Ghetto Cuisine

I grew up poor, still am really, and I like low class things. Automotive lawn ornaments, heavy metal, "aggressive" hair styles, oil burning pickup trucks...

One of my favorite things is improvised additions to some blue box mac-n-cheese. Recently even generic blue box knock-offs. I'm not above much except single ply tp.

Everyone has had sliced up hot dogs in their mac, that's too easy. I'm talking pan fried kielbasa (or bratwurst if I'm trying to impress someone), good veggies, shredded chicken, real actual cheese. You get the idea. Seems a somewhat reasonable way to inject some actual nutrients into a cheap fast meal too. 

(I know I'll probably die from my dietary choices, but you gotta live a little.)

What kind of things would you lovely people suggest? What is your go-to ghetto cuisine? Anybody have a good dare for me to try and report back on? Doesn't have to be blue-box shenanigans, but similar.

Cheap meals are usually Bangers and Mash here or chili dogs.

I dont like adding real cheese to cheap mac and cheese actually, if i wanted real cheese i would be making a .39 cent box of food lol

S.O.S, aka Cream chip beef on toast.

step 1, cook some of this

, preferably in a cast iron pan with butter. Add flour, then milk , and cook down to a gravy. Serve on toast. Genuinely delicious.

Chuck likes to put leftover taco meat in his velveeta shells & cheese. I prefer fried hot dogs on the side with redneck yellow mustard. 

A half of a jar of really hot salsa mixed in with the finished Mac n cheese is really excellent. Warm it up first if you’re feeling fancy. 

Spam & Mac & cheese is a regular menu item around here when we actually bother to cook a meal. 

Corn or flour tortilla, ketchup packets or if you were high on the hog, Marana packets, spread over the tortilla, put whatever cheese you can find in the fridge, and any leftover meat, hamburger, hotdogs, whatever, cook on a hotplate,  BAM!, ghetto pizza.

Diced SPAM fried down in CI skillet, add favorite baked beans, simmer and serve. 

Tortilla pizza as mentioned. Mozzarella cheese, sliced tomatoes, onions, peppers, mushrooms, pepperoni etc. Like an open face white pizza or add a tortilla topper and flip. Salsa optional. All done in CI skillet.

Zataran’s red beans and rice with andouille sausage tossed in.   It’s only slightly more sophisticated than Mac and cheese because both ingredients come in separate pouches in the cardboard box. 

If you really want to mash up your ethnic cuisines, you can roll up the leftovers in a tortilla.

I'm a purist when it comes to Kraft macaroni and cheese...it should not be messed with, eat it just as it comes out of the box.  

Are you talking specifically things to add to mac and cheese or just cheap meals? 

My regular dinner is a cup of rice in my rice cooker, a can of veggies and a can of tuna or whatever leftover meat I have from previous meals.  Stir it all in a big bowl after the rice has cooked and toss on some lemon juice and hot sauce.  Low calorie (about 700 or so), very filling and super cheap.

-Rob

Mix spam and spaghetti sauce in a food processor. Put on English muffin halfs, top with cheese. Broil in oven.

Pizza bagels.. (actually really good)

Back when I was younger and dumber we made ghetto spaghetti with Kraft mac n cheese. Brown some hamburger, toss in some cheap tomato sauce, add the cheese packet and eat.  

More recently we will take leftover chicken breast, dice it and throw it in some mac n cheese. My wife refuses to eat Kraft so that meal usually involves homemade mac n cheese or 4 dollar a box cracker barrel cheddar mac.

I've been "upper middle class" for too long. I tried to eat Kraft Mac N Cheese the other day and it was gross. Mac N Cheese from scratch is so easy. Alternating layers of cooked noodles and colby cheese and salt, let it melt, stir, enjoy. It's not poor people food because it costs a lot more. But back to that, I've been "upped middle class" for too long. (Read: spoiled.)

That said, I do still love me some Ramen from a packet. I usually add enough pepper (red or black) to make me sweat and some lime juice along with the spice packet. I often do the noodles drained and just use 1/2 of the spice packet, tons of pepper, and lime juice. Yum!

In reply to stuart in mn :

Does it count as messing with a classic if you use a whole stick of butter instead of half? A buddy of mine will only eat it that way. He'll probably die younger than me, but man, has he got style.

In reply to dculberson :

  A little while back I found some pizza lunchables at the grocery place. Those were the bees knees when I was 11 or so. Almost threw up.

dculberson said:

A half of a jar of really hot salsa mixed in with the finished Mac n cheese is really excellent. Warm it up first if you’re feeling fancy. 

You want to take it up a notch? Replace the milk in the macncheese prep with sour cream. Trust me on this

Jumper K Balls said:

dculberson said:

A half of a jar of really hot salsa mixed in with the finished Mac n cheese is really excellent. Warm it up first if you’re feeling fancy. 

You want to take it up a notch? Replace the milk in the macncheese prep with sour cream. Trust me on this

You people are amazing.

stuart in mn said:

I'm a purist when it comes to Kraft macaroni and cheese...  

I respectfully disagree. If you were a purist, you would call it by it's proper name.

One of my favorite simple pleasure meals is canned corned beef hash. Throw it in the skillet, burn it, crack some eggs over the top and cook them overeasy. Melt some shredded cheese over the top and hit it with the hot sauce of your choice.

I grew up on the kraft mac n cheese crap as a kid. These days it’s nasty. None of my 3 kids would eat it after trying it once. Now homemade mac n cheese is a different story and all the kids will beg for 3rd or 4th helpings. Just make the real deal. It’s probably healthier than the boxed high sodium stuff and will last a lot longer as leftovers since I make it in a very large casserole dish. 

akamcfly said:

stuart in mn said:

I'm a purist when it comes to Kraft macaroni and cheese...  

I respectfully disagree. If you were a purist, you would call it by it's proper name.

Oh yeah?  Maybe they call it Kraft Dinner in Canada, but in the US it's still Macaroni and Cheese.  

Well, if we're talking Mac & Cheese concoctions, try this: add Luisiana hot sauce to the mix, add until the spice is just right, add chunks of chopped up McNuggets. Buffalo mac n cheese.

stuart in mn said:

 

Oh yeah?  Maybe they call it Kraft Dinner in Canada, but in the US it's still Macaroni and Cheese.  

 

Post reported :D

Back in my impoverished college days, I had a friend who was some sort of executive at Kraft.  For my wedding, his gift was a case of Kraft mac & cheese.

Take frozen burrito. Microwave for 2min. Heat pan with butter. Fry burrito on both sides til crispy. Add cheese.