I was recently contacted by the PR people for Prego pasta sauce, offering me a food kit promoting their 10 Dollar Meal Campaign. I try to make my own spaghetti sauce, but I don't always have a chance, and sometimes I'm just in a hurry and opening a jar is easier. So I said, "Sure, send me the kit, I'll try it out."
My kit hasn't come yet, but CityMama got one too, and she's challenging her readers. What healthy and tasty meal can you cook for ten dollars for a family of four?
At first I thought, "I can do that easily. Count me in!" But here's where it gets tricky. Your only freebies are salt and pepper. So that pantry of staples I have? I pretended it doesn't exist and that I had to buy ALL the ingredients for my meal for ten dollars. Except that was really hard. For example, for the fish meal I had in mind, not only would I have to buy the fish, but also the lemon juice, the flour, the corn starch, the butter and the broth. Or for the breaded chicken pan fried in olive oil, if I had to buy the olive oil too, that's the bulk of my ten dollars right there.
So then I tried to calculate what 2 tablespoons of lemon juice would cost or 1/4 cup of flour. That's too much math, so that didn't work either.
So I cheated a little. Here is my menu. I chose 5 dinners that my family really likes and that I thought might be relatively inexpensive. The prices in red are what it would cost at my local Safeway to buy the non-staples, such as fresh meat or fish, bread or produce. The prices in green are what it would cost if I also had to replenish my pantry with staples such as dried spices, butter, olive oil or lemon juice. These prices are per meal, and do not take into account leftover ingredients from other meals.
**Panko Crusted Chicken With Baked Potatoes and Salad:
Fresh items (red leaf lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, chicken, potatoes)=$9.28
Staples (olive oil, panko, salad dressing): $14.16
**Tomato Basil Soup With Fresh Bread (double recipe):
Fresh items (tomatoes, fresh bread, fresh basil, onion, carrots)=$11.42
Staples (broth, sugar)=$3.49
**Tilapia Picatta With Steamed Peas And Rice:
Fresh items (fish, frozen peas, brown rice, fresh parsley)=$10.19
Staples (flour, corn starch, lemon juice, oil, butter, broth): $16.49
**Rotisserie Chicken With Ribboned Vegetables And Bread:
Fresh items (roasted chicken breast, fresh bread, zucchini, summer squash, carrots)=$12.03
Staples (butter, horseradish, lemon juice)=$6.69
**Spinach Frittata With Salad and Fresh Fruit:
Fresh items (eggs, frozen spinach, Parmesan cheese, ricotta cheese, strawberries, lettuce, tomato, cucumber)= $14.45
Staples (olive oil, garlic, nutmeg, salad dressing)=$17.99
In short, I learned that it's entirely possible to cook a tasty and healthy meal for around ten dollars, IF you already have a kitchen reasonably well-stocked with basic staples. If you don't, and you need olive oil, well then, you're screwed. It would also be easier to set a budget of ten dollars per meal and then shop for an entire week's worth of groceries. For example, while I listed lettuce with two of these meals, I would only have to buy one large head, because I don't put an entire pound of lettuce into one salad. All the prices in red, added up and divided by five, comes to eleven dollars and change per meal.
If I wanted to cut costs further, I could season my soup with a small bottle of storebrand dried basil instead of buying fresh, or I could buy half a dozen eggs for the frittata instead of the 18-pack I factored into the cost for the most expensive meal on this list.
As I have stated before, the most expensive items on my grocery list are usually meat and dairy (and olive oil...HA!), so I could also cut costs more by cooking meatless meals with no or little dairy if I really needed to. As much as I love cheese, it's too expensive to buy in huge quantities.
What do you think? What would you cook with a budget of ten dollars per meal for a family of four? Don't forget to pop over to CityMama for links to other bloggers taking the Ten Dollar Challenge!
My kit hasn't come yet, but CityMama got one too, and she's challenging her readers. What healthy and tasty meal can you cook for ten dollars for a family of four?
At first I thought, "I can do that easily. Count me in!" But here's where it gets tricky. Your only freebies are salt and pepper. So that pantry of staples I have? I pretended it doesn't exist and that I had to buy ALL the ingredients for my meal for ten dollars. Except that was really hard. For example, for the fish meal I had in mind, not only would I have to buy the fish, but also the lemon juice, the flour, the corn starch, the butter and the broth. Or for the breaded chicken pan fried in olive oil, if I had to buy the olive oil too, that's the bulk of my ten dollars right there.
So then I tried to calculate what 2 tablespoons of lemon juice would cost or 1/4 cup of flour. That's too much math, so that didn't work either.
