July 24, 2025 • 21 mins
Ever wondered what people eat when money is tight or cooking enthusiasm is at an all-time low? This episode dives deep into the fascinating world of "struggle meals" - those budget-friendly dishes that keep us alive when times get tough.
From the humble can of chili (which gets our highest rating, especially when topped with avocado) to questionably "budget-friendly" dishes that require sautéing ginger and making a roux, we rate them all with brutal honesty and plenty of laughs. We discover that not all struggle meals are created equal - some are genuinely brilliant combinations of affordable staples, while others are elaborate recipes masquerading as simple solutions.
The humble egg on rice earns high marks for its simplicity and satisfying nature, while canned tuna emerges as the protein hero of budget cooking, making multiple appearances throughout our list. We debate whether frozen meals deserve their place in the struggle meal pantheon (they do) and share our surprisingly passionate opinions about frozen pizza brands.
What makes these meals so compelling isn't just their affordability - it's their ability to provide comfort during challenging times. Many represent culinary ingenuity at its finest: creating something delicious from whatever limited ingredients are on hand. These aren't just meals of last resort; they're cultural touchstones that connect us through shared experiences of making do with less.
What's your go-to meal when your wallet is thin or your energy is low? Share your favorite struggle meals with us - we promise not to judge if they involve copious amounts of instant noodles or questionable combinations of pantry staples!
You can find us on social media here:
Rob Tiktok
Rob Instagram
Liam Tiktok
Liam Instagram
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everybody, welcome to In Moderation, where
tonight we give you a moderatedose of sleepiness because we're
both really tired, Absolutely.
It's just been a long week butOakley's now in daycare
full-time, which is very helpful.
That is very helpful.
It's great when you're not theonly one that has to do
(00:21):
everything.
That's nice.
You get other people's help theonly one that has to do
everything.
That's nice.
You get other people's help.
Anyway, I'm living in a society, a society with help and people
relying on each other communism, that's what I call that.
I I looked up, I was just kindof curious, like going along the
lines of like oh yeah,everybody's poor, now we're all
(00:43):
all looking for cheap eats.
I looked up a list of strugglemeals that people said they
would eat and so I'm kind ofcurious.
We look through them and see,you know, give them a rating.
Do we like them?
What would we do differently?
Would we just say hell no, isthere cottage cheese?
That's the real question.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
That sounds good to me and yes, we're being lazy,
but hey, we're tired personally,I was.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
I was at a funeral on monday.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
That was like six hours out of town.
So hey, give me a break thisisn't lazy.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
What are you talking about?
Reading off a list as lazy this.
With this, we are putting inthe work.
Okay, here, all right, does it,does francesca rivera, did, did
.
Did they put in a bunch of worktoo?
Sure, maybe the person whowrote this article, but, like
you know, we're doing just asmuch work by reading it.
That's the way I look at it, uhreading is hard, so yeah, yeah,
(01:38):
reading it just reminds me ofzoolander, it's like and the
center for kids who can't readgood, I fucking love zoolander.
And the Center for Kids whoCan't Read Good, I fucking love
Zoolander.
Man, there's those movies likeearly 2000s, late 90s that
fucking get me every time man,zoolander, ace Ventura, what's
(01:59):
the spy?
What's Austin Powers?
Oh, austin Powers.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I still do the head bobbing from Night at the
Roxbury.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
I have not seen that.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Oh really.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah, I don't think I've seen that one, but that's
in that kind of era man, thoseones just have a place.
Joe Dirt Fucking Joe Dirt.
It's stupid, but I love it.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
No, that's one I haven't seen.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Yeah, I mean a lot of people, which it's kind of more
like a cult classic, but mywife loves it.
We dressed up as Joe Dirt didthe Joe Dirt thing for Halloween
.
That was a lot of fun, anyway.
So these are the top ones.
Canned chili with shreddedcheddar that's great, right,
like you just get those cans ofchili.
It's got like beans and shitand tomatoes.
(02:43):
That's good for you, right?
And then you throw some cheeseon it.
I love that.
You know what's really good toput on top of it.
You want to up the nutritiontoo.
Avocado.
Avocado on chili is fuckingdope and I highly recommend it.
I love the fact that you cutout, while you were telling me,
the entire recipe, so I have noidea what the recipe was.
But hey, it's canned chili.
(03:04):
Everybody else is.
Everybody else is gonna hear itit's just canned chili and
cheddar cheese and I like to addavocado.
Oh, and like people do, sourcream, throw a little greek
yogurt on there, more protein,whatever, like I like that sort
of thing, but add sour cream andthen you can add some like I'll
top it with just like some likeseeds, like whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Whatever sort of like seeds seeds are nice thing to
hide in things, pumpkin seeds,you know a little crunch, I like
that, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
So I give that 10 out of 10 canned chili.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Love it I give it uh, I didn't see it out of 10
that's, I just told you what itis, it's still not rating it
whatever no uh, number two tofudawn.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Tofu cooked in a mixture of soy sauce, mirin sake
and sugar with onions.
What kind of is this a strugglemeal at a five-star restaurant?
What like?
Listen, I love tofu andeverything, but like you're
doing all this stuff to it,that's all.
That's a lot, that's not.
I don't think that's a strugglemeal.
One out of ten it's good.
