• naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    9 months ago

    Don’t do this, you’ll be malnourished. Grains aren’t a particularly good food group.

    Potatoes don’t require much prep, are generally cheap and filling, and will be much better nutrient wise. I’d still recommend rice and beans though. Canned beans work if you have no means to cook.

    • Infynis
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      9 months ago

      I seem to remember there being issues historically with poor people relying on potatoes as their food source

    • hex_m_hell@slrpnk.net
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      9 months ago

      Potatoes are also really easy to grow. If you ever forget about your potatoes and they sprout or you leave them in the sun and they get green, you can put them in a pot and grow fresh potatoes.

      Fava beans are also extremely easy to grow.

        • hex_m_hell@slrpnk.net
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          9 months ago

          Potatoes grow well in shade. Fava beans can grow in containers just fine, but may need a balcony. I would also get a short variety. A lot of things can grow in a window sill.

          There’s also guerilla gardening, where you plant on an abandoned plot. Potatoes are great for this because they’ll basically grow on their own as long as they aren’t overtaken by blackberries.

    • Chriswild@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Beans are cheaper dry than canned though. If you have the patience you can start them in a slow cooker before you go to work.

      Garlic, onion, and peppers go miles in making beans taste good while also being cheaper.

      • Cornucopiaofplenty@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I’m wondering now though whether the cost balances out because dry beans require a lot more energy to cook? I know they need at least an hour on the stove, whereas canned beans you can just add to a chilli etc straight away

        • lad@programming.dev
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          9 months ago

          Most likely, dry ones would still turn out cheaper because they weigh much more after hydration. But this is indeed a matter to consider

            • paholg@lemm.ee
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              9 months ago

              How poor are we talking? I just found a pressure cooker for $25 on Amazon.

              • Croquette@sh.itjust.works
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                9 months ago

                Poor where we are talking about saving cents on buying canned beans vs dry beans because it makes a difference.

                When you go in debt every month to just survive, every cent count.

                I would definitely indebt myself of 25$, but I am in a situation where I don’t need to, so it is easy to say. I don’t know what that reality is.

              • Croquette@sh.itjust.works
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                9 months ago

                I am not aware of the second hand market where you are, but it’s hard to find deals here and if you find one, you gotta be fast.

                But that’s a fair point. It depends on where you are I guess.

      • lefaucet@slrpnk.net
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        9 months ago

        I think time to cook food has become a luxry in the eyes of the so-called “invisible hand”. It’d be rad to find someone in the community with the time to cook huge pots of the stuff and pay them for the rice 'n beans.

        Cereal is expensive, people arent buying it because its cheap, theyre buying it because the invisible hand demands their cooking time.

    • ris@feddit.de
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      9 months ago

      Rice often contains too much heavy mettals. Canned food contains too much BPA.

    • rumschlumpel@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      9 months ago

      Potatoes don’t require much prep

      You have to peel and cook them, though. That’s a pretty big hurdle for people who would consider regularly eating cereal for dinner.

      I do like instant mashed potatos, though, and they’re fairly cheap.

      • naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        9 months ago

        I’m talking people on survival mode, as I mentioned at the end of my very short comment just eat canned beans from the tin with no facilities to cook. Also you don’t need to peel potatoes, you can microwave them also, or bury in a fire if you don’t have electricity and are using one for heat.

        Cereal is a scam, it’s expensive and nutritionally pointless.