I really don't like eggs, but (eggs+flour) make easy noodles that will make several filling meals.
Any sort of cuisine from historically depressed areas is going to be great. For me, that's Cajun and Creole food -- lots of rice, beans, and spices in the skillet. Get frozen vegetables in bulk if fresh is too expensive, because you're going to be cooking them to mush anyway.
I've found that the key isn't minimizing the dollar amount, but maximizing the output. A little bit of butter may be more expensive, but if you add in a fuckton of rice and beans, that 2tbsp butter will improve your next week's worth of food.
Temeraire is about a naval captain and his dragon, giving both pretty amply screen time and development.
It's Aubrey-Maturin with the serial numbers filed off (but the same amount of Napoleon, thankfully), so it's more comfort fiction than genre-breaking scifi, but it's still worth a read.
The middle-South could use another team, and I hope they can support one.
Nashville is absolutely booming, for better or worse, and it would be nice for the Predators to get a few neighbors.
I wish I knew how to cook instead of college, instead of falling for the "rice and beans are awful poverty food" meme.
Rice and beans are amazing. I'm an adult with a good job, and I still eat rice and beans. I just know how to cook them now.