Sounds great, but no no, no.
(04:05):
Oh, with onions that weresauteed with ginger and garlic.
Get the fuck out of here.
I'm now chopping ginger andgarlic and sauteing it for a
struggle meal.
No, this is like I'm givingsomething really nice for like a
date night.
Like what?
No, get out of here.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
That does sound like a good date night one, but
struggle meal my butt, strugglemeal no uh, my mom's struggle
meal her unnamed soup.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
It literally has no name it.
It has cooked hamburger meat,canned green beans, tomato sauce
, tomato sauce, beef broth andwater.
Sure throw, yeah, throw, yeahhamburger meat hamburger soup
that's just one of those thingslike whatever you have, you're
like oh yeah, just throw that inthere.
This pepper's going bad.
(04:51):
Get whatever carrots yeah,those aren't looking so good,
throw that in there, sure, yeah,I say yeah, stroke, yeah, yeah,
the no name, the no name getssome ground beef pretty cheap.
I like that and this is likehamburger meat, like this.
I like it, yeah, I like it.
Uh, for number four, white riceand an over easy egg on top and
oh, and they'll add a fear,fear of kake, you know, like the
(05:13):
rice seasoning, if you haven'ttried it.
Like in like asian section,they have like rice seasonings,
like seaweed I have not tried it.
I don't think oh, it's gotseaweed, a bunch of different
seeds, like like sesame seedsand stuff that's great to throw
on top of it.
That sounds amazing actually.
Yeah yeah, it gives a littleAsian flair.
I definitely recommend it.
Furikake, furikake.
However.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
I'm sure I'm not pronouncing it right, but
whatever.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
And then, yeah, rice and egg Like.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
I got a rice cooker broke.
I have to go find a new one,but it's cheap right, they're
cheap, exactly yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
And then a fried egg all right, that I can do like
you throw that in a pan,whatever, like, yeah, you got to
cook a little, but I, I, I, 10out of 10 hell you could do a
fried egg in the air fryer ifyou want yeah, I guess, yeah,
yeah, but yeah, that's that's asuper simple meal.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
I like that and nice cheap state.
Well, I was gonna say cheapstaples, but I guess cheap eggs
aren't that cheap in the USanymore.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Eggs now because of bird food.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
If you're in Canada, still good.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Everybody die Pita pizzas.
They are fast, easy and can bea healthy choice, depending on
what you put on them.
Yeah, like pita or naan orwhatever.
Any of those flatbreads,flatbreads, any sort of
flatbread you know.
Yeah, there's some sauce on it,cheese and then your toppings
and throw in the oven.
I did that recently for a videowith, like a butternut squash.
I had to cook the squash first,but that sounds like a great
(06:31):
way to get that in there andthen he blended I thought it was
really cool blending thepumpkin.
He blended a can of pumpkin andtomato sauce together and use
that for the sauce.
Now we can get kind of thebenefits of both the tomato and
the right, yeah, and it doesn'treally get much fiber.
A little extra yeah, justmicronutrients and all that,
stuff like that yeah so Ithought that was really smart.
Blend tomato with pumpkin.
(06:53):
Use that as a tomato sauce.
Tomato pumpkin is cheap yeah,it's usually like a dollar two.
Like tomatoes are cheap too, sothey're probably around like
the same area.
But, like you know, you get thebenefits of both.
I I recommend it.
It works well.
I know this.
Uh, the core pasta, oh, thecore pasta.
Sides alfredo and creamy garlicshells.
(07:13):
Just cook pasta accordingdirections and throw in some
fresh or frozen greens, what,what?
We just like canned alfredosauce, I'm assuming, because I
ain't making no afraid of sauce,I'm not making a room or
anything but like, can't, butlike, yeah, pasta out of a box
with some cans, with some sauce,sure, and then like, oh, you
get like the broccoli, right,the frozen broccoli, like you
(07:34):
throw that in with the pasta,right, like two minutes before
it's done cooking, you just tossthe broccoli in there.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Love that, that's good, I'm with that yeah, just
yeah, just add what you need tothe pasta.
Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
So yeah, as long as it's camp house, because I ain't
making all that.
I've become a little obsessedwith bulldog Bulldog ramen I
don't know how to pronounce itBulldack, bulldog, probably
bulldog ramen, right, I don'tknow.
I don't know.
I've always had two soft boiledeggs, green onions, maybe some
torn seaweed sheets, jeez andsesame seeds.
I mean like ramen, I think itwas.
(08:11):
Was there somebody who recentlymade a video that they're like
new pores talking to, like oldpores, and like the old pores
are like what do you want to addto your ramen?
And the new pores like what doyou mean?
You add stuff to ramen?
Like, yeah, you take your ramen, you put stuff on it, that's
what you do, and they don't evenknow.
Like you take whatever.
You have Corn, fuck it, sure.
You have corn fuck it sure.
Throw that in there.
Eggs, sounds good.
Seaweed, perfect, so you justtake the ramen.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
You can just um.
While you're cooking the ramen,you crack an egg right in there
I always because they run up.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
I always just ate the ramen, right, I would use like
two packets.
I didn't realize those thingswere like 500 calories and so I
eat like a thousand calories oframen and probably three days
worth of sodium or whatever.
It was like just so much, ohman, the times are tough, man.
