Oh shoot also, you said vegetarian so I didnt include this but you could probably make it work.

Okonomiyaki:

Its practically fish flavored pancake batter filled with cabbage and other veggies fried on a griddle. Invented in japan after WW2 to use scraps and make them tasty.
I make mine with bacon or cheap slices of ham on bottom but you can skip that, but I would still crack an egg into the center.

If you look around at street food post WW2 in the world you will find a lot of it is cheap and tasty and with a globalized market easier to get the ingredients/recipes.

Get a pressure cooker and a bread maker from a thrift store or Facebook marketplace. Your bread will be cheap and plentiful. Get some herbs and veggies to spice them up. I’m a big fan of rosemary, garlic and onion and then dipping it in olive oil with some cheese on the side.
Or make pizza dough dough setting and make a quick pizza or even bread pizza

I adapt what I make to what is cheap to purchase at the time. Sometimes it is lots of eggs and quiche, sometimes it is specific veggies, stuffing them with rice and cheese and lentils and baking them is nice.

And to finish off here is my ancestors depression dish which I swear by.
Eggs tomato and cheese:
Saute onion, and green pepper or celery until sweated, add salt, pepper and thyme
Add a large can of tomatoes or 4-5 large tomatoes cut into chunks and let simmer until liquid
Reduce heat and add a soft cheese (cheddar spread or american cheese works well cause it melts well | generous 1/2 cup
Once melted mix in slowly 6 scrambled eggs and raise heat a little until it cooks and thickens stirring constantly.
Serve on bread.

Buy a super cheap rice cooker, its life changing! Throw some rice with frozen or canned veggies of choice, added some beams and you got a nice delicious and nutritious meal. There’s lots of variation you can do with that.

I use a girl called jack for cheap healthy food. If in doubt get beans or lentils, frozen veg, rice and spices. I eat a lot of lentil curry or chilli, bean goulash or chilli and Buddha bowls (normally chickpeas, rice, spinach and roast sweet potato).

Hoover Stew: Elbow macaroni, can of corn, can of diced tomatoes, sausage/hotdog. I’d start looking up depression era foods and learning how to cook. It stretches your dollars further.

Can of beans. Can of corn. Microwavable rice. And seasoning. Top with cheese.

One of my favorite cheap master recipes, parts all by weight:

• 1 part protein (meat, beans, whatever you have)
• 2 parts veggies
• 2 parts rice/pasta/similar dry carb
• 4 parts water

If you’re using eggs as the protein, it’s 1:1:1:2 instead. 1:2:2:4 comes out not as good. One of my personal favorites is spam+frozen peas&carrots mix+rice with a bullion cube in the water.

The basic instructions is “Put everything in a pot, boil until the ride is cooked”, but there are lots of things you can do in the middle of that. Toasting the rice in fat, browning the meat, etc. He if you quadruple the water it also works as a soup recipe, just don’t add the rice until you’re ready to eat it. Rice expands a lot, and you will end up with a savory rice pudding. Edible, but 0/10 experience. If you break up the noodles in the top ramen packs they come out basically the same as the canned chicken noodle noodles though. I have yet to run into a combination of things I didn’t like with this.

Spices also help a lot with cooking. Even just a good season salt (I use Tony Chachere’s) makes a huge difference, and they’re usually like $5 for a canister that’ll last a year or two.

Bullion cubes in rice dishes. The store brand ones are usually $0.10 each, maybe $0.15, and they make a huge difference in rice.

Another note: Biscuits are cheap and easy. If you don’t have milk, you can use water, just add a little extra fat, and a little bit of sugar to the dough. They don’t come out the same, but it’s close enough. Gravy is great for extra flavor that’s cheap, and not as bad for you as people think. Rice and gravy is great.

Ramen or Macaroni & Cheese makes a good base. You can throw pretty much anything in there with it and have a meal.

For when it’s real bad: The Sad Bastard Cookbook

Veggies + pasta + sauce

Beans + veggies + sauce

Various forms of potato

Carrots and hummus

Lentils, my friend. They don’t need soaking. Aside from soups and stews here’s a fun recipe:

Find some wheat gluten, could be in the baking aisle, maybe in the “ethnic” aisle with Asian stuff as it’s used for making seitan. I got some from a health food store where I felt like I was carrying explosives as I strolled past bourgeois folks and their toddler on a leash.

