No matter how rich we become, chances are, once in a while, every one of us wants to come back and taste the food that we grew up with. From mac and cheese to quesadillas, check out these 30 deli meals.
1. Cinnamon Sugar Toast
“My 4-year-old and I eat this for breakfast on the weekends. She calls it toast with sprinkles”.
2. Rice Soup
“Soup boiled down with rice to bulk it up. Deli”.
3. Toast With A Fried Egg
“Been eating that for probably 6 years now and still look forward to it every morning. My fav part of the day”.
4. Beans And Rice
“If they’re mixed, in El Salvador, this is called Casamiento, and there’s nothing better”.
5. Quesadillas
“I think a lot of people have different ideas of what a quesadilla is. My version is strictly a single tortilla with whatever cheese I have lying around (usually dollar packs of singles”.
6. Butter Noodles
“And if you were lucky to have parm and garlic, then, you’re eating good”.
7. Rice, Egg, And Soy Sauce
“Steamed white rice, crack a raw egg in it while it’s scorching hot, stir aggressively and dash with soy sauce. If I have some, I add roasted seaweed to that. Super cheap breakfast but oh man, is it filling/delicious”.
8. Pancakes
“Cheap to make and filling. Can be eaten with whatever is in your fridge”.
9. Fried Eggs With Fried Potatoes
“Honestly, this is not a poverty meal, this is a gold meal in Romania. This is one of our favourite dishes”.
10. Grilled Cheese Sandwich
“Grilled cheese is great pretending to be bougie food, too. My brother and I used to go to the store together and splurge on fancy-ish cheese and see who could come up with the best combination of cheeses and bread from the bakery section”.
11. Stew
“There could be anything in there, but it’s still delicious. Probably, one of the best invention of humanity”.
12. Ramen
“I’ll one-up that with Indomie specifically. If you haven’t heard of it, you’re missing out. It was so popular in Nigeria it practically replaced the word ‘noodle'”.
13. Peanut Butter Sandwich
My oldest son (about 4) would always say, “I want a cooked peanut butter and jelly sandwich”, which meant peanut butter and jelly on toast. My middle son would proceed to say, “I want the same thing but not cooked and no jelly.” I’d say so. A peanut butter sandwich?
14. Oven-Baked Potatoes With Salt And Margarine
“Cheap ingredients found in almost every home and easy to make. Also, the starch in potatoes makes you feel full for pretty long”.
15. Dal
“Aside from tumeric, you can buy all the ingredients for less than $2 a pound. Dal is magic. Lentils, in general, deserve more love too”.
16. Steak Fingers
“Grew up poor, but my mom sure knew how to stretch a dollar. She would make steak fingers out of the cheapest cuts she could find.”
17. Stroganoff
“Thing called goup, it’s something my father came up with when he was super poor after leaving the army in the 80s when the economy was bad, and it’s now like a staple in our family. It’s like a stroganoff or something, I guess”.
18. “Ghetto Mac”
“This is when you make some pasta and add in whatever you can find in the fridge or cabinets- Cheese, lunch meat, spam, spices, etc. No two meals were ever the same”.
19. Squash And Eggs
“Grew the squash and eggs are cheap enough, or trade with the neighbors. You just cut the squash into thin rounds and cook them in a pan with a little oil until they’re soft. Scramble the eggs with the squash, add a bunch of pepper, some salt”.
20. Box Mac And Cheese
“I’m a chef, I own a restaurant, I’ve eaten some of the finest foods on this planet. Very few things taste better than box Mac and cheese with cut-up hot dogs”.
21. Nachos, Tortilla Chips
“I still regularly eat my struggle nachos, tortilla chips with slices of American cheese on top and microwaved. Now that I can afford it, I’ll throw taco meat on top every now and again but still very much enjoy just the chips and cheese.”
22. Hot Dogs in Baked Beans
“Now that I can afford it, the hot dogs are Hebrew Nationals and the baked beans are homemade slow cooked, but it sure wasn’t always like that”.
23. Smashed Potatoes With Cheese
“Was once my favorite poverty meal and now is some kind of soul food. Simply heartwarming”.
24. Saltine Crackers With Cheese
“And saltines and cream cheese. If you haven’t had a chance, try it yet!”.
25. Sausage Gravy Served Over Toast
“My mom made the gravy from scratch, just flour, butter, milk, and pepper, and used sliced corned beef instead. Mmmmmmm!”.
26. A Plain Slice Of White Bread
“Just right out of the bag. I’d just grab it, get in bed, get some YouTube up and eat bread while watching it, some of my best memories of life that”.
27. English Muffin Pizza
“A jar of pasta sauce, English muffins, mozzarella, and toppings of your choice. Fresh produce is dirt cheap. The pasta sauce is the most expensive part”.
28. Cream Of Mushroom Soup & Rice
“Cream of mushroom soup + pasta + Costco frozen meatballs + spices = Swedish meatballs. Chef’s kiss”.
29. A Bowl Of Cereal
“Depending on where you are, cereal can get expensive. Here, it’s pretty pricey; plus if I were to eat a meal’s worth or cereal, I would eat over half the bag”.
30. Egg Drop Soup
“In my parents’ Chinese restaurant, we used to make three soups every day without fail, and it was always the first thing we would do when we opened the restaurant. Wonton soup, hot and sour soup, and egg drop soup––the classic trio offered on every Chinese menu”.