A 25 cent packet of ramen,that'll get you, that'll keep
you alive, and that's what'simportant, right?
(09:00):
Or maybe it's not, depending onyour outlook on life, but we're
gonna say it's important.
Um, oh, this was just a full-onrecipe.
It just says hamburger stew.
That's literally all it says ishamburger stew.
And then there's just a bunchof things for like 80, 20
browned and drained sweet onion,garlic, all that sort of stuff.
(09:21):
Hamburger stew, then?
I mean, you're chopping onionsand garlic and fresh thyme.
Is that three fourths a cup offlour?
And we're doing ruched like no,this is not a struggle meal.
Get the fuck out of here withyour struggle meal and fucking
chop your shit and make a roux.
Uh-uh, uh-uh.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Brown onions and all this fancy stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Zero out of ten, that ain't no fucking struggle.
Meal let's see Barillaspaghetti.
Oh, and a can of sweet chilituna I can see spaghetti and
tuna spaghetti into it, like myuh, you know tuna, mac, tuna,
max.
I think my wife makes it a lot.
I've talked about that a bunch.
So sweet chili, tuna with pasta.
(10:08):
I'm intrigued by this.
I'm intrigued by this.
I like this.
Intrigued by this, I like this.
It's interesting.
So I love sweet chili, I lovelike the spice and like all of
that.
I think that that sounds prettygood for the sauce, I mean I
just do.
What do you think?
Do you think they just do likemarinara and then the sweet
chili?
Or is it just the sweet chililike tuna?
Because I feel like it'd bekind of sauce or something.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah, you need a little sauce with the pasta.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
I'm going to say it's a little bit of sauce and then
like a sweet chili tuna.
That again intrigued.
I give that an intrigued out of10.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I mean, I've often had like pasta and salmon, just
not tuna, and it's definitelynot sweet chili, but that's
interesting.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Number 10 and 11 are both tuna mac.
One is just tuna mac and cheeseand the are both tuna mac.
One is just tuna mac and cheeseand the other is tuna mac and
cheese with peas.
That's the literally the onlydifference.
11 just adds wow.
So I guess I'll go with youlike I guess that's pretty
struggle meal, right like my.
My wife doesn't really cook,she doesn't, she's not, she
doesn't really clean either.
She don't do those sort of youdon't really do those, that's
(11:09):
okay.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Neither do you.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
We can all see the background and we just kind of
roll with the house you know, Imake sure like I sweep, you know
, and try to make sure the doghair is not completely covering
the floor and like we get by.
But uh, to say, if she can maketuna mac, anybody can make tuna
mac.
So I, I do, get that pasta, addyour two can of tuna, add
cheese of some sort of orwhatever.
(11:31):
You can just do the mac andcheese thing like they were
little packets.
And then uh, yeah, peace,frozen peace, boom.
So yeah, uh, 10 out of 10 withpeace, 8 out of 10 without the
peace.
You need the peace to get theextra two points.
I agree with that assessment.
And then number 12 is I camedown to say I came down to say
classic tuna noodle casserole.
(11:51):
Man, fucking, everybody's.
Just like get your pasta andget your tuna.
That's like half this list nowis just tuna with pasta.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
I mean to be fair.
The canned tuna is pretty cheap.
It's protein packed.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
And you open it up and you eat it.
So you know, like I guess fair,we're going in all in on the
tuna and the other ones we saidfuck, you too were like the
brown, your beef and whatnot.
Like we don't want to do that.
So I guess we're complaining.
No matter what I was always Iwas taught to use everything
because money was so tight.
So if we roasted a chicken wealso made soup, right, bone
(12:27):
broth.
Okay, like you use the whole ifyou buy the chicken, right,
like it's cheaper if you buy thewhole chicken than if you buy
the parts.
But then you do kind of have tofigure out like all right, well
, I'm using the breast for this,or, and then I have all this
other shit.
Like what do I do?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
yeah, so yeah, throw it into like a giant pot, right,
like that'll, that'll dosomething, that'll make yeah,
the nice thing with that is,even if you mess up the
butchering of it, if the meat'sstill on the bone you throw it
in the pot.
The meat's just going to falloff.
Get a nice soup out of it.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Buy, yeah, whole chicken.
Use everything, 10 out of 10.
Yeah, number 14, basicallygetting very inventative with
the few staple ingredients I hadin the pantry, which was
usually a packet of deli hamright, a lot of people have that
Half a dozen eggs, instantnoodles and a pack of microwave
rice.
So, instant noodles and rice,I'd make ham and eggs in
(13:22):
different ways, right, ham andegg fried rice sure, fried rice
is always classic.
I like this.
Yeah, having like a few thingsand just-.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Throw some frozen peas in there.
I like, yeah, I like this, yeah, having like a few things and
just throw some frozen peas inthere.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
I like, yeah, I think this is good.
I like that you just make it adifferent way, so you use those
things.
That's how people win.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Like on cooking shows Frozen peas or canned corn
Canned corn's another good oneto throw in something like that.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
I like canned frozen corn.
Like any corn man, I love corn.
The fuck is this.
It just says.
All it says is it's fiveingredients, comes together in
about half an hour and it'stasty comfort food.
What is it?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Did they forget to actually tell you the five
ingredients?
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Okay, I lived in another country for a while and
just started cooking.
