EXTREME BUDGET MEAL PLAN // A WEEK OF MEALS FOR $10

[Music] hey you guys welcome back to my channel and if you are new here welcome to c mini mom and welcome to my kitchen today i am sharing with you a meal plan that would feed a person for a week with just ten dollars so stay tuned all right you guys i know that you like these budget meal challenges and i like doing them for you i think it's a good exercise for me too to think differently about the way that i plan meals and how i would put together some nutritious meals on a very tight budget if necessary for the usual i want to say that if you are struggling with food insecurity you are not alone and that you deserve to be fed i hope that you will reach out for some help local schools local churches fire departments police departments health departments community centers a lot of times those places will have resources or lists of resources that can help you feed yourself or your family please reach out for help if you need it there is no shame in it you deserve to be fed your family deserves to be fed as i said before these challenges i think are good exercises for me when it comes to thinking differently about the way that i am cooking and the way that i am eating and i hope that there are some ideas and some inspiration for you here i know that food prices vary from around the country i live in oklahoma i shopped at walmart for this challenge but i hope that even if you don't have the same prices where you are maybe this just gives you some ideas for how you could create some meals for yourself or for your family um with very low cost ingredients i shopped at walmart for this challenge and i got to be honest with you guys i think it's difficult for me to do these challenges at walmart because at least at my walmart they don't have like a lot of discounted or clearance priced food walmart doesn't rent sales they don't have sales cycles like regular grocery stores so even though some things may be the lowest cost any day of the week sometimes i can find better deals at other stores when i work sales cycles so it took me a while to put this one together and i actually went back to the drawing board a couple of times but i am very pleased with what i came up with today and i hope that you guys enjoy it i will also point out that these kinds of videos are difficult for me to do because i can't really commit to filming something for seven days i have too many other videos in the queue and things that i'm trying to get out on my channel so when i approach this type of meal plan i'm thinking about how i would feed my husband and myself for three days breakfast lunch and dinner so one person could probably stretch that to seven days i'm pretty sure one person could stretch this meal plan because there were extras and leftovers of the meals that i made so let's jump into the video i will show you what i purchased and i'll show you how i turned that into different meals for myself and my husband for a few days that would stretch to a full week for a person first off i saw after looking around the store that they have five pound bags of flour for a dollar oh nine one dollar and nine cents and i was thinking to myself i can do a lot with five pounds of flour so i went ahead and picked up one of those i picked up a package of cream cheese these are just two little russet potatoes they are 68 cents a pound at my walmart and this is about three quarters of a pound it's not quite a pound of potatoes one little package of this soup mix i found this in the hispanic foods section in the ethnic food section it's a little um tomato based elbow pasta soup mix and these are great for these kinds of challenges because they're already seasoned you don't need a lot of extra seasoning with that one can of chili beans i went ahead and got the no salt added because it was the same price as the regular kind you could get the regular kind or any other kind of beans if you want i think any kind of beans would work with what i intend to use these for but i wanted the chili flavoring again because this has seasoning in it already one package of great value brand that's the store brand mac and cheese and you might be wondering why would i get this and not just a regular package of pasta it's because i'm gonna use the pasta in here for one recipe and i'm gonna use the the cheese packet like the flavoring packet for a different recipe one big can of diced tomatoes this is the 28 ounce can and i'm going to use this across a few different dishes and i got the italian style because again it has basil garlic and oregano already in there seven bananas they are 49 cents a pound at my walmart one half gallon of milk and i went ahead and got the whole milk because this meal plan doesn't have a whole bunch of fat in it so i'm depending on maybe the little bit of oil i might use in this meal plan and the milk and then half a dozen eggs and also the cream cheese has some fat in it as well but everything else is pretty light where fat is concerned as far as the nutrient goes and then i was able to get a package of cut green beans in a package of whole colonel corn those are 80 cents per package at my walmart this is what i ended up picking up at my walmart for this meal plan this week i am going to make homemade bread i bought all of this flour and i'm going to make a couple of loaves of bread i'm going to do it two different ways but before we get into that first i'm going to pour my milk into my measuring cup i need one and a quarter cup and to that i'm going to add one tablespoon of vinegar just plain white vinegar which i know a lot of households will hopefully have on hand i use this like in my laundry with my towels sometimes so i usually have some on hand so one and a quarter cups milk with a tablespoon of vinegar and i'm just gonna set that aside here while we're tabbing and you'll see why i did that here in a minute you probably already know why i'm making buttermilk or buttermilk substitute okay so i'm gonna do two different kinds of bread here i'm gonna make some that calls for yeast now i did not buy yeast