One thing I discovered while poor is that bread and butter was a staple for a long time for a reason. Plain bread and butter with a little extra salt is actually pretty good and very calorie dense. It's when you run out of butter that things are grim, cos at that point just plain ol bread is indeed a bit sad. A lot of people waste money buying and making stuff that's a whole lot nastier than just eating bread and butter. Throw in a tin of tuna every now and then for some protein (just eat it I find, putting it with the bread just makes both worse) and you're golden. Oatmeal makes a great dessert with some cinnamon and sugar. The one thing you definitely DO get sick of when you're poor is beans and rice for dinner. You want something hot for dinner and bread and butter is not so good for that, and holy crap I've eaten so much beans and rice, to the point I feel physically ill these days at the sight of it, the humble cheese toasted sandwich being a much tastier call if you can afford the cheese. I definitely got sick of beans and rice in a way i never really did with bread and butter. Bread and butter I actually still love to this day, although I can afford fancier bread now, the regular ol slice white is all good. I never got the cheap value white though, the acceptable mass produced white bread is not really expensive even when you're poor and it's well worth it getting the middle of the road mass produced white bread over the super duper cheap white bread which is nasty.
Just adding to this-if you have a little bit of time, (Or want to save more money) flour is super cheap, and you can very easily make bread at home for pennies. Bonus if it's a bread meal-homemade bread tends to be denser, so it's more filling. EDIT: Does rely on having a oven, or at least a decently sized toaster oven, which not everyone has.
"The most important part of a struggle meal is eating it with a heart full of hope" dam didn't expect an inspirational quote out of a struggle meal vid but here i am
@@wakichunuYes and no. If you're poor and only eat cheap carbs you gonna be fat and hungry all the time. Mixing in a struggle salad every now and then would keep you fuller longer and your insides would thank you
@@MXHMustafaXHorror i'll take this wisdom with me for my next poor phase, hope i dont have one before i evaded my quickly communising fully authoritarian piece of shit country tho
The chicken bouillon that was used for the popcorn chicken is a powder. Meaning you can sprinkle it on without making your popcorn soggy. What you used is chicken base, a chicken concentrate meant to be used to make stock but with flavor closer to freshly made chicken stock. It’s not the same and, while I don’t want to try either, I’m almost 100% certain that would have both tasted and looked better if you had used the powder.
Chicken powder on popcorn reminded me of when my brother and I were little and we used to sneak packs of ramen out of the house when we were hungry but didn’t want to go home yet. Lunch would then become, crushed dry ramen, in the bag, with the seasoning powder mixed in. Pretty good snack. 😂
oh my goddd i used to eat this all the time when i was a kid. we would also put a little bit of butter on it so the sugar and cinnamon sticks and for more flavor
You know you can just mix flour with water and milk and get european pancakes? Add sugar and you are good to go! Also an egg in the mix if you are feeling rich. I usually skip it anyway. For some reason i will never forget like 4 things from being a young child at my gransmas place and one of them is the sugar pancake.
in a very very low point in my life currently and the final bit about you not wanting anybody to ever have to experience eating a struggle meal brought tears to my eyes. your videos are the only thing keeping me going right now. thank you❤❤
i know I was like dang....my family is hillbilly red neck and these lack creativity......they put the sausage and mayo and I'm like.....why not tuna and mayo??? a tuna can is like 75 cent and mayo packets at the deli are usually free. so is salt and pepper packets and relish packets at delis.
@@humanoid3927 That's confusing. Bell pepper is a description. The US culture seems to love naming things in a way that is easily guessed for the ignorant but at the cost of cultural n scientific homage and speed. Paprika was invented as a word in the mid 1900s for Hungarian speakers from the latin word: Piper. Seemingly first used for the fruit. Capsicum was invented from the in the late 1600s from the latin word: capsa. Capsicum is considered the scientific name for the plant. The hindi word for capsicum and paprika seem to be the same: shimala mirch... but india likes calling it paprika when it's a spice and capsicum when it's the fruit when speaking english.
As a med student and an asian my favorite struggle meal is Indomie mie goreng (fried noodle). Touch of a sunny side egg and done. Delicious and fast 👌🏻
I didn't realize how much of my childhood was struggle meals until I thought about it as an adult. Lots of buttered noodles with salt/pepper, a ton of canned fruit/veg (free thanks to my grandpa working at a canning plant), and when we had the money to splurge on meat, Mom would make a pork roast with potatoes and onions. I have fond memories of the scent of the roast simmering in a cast iron pot all day, and then you could use the leftovers with some BBQ sauce (sparingly!) on plain white bread for a poor man's pulled pork. Every couple of years I buy a pork roast just to remind myself of home and how far I've come.
It kinda lessens the blow when most of your national dishes are "struggle meals". People didn't have too much to choose from when we were kinda forming our national identity 110 years or so ago. Like the absolute peak dish is this nonsense called "karelian roast" where you take all the bad and chewy bits of a pork, put it in a pot with onions and if you can afford them carrots, then cover them with water, and put in oven until it's all grey mush.
I love how he replaces critical ingredients with random crap he has laying around. " i dont have oreos, so im gonna substitute it with a gallon of paint"
@@Jazz-attqckyou don't have to watch. Go away. Go watch something else. Why do some people have to be offended and complain about something they are doing completely voluntarily. I will never understand.
These meals are giving nostalgia for the time i was extremely depressed and wouldnt care for myself in any way at all. Knowing i still tried making myself food in those times, albeit sporadically and with no rhyme or reason, still makes me happy for some reason. I may only have eaten a full on head of plain brokkoli with baked chicken nuggets or canned beans but i still had enough of a will to live to want to enjoy any type of strange food and that is comforting to me. Struggle meals show we are still trying
My struggle meal is a can of ranch style beans (can be substituted for baked beans, chili beans or black beans) mixed with instant rice, topped with salsa and whatever cheese I have at the time. It’s actually pretty bomb as a lazy person’s version Tex-Mex tbh
These recipes people were sending in seem more like they're struggling with depression rather than money😭 All of them could be make so much better with different techniques and some extra steps
right? it's like they set high expectations. if i ever go to england and don't find specimens like these i'll be about as disappointed as if i'd gone to paris and not seen a medieval amount of rats
most of the struggle meals are quite expensive. my go to meal is just an egg, rice, dried fish. fry them all together and make a dried fish and egg fried rice. so good
I think the only dish I can claim as mostly mine without direct influence or intentional following a recipe is taking a can of spam, slice into thin to a medium thickness slabs for slightly easier cooking, fry on a pan with some soyu sauce, not much. Once the spam is at a point you like cut to cubes. Add rice to the pan for maybe a minute or two at most with a little more soyu. To help with the overwhelming salt a tablespoon or two of butter helps with a slightly creamy taste. Enough salt to probably kill you but easy to make, the rice ensures you feel full. And cheap.
that little quote at the end really makes me tear up. as someone having struggle meal after experiencing a roller coaster ride since the pandemic, then 1 and half year of great things happened to me, and next day everything went down again. i really thought 2020 it will be the last time im having just rice and tofu everyday. and now im here again holding tears and pretend to smile in every bite, almost give up. that little part at the end really motivate me, thank you stranger guy and yes, hope i will make it through this again.
@@zayyyNYC you know what? If you're doing it if you only have a 1000$, i'll tip in as well, what's the point of working for extra cash in the summer if it's not for doing good things?