One night I came up, I cut upsome chicken breasts and browned
it in a pan.
Bro, we're browning chickenbreasts in a struggle meal.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Are we going for a Michelin star?
Speaker 1 (14:16):
I added a can of cream of mushroom soup Okay, and
some amount of milk, I guessthat's and then you let it
simmer.
Microwave frozen broccoli Allright, they're coming around.
Okay, it's not.
It's not too bad, but stilllike you're like browning
chicken.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I'm like chicken breast is touchy.
You can.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
You can dry it out really fast uh, ground beef,
spaghetti, noodles, fried onions, soy sauce and ketchup.
Ketchup, all right, I meanthat's, you guys have to cook
the ground beef and you know,noodles, fried onions yeah, I'm
iffy on that one number, 17, 17,though this is where it's at.
This is where it's at Rice andbeans.
That's what it says Rice andbeans, specifically basmati rice
(14:59):
maple flavor brown beans Mapleflavor brown beans Maple flavor
brown beans.
Maple flavor brown beans.
Say it five times fast.
I don't think I've had mapleflavor brown beans topped with
shredded cheese and ranch.
I live in.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Canada.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
I don't think I've seen maple flavored brown beans
Maple flavored everything else,just not brown beans Brown beans
, that sounds good, honestlyrice and basmati rice and maple
flavored.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
That sounds like it would go good with a maple
glazed salmon oh, he's soundinggood.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
That does sound like it'd be good with salmon top
with shredded cheese and ranch.
I'm a little thrown off by theranch.
I'm not so sure about the wholeranch situation.
Rice and beans ranch.
I guess it's fine.
I would like just the mapleflavored brown beans and rice.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
That sounds good I'm gonna have to look for that does
sound good now I'm gonna haveto look for these now.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
I like that.
Okay, here we go.
All right, all right, here wego.
Those frozen banquet salisburysteaks, instant mashed potatoes
and a can of some kind of beanor pea, like green beans, field
peas, etc.
I usually just make it lastnight, I actually just made it
last night and it never fails tohit the spot.
(16:11):
See that, see this, see this isa person not intuitive,
ingenuitive, whatever it is.
They're a person figuring shitout.
They go to the frozen sectionlike, oh, I got this, and then I
make some instant mashedpotatoes.
Oh, a can of whatever I havePeas, beans, whatever.
I like this.
12 out of 10.
This is my best rating so far.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
I like this, yeah, yeah those frozen meals in the
microwave meals and whatever inthe frozen section, they can be
pretty damn good.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
You just add shit to them.
I love this.
I like, hey, hummy Swam, it'sHummy Swam, I don't know, but
you got.
You got your shit together andI like it A plus.
And finally the last one Frozenstuffed crust.
Pepperoni pizza, stuffed crust,pepperoni pizza, stuffed crust.
(16:59):
Eh, just frozen pizza, man,like that's a struggle meal,
right.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Again with the pizza.
It's always a case of all theingredients individually.
We're like, yeah, that's fine,and then you suddenly throw them
together and it's oh, it's badfor you.
Frozen pizza, man, we just eattoo much of it is the problem
with pizza.
Just watch how much you eat.
Don't cook the entire thing.
You can break it into quarters.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Have you found a good frozen pizza that you like?
Speaker 2 (17:30):
I have.
I can't remember the brand ofit.
Was it Giuseppe?
No, maybe.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Just some like stereotypical Italian name.
Yeah, it's Antonio's pizza.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah God, you know what.
I actually might have a box ofit in the recycling.
I could go and stick that outif you really want to know.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
No one's in Canada, anyway, they won't even be able
to find it.
It's fine.
I see no one's in canada,anyway, they won't even be able
to find it.
It's fine.
Um, I see like I'll justtypically go with like a di
giorno when I'm not really sure.
I've tried.
There's like in the states wehave like scream in sicilian,
which is like a little bitpricier, but it's supposed to be
like better.
I tried it.
I was like this is fine, butit's not like worth the extra
(18:11):
money and everything it's.
It's totally fine.
It's not so much better thanlike a DiGiorno.
What's the other one?
Fruschetta or something.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
I'm totally going to dig it out while you're talking
about the second one.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Okay, but like the Red Baron and like all those
super cheap ones, like I'll eatthem if that's like that's what
I've got.
But I feel like it's worth theextra couple bucks or whatever
to get the DiGiorno with therising crust.
It's got to have that risingcrust I don't know what
science-y shit Baking powder I'massuming.
(18:44):
I don't know Whatever they'vedone to make that crust go.
That's where it's at.
And then, yeah, you get thestuffed crust with the cheese in
there too.
Man, that's ridiculous.
And yeah, you can just like addstuff to it if you want.
I usually get like a littleI'll do like those uh, frozen
those salad mixes just to haveone of the salad mixes with it
(19:04):
it might be this one.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
It's uh dr otker's casa de mama that's just like
josephie's.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
What's the difference ?
That's like, basically, that'sexactly like what you said.
Yeah, it's close enough, right,doctor?
Speaker 2 (19:17):
it's one of those cases where I've, um, I've gone
through and I've like trieddifferent brands and um, there's
actually I did actually quiterecently where I tried a couple
different ones, and so there's abunch of different boxes in the
recycling bin, but I'm prettysure it's this one, dr Dr
Oetker's Casa de Mama.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Dr Oetker, I would love to do that.