So I cheated a little. Here is my menu. I chose 5 dinners that my family really likes and that I thought might be relatively inexpensive. The prices in red are what it would cost at my local Safeway to buy the non-staples, such as fresh meat or fish, bread or produce. The prices in green are what it would cost if I also had to replenish my pantry with staples such as dried spices, butter, olive oil or lemon juice. These prices are per meal, and do not take into account leftover ingredients from other meals.
**Panko Crusted Chicken With Baked Potatoes and Salad:
Fresh items (red leaf lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, chicken, potatoes)=$9.28
Staples (olive oil, panko, salad dressing): $14.16
**Tomato Basil Soup With Fresh Bread (double recipe):
Fresh items (tomatoes, fresh bread, fresh basil, onion, carrots)=$11.42
Staples (broth, sugar)=$3.49
**Tilapia Picatta With Steamed Peas And Rice:
Fresh items (fish, frozen peas, brown rice, fresh parsley)=$10.19
Staples (flour, corn starch, lemon juice, oil, butter, broth): $16.49
**Rotisserie Chicken With Ribboned Vegetables And Bread:
Fresh items (roasted chicken breast, fresh bread, zucchini, summer squash, carrots)=$12.03
Staples (butter, horseradish, lemon juice)=$6.69
**Spinach Frittata With Salad and Fresh Fruit:
Fresh items (eggs, frozen spinach, Parmesan cheese, ricotta cheese, strawberries, lettuce, tomato, cucumber)= $14.45
Staples (olive oil, garlic, nutmeg, salad dressing)=$17.99
In short, I learned that it's entirely possible to cook a tasty and healthy meal for around ten dollars, IF you already have a kitchen reasonably well-stocked with basic staples. If you don't, and you need olive oil, well then, you're screwed. It would also be easier to set a budget of ten dollars per meal and then shop for an entire week's worth of groceries. For example, while I listed lettuce with two of these meals, I would only have to buy one large head, because I don't put an entire pound of lettuce into one salad. All the prices in red, added up and divided by five, comes to eleven dollars and change per meal.
If I wanted to cut costs further, I could season my soup with a small bottle of storebrand dried basil instead of buying fresh, or I could buy half a dozen eggs for the frittata instead of the 18-pack I factored into the cost for the most expensive meal on this list.
As I have stated before, the most expensive items on my grocery list are usually meat and dairy (and olive oil...HA!), so I could also cut costs more by cooking meatless meals with no or little dairy if I really needed to. As much as I love cheese, it's too expensive to buy in huge quantities.
What do you think? What would you cook with a budget of ten dollars per meal for a family of four? Don't forget to pop over to CityMama for links to other bloggers taking the Ten Dollar Challenge!
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6 comments:
I noticed that Rachel Ray divides the cost, so if she adds lemon juice and she buys a 8 oz bottle of juice, and uses 1 oz, she would only "count" the 1/8th of the purchase price of the bottle. If lemon juice is something you normally keep in your kitchen it works, but if you won't use the rest up, it does make that meal much more expensive.
We spend on average, about $4.40/meal for our family of four. (Meaning $1.10 per person, per meal.)
I just figured it out by dividing my grocery budget by the number of meals in a month. So for me, a $10 meal is twice my average expenditure, and a quite expensive meal for us. Of course, breakfast is much cheaper than dinner, so several 25 cent breakfasts means we can have steaks and asparagus other nights and it all works into the average.
That is wayyy to much thinking for me. But, I think I could do it if I made two pasta dishes/ week and bought cheap cuts of meat that I could put in the crock pot. Last nights dinner of stew and mash potatoes was pretty cheap. Cheap meat, cooked all day w/ carrots, canned peas, canned corn plus 5 potatoes mashed with a little bit o butter and milk.
Where was this when I needed it - trying to feed a family of six on $50 a week sometimes!!! These recipes are really great and I love the break down.
I love this...you know I am always looking for new ideas in the cooking department....I just signed up for a meal a day menu from recipes dot com and I am loving it, havn't made anything from it...but the recipes sound yummy and don't look too outrageous to make!!!
Can't wait to hear how the Prego kit works out!!!
WOW!! Awesome! I will have to put this to the test!
I love that you did it this way. I hate when I see a recipe hyped at costing pennies per serving (I'm exaggerating), but they've factored in that you're only going to use a 16th of a package of that expensive cheese you're never going to use again, or whatever. Your synopsis is much more realistic. You did a great job. I'm going to challenge myself to keep thinking...keep creating.
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