@@Goddot 15+ bowls of yogurt with a single granola mix bag is not “expensive” granola mix is like 3-4$ at aldi and last i checked a simple bag of chips at any gas station nowadays is like $2.29 lol, how on earth did you come to that conclusion
@@LUCKIPUPPowdered peanut butter is 10x the cost or regular peanut butter and granola at $4 a bag is overpriced. Comparing a bag of granola from Aldi to chips at a gas station isn’t a comparison.
@@codename495 dawg idk where you live but inflation hittin and everything is expensive lol especially any food that actually has any nutritional value big dawg
Yup! Had to do this once when me and a friend got stranded and only had $1 between us. I eventually upgraded to the next level of the recipe: Cream of Chicken Sandwiches Ingredients: 1 cheap loaf of bread, 1 can of cream of chicken soup concentrate Recipe: Spread the cream of chicken on the bread to make a sandwich. That's it. You're done. This makes more food than you and a couple friends can even eat.
My go to struggle meal used to be; -flour tortilla +honey mustard+ham Now the new updated version is : -flour tortilla+honey mustard 👍🏽✨ Good luck everybody
Mine is flour torilla that I heat directly on the burner of my gas stove. Then add mayo and shredded cheese. If I have shredded lettuce, put that in and then (optionally) lightly sprinkle with white wine or red wine vinegar. Roll like burrito. If I don't have lettuce or cheese, just the mayo on a warm torilla is good for ultimate struggle.
You can make a crumble following roughly the same recipe except instead of white bread you combine flour sugar and butter and you grill it in a pan on low heat. Add on top of your cooked apples and it makes for a perfectly serviceable apple crumble.
Savoury oatmeal is the win here. But my hardest laugh was definitely "and just like many things and activities I enjoy it was calling for some whipped cream"
The best struggle meal is still this: Cook noodles. Then pour almost all the water out and pour like one teaspoon of lemon-Juice, two tablespoons olive oil and some grated cheese (i like youg gouda) over it. Give it a good mix until the cheese has melted a bit. Add some salt to your taste. Its delicious!
You are wrong. Cook noodles, pour over a teaspoon of olive oil, fresh or granulated garlic and black pepper. Spices are cheap enough for how little of them you need and the olive oil can be replaced with butter or really any edible fat.
I'm a cheese addict, but I don't like cheese on ramen. Lol My doctoring of ramen consists of also straining out the broth, but adding a dash of soya sauce/oyster sauce/hot sauce, and chopping up whatever leftover meat I have from yesterday's dinner. Lmao
@@designator7402 I cashed for proper Parmesan every time. You need very small amounts for a great deal of taste with real parmesan, so it averages out to be really cheap for how much taste it gives you.
Apparently I did struggle meals wrong. In college I started off the month buying a big bag of rice and then would buy meat whenever it was on sale or on clearance. Then spend some money on garlic salt, pepper, soy sauce, and ginger and then went wild with whatever other ingredients were on sale. 5lb of rice 8.98 Garlic salt 4.78 Black pepper 3.77 Ground ginger 2.24 Soy sauce 3.58 Vegetable oil 3.84 Total 27.19 for all the seasons and rice which will last a while. I usually got a few weeks out of the rice and only needed new seasonings every 3-4 months depending on how liberal I was with them. Then for protein and veggies watch for good sales and clearance. Now these prices aren't totally accurate because I'm just going off Walmart prices they could be more or less depending on where you live.
Yeaah so many young adults leave home with no idea how to stretch a dollar. If you're willing to put a little more effort into cooking, for example with dried beans instead of canned, there's money to be saved for spices haha.
Struggle meals are really just for when you struggle to budget, struggle to learn cooking, or are too lazy to go to the store so you make a meal out of random ingredients you had sitting around.
@@cookiemonster2630 yeah like i always hear about other young people saying that they can only afford ramen, but like, ramen is more expensive than healthier options like pasta
@onionring1531 or struggling mentally. Sure, eating a proper meal may be healthier and cheaper, but when you can barely scrape together enough energy to get out of bed, it’s easier to shove a Walmart frozen pizza in the oven and be done with it
My go-to struggle meal is insanely delucious and only needs 1 pot (no joke give it a try). - Open a can of tomatoes, put them in a pot and mash them - Add heavy cream to taste and mix to form a sauce . Add salt and any spice you enjoy to taste (generally recommend garlic powder, onion powder, dry basil, oregano and paprika) but you can do with just salt. - Put the stove on high heat. - Once the sauce is boiling, crack 3 eggs in there and cook until the whites are settle and the yolk is creamy but still runny. - Use the pot as your plate (or transfer to a plate if you are feeling fancy) and eat alongside some white italian bread to deep in the sauce and in the egg yolk.
A delicious struggle meal is pinto beans. I pressure cook a pound of dry pinto beans with water, chicken bouillon cubes, and taco seasoning. Serve it in a bowl and top with hot sauce, any cheese you have and sour cream. So comforting.
Beans have always been my go-to struggle meal too...cheap, and easy to make. I'd put dried beans (usually black beans) in a crock pot with lots of water and let it cook all day while I was at school/work, with some chicken bouillion, same as you, along with fresh garlic and onion. Come home, add some green chili (yes, I'm from NM...we actually eat such a thing here), and then serve it up in a tortilla with veggies, cheese, salsa and sour cream for a hearty burrito. Nourishing, healthy, cheap, and easy....ticks all the boxes. Ten out of ten would recommend, especially black beans for a more intense flavor. I saved pinto beans for green chili stew; same deal with the beans, but at the end added cooked ground meat along with the chili, and ate in a bowl with either a tortilla or cornbread. Struggle meal, but also comfort meal, esp in winter. FYI - for vegans or vegetarians, Impossible brand makes a ground "meat" that is even better than real meat in green chili stew and tacos and spaghetti...yummy!
It’s been a while so I hope I remember this. But a struggle dessert I loved making is something I called the PB&J Cheesecake Take 1 spoonful of creamy peanut butter and put it in a small mug, bowl, or ramekin. Microwave it until it’s soft. While your peanut butter is still liquidy, take an equal spoonful of strawberry cream cheese (can be any fruity or sweet cream cheese, my stores just only sold strawberry) Mix them both together until the cream cheese is fully melted and smooth. Reheat in the microwave until the mixture begins to bubble. Immediately place it in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes till it sets. Place an unlit candle in it and put on a fun lil party hat and enjoy
You said these recipes are for when things can't get any worse. Well, I'm living on the street right now, and I can tell you this shit is aspirational for me.
Also for even cheaper/easier pancakes you can use those like $1 martha white bag muffin mix mixed with some milk or water (i dont measure just mix til it looks like pancake batter consistency, sometimes i throw in an egg too) and make pancakes! They come in a ton of flavors! My fave is the banana chocolate and especially if u use peanut butter syrup on top (or spread some peanut butter on and use maple syrup), and pumpkin spice, and double chocolate! I feel like most breakfast foods are good struggle meals for dinners
Fun fact, the end piece of bread is used to keep the moisture in all the remaining pieces to prevent it from drying out too quickly, so always leave it for the last!