2 parts cooked lentils (I like red lentils, could substitute chickpeas), puréed and cooled 1 part wheat gluten. 1 part breadcrumbs

Add water or broth sparingly until you can knead it all into a rough dough. Spices to taste.

Roll into "meat"balls or burgers. Bonus: gluten is protein.

Fry or bake.

A second tip, frozen veggies and fruit retain a lot of their nutrients. Best to buy a kilogram or two of frozen berries in winter rather than a wee clamshell of tasteless berries flown in from Peru for the same price.

Third, tofu is often cheaper in Asian groceries than in supermarkets. Cube it, toss it in salt, white pepper, and cornstarch, fry until golden brown. The cornstarch gives it a good crispy layer. Mix soy sauce, oyster sauce (available with no actual oysters as ingredient too), white sugar, stir fry veg of choice. Serve over rice.

I’m sorry to hear you are in this situation. There’s some great suggestions here already that I am also saving for myself, and I though it high time to talk about our national dish; stamppot.

Stamppot is a dutch family of dishes that are very simple to make. In essence, it is boiled potatoes, mixed with vegetables and mashed. A little bit of butter/oil to make it smoother. Traditionally eaten with small pieces of bacon mashed through and sausage on the side, but you can also add spices like rosemary + thyme, nutmeg, turmeric + cumin, or even cheese to bring it to taste.

Typical vegetables/combos:

• kale
• carrots + onions (1-1 ratio)
• sauerkraut
• lambs lettuce + 1 hard-boiled egg
• spinach But many vegetables can be used. Some vegetables need to be cooked with the potatoes (the kale, carrots, and onions) and some added after boiling and removing the water (sauerkraut, labs lettuce, spinach). You can even combine vegetables if you wish. Honestly, the sky is the limit.

rice
canned kidney beans (you need a good amount of beans to rice to get a complete protein profile)
vegetable stock (i use powdered which seems cheapest)
ground coriander seeds
ground cumin
ground chipotle or any chili
limes or vinegar
shallots or onions, hot chili (if you like it hotter)
garlic and or garlic powder
tomato paste
any oil
salt, pepper
fresh coriander and parsley if you can afford it (i use frozen parsley)

a large pan or pot with airtight lid (this is necessary to steam the rice)

drain beans
wash rice if you are concerned about arsenic or dirt (i sometimes leave it dry to get a bit of toast on the rice)
make about 0.5L of vegetable broth
chop onions and garlic, chop chili (de-seed for less heat)
heat pan with oil, add powdered spices (not the garlic powder) until fragrant,
add onions and garlic, chili, stir as needed
add tomato paste (about 1 tablespoon)
after about a minute add rice (stir until a bit toasted)
add beans, stir
cover with broth (about 0.5 - 1 cm above rice) add water if necessary
add parsley, garlic powder, salt, pepper, dash of vinegar (if not using limes)
cover pan, turn heat to lowest (if that burns on the bottom you can also turn off heat)
cook 20-25 minutes (do not open the lid)
near the end roughly chop fresh coriander
turn off heat, open lid, gently stir
close lid and let it sit for 5 minutes (not strictly necessary, YMMV)
if you like it tangy add some more vinegar to taste, add salt if necessary
serve with limes and fresh parsley

a very cheap meal that can be upgraded (fresh coriander, limes) if you have some money left over.

for non-vegetarian experiment with lard instead of oil and chicken stock.

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Rice, beans, and some frozen peppers and onions are an easy, no cut base to start a meal. Toss what else you want and you can have a good tasting ready to make one pot meal a few times a week.

My tip is rice for calories, veggies for nutrition, dry beans/chicken for protein. Frozen veggies can get very cheap.

Potatoes are also super good and allow for a lot of variety. To make something tasty like mashed it does require butter and milk.

Side tip for rice, rice cookers are pretty cheap and save you plenty of time. You just toss in rice, water and salt in the correct quantities and good rice comes out. You can also make whole meals with it by putting some oil and frozen veggies.

For taste spices are key and big quantities of spice don’t cost much per dish. It takes some experimenting but once you get a hang of it it becomes very nice and easy. Garlic/onion powder, cayenna pepper, salt and pepper improve almost every dish.

One caveat is that seed oils are just not healthy so if the budget allows for olive oil, butter or coconut it’s better.