Do you use spices or hot sauce to add flavor?

A slow cooker could make soups and stews with potwtoes and whatever vegtables or scraps.

Im sure lentils will send a represenitive to talk about them.

Hey my dude, you need some recipes and some mental health. Im happy to help on both fronts if you need.

Eggs and potatoes are easily the two most versatile substances on the planet, other ingredients to make them into things are actually equally as cheap, spices look expensive until you realize that $4 lasts up to 6 months. To add to that, I was once an incredibly picky eater and found personally and through feeding others that, outside of phobia and dietary constraints, the majority of food preferences is based on a history of bad cooking. Give me deets on your dietary limits and I’ll give you every recipe I know. If there’s anything you’re willing to experiment with, I’ll teach you everything you need to enjoy it. Anything from dry beans, to tofu, to grinding your own amaranth or acorns for flour.

If you’re in the western world, mental health services are decently accessible, even in the US without insurance. Shoot me a DM me your location and situation and I’ll do all the leg work, all you’ll have to do is make the appointment.

As for the information provided, the recipe that springs to mind is cheese gnochi bites.

You’ll need 3 large russet potatoes 2 eggs 1 cup shredded chedder or other strong cheese 1 cup flour Salt, pepper, garlic to taste Oil to fry in

Microwave the potatoes until baked, immediately shock in cold tap water and peal by hand. (fantastic trick for any mashed potatoes as it not only takes less time but does not add any moisture leading to fluffier potatoes)

In a large bowl, mash the potatoes and add the cheese, mix so that the cheese melts and spreads evenly.

Once incorporated, feel mix, if still hot, let it cool until luke warm or cool to the touch then mix in the eggs and spices.

Finally, add flour until it holds together when scooped.

Heat oil on medium in either a pot or skillet depending on oil availability and intended shape.

If using a pot with at least an inch of oil, scoop a glob of potato with a spoon and use another spoon to scrape it into the pot. Fry until golden all the way around.

If using a skillet with shallow oil, put the glob in the pan and gently press it flat leaving some thickness. Then flip like a Patty when golden.

If you have access to gallon bags, you can put the mix in the bag, cut off a corner, and squeeze the mix into the fry like a piping bag. Either making dollups for deep oil or doing a tight spiral for shallow.

Let cool on a wire rack but eat warm. Oil can be strained of bits and stored to fry with later.

You can also add extra cheese and cook in an air-fryer but the texture won’t be fried so much as baked. The extra cheese gets more oil in the mix to help the exterior crust up.

Depends on how much you eat. If you have some idea of what your “ideal” calorie consumption per day is, your goal is to eat more than that. Bread is easier than potatoes because it’s more calorie-dense, i.e. you don’t have to eat as much of it.

You don’t really have to “cook” as in dirtying a lot of pans to make potatoes and bread more appealing.

• Nuke a potato and add salt and butter, and maybe a sprinkle of garlic and onion powder. Only takes a few seconds more than a plain potato.
• Get a big jar of jam and have butter and jam on your bread. Minimal effort, way more enjoyable.
• Low-effort grilled cheese sandwich: Put a slice of cheese between 2 pieces of toast, nuke 10 seconds, boom.

At risk of going off-topic, exercise?

I don’t mean run marathons, but just stuff at home. Knee push ups, sit ups, squats, standing on your toes, sitting in a chair to lift your leg with your biceps; whatever you can manage until you are little winded.

You will gain some weight, keep more of the calories you ingest, and eating will feel better too.

I’d recommend some beans too. I like black bean bowls with rice, and both are cheap.

ARFID?

Yeah you kinda need to add some things.

Bake potato, keep skin or not comrade. Put in fridge over night. Fry in butter the next day. Put in bowel, add in mayonnaise, bacon if you have it or doctors sausage, egg, pepper, a drop of vinegar or hot sauce if you like. Mix it up. Put on bread and enjoy. Bonus, fry bread in olive oil.

Make a small salad. Simple, cucumber, raw onion, tomato, vinegar or mirin (or a mix of vodka and vinegar and sugar). To stimulate appetite.

But yeah jokes aside you just need MSG.

Potatoes are actually super filling per calorie, one of the first and best foods I recommend for weight loss. The potatoes/eggs/cheese combo is especially filling, basically you’ve dialed into a budget conscious survival meal.

But you need to gain weight without spending much more money. What do you have to cook with? Knife cutting board pots pans stove?

First great option is soup. Pre fry aromatics directly in the pot (carrots, celery, onion, whatever you can get). Be HEAVY with oil, I recommend light olive oil. Heavier than you probably think with salt too. Then add mass (potatoes) and water. Dried lentils and split peas don’t need to be soaked overnight, just add them in and let them simmer for the last half hour. Tons of cheap calories and seasoning. Season with anything you have.

Then get into white rice. There’s a cost barrier here but if you can save up enough for a large 20lb bags the cost per meal is extraordinarily low. Tons of calories and doesn’t really fill you. Have it with the soup or as a bed under other veggies. Overdoing it with the rice can cause some health issues relating to blood sugar but it’s an extremely easy and cheap way to add 2-400 calories to a couple meals a day.

Check clearance for oily sauces. This is basically the reverse advice compared to weight loss - a lot of innocuously small jars can easily contain over 2,000 calories. If you can get them at 25% cost that’s a ton of weight gain potential and will help give you flavor variety and make your meals more calorific.

Just a few thoughts. Wish I could help, I know this situation sucks

(Calories_in>calories_out)=weight_gain (Calories_in<calories_out)=weight_loss (Calories_in~calories_out)=weight_stable

cheese and joghurt is a good source of protein. try to eat a lot of protein and do muscle work out to not only gain fat mass but lean mass aswell. because if youre ana it might be that your body already “consumed” a lot of your muscle mass to retain enegery.

Hi, I recommend beans (soak them overnight) and rice. Also, I would look into buying oats. They are a very good source of calories and are healthy for you. Put them in a blender and soak in water for 15 minutes, add sugar and blend. This can be a supplemental meal in itself.

Add oil into the mix. Also cheap. Who doesn’t like fried stuff? Fry everything and gain weight short term, then taper off and watch cholesterol long term.

Try making potato tacos next!

Fat goes a long way in both seasoning and adding calories. Any kind of vegetable oil, butter, lard, whiever is cheap where you live. Get the pan hot with the oil, turn the heat down and add the potato and let it brown. The browning, also known as the Maillard effect, adds a lot of flavor

Quesadillas

Use more oil, butter and sugar.

Potatoes are not ideal when trying to gain weight, is pasta / noodles so much more expensive? If so, buy flour and mix it with 1 egg per 100g and add some water or milk. Cook chunks of it in salted water.

Try to get your hands on the cheapest nuts you can find and eat as much as you can.

Eat some right before bed.