@@InsanityPlusOne if you require a week to finish a loaf of bread that's on you, I have to buy a new loaf every 2-3 days, that's way before it starts to get mold
@@kubaGR8 pure bread, about that yeah. I don't eat white bread though, not sure what the English name is for it, but essentially it is fiber rich brown bread. I eat roughly 6-8 slices per day. That is spread over breakfast and lunch. The toppings (cheese or ham or veggies, etc.) make it slightly heavier in kcal. With white bread I never feel like I have eaten something, so I can easily finish half a loaf of white bread in one sitting, I don't know why either lol
5:56 "why would you substitute a cheap and accessible ingredient with another cheap and accessible ingredient" potato prices from where i live be like ↗↗↗↗↗↗
Favorite nutritious struggle meal (prices are in usd): Meat Slop: 1lb ground beef (from discount section ~$3.50) 1/3 lb dry rice (ends up being 1lb cooked >$1.00) 1lb dry lentils (>$2.00) 1 whole cabbage (shredded ~$2.00) Use whatever spices you like, I usually do salt, msg, and hotsauce. Add lots of water and boil in large pot until the rice and lentils are cooked. Reduce down until the consistency you prefer is reached, I like it sloppy and thick. Usually this yields 6-7 lbs of food for around $8-10. It is very filling, nutritious, and very high in protein. Taste is okay but you can always add spices to make it taste better. It keeps well in the freezer.
You don't understand how funny this is 2:23 . I once made a huge batch of french toast for my entire family as a kid, and used cumin instead of cinnamon by accident. I specifically remember saying "Owww I love cinnamon, I'm gonna put extra!". IT WAS HORRIBLE!
I used to drink hot milk with cinnamon and honey, and one time I put a fuck ton of cumin in by accident and it was putrid. Idk why spice companies haven't changed the way they label cinnamon and cumin at this point. just make the cumin label yellow or brown and make the cinnamon label red ffs
Our struggle meal was really good. My mom would make star or alphabet soup (la moderna packet .48 cents) and she would add a teaspoon of tomato bouillon ($2.38/ 7.9 oz jar) a tablespoon of salt, one 8oz can of tomato sauce (.44 cents) she would add 4 washed, whole eggs and they would hard boil with the soup. She would also add fresh cooked beans ($1.98/ one 32 oz bag) which had been left cooking all day. On fancy days she would make fresh jalapeño salsa and add it to give it some spice. Less than $5 and most of these ingredients would last for several meals.
Dang, an actual meal under $5. I'm always annoyed when I see videos on budget meals and it costs like $30 for all the ingredients and is only cheap when priced per serving. When you're really struggling, you don't have the leeway to drop that much at once for all the ingredients
The soup sounds similar to what I had growing up. I would buy pasta that was star shape and I would cook it in a pot of boiling water that flavored with vegetable stock and while I made this because there wasn't anything in the house (not struggling, more like we ran out food and needed to go shopping) and thats all we had. I loved it so much I still make it today and I'm 30 years old
I can make a giant pot of bean soup for like 10 bucks from dollar store ingredients. One thing that always makes struggle meals more palatable is having a good selection of dried and powdered spices (which i can also find at the dollar store). Your wallet doesn't have to suffer just to satisfy your tastebuds, and your tastebuds don't have to suffer just to satisfy your wallet. Shop around for deals, and just never be afraid to experiment. If you worry a lot about making things, or just have no idea where to start, then i actually recommend studying recipies from times of scarcity. In the U.S. that would be the great depression and world wars one and two in terms of years i'd start looking into. People really showed a lot of good and bad creativity during eras of rationing. Even if your situation is bad now, i have every faith that you'll be alright.
for really good recipes during times of Scarcity, i HIGHLY recommend checking out B. Dylan Hollis. he makes videos on vintage recipes, and is perfect for pointing out delicious cheap recipes, and telling you which ones to stay away from XD
@@thedorkknight9684 OH I LOVE HIS CONTENT!! I even have a preordered copy of his cookbook. He brings every ounce of his humor into his cookbook and its great.
@@hardywatkins7737 the food bank was a god send for me in college. I'd go with my roommate to get a box for two, then cook loads of stuff before the fresher things could go bad. I can't have dairy so I'd trade the dairy products for other things with friends on and off campus. Lol sometimes I'd even trade home cooked meals for other stuff, like extra ingredients or spices. I know there are lots of people in my age group that feel ashamed or embarrassed to go to a food bank, but honestly its a resource like any other. Damn, sorry I'm rambling, you just brought up funny memories of my little "restaurant" I had back in college.
My struggles meals are: 1: A boiled yellow plantain smashed up, seasoned with salt and garlic, and topped with cheese or Vienna sausages. 2. A boiled potato seasoned with salt and whipped with a soft boiled egg. 3. White rice topped with sunny side up eggs, and I break the yolks to drip on the rice as I eat it.
A struggle meal my mom would make is kind of a mushroom-tuna casserole. She'd mix white rice, cream of mushroom soup, canned peas, and tuna together then bake until warm throughout. If we had them, she'd sautee sliced button mushrooms in butter and add them, but they're not essential. I actually liked it as a kid, but it's not everyone's cup of tea.
A good struggle meal is 50/50 corn and macaroni with butter, little bit of salt. Can cut the butter if you're struggling really bad and don't have any. If you're a bit on the higher end of the struggling, you could add cheese.
Try out some kogel-mogel, dude. 2-4 raw egg yolks, 3-4 tea spoons of sugar, beat until sooth and creamy, or maybe a little gritty, whichever floats your boat. Favorite Soviet era struggle meal.
Dollar tree struggle recipe: 1 bag of corn chips, 1 can of chilli or beef stew, and slices of cheese. Line a baking dish with lightly crushed chips, put stew or chilli on top, cheese on top, bake til cheese is melty.... Really really good meal for less than 5 bucks.
one of my struggle meals i still make once a week is bechamel sauce with noodles or rice, depending on what i have at home. the catch is, the sauce is also seasoned with a bit of soysauce and a few dashes of tabasco.
Been watching you pop up on my feed randomly as I don’t watch good stuff, I usually find it boring. But yours are always funny af. 13:01 well said. Ima be subscribing to this now
I used to make a microwave mug cake very similar to that chocolate cake almost every day. Was the best part of my day during a pretty dark time so love the messaging at the end and thanks for sharing.
The secret to tasty lazy meals is Lao Gan Ma. Put it on popcorn, rice, microwaved frozen peas, or eggs, or mix it with peanut butter and dip things in it, or use it to spice up mac and cheese or a leftover burrito. It's super versatile. Either the chili crisp or the fried chili in oil depending on how you're feeling.
my favourite struggle meal is white rice with whatever leftover meat i have in the fridge with hot peppers cut into it and salt, pepper, oregano, and chilli pepper flakes
Tuna gravy is great over rice or on bread...just dump a can of tuna and a tuna can of water in a pot, or milk, if you have it, a handful or two of flour or cornstarch, a spoonful of butter or oil, and maybe a dash of Chicken bouillon powder., heat and stir adding more water if needed, til you get the consistency you like. Works with any canned fish, mackerel or salmon, etc.
Slice a twinkie down the middle to make a hot dog bun, place hot dog in twinkie bun, then top with a thick layer of easy cheese. Recipe courtesy of weird al. I hate easy cheese any other way but i tried this and a part of me instantly died and was resurrected with enlightenment
You know its gonna be good when he has to collect food from his bedroom!!! I waited and waited, holding my breath with great anticipation and excitement......he did not disappoint!! Bedroom sausage, some questionable canned beans and a corned tortilla....not just any regular tortilla CORNED tortilla!!
