Struggle meals

@sissy15 (12821)
United States
June 24, 2026 2:00am CST
I was watching a video where people were trying different struggle meals, and it made me think back to my own childhood and the types of food we ate when we didn't have a lot of money, and my dad didn't want to cook. My go-to was always Nachos with just tortilla chips and shredded cheese melted on top in the microwave, and I'd usually use salsa or Ortega sauce to dip it in. Another snack my brother and I used to eat when we were hungry, but we didn't have a lot in the house, was usually carrots and celery dipped into peanut butter. We also did the traditional ramen, mac n cheese, Spaghetti-O's, and on occasion, peanut butter and pickle (I know it sounds weird and isn't for everyone, but we liked it). We also did bologna sandwiches with mustard and chips crushed in it. My son always remembers back when we were struggling a lot, when we made what we called poor man's casserole. He hated it, but we did what we had to do, and honestly, we kind of liked it. He didn't, but he was much pickier back then, and we made it on a few different occasions with varying ingredients based on what we had. Typically, it was ground beef, mixed vegetables, that government Velveta-like cheese but not Velveeta melted in, and we'd put the off-brand boxed stuffing we had on top and cook it. Sometimes we'd add some spiral pasta if we had it, or maybe some shredded cheese to it too. It really wasn't that horrible, but my son thought it was. It just happened to be what we had on us, and we couldn't afford groceries so we used what we had. When you are struggling, you have to be creative. Honestly, that's how I've come up with some really good dinners, not having certain ingredients and having to get creative. What are/were some of your struggle meals growing up or even now?
3 people like this
3 responses
@sol_cee (38781)
• Philippines
56m
We had plenty of simple meals growing up too. Rice with soy sauce, fried egg, or canned sardines was pretty common. Sometimes the simplest meals end up being the ones you remember most. And your poor man's casserole actually doesn't sound bad at all!
@Wrexxo (2443)
1h
The struggle meal we turn to here when thing are hard is garri. You just add sugar and water and you are good to go
@JordanLader (7449)
• Sparta, Tennessee
3h
We had dinners like that but my parents were really good at making it normal. I never knew we would be struggling because I liked the food and like I said it was just normal. I still like ramen and it's a quick meal for busy days or days you don't feel good.