I don't have enough room in mydamn freezer to be like oh, let
me try all these differentfrozen pizzas.
I would like to do it like ahead to head and be like what's
the best frozen pizza?
But yeah, that's our entirelist.
So you guys let us know yourstruggle meals and I want to
know actual struggle meals andshit.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
We talked about our stuff, not what you're cooking
on Valentine's Day.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
What about Valentine's Day?
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Struggle meals not what you're cooking on
Valentine's Day.
Oh, not what you're cooking.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
I mean, it depends, how bad things get we might all
be.
I mean yeah.
It might not matter the day.
In the United States we mightall just be struggling and every
Hey everybody, welcome to In Moderation, where
tonight we give you a moderatedose of sleepiness because we're
both really tired, Absolutely.
It's just been a long week butOakley's now in daycare
full-time, which is very helpful.
That is very helpful.
It's great when you're not theonly one that has to do
(00:21):
everything.
That's nice.
You get other people's help theonly one that has to do
everything.
That's nice.
You get other people's help.
Anyway, I'm living in a society, a society with help and people
relying on each other communism, that's what I call that.
I I looked up, I was just kindof curious, like going along the
lines of like oh yeah,everybody's poor, now we're all
(00:43):
all looking for cheap eats.
I looked up a list of strugglemeals that people said they
would eat and so I'm kind ofcurious.
We look through them and see,you know, give them a rating.
Do we like them?
What would we do differently?
Would we just say hell no, isthere cottage cheese?
That's the real question.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
That sounds good to me and yes, we're being lazy,
but hey, we're tired personally,I was.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
I was at a funeral on monday.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
That was like six hours out of town.
So hey, give me a break thisisn't lazy.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
What are you talking about?
Reading off a list as lazy this.
With this, we are putting inthe work.
Okay, here, all right, does it,does francesca rivera, did, did
.
Did they put in a bunch of worktoo?
Sure, maybe the person whowrote this article, but, like
you know, we're doing just asmuch work by reading it.
That's the way I look at it, uhreading is hard, so yeah, yeah,
(01:38):
reading it just reminds me ofzoolander, it's like and the
center for kids who can't readgood, I fucking love zoolander.
And the Center for Kids whoCan't Read Good, I fucking love
Zoolander.
Man, there's those movies likeearly 2000s, late 90s that
fucking get me every time man,zoolander, ace Ventura, what's
(01:59):
the spy?
What's Austin Powers?
Oh, austin Powers.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I still do the head bobbing from Night at the
Roxbury.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
I have not seen that.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Oh really.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah, I don't think I've seen that one, but that's
in that kind of era man, thoseones just have a place.
Joe Dirt Fucking Joe Dirt.
It's stupid, but I love it.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
No, that's one I haven't seen.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Yeah, I mean a lot of people, which it's kind of more
like a cult classic, but mywife loves it.
We dressed up as Joe Dirt didthe Joe Dirt thing for Halloween
.
That was a lot of fun, anyway.
So these are the top ones.
Canned chili with shreddedcheddar that's great, right,
like you just get those cans ofchili.
It's got like beans and shitand tomatoes.
(02:43):
That's good for you, right?
And then you throw some cheeseon it.
I love that.
You know what's really good toput on top of it.
You want to up the nutritiontoo.
Avocado.
Avocado on chili is fuckingdope and I highly recommend it.
I love the fact that you cutout, while you were telling me,
the entire recipe, so I have noidea what the recipe was.
But hey, it's canned chili.
(03:04):
Everybody else is.
Everybody else is gonna hear itit's just canned chili and
cheddar cheese and I like to addavocado.
Oh, and like people do, sourcream, throw a little greek
yogurt on there, more protein,whatever, like I like that sort
of thing, but add sour cream andthen you can add some like I'll
top it with just like some likeseeds, like whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Whatever sort of like seeds seeds are nice thing to
hide in things, pumpkin seeds,you know a little crunch, I like
that, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
So I give that 10 out of 10 canned chili.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Love it I give it uh, I didn't see it out of 10
that's, I just told you what itis, it's still not rating it
whatever no uh, number two tofudawn.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Tofu cooked in a mixture of soy sauce, mirin sake
and sugar with onions.
What kind of is this a strugglemeal at a five-star restaurant?
What like?
Listen, I love tofu andeverything, but like you're
doing all this stuff to it,that's all.
That's a lot, that's not.
I don't think that's a strugglemeal.
One out of ten it's good.
Sounds great, but no no, no.
(04:05):
Oh, with onions that weresauteed with ginger and garlic.
Get the fuck out of here.
I'm now chopping ginger andgarlic and sauteing it for a
struggle meal.
No, this is like I'm givingsomething really nice for like a
date night.
Like what?
No, get out of here.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
That does sound like a good date night one, but
struggle meal my butt, strugglemeal no uh, my mom's struggle
meal her unnamed soup.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
It literally has no name it.
It has cooked hamburger meat,canned green beans, tomato sauce
, tomato sauce, beef broth andwater.
Sure throw, yeah, throw, yeahhamburger meat hamburger soup
that's just one of those thingslike whatever you have, you're
like oh yeah, just throw that inthere.