My favorite struggle meal is what I call poor man's pizza. A flour tortilla, topped with whatever red spaghetti sauce is open, and then whatever shredded cheese is there, usually the HEB fiesta blend. That would be Monterrey jack, cheddar, asadero, and "queso quesadilla" but plain cheddar works fine too. Pretty much the only thing that won't work is low moisture mozzarella cause it just refuses to melt.. Top with whatever meat you have, I've done bacon bits, sausage, meatball, and slim jims. If you can use a 2nd tortilla, do it and then you can melt it all with a stove and put butter on it, otherwise you need to microwave it till the cheese is melted. Once it's all done, sprinkle some shakey parmesan cheese if you have it. Or leftover parm bags from a pizza place.
Bread ceareal : milk in bowl, break bread into pieces with hands, dump bread bits in, and a bunch of sugar on top, eat quickly before it gets soggy mushy
Dude takes shortcuts on recipes that are already struggle meals, truly relatable.
Struggling making a struggle meal for us struggling people
Yup. sounds about right.
dudes incompetent as fuck, i mean he has trouble speaking.
IKR
I don't have questionable mystery meat from the back of the fridge, so instead, I'm gonna sub with this brown thing growing out of my dumpster.
"The most important part of a struggle meal is eating it with a heart full of hope". We came for the cooking, we stayed for the motivational quotes.
Your parents needed to do that or maybe u missed out… stop dick riding bruh it’s not cool
356 Likes and no comment? Let me fix that.
fr
no the most important part is to get baked first
That actually made me tear up a bit. Solid shit.
the fact no one suggested Buttered toast with sugar and cinnamon is baffling. easily wins taste and ease of the options lol
I can eat so much of that stuff… OMG😋!
That is just a simple breakfast when was a kid (I mean ffs there is even a cereal based on it.)
Im pretty sure the cinnamon bread was cinnamon and sugar on cheese. Which im honestly curious about with a sweet cheese
@@Missharleenquinzel I'm pretty sure I've never heard of that 😭 so far 27 to 1 buddy. The only kinda cheese I hope you mean is cream cheese
That is also high calorie which is what you need if you are struggling to sustain yourself.
One thing I discovered while poor is that bread and butter was a staple for a long time for a reason. Plain bread and butter with a little extra salt is actually pretty good and very calorie dense. It's when you run out of butter that things are grim, cos at that point just plain ol bread is indeed a bit sad. A lot of people waste money buying and making stuff that's a whole lot nastier than just eating bread and butter. Throw in a tin of tuna every now and then for some protein (just eat it I find, putting it with the bread just makes both worse) and you're golden. Oatmeal makes a great dessert with some cinnamon and sugar. The one thing you definitely DO get sick of when you're poor is beans and rice for dinner. You want something hot for dinner and bread and butter is not so good for that, and holy crap I've eaten so much beans and rice, to the point I feel physically ill these days at the sight of it, the humble cheese toasted sandwich being a much tastier call if you can afford the cheese. I definitely got sick of beans and rice in a way i never really did with bread and butter. Bread and butter I actually still love to this day, although I can afford fancier bread now, the regular ol slice white is all good. I never got the cheap value white though, the acceptable mass produced white bread is not really expensive even when you're poor and it's well worth it getting the middle of the road mass produced white bread over the super duper cheap white bread which is nasty.
Buttered bread with a sprinkling of sugar is also a good struggle dessert. Remarkably tasty, though not entirely surprising.
Just adding to this-if you have a little bit of time, (Or want to save more money) flour is super cheap, and you can very easily make bread at home for pennies.
Bonus if it's a bread meal-homemade bread tends to be denser, so it's more filling.
EDIT: Does rely on having a oven, or at least a decently sized toaster oven, which not everyone has.
"The most important part of a struggle meal is eating it with a heart full of hope" dam didn't expect an inspirational quote out of a struggle meal vid but here i am
I'm gonna be thinking this over my chicken noodle soup poured over rice.
Dude changed 2 ingredients out of a 3 ingredient salad. Peak FutureCanoe moment
Whole point of a struggle meal is high calories because you are struggling to sustain yourself. That salad had like 5 calories.
@@wakichunuYes and no. If you're poor and only eat cheap carbs you gonna be fat and hungry all the time. Mixing in a struggle salad every now and then would keep you fuller longer and your insides would thank you
@@Sam-es2gf holy shit i wish i was poor like you guys, seem like so much fun
@@ragimundvonwallat8961 it is fun to remember but not at the moment
@@MXHMustafaXHorror i'll take this wisdom with me for my next poor phase, hope i dont have one before i evaded my quickly communising fully authoritarian piece of shit country tho
The chicken bouillon that was used for the popcorn chicken is a powder. Meaning you can sprinkle it on without making your popcorn soggy. What you used is chicken base, a chicken concentrate meant to be used to make stock but with flavor closer to freshly made chicken stock. It’s not the same and, while I don’t want to try either, I’m almost 100% certain that would have both tasted and looked better if you had used the powder.
I was looking for this comment for so long, how did nobody else mention that
In Aus we mix chicken stock (powder) with salt to make chicken salt. Chicken salt on popcorn is godly
Bros a little slow, thats the point of his channel fr
@@tasty8186theres already a shit ton of salt in it lol
Chicken powder on popcorn reminded me of when my brother and I were little and we used to sneak packs of ramen out of the house when we were hungry but didn’t want to go home yet. Lunch would then become, crushed dry ramen, in the bag, with the seasoning powder mixed in. Pretty good snack. 😂
butter a tortilla, sprinkle cinnamon and sugar, and put it under the broiler until it gets crunchy. one of my favorite low-rent sweet treats.
oh my goddd i used to eat this all the time when i was a kid. we would also put a little bit of butter on it so the sugar and cinnamon sticks and for more flavor
You know you can just mix flour with water and milk and get european pancakes? Add sugar and you are good to go! Also an egg in the mix if you are feeling rich. I usually skip it anyway.
For some reason i will never forget like 4 things from being a young child at my gransmas place and one of them is the sugar pancake.
@@KorianHUN if you're gonna mix flour and water and milk into this recipe just make cinnamon rolls lol they will be 10x better
@KorianHUN we call those pannekoeke where I'm from. we usually mix sugar and cinnamon and throw it over them.
in a very very low point in my life currently and the final bit about you not wanting anybody to ever have to experience eating a struggle meal brought tears to my eyes. your videos are the only thing keeping me going right now. thank you❤❤
Hope you’re doing better
@@quinnpierce3299 i am thank youu❤️❤️
The only way is up sometimes! Hope your assent is quick! Hugs
@@lisaflower5994that isn’t true
You’re capping saying a fuckin RUclipsr is keeping you going 😂😂
can't believe insta has the gall to roast your cooking when that's the best struggle meals they have to offer
fr
Miguel was the one who sent him those recipes
Getting roasted by insta is a canon event
i know I was like dang....my family is hillbilly red neck and these lack creativity......they put the sausage and mayo and I'm like.....why not tuna and mayo??? a tuna can is like 75 cent and mayo packets at the deli are usually free. so is salt and pepper packets and relish packets at delis.
@@angelicdemon1333
These meals aren't for people that get low pay at this point those mfers owe their managers money
That’s literally his whole channel
0/5 for taste and 5/5 for easiness is truly a struggle meal
i think the person meant real paprika and not spice :D
@@jbdh6510 Paprika is a spice made from dried and ground red peppers... you mean capsicum?
@@gabbonoo Maybe they mean bell peppers some places call bell peppers paprika
@@humanoid3927 That's confusing. Bell pepper is a description. The US culture seems to love naming things in a way that is easily guessed for the ignorant but at the cost of cultural n scientific homage and speed.
Paprika was invented as a word in the mid 1900s for Hungarian speakers from the latin word: Piper. Seemingly first used for the fruit.
