HOW TO EAT DELICIOUS FOOD FOR $2 A DAY! | EXTREME GROCERY BUDGET CHALLENGE

hello everyone this week i challenged myself  to see if i could eat for two dollars a day   and wait till you see what i eat and i did manage  to pull it off this is what i got for my grocery   haul that i spent just under 15 so i spent 14  on some change and i got quite a few vegetables   i got of course the loaf of bread that i like at  walmart i got some rice and beans but i did get   small packs of those this week i'm just trying to  please myself i'm trying to please my own palette   sometimes when i do these uh extreme grocery  challenges i'm trying to get as many meals as   possible with the idea that there's a family that  um it you know is trying to get all of those meals   this week i didn't feel any pressure whatsoever  because i was trying to please myself now i did   pick up these two uh ramens uh apparently walmart  is going to be replacing maruchan with this brand   of panda signature ramen i did want to try that um  and i thought it would be a good idea to have the   other brand also on hand just in case i needed an  emergency meal as it turns out i had so much food   that i didn't even try those so maybe i'll work  on those next time um because i would like to try   that panda uh brand of of ramen since walmart's  gonna be carrying that i did get a large thing   of cilantro the potatoes i got five tomatoes  i felt really good about that i've got garlic   i even had uh managed to get cheese so um yeah  i'm super happy broccoli i eat a lot of broccoli   spinach eggs and i picked up the frozen bag of  peppers one of my viewers told me about that   at the dollar tree and so i picked  that up when i was at the dollar tree and to start off the video i'm going to show you  my poached egg breakfast this probably is the   meal that i'm most proud of i've been wanting  to master poached eggs for a while and i just   haven't gotten it down i recently watched a video  where they show you how to make this by adding   vinegar to the water and i thought i'd give that  a shot first i went ahead and drained the eggs   to get just a little bit of the excess off and  then added about a tablespoon of vinegar to the   boiling water and then i went ahead and made um as  best i could i made a little bit of a swirly and   in the middle now my pan wasn't that full of water  so i wasn't actually sure if this was going to   work very well or if i needed to add some more  water but i went ahead and gave it a shot with   my first egg and this egg is actually kind of  small but as you can see it stayed together   and it cooked very nicely now what i  did as soon as i dropped the egg in   is i went ahead and turned  my timer on for three minutes   and pulled it out right after three minutes and  it was just to the consistency that i wanted and i'm using the sesame   french bread that i like to purchase at walmart  so i just toasted that in my toaster oven and then i'm actually going to top it  with two eggs because they're quite small   the one on the left especially and  then i'm going to top it just with some   maldon sea salt flakes and ground peppercorn or whatever's left of the pepper and i'm so excited it feels  like it's going to be perfect okay i feel really pleased with myself it's a  small a small feat but for some reason i just   i tried a couple times and then i just kind  of didn't try anymore that there used to be a   restaurant in vegas that i ate at in the  paris hotel and they served the most beautiful   poached eggs and ever since i ate  there i've been wanting to do it myself   and i wanted to i grabbed my camera at the end  when i was eating this because i just wanted you   to hear i wanted you to hear the crunch on this  bread and the bread is chewy as well but let me   show you this is just the perfect bite it was  really good you guys so good i hope you try that and next up i'm making a tostada i absolutely  love mexican food and when i'm cooking for myself   i do tend to eat a lot of it i basically  have all of the ingredients that i need   except for lettuce and i'm going to  use spinach in the place of lettuce   i went ahead and soaked my beans overnight and  instead of making the whole the whole container   i just used about half of it because i do  prefer my beans to be fresh and i just went   ahead and mashed them a little bit and i fried  up a tortilla shell and then i'm just going to   spread out the refried beans on there and  these beans were delicious i really did have   difficulty deciding whether i wanted to get  a large can of rosarita refried beans or not   because i can sit there and eat right out  of the can and that can will last me you   know pretty much a whole week doing tacos and  tostadas and things like that that's how much   i love those refried beans but i did make these  myself and they were tasty i have i have shown   in my videos before how i make my refried beans um  but this time i i didn't do that i just basically   uh you know put them in the crock pot made them  with a little bit of salt and then mashed them   and they were absolutely delicious and  here i'm just putting on the cilantro   diced tomatoes and spinach and i am saving  my avocado so i'm not going to be putting any   on this um and i wasn't sure how the  spinach would be actually on the tostada   but um it is definitely more nutritious and  then i just put a little bit of salt and pepper   obviously if you've got some sharp cheddar or  something like that or some louisiana hot sauce   this crystal i love that or la victoria usually we  we eat that with