Fast food is absolutely not cheaper. It is perceived to be cheaper due to bad education and poor judgement. With a cheap slow cooker, bulk brown rice, bulk bean

Fast food is absolutely not cheaper. It is perceived to be cheaper due to bad education and poor judgement. With a cheap slow cooker, bulk brown rice, bulk beans, fresh produce and a little bit of (optional) bacon, you can make a gigantic, delicious, filling, nutritious beans and rice dish for under $5, which will feed a family of 6 in even the most expensive city in the U.S. Dried beans and dried rice are ~$1/lb purchased in bulk in Seattle. Fresh produce is available cheaply year round at every grocery store. The same goes for salt, black pepper, bulk spices. All of these except the fresh produce and the bacon can be purchased literally months in advance, and are available online. The fresh produce and the bacon are a once-per-week affair, (which might be a genuine accessibility issue for some). The prep time is literally less than 5 minutes for the whole dish once you have it memorized and can cut a vegetable. Source: I cook for myself every day. I prefer big cheap one-pot slow cooker dishes.