Capsicum was invented from the in the late 1600s from the latin word: capsa. Capsicum is considered the scientific name for the plant.
The hindi word for capsicum and paprika seem to be the same: shimala mirch... but india likes calling it paprika when it's a spice and capsicum when it's the fruit when speaking english.
@@humanoid3927bell pepper is capsicum which when you dry it and grind it into a powder magically becomes paprika crazy how food works
I'm just baffled that you interpret these recipes the way you do. Marvelous. Truly a spectacle to behold.
The sausage one can be done: By slicing the sausage into equal pieces & fry with beans, wee-bit of oil. Add pepper. Put in tortilla and add hot sauce
Totally, it's part of English breakfast.
He sometimes doesn't want to use his brain, and that's ok
@@aleejjj the only part of that which is in an English breakfast is the sausage.
@@aleejjj i mean… he’s just following what the people send him
@@flyse1858 dat true
As a med student and an asian my favorite struggle meal is Indomie mie goreng (fried noodle). Touch of a sunny side egg and done. Delicious and fast 👌🏻
I didn't realize how much of my childhood was struggle meals until I thought about it as an adult. Lots of buttered noodles with salt/pepper, a ton of canned fruit/veg (free thanks to my grandpa working at a canning plant), and when we had the money to splurge on meat, Mom would make a pork roast with potatoes and onions. I have fond memories of the scent of the roast simmering in a cast iron pot all day, and then you could use the leftovers with some BBQ sauce (sparingly!) on plain white bread for a poor man's pulled pork. Every couple of years I buy a pork roast just to remind myself of home and how far I've come.
I knew about struggle meals like this since I was a kid. We knew we were poor before even going to public school.
I love buttered noodles. Some parsley n garlic powder n parmesan from the shake can n shrimp.....soo good
Buttered noodles with assorted seasonings and spices is my go to cheap comfort food to this day. It's so good and so quick
It kinda lessens the blow when most of your national dishes are "struggle meals". People didn't have too much to choose from when we were kinda forming our national identity 110 years or so ago. Like the absolute peak dish is this nonsense called "karelian roast" where you take all the bad and chewy bits of a pork, put it in a pot with onions and if you can afford them carrots, then cover them with water, and put in oven until it's all grey mush.
@jasonvoorhees5640 No idea where you're getting that from.
I love how he replaces critical ingredients with random crap he has laying around. " i dont have oreos, so im gonna substitute it with a gallon of paint"
Right lol i was like ok so whats the point of including this recipe
@@no2sings Are you new to this channel? It's what he does lmao.
@@eldiablo1467Yes. And it still makes no sense.
You love that? That he says he's recreating things and then doesn't follow the recipes at all? hmm
@@Jazz-attqckyou don't have to watch. Go away. Go watch something else. Why do some people have to be offended and complain about something they are doing completely voluntarily. I will never understand.
we can all agree that the comments from instagram on his dishes do not disappoint
True
Ong
Legit the other day tho, fuck i was eating tortia with cold salsa. Fridge was empty lmao
@@braed6189relatable.
@@braed6189dawg thats a normal meal
These meals are giving nostalgia for the time i was extremely depressed and wouldnt care for myself in any way at all. Knowing i still tried making myself food in those times, albeit sporadically and with no rhyme or reason, still makes me happy for some reason. I may only have eaten a full on head of plain brokkoli with baked chicken nuggets or canned beans but i still had enough of a will to live to want to enjoy any type of strange food and that is comforting to me. Struggle meals show we are still trying
real shit, struggle meals are still meals
That means that the quote at the end is legit 💯
broccoli*
Lol, why do you spell broccoli like that though?
This is actually moving, ive been there a lot
he gives 0 for taste on something he could swallow, but gave a 2 to something he vomited (truly admirable)
My struggle meal is a can of ranch style beans (can be substituted for baked beans, chili beans or black beans) mixed with instant rice, topped with salsa and whatever cheese I have at the time. It’s actually pretty bomb as a lazy person’s version Tex-Mex tbh
rice and beans with cheese is pretty classic. You can make burritos and tacos with it too
That sounds pretty good rn honestly
For anybody reading this later, I like doing this recipe Moon_Samurai said, and just pour it over Fritos chips, love it
@@hatuhsawlthat or Tortilla chips
My struggle meal is just adding more seasoning to a 28p packet of Asda noodles, sometimes I'll crack an egg into it too
we called it Maggi Mee (instant noodles) in South East Asia.
Does Asda noodles tatse good ?
@@yathishb7954 For how cheap they are, sure, they have a decent amount of seasoning in them, just not enough for me.
@@yathishb7954 throw in green onion or egg and it goes decent
I'm not sure if ASDA is a brand or sth, I don't know it from Europe but Asia instant noodles from any brand are pretty good and sell for 60 cent.
Lowkey the last message was really wholesome because I've eaten struggle meals at one point of my life and I felt every single word.
These recipes people were sending in seem more like they're struggling with depression rather than money😭 All of them could be make so much better with different techniques and some extra steps
@@Kipplzthats the point of struggle meals my man.
Some days, you dont wanna wake up and have to make food. So you take things and make “food.”
@@jamzee_ Thought it was financial! Putting together a struggle meal is definitely a better decision than getting fast-food delivery though
@@Kipplz First world problems more or less. Just expensive ultra processed food made worst.
@@Kipplz Its a struggle meal because youre struggling to keep yourself alive... duh. Whether its financial or mental.
These struggle meals look like what I expect British food to look like
right? it's like they set high expectations. if i ever go to england and don't find specimens like these i'll be about as disappointed as if i'd gone to paris and not seen a medieval amount of rats
with the industrial revolution pretty much ALL of British food for the 99% was struggle meals.
yeah pretty much looks the same icl
As someone who used to live in the UK... youre not that far off xD
@@Goddot"The industrial revolution and its consequences" 🤓☝️
most of the struggle meals are quite expensive. my go to meal is just an egg, rice, dried fish. fry them all together and make a dried fish and egg fried rice. so good
I think the only dish I can claim as mostly mine without direct influence or intentional following a recipe is taking a can of spam, slice into thin to a medium thickness slabs for slightly easier cooking, fry on a pan with some soyu sauce, not much. Once the spam is at a point you like cut to cubes. Add rice to the pan for maybe a minute or two at most with a little more soyu. To help with the overwhelming salt a tablespoon or two of butter helps with a slightly creamy taste.
Enough salt to probably kill you but easy to make, the rice ensures you feel full. And cheap.
that little quote at the end really makes me tear up. as someone having struggle meal after experiencing a roller coaster ride since the pandemic, then 1 and half year of great things happened to me, and next day everything went down again. i really thought 2020 it will be the last time im having just rice and tofu everyday. and now im here again holding tears and pretend to smile in every bite, almost give up. that little part at the end really motivate me, thank you stranger guy and yes, hope i will make it through this again.
Head up King, we’ll get there! Nothing wrong with rice and tofu, season it up and it is a worthy full meal. Lets get it.
I hope it'll get better for you!
2020 was rough :/
I felt it too. It's going to get better my dude.
@@zayyyNYC you know what? If you're doing it if you only have a 1000$, i'll tip in as well, what's the point of working for extra cash in the summer if it's not for doing good things?
