I travel for work to conflict/post conflict regions and often live in rural villages for extended periods of time. Sometimes I have a local cook, sometimes I don't. I am hopeless at cooking for myself. Usually it's just rice or pasta with kidney beans and tomoatos (if I can find them canned) and local fruit like bananas and pineapple. Eggs are usually plentiful as well. Sometimes I bring ganola bars and instant oatmeal with me, but that only lasts so long.
Why not go for canned foods, baked beans, all day breakfast, stag chillie, curry in a can. Not the most tasty, but all cheap full of calories & non perishable. Can even be eaten cold, just don't forget your can opener.
Make friends with the locals, and don't cook! Have you tried trading things? Branded english goods often go down well in the exchange of a meal. And you get a totally different view of the place!
Not exactly a quick or easy suggestion, sorry!
I've lived in China for a decade, and we often can't get western food, so we've learned to substitute, when we can. An American colleague used a camping cookbook, which had recipes for easy to make foods, using limited ingredients and limited cooking facilities. It also listed substitute ingredients: for example, to bake a pie, you usually need shortening for the crust (which is nearly impossible to find in China) but you can use milk instead. The crust is not flaky at all (it's actually a bit leathery) but it's edible.
However, in most developing countries there are so many small, inexpensive restaurants that it's hardly worth cooking at home, I find. And hiring a cook (like you've done) is quite affordable too. If you really are hopeless in the kitchen (and I'm not much of a cook, either) either of those two options would be the way to go.
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