simmer a bit. The other thing I did was make spaghetti sauce. If I was dating a vegetarian (and half the time I was), I made a mean marinara. If not, I made an excellent meat sauce. The freezer is a marvelous invention. To this day, I think spaghetti sauce out of the freezer and simmered for a hour, maybe more, is better than when I first made it. At least I've managed to convince myself that it is. I always had some dried oregano and garlic powder in those little jars. Maybe one of those Italian seasoning blends. That stuff was pretty cheap. I had a couple of friends that grew fresh oregano, which was great when I could get it. The noodles were cheap. I'd take 4 slices of sandwich bread, butter it, sprinkle some garlic on them, and toast it in the oven. Cheap garlic bread.
This is poor food but something I eat all the time in winter. Bulk oatmeal. You can cook a bowl in the microwave and it's ready to go. I eat it with trail mix (no sugar butter, or milk) so I get protein and vitamins. It's a little more expensive and harder to make but more nutritional value is the steel cut whole oats (not the rolled oats). Those take a while too cook but have heartier texture and more flavor than the rolled oats.
Wish sandwich sounds like a "jam sandwich" : take two pieces of bread, jam 'em together and eat it. (Thank you James Evans, Sr. & Good TImes).
I gave up eating that stuff as a kid, but they're crazy high in iron (probably because they're made out of iron). Show grits some respect!
PB and crackers was my go to along with this........if I had some extra $$ it was kraft mac and cheese