@@squa_81 i mean, $20 could be the difference in eating for a week or not. it’s nothing special but it’s something from the heart
an underrated struggle meal is plain greek yogurt with powdered peanut butter and granola mix, its cheap, fills you up, and tastes mighty good
granola mix is too expensive
@@Goddot 15+ bowls of yogurt with a single granola mix bag is not “expensive” granola mix is like 3-4$ at aldi and last i checked a simple bag of chips at any gas station nowadays is like $2.29 lol, how on earth did you come to that conclusion
@@LUCKIPUPPowdered peanut butter is 10x the cost or regular peanut butter and granola at $4 a bag is overpriced. Comparing a bag of granola from Aldi to chips at a gas station isn’t a comparison.
@@codename495 dawg idk where you live but inflation hittin and everything is expensive lol especially any food that actually has any nutritional value big dawg
Sounds like a great meal. Lots of protein and some fiber. Also probably under $1.
6:20 that was the most genuine emotion I’ve ever heard from this man
My go to struggle meal has always been condiment sandwiches, two pieces of bread with the contents of whatever condiment packages you can get for free
Yup! Had to do this once when me and a friend got stranded and only had $1 between us. I eventually upgraded to the next level of the recipe:
Cream of Chicken Sandwiches
Ingredients: 1 cheap loaf of bread, 1 can of cream of chicken soup concentrate
Recipe: Spread the cream of chicken on the bread to make a sandwich. That's it. You're done.
This makes more food than you and a couple friends can even eat.
I felt that. I always use the end piece of the bread first. I actually enjoy that piece the most
My go to struggle meal used to be;
-flour tortilla +honey mustard+ham
Now the new updated version is :
-flour tortilla+honey mustard 👍🏽✨
Good luck everybody
If you get ahold of some, using chic fil a sauce for that sounds 10/10
@@ajelly00 Idk mustard has a nice tang that chic fila sauce lacks
Mine is flour torilla that I heat directly on the burner of my gas stove. Then add mayo and shredded cheese. If I have shredded lettuce, put that in and then (optionally) lightly sprinkle with white wine or red wine vinegar. Roll like burrito. If I don't have lettuce or cheese, just the mayo on a warm torilla is good for ultimate struggle.
90% of struggle meals seem to start with tortillas lol
Inflation 😢
That "apple pie" actually seems like a really good idea, I'll have to try that one of these days
would be better toasted i think.
You can make a crumble following roughly the same recipe except instead of white bread you combine flour sugar and butter and you grill it in a pan on low heat.
Add on top of your cooked apples and it makes for a perfectly serviceable apple crumble.
@@bunnyraggitthats what i was thinking
I bet it'd be bomb if you fried it in a pan with a little butter.
hey just wanted to say that your content is really too notch and you deserve all the attention you’ve been getting recently.
Top*
Top*
@@R.I.P_ellieDamn
*toe
*fart
Savoury oatmeal is the win here.
But my hardest laugh was definitely "and just like many things and activities I enjoy it was calling for some whipped cream"
4:38 .. from my bedroom.?. 😂😂😂 lol got u the sub !
The best struggle meal is still this: Cook noodles. Then pour almost all the water out and pour like one teaspoon of lemon-Juice, two tablespoons olive oil and some grated cheese (i like youg gouda) over it. Give it a good mix until the cheese has melted a bit. Add some salt to your taste. Its delicious!
People sometimes call it pasta
Imagine being able to afford cheese these days.
You are wrong. Cook noodles, pour over a teaspoon of olive oil, fresh or granulated garlic and black pepper. Spices are cheap enough for how little of them you need and the olive oil can be replaced with butter or really any edible fat.
I'm a cheese addict, but I don't like cheese on ramen. Lol
My doctoring of ramen consists of also straining out the broth, but adding a dash of soya sauce/oyster sauce/hot sauce, and chopping up whatever leftover meat I have from yesterday's dinner. Lmao
@@designator7402 I cashed for proper Parmesan every time. You need very small amounts for a great deal of taste with real parmesan, so it averages out to be really cheap for how much taste it gives you.
Apparently I did struggle meals wrong. In college I started off the month buying a big bag of rice and then would buy meat whenever it was on sale or on clearance. Then spend some money on garlic salt, pepper, soy sauce, and ginger and then went wild with whatever other ingredients were on sale.
5lb of rice 8.98
Garlic salt 4.78
Black pepper 3.77
Ground ginger 2.24
Soy sauce 3.58
Vegetable oil 3.84
Total 27.19 for all the seasons and rice which will last a while. I usually got a few weeks out of the rice and only needed new seasonings every 3-4 months depending on how liberal I was with them. Then for protein and veggies watch for good sales and clearance. Now these prices aren't totally accurate because I'm just going off Walmart prices they could be more or less depending on where you live.
Yeaah so many young adults leave home with no idea how to stretch a dollar. If you're willing to put a little more effort into cooking, for example with dried beans instead of canned, there's money to be saved for spices haha.
Struggle meals are really just for when you struggle to budget, struggle to learn cooking, or are too lazy to go to the store so you make a meal out of random ingredients you had sitting around.
@@cookiemonster2630 yeah like i always hear about other young people saying that they can only afford ramen, but like, ramen is more expensive than healthier options like pasta
@onionring1531 or struggling mentally. Sure, eating a proper meal may be healthier and cheaper, but when you can barely scrape together enough energy to get out of bed, it’s easier to shove a Walmart frozen pizza in the oven and be done with it
Great channel for weight loss! Anytime I watch a video and see the food I instantaneously lose my appetite!
My go to struggle meal:
-white bread
-kewpie mayo
-soy sauce
-chilli powder (togarashi)
My go-to struggle meal is insanely delucious and only needs 1 pot (no joke give it a try).
- Open a can of tomatoes, put them in a pot and mash them
- Add heavy cream to taste and mix to form a sauce
. Add salt and any spice you enjoy to taste (generally recommend garlic powder, onion powder, dry basil, oregano and paprika) but you can do with just salt.
- Put the stove on high heat.
- Once the sauce is boiling, crack 3 eggs in there and cook until the whites are settle and the yolk is creamy but still runny.
- Use the pot as your plate (or transfer to a plate if you are feeling fancy) and eat alongside some white italian bread to deep in the sauce and in the egg yolk.
My boy FutureCanoe is so wholesome with that ending 😭
Bro I clicked here as soon I saw the notification.. its actually embarassing how excited I am to watch your videos
it's just a part of my routine now
easily one of the best channels that uploads more than once a year
A cup of cold water is the best struggle meal hands down
the tap water and sleep combo>>>
😮🛏️ you guys got water?!!
😂 😂 😂 you can also sniff it to get high 😂😂😂 most days I don't watch for the recipe I watch for the dry humor
I love how he messes up the cinnamon bread 😂 it’s the funniest thing
A delicious struggle meal is pinto beans. I pressure cook a pound of dry pinto beans with water, chicken bouillon cubes, and taco seasoning. Serve it in a bowl and top with hot sauce, any cheese you have and sour cream. So comforting.
I love pinto beans for Mediterranean ful medames and making chips out of whatever tf I have around
Beans have always been my go-to struggle meal too...cheap, and easy to make. I'd put dried beans (usually black beans) in a crock pot with lots of water and let it cook all day while I was at school/work, with some chicken bouillion, same as you, along with fresh garlic and onion. Come home, add some green chili (yes, I'm from NM...we actually eat such a thing here), and then serve it up in a tortilla with veggies, cheese, salsa and sour cream for a hearty burrito. Nourishing, healthy, cheap, and easy....ticks all the boxes. Ten out of ten would recommend, especially black beans for a more intense flavor. I saved pinto beans for green chili stew; same deal with the beans, but at the end added cooked ground meat along with the chili, and ate in a bowl with either a tortilla or cornbread. Struggle meal, but also comfort meal, esp in winter. FYI - for vegans or vegetarians, Impossible brand makes a ground "meat" that is even better than real meat in green chili stew and tacos and spaghetti...yummy!