This pepper's going bad.
(04:51):
Get whatever carrots yeah,those aren't looking so good,
throw that in there, sure, yeah,I say yeah, stroke, yeah, yeah,
the no name, the no name getssome ground beef pretty cheap.
I like that and this is likehamburger meat, like this.
I like it, yeah, I like it.
Uh, for number four, white riceand an over easy egg on top and
oh, and they'll add a fear,fear of kake, you know, like the
(05:13):
rice seasoning, if you haven'ttried it.
Like in like asian section,they have like rice seasonings,
like seaweed I have not tried it.
I don't think oh, it's gotseaweed, a bunch of different
seeds, like like sesame seedsand stuff that's great to throw
on top of it.
That sounds amazing actually.
Yeah yeah, it gives a littleAsian flair.
I definitely recommend it.
Furikake, furikake.
However.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
I'm sure I'm not pronouncing it right, but
whatever.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
And then, yeah, rice and egg Like.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
I got a rice cooker broke.
I have to go find a new one,but it's cheap right, they're
cheap, exactly yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
And then a fried egg all right, that I can do like
you throw that in a pan,whatever, like, yeah, you got to
cook a little, but I, I, I, 10out of 10 hell you could do a
fried egg in the air fryer ifyou want yeah, I guess, yeah,
yeah, but yeah, that's that's asuper simple meal.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
I like that and nice cheap state.
Well, I was gonna say cheapstaples, but I guess cheap eggs
aren't that cheap in the USanymore.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Eggs now because of bird food.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
If you're in Canada, still good.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Everybody die Pita pizzas.
They are fast, easy and can bea healthy choice, depending on
what you put on them.
Yeah, like pita or naan orwhatever.
Any of those flatbreads,flatbreads, any sort of
flatbread you know.
Yeah, there's some sauce on it,cheese and then your toppings
and throw in the oven.
I did that recently for a videowith, like a butternut squash.
I had to cook the squash first,but that sounds like a great
(06:31):
way to get that in there andthen he blended I thought it was
really cool blending thepumpkin.
He blended a can of pumpkin andtomato sauce together and use
that for the sauce.
Now we can get kind of thebenefits of both the tomato and
the right, yeah, and it doesn'treally get much fiber.
A little extra yeah, justmicronutrients and all that,
stuff like that yeah so Ithought that was really smart.
Blend tomato with pumpkin.
(06:53):
Use that as a tomato sauce.
Tomato pumpkin is cheap yeah,it's usually like a dollar two.
Like tomatoes are cheap too, sothey're probably around like
the same area.
But, like you know, you get thebenefits of both.
I I recommend it.
It works well.
I know this.
Uh, the core pasta, oh, thecore pasta.
Sides alfredo and creamy garlicshells.
(07:13):
Just cook pasta accordingdirections and throw in some
fresh or frozen greens, what,what?
We just like canned alfredosauce, I'm assuming, because I
ain't making no afraid of sauce,I'm not making a room or
anything but like, can't, butlike, yeah, pasta out of a box
with some cans, with some sauce,sure, and then like, oh, you
get like the broccoli, right,the frozen broccoli, like you
(07:34):
throw that in with the pasta,right, like two minutes before
it's done cooking, you just tossthe broccoli in there.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Love that, that's good, I'm with that yeah, just
yeah, just add what you need tothe pasta.
Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
So yeah, as long as it's camp house, because I ain't
making all that.
I've become a little obsessedwith bulldog Bulldog ramen I
don't know how to pronounce itBulldack, bulldog, probably
bulldog ramen, right, I don'tknow.
I don't know.
I've always had two soft boiledeggs, green onions, maybe some
torn seaweed sheets, jeez andsesame seeds.
I mean like ramen, I think itwas.
(08:11):
Was there somebody who recentlymade a video that they're like
new pores talking to, like oldpores, and like the old pores
are like what do you want to addto your ramen?
And the new pores like what doyou mean?
You add stuff to ramen?
Like, yeah, you take your ramen, you put stuff on it, that's
what you do, and they don't evenknow.
Like you take whatever.
You have Corn, fuck it, sure.
You have corn fuck it sure.
Throw that in there.
Eggs, sounds good.
Seaweed, perfect, so you justtake the ramen.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
You can just um.
While you're cooking the ramen,you crack an egg right in there
I always because they run up.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
I always just ate the ramen, right, I would use like
two packets.
I didn't realize those thingswere like 500 calories and so I
eat like a thousand calories oframen and probably three days
worth of sodium or whatever.
It was like just so much, ohman, the times are tough, man.
A 25 cent packet of ramen,that'll get you, that'll keep
you alive, and that's what'simportant, right?
(09:00):
Or maybe it's not, depending onyour outlook on life, but we're
gonna say it's important.
Um, oh, this was just a full-onrecipe.
It just says hamburger stew.
That's literally all it says ishamburger stew.
And then there's just a bunchof things for like 80, 20
browned and drained sweet onion,garlic, all that sort of stuff.
(09:21):
Hamburger stew, then?
I mean, you're chopping onionsand garlic and fresh thyme.
Is that three fourths a cup offlour?
And we're doing ruched like no,this is not a struggle meal.
Get the fuck out of here withyour struggle meal and fucking
chop your shit and make a roux.