our mexican food i'm actually not   going to be eating this with anything but that was  just to show you what would have been delicious on   there i'm just going to eat it just like this i  love this meal the spinach was great on it it's   not quite as crunchy as romaine lettuce would be  but it's really good i i definitely recommend it next up i'm going to be making egg bites and i'm  going to be making enough for two mornings what   i plan to do is put them in the freezer and then  i can just microwave them now one of my viewers   told me about these uh pep the pepper stir fry  at the dollar tree and i picked this up uh i had   asked some of you for ideas for stir fry for egg  stir fry and she gave me this idea and i've been   wanting to use these ever since and i'm just going  to kind of heat them up and let them release some   of the water and i'm going to throw the spinach  in there as well i'm gonna make two varieties   i'm gonna make spinach and sun-dried tomato egg  bites and then i'm gonna make cheese and these   roasted peppers whatever you want to call them  the bell peppers and onions mixture i'm going to   add that in with the slices of cheese that we have  and i'll make two two muffins for each breakfast   i'm just going to spray my pan and pour a little  bit of the egg mixture in there and i think i did i think i did either three or four eggs these  are the sun-dried tomatoes that i made i've   done this in another video they're super easy  to make so i just took a couple roma tomatoes   and i tossed them in olive oil and  i baked them at a really low heat   for a couple of hours i think it's 250 degrees  and you get these nice sweet sun-dried tomatoes   so i'm just gonna add a couple of  those into two of the egg muffins and then i'm gonna take the spinach then i  got all of the water out and then i'm gonna load that in there i did salt my eggs as  well so you want to make sure when you're   whisking your eggs up that you put the  salt in there at that time and i'm just   going to put the peppers and these peppers  smelled so delicious when they were cooking you know i've never really used these in in  cooking before and i don't know why this is   why i like to have you guys give me ideas  because um that's just one of those things i   i don't know why i hadn't been cooking with it  but i absolutely loved the way this turned out   and this cheese is was a really good value and   i will put do the same thing that i did  with my last video i will put the prices   and the uh the grocery list in the description  so if you want to just copy and paste if you   need it for something you can do you can do  that it's a little bit easier and then i've   got a little bit of egg mixture left over now  i will say in hindsight i had plenty of eggs so   for the week so i could have  used a little bit more here   or i could have made made more muffins but  as it turns out when you bake these they do   swell up quite a bit and two two of  the muffins were plenty plenty for me   and then i'm just gonna use my toaster oven  you guys know i use this for everything and i   actually don't even know what i cooked  that at probably probably 350 and it   really didn't take very long so probably about i  would just check it you can tell when they're done   and this is how they turned out and then i'm just  putting them in this plastic bag and i'm going to   put them in the the freezer and then that way  i can just pull them out and microwave them so for one of my lunches i was  running a little bit short on time   and i didn't know really even what i wanted to  eat i plan to make this quesadilla for a snack   but i thought i'll just put this together really  fast i had all of the items and so i was just   able to chop up the tomatoes really quick and  i made the quesadilla and i have to say anytime   i'm eating avocados cilantro and tomatoes it  doesn't feel like i'm eating on a budget it   feels you know luxurious like i'm eating the way  i normally want to eat this is food that i love   to eat and the fact that i can do it you know  on 14 15 bucks a week is is incredible so far   i've had an awesome week of really good eats  and it just yeah it makes me super happy to   be saving money so anyway i did have uh food  in the fridge for a burrito i didn't know if   this would fill me up but after eating it i was  perfectly satisfied and it was really delicious   and now i'm making one of my favorite breakfasts  and i'm trying to make this one avocado   last as long as it possibly can so i'm going to  take a little bit and just mash it up and make   myself some avocado toast i i don't typically  have a very big appetite in the morning so i   tend to eat a little bit smaller size breakfast  and and then normal sized lunches and dinners   um but this this is the perfect portion for  me and there's something about maybe the   the healthy fats that make it  you know to where i can actually   get to lunchtime although i do normally if when  i'm working i do normally have a little bit of   a snack at 10 o'clock even if it's just a banana  or something like that and that was pretty much   what i did with my bananas this week is a  lot of times i would have a half a banana   but i love this everything but the bagel there's  a dif a few different stores trader joe's has one   and there's other stores that have them now  if you don't have this in your pantry just   use garlic salt is fine you could also take some  of the garlic that we purchased and you could you   know fry it up and then put it on the top i did  serve this with a hard boiled egg and