some kitchens might have that some kitchens might not i can get these little three packs at my walmart for i think a dollar 47 is the price i saw and at aldi i've seen them as low as 89 cents and i actually only need one because there's two and a quarter teaspoons in each of these packages and i'm gonna use it very sparingly so we're gonna make just that easy four ingredient no knead bread i already got a head start on that last night because it has to sit for a while to proof when you are using less yeast you can use more yeast and have a shorter proofing time meaning allowing your ingredients to rise or you can use less if you want to let it sit for longer so last night i used one and a half cups of warm water and just half a teaspoon of yeast i added about three and a quarter cups of flour also a teaspoon of salt and then i let it sit in the oven not the oven was not on i just let it sit in the cool oven overnight so it has been sitting for probably oh about 12 hours 12 to 15 hours at this point and it has risen beautifully so we are going to turn that into a loaf of bread and then in a minute i'm going to show you how to make a loaf of bread without yeast using baking soda instead as the leavener so if you do not have yeast don't worry i'm going to show you how to make bread without it so i'm just going to do the best i can to kind of turn out my dough onto a floured surface this is a pretty wet dough it's not the same as like regular bread where it comes away from the sides you kind of have to work with it a little bit so i'm going to add a little bit of flour because it's just a little bit runny here i'm going to add a little bit more flour i'm just going to kind of work with it a little bit and see if i can get it to not be quite so gooey just until it's sort of the right consistency that it doesn't stick to the counter anymore it's still gonna be kind of floppy for lack of a better word because it's just not like a really thick dough bread so i have put my dough into my dutch oven here you do not have to use the dutch oven in fact this is my first time to try it in a dutch oven i only have this because my sister gave it to me she had it in the back of a cabinet wasn't using it so she gave me this but i've made this in just a regular bread pan before too and put another bread pan on top of it which is how i'm gonna make the other loaf of bread so you'll see how i do that but i just have this in my dutch oven i put some parchment paper on the bottom there and i'm just gonna score it like this and then i'm gonna set this aside until i'm ready to put them both in the oven at the same time because we're going to whip the other loaf of bread up really quickly it doesn't require a rice so it will come together fast for the baking soda bread i am going to make this in just a regular loaf pan this is just an eight or nine inch loaf pan and then i have another one that i can sit on top of it like this so that the bread can steam in the beginning i have greased this as well with just a little bit of vegetable oil in my bowl and i'm using the same bowl that i just used to make the other bread because who wants to clean another bowl i have three cups of flour that's what i am starting with i may need to add a little bit more we'll see and to this i am adding two teaspoons of baking soda and one teaspoon of salt i'm just gonna kind of mix that together like this to this mixture i'm adding my buttermilk here it has been sitting for about 10 minutes or so and i'm going to stir that together it doesn't need to be over mixed i am just going to stir this until it is combined and then i'm going to get it immediately into my baking dish and bake it that over like that i'm just going to plop that right down in there plop and it will be ready to put in the oven with the other one so i have preheated my oven to 425 and i have both of the lows in there with the lid on the dutch oven and also the other pan turned upside down on the loaf of soda bread i'm gonna let those bake for about 25 to 30 minutes and then i will take the lids off and let them bake for another 10 to 15 minutes more until they are done my two loaves of bread are out of the oven and cooling i did cook the yeast bread about 10 minutes longer than the soda bread but look how great this turned out like if i was looking at these two loaves i would not have guessed that this is the one without yeast i feel like it rose beautifully it's got like a nice crust this one i would want it to be just a little bit more more brown like crusty on the top but i do think it is done so i will let those cool and then i will slice them up and i'll show you how i'm going to use those to make breakfast so here are my two loaves of bread i let them cool for about 30 minutes or so before i slice them after they came out of the oven and you can see that the soda bread is a lot denser than the yeast bread is and the only reason this came out so flat is because i cooked it in a larger dutch oven if i cooked it in just a regular bread pan or in a smaller dutch oven it would have been like a rounder loaf but that's fine it's fine to have long skinny slices i also probably undercooked it by maybe just a few minutes but nothing the toaster can't fix and that's probably how i am going to eat this throughout the week so here is what i had planned for breakfast i have two pieces of the bread here and then i have just a little bit of my cream cheese i need about a third of this block for another recipe but the rest of it i intended to have with the bread because it's cheaper than butter and i bought seven bananas so there's enough here for my husband and i to have breakfast for three days or even longer especially since i bought seven bananas if you were trying to make this meal plan stretch for a week you definitely could and i will probably make up a couple more loaves of bread because i'm going to have them with dinner with some of the dinners as well i have plenty of flour to do that along with the other things i intend to use the flour for but that is breakfast not very fancy but it'll do so i'm about to get