What's your go to meal for under 2$ per person that isn't super common?

Off-topic but this could be interesting: https://traumbooks.itch.io/the-sad-bastard-cookbook

Gruel! Three spoons of oatmeal in a bowl, pour about 500ml (~1 pint) of boiling water on it. You can put a bit more oatmeal in, but if you go too far you get porridge. You're aiming for thin or miserly porridge.

For a mild seasoning, you can cry over the bowl, and let the salt from your tears enhance the subtle flavours. If you're feeling rich, salt can be purchased from shops and used instead.

For optional nutrients beyond simple survival, you can then throw any leftover or past-best veg, precooked meat or edible garden plants in the bowl. For deliciousness, you can add a bit of butter, or even cheese.

Heat it in a pan on the hob, whilst stirring, for as long as you can be bothered waiting. Cooking for longer tends to make it taste better. Alternately, microwave it for a few minutes.

You're ultimately going to end up with something like a thick soup (or a luxurious cheese sauce, depending on ingredients) that's surprisingly filling, and significantly nicer tasting than you might expect from the description.

Gruel. It sounds shit, but it's ace.

potato

The price on rice goes down dramatically when you go bulk. A cup of rice out of my 25 lb bag costs a few cents.

Rice and beans, rice and eggs, dirty rice, add tomato and Sazon for Mexican rice, Japanese barbecue sauce and you have hibachi rice, Korean sauce and a little sprinkle of some form of protein and you've got bulgogi. I'm starting to feel like Forrest Gump talking about shrimp.

Bananas, potatoes, corn, oats, bread and rice are all pretty cheap. When I'm trying to not spend any money I'm fine with a bowl of oatmeal with some sliced bananas in it.

Simple vegetarian chili:
1 cup dried pinto beans
1 cup dried navy beans
1 cup dried lentils
1 cup dried or canned corn
10 cups of water
2 cans of diced tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
2-4 tbsp ground cumin (by bulk bags online for $7 instead of overpriced jars in store and grind yourself with a cheap Mr. Coffee)
10 tsp or to taste of vegetable better than bouillon
Black pepper, chili powder, paprika to taste

Put in instant pot, pressure cook normal for 45 minutes, natural steam release, switch to slow cooker on low until meal time.

Makes multiple dinners for a family of 5. Serve on its own, over rice, or in burritos. Pairs well with sour cream, diced peppers, siracha, etc.

Obviously the more you can but in bulk the cheaper it gets per person.

There's a Filipino dish called Tortang Talong, it's basically an eggplant omelette. Broil the eggplant, mash it flat, soak it in egg, and then fry it. People eat it with rice and ketchup but I personally like it with soy sauce. Sometimes I'll add a little bit of ground beef or corned beef when I want meat.

Eggs and rice. You cook the rice, then throw it in a frying pan with a bunch of eggs. It's like scrambled eggs with carbs.

Don’t be afraid to “dress up” box dinners like Mac n cheese or suddenly salad. A handful of beans, tomatoes, onions, carrots, or whatnot can stretch it and make it healthier.

Cooked and then refrigerated Quinoa, Bulgar, and Couscous make great salad bases for something different than lettuce.

Savory oatmeal is supposedly a thing, but I’ve never tried it.

Ghetto pizzas. Make some toast put tomato sauce or ketchup on it then sprinkle with cheese. You can nuke it to melt the cheese or if you want to spend more effort pop it in the oven. Also if you have more than 2$ you can put toppings like veggies and pepperoni on it.

Edit I just remembered another poorman meal I used to eat all the time. Boil ramen and strain. Add tomato sauce and cheddar. It's like really shitty spaghettios or regrettios if you will. Cheap filling and full of sodium

Chocolate oatmeal. Grab a box of rolled oats, a bag of sugar, and a thing of cocoa powder from Aldi. Put half a cup of oats, a couple of teaspoons of sugar, and about half a teaspoon of cocoa powder in a bowl. Add enough water or milk to cover the oats. Stir, and microwave a minute at a time, watching g the bowl to make sure it doesn't boil over. When the oats are soft, enjoy!

Can be breakfast or dessert as needed!

True . Baked potato, homemade fries or chips , mashed potatoes. So many ways to cook they and most of them don't require much else .

I like to eat carrot sticks, they are cheap and takes literally zero effort to cook.

