My problem: chicken drumsticks are very cheap - like five bucks for enough I can divide up and make three meals out of. I marinate them in different hot sauces, then I can wrap them in foil and put them in the oven. For extra dopamine I eat them with blue cheese sauce.
The other cheap options are things like velveeta with canned chicken or fish, or chef Boyardee ravioli.
I don’t like eating meat or dairy for the clear ethical reasons and would like to go vegan. I was vegan for about a year or so, but I also have the kind of ARFID where I will let myself starve if there are not those kinds of “high dopamine” foods available.
I’d like some kind of close, cheap, easy approximation. When I was vegan, I had the financial resources to buy a lot of prepared food that met that quick/stimulating need, but I no longer have those resources to do so.
The closest to making something like that work for me is soy curl + coconut milk + curry seasonings. I don’t have the capacity to eat vegetables most days - this is not healthy, but I also physically cannot force myself to do so.
I know lentils are good and don’t require soaking, but I cannot get them to taste good. Indian restaurants make them perfect, but I can’t do it myself.
I’ll rinse a can of beans, cook them for 10-ish minutes in the air fryer, and then put them on a tortilla with some kind of spicy sauce. Chickpeas and butter beans pair really well with buffalo sauce, whereas red and black and pinto beans are better with barbeque sauce.
Basically no effort but super filling and delicious.
If I want to put in some effort I’ll also fry up onion, bell pepper, chilies, and maybe some corn. Mix the air fried beans in the veggies, top it with chilled tomatoes and lettuce and sauce, and it’ll fill about two tortillas.