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Polenta

Polenta is just a coarsely-ground cornmeal, although the original ancient Roman version was made from ground dried fava beans. You can often find it in the bulk food department for less than 50 cents/pound, so it definitely qualifies as cheap.

You can eat polenta while it's soft by adding a little butter or olive oil; adding crumbled gorgonzola or any other blue-veined cheese is very traditional and delicious. Tomato sauce is also good.

Or spread the soft polenta into a baking dish or loaf pan, let cool, cut into slices about a half inch thick, and either grill or fry in olive oil. Top these with just about anything, from sauteed mushrooms to fresh mozzarella.

To cook polenta on the stove you add the cornmeal to boiling water and stir constantly until it's done, about 20 minutes. It's much easier and faster in the microwave. In a pyrex or otherwise microwaveable bowl, stir together a cup of polenta with 3 cups of water, and add some salt (maybe a teaspoon to start). Nuke for about 3 minutes, stir, and nuke some more in 1 minute intervals until it's thick (probably no more than 4 minutes total, depending on how powerful your unit is).