Gotta be rice and beans for cheapest. Not sure what it comes to exactly but rice, some veg or other, and a protein (usually tofu) is my usual go-to when I'm cooking.

Obviously you can spice this a million deferent ways. Like tomato + cinnamon, or chili flakes and green beans, etc etc etc

E: oh I just read the part about about being uncommon. I'd say a rich tofu scramble with veggies. You can even do like half and half egg and tofu. Sometimes I'll do that to like upgrade my morning egg

Rice with sunny side up eggs and soy sauce. Pop those yolks, mix, mmmmm.

This was my parents' idgaf meal, and as a kid I loved it both because I didn't get it often, and because it had no veggies.

My kids love something we call "brown eggs" which started out as a keto "oatmeal" recipe in 2012 when they were toddlers.

3 eggs, beaten 1 T butter 1 T peanut butter 1 T almond butter if you are feeling fancy 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon White or brown sugar

Beat the eggs with the ground cinnamon. Scramble the eggs in half the butter until they are just runny, add the peanut butter and almond butter and stir well. Serve while still runny for more oatmeal like spoon pudding or give them another minute in the pan to get them firm and crispy for a more French toast like experience. Serve with more butter and a sprinkle of sugar or cinnamon. You can also add maple syrup.

We swear, this sounds insane when we describe it to other people, but my kids love it and demand we make it for guests

Rice burgers. Cooked rice, some grated cheese, an egg, a grated carrot, add salt and some seasoning as see fit. Mix using a hand mixer with those spiraly dough mixing things. Form burgers. Fry in pan. Doesn't taste like burgers at all but I like it.

I don't know how common it is, but I like carrot stew (EDIT: hutspot). 1kg carrots is around 1.30€ here, a bag of 2.5kg potatoes is around 5€, peel and cut it all, add a chunk of smoked bacon for flavor (ca. 2.50€ per piece) add water, broth, salt, a bit of pepper, maybe parsley, and just boil it all until it's soft. Onion and garlic to taste - they don't need to be fresh. Freeze-dried works just as well.

You end up with ca. 3,5 kg for 8.80€ and If you go by 500g per serving, that's 7 servings for 1,25€ each. A little more if you buy the onion and garlic fresh, but it doesn't make much of a difference both in taste and price, so I usually go with the freeze-dried stuff. If there happens to be too much broth, you can just dump a bag of mashed potato powder into the pot.

If you have a freezer, you don't need to cook everything at once - get some zip bags, fill them with the peeled / cut raw ingredients in equal parts and store it in the freezer. If you want to cook it, just dump the contents of a bag into a pot, add water & spices and boil - no need to thaw first.

I used to cook this whenever we got together for roleplaying sessions and it was my turn to host. ;) It's not difficult to cook, cheap, tasty and feeds a bunch of nerds for the evening or supper for yourself for a week.

PS: 1.00€ = ca. $1.07

Depends upon the locality of your definition of common. Around here it's red beans and rice.

Can't remember it's name. A Japanese dish. Put some leftover rice in a bowl, nuke it. Crack an raw egg on it and some Japanese soy sauce, mix it. Serve with an raw egg yolk and sprinkle some furikake on it

1lb Ground turkey, 6oz crushed Frito corn chips, 2 cloves minced garlic, pinch red pepper flake. Combine, form 4 thin patties, and fry. Serve on toast with or without cheese. Great burgers, and super cheap.

Eggs, bread, cheese and Mayo or ketchup. I could eat egg and cheese sandwiches 7 days a week if I had to. Aldis eggs are usually around $1-2 for a dozen, bread is about a dollar. The big pack of aldis brand cheese is about $2 for 16 slices. Not counting sauces since you don’t have to buy those often

16 cents per egg Estimating 10 cents a slice but probably less 12 cents per slice of cheese About 38 cents per sandwich

Then throw in some various fruit and vegetables

Banana, cucumbers, snap peas are cheap

Edit: you said not common. Sorry lol

Chicken rice casserole. Basically imagine the filling for chicken pot pie but with rice.

Dice chicken thighs, cook with frozen vegetables in a pot. Toss in dry rice, add water plus chicken bouillon and some poultry seasoning. Cover and cook till rice has absorbed the liquid. Toss with a can of cream of chicken soup, and if you really want put it in a casserole dish and cover it with cheese, bake it until melty.

