You could also put those things in rice instead for much cheaper calorie/dollar. But it can be good to switch it up for sure

Frozen dumplings. Just throw them in at the start, and by the time it reaches a boil, they're ready to eat

Edit - I'll use the cheap maruchan stuff as the noodles for a stir fry in a pinch. Definitely takes a bit more cooking effort than boiling a pot of water though

Quality instant ramen is pretty delicious, but it's not that cheap or healthy

Get an appropriately sized rice cooker, it's a super easy and cheap staple food that's endlessly versatile.

Want Mexican food? Fry up some beans, veg, and/or eggs with cumin or taco seasoning and you've got a burrito bowl. Want fried rice? Toss it in too and season it. Want a simple breakfast meal? Fry an egg sunny side up and toss it on top. Feeling lazy or putting off a grocery store run? Pack it together and you get onigiri

You can even turn it into porridge (I've never tried it, my friend said it's good)

(Sponsored by The Rice Gang🍚)

It REALLY depends on where/how you get them. The tiny McCormick bottles are a ridiculous scam, charging like $6 for a thimbleful. Meanwhile, a lot of health food stores, if you just bring a mid-sized jar (just clean out an old pasta jar or something) you can put a bunch of spice in it for maybe $3 or less.

Cheap instant ramen, not the nice bowls of ramen.

The stuff that's $.25 per package.

They're talking about something like top ramen, a very low quality dehydrated shadow of real ramen. It's just a packet of noodles and a bag of seasoning. It's pure carbs and not very nutritious, but you could get it for like $0.07 a meal (who knows these days though)

There's also good instant ramen, which ranges from $1-$5ish, and is much closer in taste to the real thing. It's not super healthy either, but you might get some dehydrated vegetables, meat, and/or oil to go with the spices

Lentils are great dude. I meant 80% of your food volume, not 80% of your meals, which I do acknowledge is pretty arbitrary

Jasmine rice is worth the extra cash, bro

I live in Europe: rice, beans, lentils, meat and vegetables are way too expensive here. Eggs were okay until the pandemic hit and prices went up. Now they've come down a little and I can afford them again. That and cheese is my stock now. Pasta is okay, but I can't eat much of it every day because it really fattens me up.