This channel has been an amazing help in my mission to shred down for summer, thank you!
Same. His videos are so helpful for making me lose my appetite😊❤
I love how he substituted everything with what he had lol 😂
His sense of humor is def the best ingredient here ❤
It’s been a while so I hope I remember this. But a struggle dessert I loved making is something I called the PB&J Cheesecake
Take 1 spoonful of creamy peanut butter and put it in a small mug, bowl, or ramekin.
Microwave it until it’s soft.
While your peanut butter is still liquidy, take an equal spoonful of strawberry cream cheese (can be any fruity or sweet cream cheese, my stores just only sold strawberry)
Mix them both together until the cream cheese is fully melted and smooth.
Reheat in the microwave until the mixture begins to bubble.
Immediately place it in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes till it sets.
Place an unlit candle in it and put on a fun lil party hat and enjoy
You said these recipes are for when things can't get any worse. Well, I'm living on the street right now, and I can tell you this shit is aspirational for me.
"TRUST ME BROOO"
I think I subconsciously knew that recipe was headed for disaster
damnnn bro that's real sacrifice to try out some of these inedible dishes on camera. you have my RESPECT canoe
4:35 I’m dying 😂😊😅
Dude your sense of humor kills me in a good way
And a bite of his food would do it the other way
Also for even cheaper/easier pancakes you can use those like $1 martha white bag muffin mix mixed with some milk or water (i dont measure just mix til it looks like pancake batter consistency, sometimes i throw in an egg too) and make pancakes! They come in a ton of flavors! My fave is the banana chocolate and especially if u use peanut butter syrup on top (or spread some peanut butter on and use maple syrup), and pumpkin spice, and double chocolate! I feel like most breakfast foods are good struggle meals for dinners
Fun fact, the end piece of bread is used to keep the moisture in all the remaining pieces to prevent it from drying out too quickly, so always leave it for the last!
Never knew that! Thanks! Even end pieces have their uses :')
So the end pieces make the inevitable half the loaf turning to mould before you have a chance to use it happen faster...
@@InsanityPlusOne if you require a week to finish a loaf of bread that's on you, I have to buy a new loaf every 2-3 days, that's way before it starts to get mold
@@ploopploop A new loaf every 2-3 days? You eat 700 kcal worth of white bread per day?
@@kubaGR8 pure bread, about that yeah. I don't eat white bread though, not sure what the English name is for it, but essentially it is fiber rich brown bread. I eat roughly 6-8 slices per day. That is spread over breakfast and lunch. The toppings (cheese or ham or veggies, etc.) make it slightly heavier in kcal. With white bread I never feel like I have eaten something, so I can easily finish half a loaf of white bread in one sitting, I don't know why either lol
That cinnamon thing happened to me in reverse just last week 😂. I’m like “guess I’m having cinnamon flavored tacos tonight” 🤷🏽♀️
Was it good 👀
Cinnamon and nutmeg can actually go really well with ground meat
I think you just discovered how Skyline chili was invented
I had a cumin porridge the other day 😅
I did that once making chicken fajita tortilla soup, the cinnamon actually wasn't awful in there! But I'll stick to cumin lol
5:56 "why would you substitute a cheap and accessible ingredient with another cheap and accessible ingredient" potato prices from where i live be like ↗↗↗↗↗↗
Same
same
This channel is absolutely adorable! Especially motivating when you are doing homework that you wish you didn't have to struggle!!
Favorite nutritious struggle meal (prices are in usd):
Meat Slop:
1lb ground beef (from discount section ~$3.50)
1/3 lb dry rice (ends up being 1lb cooked >$1.00)
1lb dry lentils (>$2.00)
1 whole cabbage (shredded ~$2.00)
Use whatever spices you like, I usually do salt, msg, and hotsauce.
Add lots of water and boil in large pot until the rice and lentils are cooked. Reduce down until the consistency you prefer is reached, I like it sloppy and thick.
Usually this yields 6-7 lbs of food for around $8-10. It is very filling, nutritious, and very high in protein. Taste is okay but you can always add spices to make it taste better. It keeps well in the freezer.
You don't understand how funny this is 2:23 . I once made a huge batch of french toast for my entire family as a kid, and used cumin instead of cinnamon by accident. I specifically remember saying "Owww I love cinnamon, I'm gonna put extra!". IT WAS HORRIBLE!
My dad did the exact same thing, my sister thought it tasted good too 🤷😂
I used to drink hot milk with cinnamon and honey, and one time I put a fuck ton of cumin in by accident and it was putrid.
Idk why spice companies haven't changed the way they label cinnamon and cumin at this point. just make the cumin label yellow or brown and make the cinnamon label red ffs
Our struggle meal was really good. My mom would make star or alphabet soup (la moderna packet .48 cents) and she would add a teaspoon of tomato bouillon ($2.38/ 7.9 oz jar) a tablespoon of salt, one 8oz can of tomato sauce (.44 cents) she would add 4 washed, whole eggs and they would hard boil with the soup. She would also add fresh cooked beans ($1.98/ one 32 oz bag) which had been left cooking all day. On fancy days she would make fresh jalapeño salsa and add it to give it some spice. Less than $5 and most of these ingredients would last for several meals.
aww you had a good mom
@@Cloudnerd I did, I thank her every day for the care she gave us.
Dang, an actual meal under $5. I'm always annoyed when I see videos on budget meals and it costs like $30 for all the ingredients and is only cheap when priced per serving. When you're really struggling, you don't have the leeway to drop that much at once for all the ingredients
@@Graestra honestly same, I only believe they are struggle meals if they consist of mostly rice, beans and some cheap form of soup.
The soup sounds similar to what I had growing up. I would buy pasta that was star shape and I would cook it in a pot of boiling water that flavored with vegetable stock and while I made this because there wasn't anything in the house (not struggling, more like we ran out food and needed to go shopping) and thats all we had. I loved it so much I still make it today and I'm 30 years old
I can make a giant pot of bean soup for like 10 bucks from dollar store ingredients. One thing that always makes struggle meals more palatable is having a good selection of dried and powdered spices (which i can also find at the dollar store). Your wallet doesn't have to suffer just to satisfy your tastebuds, and your tastebuds don't have to suffer just to satisfy your wallet. Shop around for deals, and just never be afraid to experiment. If you worry a lot about making things, or just have no idea where to start, then i actually recommend studying recipies from times of scarcity. In the U.S. that would be the great depression and world wars one and two in terms of years i'd start looking into. People really showed a lot of good and bad creativity during eras of rationing. Even if your situation is bad now, i have every faith that you'll be alright.
for really good recipes during times of Scarcity, i HIGHLY recommend checking out B. Dylan Hollis. he makes videos on vintage recipes, and is perfect for pointing out delicious cheap recipes, and telling you which ones to stay away from XD
@@thedorkknight9684 OH I LOVE HIS CONTENT!! I even have a preordered copy of his cookbook. He brings every ounce of his humor into his cookbook and its great.
@@murasakirin8998 YOOOOOOOOO!!! I WANT A COPY SO BADLY, THE MAN IS HILARIOUS
Yeah whenever i go to the foodbank they always have a surplus of tins of chickpeas, kidney beans, mixed beans and so naturally i make bean stews.