It's a remainder of my Midwest heritage and you can use up whatever veggies you got.

Frozen peas and rice stir fry. Peas are loaded with protein and frozen are cheap and the best way to buy. Better than fresh in my opinion.

Chickpeas, lentils, beans!

Edit: although these thing are pretty common for a fair chunk of the planet

I've been doing this for a while.

Buy a good five liter pot and ten pint sized containers. Make a pot of your favorite soup/chili/stew. Fill the containers and freeze. A good hot meal you can zap anytime.

Top Ramen is just about the only thing I could purchase for $2. Just for context, the cheapest loaf of bread I can buy is $3.

Easy veggie soup with brown rice. Take desired vegetables (I like yellow squash, zucchini, celery, potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic), chop roughly, add to instant pot, cover with water, pressure cook on high for 10 minutes. When done, spice it to taste now that you can actually tell the flavor. Use slotted spoon/spider to remove veggies, set to side. Extract 4 cups of the broth, add it to rice maker with 2 cups of brown rice. While your rice cooks, put half of the veggies in a blender, blend until smooth. Add remaining veggies back to the pot with the blended veggies. Stir in some sour cream to make it creamy. Serve it over the rice.

Can also skip the rice, use corn starch to thicken a bit, and serve it with pimento cheese and crackers. Sub brown rice for wild rice. Throw in some chicken. Use different veggies. Triple the potatoes instead of other thickening methods. Possibilities are virtually endless. It's a different soup each time, which helps with variety. Excellent recipe if you grow squash, because them suckers are prolific.

Easy tacos:

Half a pound ground beef, large can of Rotel diced tomatoes with green chilies. Cook and drain the beef, add tomatoes and heat. Place corn tortillas (real ones, not those yellow "taco shells") in a lightly greased skillet and cook on one side for 30 seconds. Flip tortilla, add cheese of choice (sharp cheddar, various supermarket "queso," I prefer Oaxaca), cook another 30 seconds. Add to plate, spoonful of the meat/tomato mix. On the side, spoonful of sour cream with smoky hot sauce mixed in. Putting it on the sides prevents it from cooking off your taco too much. Dip and enjoy.

Velveeta Shells & Cheese, 11oz Pouch of Tuna, 10oz bag frozen peas.

For myself, I like bannock or fry bread (amount of fat in the pan is one of the big deciding factors on which it is). Kinda like a cross between a pancake and an American biscuit. To make it, you just need to make a quick bread dough and pan fry it. Roughly 2:1:0.6 flour to water to baking powder and some salt. Mix, divide into smaller portions, and pan fry. That's it. Using a whole grain and/or bread flour adds extra nutritional value.

Top with butter and or jam. Eat with fruit or vegetables for a balanced meal.

I'm not sure about the exact price but it's one of the cheapest dishes i can imagine where i live.

(slightly modified) janssons frestelse, traditional swedish christmas gratin

just chop some potatoes into sticks, slice some onions thinly, empty both into an oven-safe dish, season to taste with black pepper and mix it all up, mix up some fish sauce and milk and pour as much as you feel like into the gratin (i think normal is like, 2/3rds?), some breadcrumbs ontop, and into the oven at like 200°C until it gets some colour.

use actual anchovies if that's cheap and you like bits of fish, and chopped up sun-dried tomato works great too (but that's expensive here).

Red beans and rice, or Cincinnati style chili. If you want cheap tasty and quick think of stews and sauces that will keep for about a week that you can split with a starch. I have maybe 10 dollars of ingredients in both of those dishes, and each one will get me 2 dinners and 5 lunches. Easy to cook too, basically cut your stuff up, plop it in a pot and add heat. No fancy cooking techniques or tools required.

I grew up with polenta, so that's an easy cheap meal I have.

For one serve mix roughly 3/4 cup of polenta with roughly 2.5 cups of water. Stir in a pot over a stove for about 10 minutes and you're done.

It's around $1 AUD per serve by itself. I usually add cheese so it's a bit more for me.

Pineapple sandwich. Toast bread, add canned pineapple slices to toasted bread along with some chili powder and ketchup, and you're good to go. Tastes amazing.

...$2...

I don't have any advice but I just wanted to point out it's spelled "bouillon" cube.