Ask Lemmy

Fry onions in coconut oil, add lentils and water, season with garam masala and/or other herbs and spices, optionally add dried fruit and nuts, eat with rice. The best thing about this is that all ingredients keep well in the cupboard so you can stock up a little when you can afford to.

I cook beans and rice regardless of how its going. Nothing can beat that. And you can add anything you want, which makes beans really flexible.

Soak the dried beans over night and the lentils at least for 2 or 3 hours.
Fry an onion and some cloves of garlic in oil. I prefer olive oil, but take whatever is available.
Add a good amount of canned tomatoes to it - canned tomatoes are typically more affordable than fresh ones while tasting better at the same time due to typically being harvested and processed when being ripe. Also they can be bought in bulk due to the long shelf-life.
Put some spices in: pepper, cumin, oregano, thyme, cardamom go well with it, or whatever you like. If the fancier spices are too expensive, just pepper does quite well.
Finally add whatever vegetables are available and affordable: bell peppers, carrots, mushrooms, green squash, whatever you can get and like.
If you can get some minced meat, put it in the pot/pan before you add the canned tomatoes. The same goes for sausages: slice the sausages and roast them gently; it improves the taste.
More affordable than minced meat (potentially healthier than sausages) and a good source of protein (next to the pulses, which contain a nice amount of protein already) would be eggs.
Crack one, two, three eggs into the pan, put a lid on and let it cook for around 10 minutes. The result is close to eggs Benedict ;)
Have fun and hang in there!

1bag dried black beans

1half onion

Vegetable oil

Bay leaf

Red pepper flakes

Garlic

Salt

Water

Pick out any bad looking beans, then place them in water to soak over night. Next day, drain the water, put beans in a pot with 1tbsp oil, salt, bay leaf, half an onion, and enough water to cover. Cook for about an hour or until beans are soft. This can be divided into 4-5 quart bags and frozen to store. Do not throw out the water, store it with the beans.

Add about a cup of veggie oil, 1 tsp garlic, 2 tsp red pepper flakes to a pan. Cook over medium hear until aromatic. Add about 4 cups of beans and juice or 1 bag thawed. Stir carefully until it thickens, then mash with a slotted spoon/spatula/potato masher.

The first half makes beans that goes great with basically anything, the second is true, authentic refried beans. As a honky boy who only ever had then from a can, the refried beans were life changing and I married the woman that taught me how to make them.