some lunch going on the stove and you can absolutely prepare this ahead of time and do like a lunch prep if you need to be out of the house at lunch time and really any of the lunches and dinners that i'm preparing are interchangeable i just chose the things that work with our schedule and what's going on around here during these days that i'm filming so i'm gonna use these items i'm gonna use about a third of my can of tomatoes here i'm going to save the rest of it for another recipe and then i'm going to use just the pasta from my box of mac and cheese i'm going to save the cheese sauce packet for another recipe i'm going to use the tomato-based elbow pasta soup mix right here that you saw in my walmart haul and then my can of chili beans what i'm going to do is i'm going to use some of my tomatoes about a third of this can and my can of chili beans i'm going to toss those into a pot with about two and a half cups of water i'm gonna bring that to a boil and then i'm going to add this and just the pasta from the mac and cheese and like i said save that cheese packet because i'm gonna use that for something else later on in the week and i'm going to let that simmer then until the pasta has cooked and what i am hoping is that this is going to create kind of like a chili mac type situation if you wanted to use a little bit more water and make it more soupy you absolutely could but i'm hoping that this is going to be kind of like a chili mac or a gouache type casserole if you have some cheese or sour cream lying around that would go well with this i'll probably just have this with some toast from the bread that i made and this should make four servings so it would feed my husband and myself lunch or dinner for two days or it would be four servings across the week wherever you want it if you were just feeding yourself i am getting ready to throw together another meal that will make multiple servings and i am attempting to make kind of like a cheesy potato and corn chowder i chopped up my potatoes and i have my bag of frozen corn here this is a 10 ounce bag no 12 ounces which is great i have three cups of milk that's what i'm gonna start with i could add a little bit more water or milk later i have my packet of cheese sauce mix from the mac and cheese i'm gonna use that and i have my cream cheese here i'm gonna use about a third of this block as well and just some salt and pepper i'm just gonna throw all of this into the crock pot on low for about three to four hours and see where we land and if i need to make some adjustments from there i will let you know what else i add to it i have decided that i'm going to add just a little bit of water to this like maybe half to three quarters of a cup or so to make sure everything is submerged and by the way you can make this on the stove too it would not take as long you just need to be careful when you're working with milk on the stove obviously you probably already know this that you don't scorch something but i'm just using my crock pot because i'm going to be out of the house during dinner time tonight but if you don't have a crock pot you can easily make this on the stove i almost forgot the cheese packet you guys from the macaroni and cheese to make this actually cheesy along with the cream cheese that was close okay so here is my soup i cooked it on a low for four hours and the potatoes are done and then i just stirred it all up so that the cream cheese would kind of melt or it was already melted but so that it would distribute evenly across the soup and i am just having this with a piece of toast from my bread that i made and i have a bowl for me and a bowl for my husband and there's enough left to have at least two more bowls this size or larger or maybe three kind of medium to large bowls of this soup tonight for dinner i am making some easy homemade pasta using just flour and eggs and to go along with that i'm going to make a homemade marinara sauce using the rest of those tomatoes from the can that i opened the other night so all i'm going to do to make that is pop those into a pot on the stove i'm going to add some salt and pepper and then a few tablespoons of my cream cheese because i just kind of like the creaminess that it adds to tomato sauce i do that whenever i make spaghetti just on a regular basis i usually add just a little bit of cream cheese to it now you could add whatever seasonings you want if you want to add some more onions garlic you know italian seasonings what have you i'm just going to use some salt and pepper and remember that the tomatoes that i purchased had some seasonings in them already so i'm hoping that that's going to carry it a long way so i'm just going to let that simmer on the stove for a little while i might take like a masher or even just the back of my spoon and kind of mash them up a little bit whenever they have been heating on the stove for a while i feel like the longer i let it simmer the more flavorful it's gonna be and then i'll be able to kind of mash up those tomatoes just a little bit in the pot so let me turn you around now and i'll show you how i'm going to make the pasta to go along with this okay so i'm starting out with one and a half cups of my flour and i also put in about a teaspoon of salt and kind of just mix that in with the flour and i'm gonna make a well in the center where i can crack my eggs i have two of them that i'm going to use for this and at first i'm going to use a fork to kind of break up the eggs just a little bit but eventually you just kind of have to dive in with your hands and start to kind of incorporate the dough that way at least that's the way that i find works the best i don't think this is a good thing to do in a mixer because you have to be careful not to overwork this dough and you might need a little extra moisture like maybe just a little water or even just a dash of milk or something or a little more flour it depends on your kitchen on where you live what the weather's like that day noodles i find are kind of like bread they can be sort of fickle and you just kind of have to keep working with