@@hardywatkins7737 the food bank was a god send for me in college. I'd go with my roommate to get a box for two, then cook loads of stuff before the fresher things could go bad. I can't have dairy so I'd trade the dairy products for other things with friends on and off campus. Lol sometimes I'd even trade home cooked meals for other stuff, like extra ingredients or spices. I know there are lots of people in my age group that feel ashamed or embarrassed to go to a food bank, but honestly its a resource like any other. Damn, sorry I'm rambling, you just brought up funny memories of my little "restaurant" I had back in college.
My struggles meals are:
1: A boiled yellow plantain smashed up, seasoned with salt and garlic, and topped with cheese or Vienna sausages.
2. A boiled potato seasoned with salt and whipped with a soft boiled egg.
3. White rice topped with sunny side up eggs, and I break the yolks to drip on the rice as I eat it.
Lost my appetite after this video.
Gonna come back to this video whenever i feel hungry at midnight 👍🏻❤
nice job team 🤓
Nice job team 🤓
Bro shut yo bitch ass up nicd job team 🤓 bro tryna be the main character ion wayy
Team 🤓 nice job
A tomato sandwich or just a quesadilla is my favorite struggle meals. Super cheap, super yummy, just love.
A struggle meal my mom would make is kind of a mushroom-tuna casserole. She'd mix white rice, cream of mushroom soup, canned peas, and tuna together then bake until warm throughout. If we had them, she'd sautee sliced button mushrooms in butter and add them, but they're not essential. I actually liked it as a kid, but it's not everyone's cup of tea.
Sounds like the average tuna casserole, my mother just crushed up some Ritz crackers and melted butter on top before baking it.
my mom would do that with egg noodles instead of rice! it's really filling lol 10/10 struggle meal
Cream of mushroom and cream of chicken are some of my go to easy meals!!! It's great on pasta!!!
A good struggle meal is 50/50 corn and macaroni with butter, little bit of salt. Can cut the butter if you're struggling really bad and don't have any. If you're a bit on the higher end of the struggling, you could add cheese.
I hate corn in mine, but do like tomatoes... sometimes I add a can of Mexican style diced tomatoes
Try out some kogel-mogel, dude.
2-4 raw egg yolks, 3-4 tea spoons of sugar, beat until sooth and creamy, or maybe a little gritty, whichever floats your boat. Favorite Soviet era struggle meal.
Dollar tree struggle recipe: 1 bag of corn chips, 1 can of chilli or beef stew, and slices of cheese. Line a baking dish with lightly crushed chips, put stew or chilli on top, cheese on top, bake til cheese is melty.... Really really good meal for less than 5 bucks.
You are going to become something even bigger in the near future. Keep going and do you!
He's already pretty big
@@tdb517280k in this day and age isn't big anymore
i mean he almost has 300k subs that’s a lot of people
@@sionk166 Depends on how you define big. 300K followers is a comfortable, well above average income and some decent fame.
@@tdb517
only 4 weeks later and he doubled it to 600k. Thats some proper pace
one of my struggle meals i still make once a week is bechamel sauce with noodles or rice, depending on what i have at home. the catch is, the sauce is also seasoned with a bit of soysauce and a few dashes of tabasco.
Been watching you pop up on my feed randomly as I don’t watch good stuff, I usually find it boring. But yours are always funny af. 13:01 well said. Ima be subscribing to this now
the scariest part of these videos is realizing I'm always eating struggle meals.
I used to make a microwave mug cake very similar to that chocolate cake almost every day. Was the best part of my day during a pretty dark time so love the messaging at the end and thanks for sharing.
Buttered pasta was my struggle meal as a student. Good times. 😅
Bro come on you gotta do a revisit of the oreo one- That isn't even remotely chemically or SPIRITUALLY similar.
9:30 I bet that would have been so good if you toasted it after
YES or blowtorched it
That music on the intro is "Por una cabeza" didn't expect hearing Argentinian music here lmao
The secret to tasty lazy meals is Lao Gan Ma. Put it on popcorn, rice, microwaved frozen peas, or eggs, or mix it with peanut butter and dip things in it, or use it to spice up mac and cheese or a leftover burrito. It's super versatile. Either the chili crisp or the fried chili in oil depending on how you're feeling.
This genuinely made me sick to my stomach. You are a strong man
*LOL*
the “nice job team” gets me everytime idk why
my favourite struggle meal is white rice with whatever leftover meat i have in the fridge with hot peppers cut into it and salt, pepper, oregano, and chilli pepper flakes
Doesn’t matter how rich I get, gravy and rice, rice in broth, and plain noodles are delicious
Plain white rice topped with a mixture of canned tuna and mayo. It’s better than starving.
Tuna gravy is great over rice or on bread...just dump a can of tuna and a tuna can of water in a pot, or milk, if you have it, a handful or two of flour or cornstarch, a spoonful of butter or oil, and maybe a dash of Chicken bouillon powder., heat and stir adding more water if needed, til you get the consistency you like. Works with any canned fish, mackerel or salmon, etc.
I fry the tuna up with spices like curry and pepper flakes, or in a pinch, hot sauce packets or butter. Its really good.
2:46 that one M4 driver who perfectly timed the pause in the video🤌🏾🔥😂😂
Burns spices instead using the broiler to melt the cheese "hm tastes not very good"
Dude… it’s cinnamon and cheese. Was always going to be bad.
@ash_11117 You'd be amazed actually.
Try making a box of Mac and cheese and mixing in a strained can of tuna! Bomb struggle meal!
Slice a twinkie down the middle to make a hot dog bun, place hot dog in twinkie bun, then top with a thick layer of easy cheese. Recipe courtesy of weird al. I hate easy cheese any other way but i tried this and a part of me instantly died and was resurrected with enlightenment
8:30 eating a dookie cake is crazy😂
this is probably the most unique cooking channel i've come across...
You know its gonna be good when he has to collect food from his bedroom!!! I waited and waited, holding my breath with great anticipation and excitement......he did not disappoint!! Bedroom sausage, some questionable canned beans and a corned tortilla....not just any regular tortilla CORNED tortilla!!
Hot White rice + fried egg + salted margerine/butter + thickened sweet soy sauce.
There is no time that rough and tough for ANYONE to be putting cinnamon and cheese together and calling that a meal.
My favorite struggle meal is what I call poor man's pizza. A flour tortilla, topped with whatever red spaghetti sauce is open, and then whatever shredded cheese is there, usually the HEB fiesta blend. That would be Monterrey jack, cheddar, asadero, and "queso quesadilla" but plain cheddar works fine too. Pretty much the only thing that won't work is low moisture mozzarella cause it just refuses to melt.. Top with whatever meat you have, I've done bacon bits, sausage, meatball, and slim jims. If you can use a 2nd tortilla, do it and then you can melt it all with a stove and put butter on it, otherwise you need to microwave it till the cheese is melted. Once it's all done, sprinkle some shakey parmesan cheese if you have it. Or leftover parm bags from a pizza place.
Yup i used to do this 😂 when you get good at it, it gets really hard to not just do it for every meal. Too tasty and convenient
I’d recommend this, but with fresh soda bread. It tastes delicious
I make any struggle meals feel like struggle meals
2:09 bro that's sad 😂
Bread ceareal : milk in bowl, break bread into pieces with hands, dump bread bits in, and a bunch of sugar on top, eat quickly before it gets soggy mushy
you can actually bake your bread in your oven to get it harder, adds a little crunch
i literally made curry corn this week lmfao nice to know theres others out there
His jokes never miss 😂