Uh-uh, uh-uh.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Brown onions and all this fancy stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Zero out of ten, that ain't no fucking struggle.
Meal let's see Barillaspaghetti.
Oh, and a can of sweet chilituna I can see spaghetti and
tuna spaghetti into it, like myuh, you know tuna, mac, tuna,
max.
I think my wife makes it a lot.
I've talked about that a bunch.
So sweet chili, tuna with pasta.
(10:08):
I'm intrigued by this.
I'm intrigued by this.
I like this.
Intrigued by this, I like this.
It's interesting.
So I love sweet chili, I lovelike the spice and like all of
that.
I think that that sounds prettygood for the sauce, I mean I
just do.
What do you think?
Do you think they just do likemarinara and then the sweet
chili?
Or is it just the sweet chililike tuna?
Because I feel like it'd bekind of sauce or something.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah, you need a little sauce with the pasta.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
I'm going to say it's a little bit of sauce and then
like a sweet chili tuna.
That again intrigued.
I give that an intrigued out of10.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I mean, I've often had like pasta and salmon, just
not tuna, and it's definitelynot sweet chili, but that's
interesting.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Number 10 and 11 are both tuna mac.
One is just tuna mac and cheeseand the are both tuna mac.
One is just tuna mac and cheeseand the other is tuna mac and
cheese with peas.
That's the literally the onlydifference.
11 just adds wow.
So I guess I'll go with youlike I guess that's pretty
struggle meal, right like my.
My wife doesn't really cook,she doesn't, she's not, she
doesn't really clean either.
She don't do those sort of youdon't really do those, that's
(11:09):
okay.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Neither do you.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
We can all see the background and we just kind of
roll with the house you know, Imake sure like I sweep, you know
, and try to make sure the doghair is not completely covering
the floor and like we get by.
But uh, to say, if she can maketuna mac, anybody can make tuna
mac.
So I, I do, get that pasta, addyour two can of tuna, add
cheese of some sort of orwhatever.
(11:31):
You can just do the mac andcheese thing like they were
little packets.
And then uh, yeah, peace,frozen peace, boom.
So yeah, uh, 10 out of 10 withpeace, 8 out of 10 without the
peace.
You need the peace to get theextra two points.
I agree with that assessment.
And then number 12 is I camedown to say I came down to say
classic tuna noodle casserole.
(11:51):
Man, fucking, everybody's.
Just like get your pasta andget your tuna.
That's like half this list nowis just tuna with pasta.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
I mean to be fair.
The canned tuna is pretty cheap.
It's protein packed.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
And you open it up and you eat it.
So you know, like I guess fair,we're going in all in on the
tuna and the other ones we saidfuck, you too were like the
brown, your beef and whatnot.
Like we don't want to do that.
So I guess we're complaining.
No matter what I was always Iwas taught to use everything
because money was so tight.
So if we roasted a chicken wealso made soup, right, bone
(12:27):
broth.
Okay, like you use the whole ifyou buy the chicken, right,
like it's cheaper if you buy thewhole chicken than if you buy
the parts.
But then you do kind of have tofigure out like all right, well
, I'm using the breast for this,or, and then I have all this
other shit.
Like what do I do?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
yeah, so yeah, throw it into like a giant pot, right,
like that'll, that'll dosomething, that'll make yeah,
the nice thing with that is,even if you mess up the
butchering of it, if the meat'sstill on the bone you throw it
in the pot.
The meat's just going to falloff.
Get a nice soup out of it.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Buy, yeah, whole chicken.
Use everything, 10 out of 10.
Yeah, number 14, basicallygetting very inventative with
the few staple ingredients I hadin the pantry, which was
usually a packet of deli hamright, a lot of people have that
Half a dozen eggs, instantnoodles and a pack of microwave
rice.
So, instant noodles and rice,I'd make ham and eggs in
(13:22):
different ways, right, ham andegg fried rice sure, fried rice
is always classic.
I like this.
Yeah, having like a few thingsand just-.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Throw some frozen peas in there.
I like, yeah, I like this, yeah, having like a few things and
just throw some frozen peas inthere.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
I like, yeah, I think this is good.
I like that you just make it adifferent way, so you use those
things.
That's how people win.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Like on cooking shows Frozen peas or canned corn
Canned corn's another good oneto throw in something like that.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
I like canned frozen corn.
Like any corn man, I love corn.
The fuck is this.
It just says.
All it says is it's fiveingredients, comes together in
about half an hour and it'stasty comfort food.
What is it?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Did they forget to actually tell you the five
ingredients?
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Okay, I lived in another country for a while and
just started cooking.
One night I came up, I cut upsome chicken breasts and browned
it in a pan.
Bro, we're browning chickenbreasts in a struggle meal.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Are we going for a Michelin star?
Speaker 1 (14:16):
I added a can of cream of mushroom soup Okay, and
some amount of milk, I guessthat's and then you let it
simmer.
Microwave frozen broccoli Allright, they're coming around.
Okay, it's not.
It's not too bad, but stilllike you're like browning
chicken.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I'm like chicken breast is touchy.
You can.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
You can dry it out really fast uh, ground beef,
spaghetti, noodles, fried onions, soy sauce and ketchup.
Ketchup, all right, I meanthat's, you guys have to cook
the ground beef and you know,noodles, fried onions yeah, I'm
iffy on that one number, 17, 17,though this is where it's at.