it until it comes out the way that you want it okay so i have my dough right here and i'm just gonna lay a towel over that and let it rest for a few minutes before i roll it out okay so my dough has been resting for a little while and i'm just gonna roll this out and i'm gonna keep adding some flour to it so that it doesn't stick very well i'm gonna roll this out as thin as i possibly can and then i'll show you how i'm gonna cut it up okay i'm gonna be honest with you about every other time that i make egg noodles it works out great it's like easy the dough was pliable this is not one of those times it did not work out super awesome for me i mean it's gonna work out fine but it's just taken me a while longer to roll it out because probably my ingredients weren't the right temperature i didn't let it rest long enough like i said noodles can be temperamental they're still going to be tasty but sometimes it just doesn't work as well as other times for me okay so i have these rolled out really really thin and i'm actually just going to roll them up like so and then i'm just going to slice them really really thin since i'm wanting this to be kind of like a spaghetti style i'm trying to make these pretty thin and not as thick as i would make them if i was making like chicken and noodles or chicken noodle soup or something like that sprinkling of flour [Music] and voila we have noodles and i'm just going to let these sit here for a few minutes my water is boiling on the stove and i'm when i'm ready to cook these i will just toss them into the boiling water and they will only take about three minutes or so to cook fresh pasta cooks really really quickly not like the dry stuff to go along with this i'm just going to take the easy road and pop these green beans into the microwave add a little salt and pepper and we will have a side of green beans along with our pasta marinara look what i found amid our little condiments that we keep on hand some crushed red pepper and some parmesan cheese these obviously came for pizza places but i'm gonna put this maybe just one packet into the sauce to kind of kick it up a notch and then a little bit of parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top of the pasta yay okay so here is dinner i have my pasta and some green beans and then two slices of my bread and i went ahead and mixed the pasta in with the sauce because this kind of pasta soaks up whatever you are serving it with as far as the sauce goes so i thought it would be really good to go ahead and mix the pasta in with the sauce and i let it sit for a few minutes before i served it and so this made three servings everything that i made made made three servings tonight so i have enough for my husband and myself plus one additional serving for an extra lunch or a dinner but this will be really filling and really good and if you still want some more ideas for this meal plan everything that you see here is what you need to make pancakes two tablespoons of vegetable oil a cup of milk and i did add a tablespoon of vinegar to that milk just like i did for the bread to to turn it into a buttermilk substitute one cup of flour a teaspoon of salt half a teaspoon of baking soda or three quarters of a teaspoon of baking soda one tablespoon of sugar and one egg you just combine the dry ingredients and then add the wet ingredients you may need to add a little bit more flour depending on how thin your batter is i had to add just probably a couple tablespoons more of flour to get my batter to the consistency that i wanted and then i just made my pancakes on the griddle and you can make them big or small my kids like those little silver dollar pancakes i just made regular sized ones and this this size this amount of batter will yield enough pancakes for in my opinion three servings of pancakes so this would be three additional meals and to go along with this we still have three eggs left from our grocery haul so you can have an egg any way you like it you can have it boiled you can have it fried i just prefer mine scrambled so that's what i have here are two pancakes with a scrambled egg and you could do this three times with what i showed you and that would be another idea for some meals to round out this meal plan okay so i made chili mac which yielded four generous servings i made cheesy potato and corn chowder which also yielded four generous bowls of soup at least i think so i made homemade noodles with marinara and a side of green beans which made at least three servings and then as an additional meal you could do pancakes with an egg any way you like it at least three times so that is 14 meals total that you can eat for lunch or for dinner and i also showed two different ways that you could make bread that you could use to bulk up any of those lunch or dinner meals and to have for breakfast with a little bit of cream cheese and a banana every single day and i purchased enough flour that even though i used it to make other things in this meal plan i could still make four loaves of bread so i realized that there are some repeat meals in there and unfortunately whenever we're on a tight budget sometimes a variety is a luxury that we just can't afford but i feel like one person could definitely eat those meals across one week or like it worked for us we could feed two people for at least three days and even still have a few servings of things left over so that is what i have for you guys today i hope that you found some ideas and some inspiration or entertained by this video thank you so much for watching and i will be sure to check in again with another video very soon bye [Music] you

Channel: See Mindy Mom

Views: 1,553,401

Keywords: extreme budget meal plan, budget meals, budget dinners, budget, frugal, budget meal challenge, $10 a week, eat for $10 a week, $10 a week challenge, extreme budget meal challenge, super cheap meals, cheap healthy meals, healthy budget meals, cheap dinners, cheap breakfast, cheap lunch, extreme budget challenge

Id: hXntLW_QYuw

Length: 21min 37sec (1297 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 12 2021