This is where it's at Rice andbeans.
That's what it says Rice andbeans, specifically basmati rice
(14:59):
maple flavor brown beans Mapleflavor brown beans Maple flavor
brown beans.
Maple flavor brown beans.
Say it five times fast.
I don't think I've had mapleflavor brown beans topped with
shredded cheese and ranch.
I live in.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Canada.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
I don't think I've seen maple flavored brown beans
Maple flavored everything else,just not brown beans Brown beans
, that sounds good, honestlyrice and basmati rice and maple
flavored.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
That sounds like it would go good with a maple
glazed salmon oh, he's soundinggood.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
That does sound like it'd be good with salmon top
with shredded cheese and ranch.
I'm a little thrown off by theranch.
I'm not so sure about the wholeranch situation.
Rice and beans ranch.
I guess it's fine.
I would like just the mapleflavored brown beans and rice.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
That sounds good I'm gonna have to look for that does
sound good now I'm gonna haveto look for these now.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
I like that.
Okay, here we go.
All right, all right, here wego.
Those frozen banquet salisburysteaks, instant mashed potatoes
and a can of some kind of beanor pea, like green beans, field
peas, etc.
I usually just make it lastnight, I actually just made it
last night and it never fails tohit the spot.
(16:11):
See that, see this, see this isa person not intuitive,
ingenuitive, whatever it is.
They're a person figuring shitout.
They go to the frozen sectionlike, oh, I got this, and then I
make some instant mashedpotatoes.
Oh, a can of whatever I havePeas, beans, whatever.
I like this.
12 out of 10.
This is my best rating so far.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
I like this, yeah, yeah those frozen meals in the
microwave meals and whatever inthe frozen section, they can be
pretty damn good.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
You just add shit to them.
I love this.
I like, hey, hummy Swam, it'sHummy Swam, I don't know, but
you got.
You got your shit together andI like it A plus.
And finally the last one Frozenstuffed crust.
Pepperoni pizza, stuffed crust,pepperoni pizza, stuffed crust.
(16:59):
Eh, just frozen pizza, man,like that's a struggle meal,
right.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Again with the pizza.
It's always a case of all theingredients individually.
We're like, yeah, that's fine,and then you suddenly throw them
together and it's oh, it's badfor you.
Frozen pizza, man, we just eattoo much of it is the problem
with pizza.
Just watch how much you eat.
Don't cook the entire thing.
You can break it into quarters.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Have you found a good frozen pizza that you like?
Speaker 2 (17:30):
I have.
I can't remember the brand ofit.
Was it Giuseppe?
No, maybe.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Just some like stereotypical Italian name.
Yeah, it's Antonio's pizza.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah God, you know what.
I actually might have a box ofit in the recycling.
I could go and stick that outif you really want to know.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
No one's in Canada, anyway, they won't even be able
to find it.
It's fine.
I see no one's in canada,anyway, they won't even be able
to find it.
It's fine.
Um, I see like I'll justtypically go with like a di
giorno when I'm not really sure.
I've tried.
There's like in the states wehave like scream in sicilian,
which is like a little bitpricier, but it's supposed to be
like better.
I tried it.
I was like this is fine, butit's not like worth the extra
(18:11):
money and everything it's.
It's totally fine.
It's not so much better thanlike a DiGiorno.
What's the other one?
Fruschetta or something.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
I'm totally going to dig it out while you're talking
about the second one.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Okay, but like the Red Baron and like all those
super cheap ones, like I'll eatthem if that's like that's what
I've got.
But I feel like it's worth theextra couple bucks or whatever
to get the DiGiorno with therising crust.
It's got to have that risingcrust I don't know what
science-y shit Baking powder I'massuming.
(18:44):
I don't know Whatever they'vedone to make that crust go.
That's where it's at.
And then, yeah, you get thestuffed crust with the cheese in
there too.
Man, that's ridiculous.
And yeah, you can just like addstuff to it if you want.
I usually get like a littleI'll do like those uh, frozen
those salad mixes just to haveone of the salad mixes with it
(19:04):
it might be this one.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
It's uh dr otker's casa de mama that's just like
josephie's.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
What's the difference ?
That's like, basically, that'sexactly like what you said.
Yeah, it's close enough, right,doctor?
Speaker 2 (19:17):
it's one of those cases where I've, um, I've gone
through and I've like trieddifferent brands and um, there's
actually I did actually quiterecently where I tried a couple
different ones, and so there's abunch of different boxes in the
recycling bin, but I'm prettysure it's this one, dr Dr
Oetker's Casa de Mama.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Dr Oetker, I would love to do that.
I don't have enough room in mydamn freezer to be like oh, let
me try all these differentfrozen pizzas.
I would like to do it like ahead to head and be like what's
the best frozen pizza?
But yeah, that's our entirelist.
So you guys let us know yourstruggle meals and I want to
know actual struggle meals andshit.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
We talked about our stuff, not what you're cooking
on Valentine's Day.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
What about Valentine's Day?
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Struggle meals not what you're cooking on
Valentine's Day.
Oh, not what you're cooking.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
I mean, it depends, how bad things get we might all
be.
I mean yeah.
It might not matter the day.
In the United States we mightall just be struggling and every
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.