this this   was actually kind of a large breakfast sometimes  i just have one one of the pieces of toast but   yeah again this doesn't feel like i'm i'm not  missing out on anything this is like this is the   best breakfast ever and then like like i said for  this for this day i had that banana for my snack i just want you to hear the crunch just  if there's any other foodies out there   you need to know that i love  this bread and you should too   so if you haven't tried it it's just i  mean it's only a dollar at walmart so   i think it's a really phenomenal deal i actually  make a lot of things out of that bread i it makes   a great fried egg sandwich i didn't make a fried  egg sandwich on this video i had planned on doing   that but i i just didn't get around to it because  i did have so many different kinds of breakfast on   hand already but if you want to see the video i  have with the friday sandwich it is down in the   um i'll link it so for my lunch one day i  decided to make a grilled cheese sandwich   and just a simple vegetable soup with some of the  ingredients that i had i went ahead and used half   of a potato and i used my bullion for the broth  and i just cut up some of the smaller pieces   of the bread now obviously if you want to have  bigger slices you can cut it on the diagonal and   it gives you a bigger a bigger sandwich but i did  want to have a big bowl of the soup with this and   i was in a hurry i feel like i've been running  all week actually i did work six days this week   and some days i was actually working  nine hours and so trying to film and   prepare my meals was a little bit tough  at times and i think i was trying to   speed everything along by cooking at a higher  temperature so uh yeah i don't know it just got   kind of crazy there for a little bit but this was  delicious i always do love these vegetable soups   um you could put the macaroni in there as well  or you could put rice if you want a heartier   soup but it was perfect for me i i thought it was  delicious i made sun-dried tomatoes with three of   the tomatoes i just tossed them with some oil and  baked them at 250 degrees for about three hours   and i plan to use those with my spaghetti  dish to add a lot of extra flavor   and then for one of the breakfasts i used a half  a potato just made some hash browns and put a   little garlic salt on those fried those up and  then i took two eggs i started with one egg but   i actually needed two eggs i put a little bit  of water to make them a little bit fluffier   whisk them up and then just put those in  a pan and then i put a little bit of the   cheese on there and the cheese was really good i i  really like this cheese it was inexpensive and it   um it was really creamy and then i just made a  breakfast burrito by putting the potatoes down   topping it with the egg mixture and then slicing  it in half and this was really filling in fact it   it was a bigger breakfast  than i usually like to eat   kind of wish i would have made it a little bit  smaller but it was really tasty i enjoyed it okay this was one of my favorite meals that i  made this week in fact i'm still thinking about   it it starts with a little bit of rice and i'm  gonna use uh about half of the rice that i have   and i'm just going to get this going in the  rice cooker and if you watch my channel you   already know uh that i do put a little bit of  bullion vegetable bullion in with the rice as   it's cooking gives it a little bit of extra flavor  and especially for this dish it really added to   the flavor and basically what i'm making now are  what we call chipotle bowls i won't be having any   chicken in it but i will be having rice beans  spinach and pretty much all of the toppings   but as you can see my beans are nice and fresh  and this is exactly the way i like them so for   the toppings i've got the cilantro i've got  an avocado i'm going to use one full tomato   and i've also going to be using spinach  in place of where i normally use lettuce   so i'm just going to wash the cilantro and chop  a good portion up i i love the teeth the fresh   taste of cilantro in pretty much any dish i can  slide it into in fact my son made chili he made   chili last week and we put cilantro in it and it  was really good we put the the cilantro with the   tortilla strips on top of chili and it was just  it was it was fabulous anyhow i'm gonna chop up   or i already did chop up rather the tomatoes  rather small and then i'm gonna i'm trying   to portion out this avocado so i'm just  cutting a small portion to use for a topping i want to show you my sun-dried tomatoes  these are what how they turned out   i'm really proud of those actually they're  going to add a lot of flavor to my dishes   so what i was going to say is it's really  important when you're doing this that every little   ingredient is fresh and exactly the way you like  it and i'm just going to start with a cup of the   the seasoned rice and then we're going to add on  to this we're going to add the pinto beans on top and then i'm just going to  start layering the ingredients corn goes really good with this dish and if you  wanted to put some sweet onions in there that   would be good as well pretty much anything  that you have on hand that you like to eat   will go nicely in this bowl um i love this  this was so delicious and i ate i over ate   these bowls are actually really really huge  and so i know if i fill this up then i'm gonna   my tummy is gonna be flowing by the time i'm  done but it just was so delicious and it just   it's fresh good healthy food for you and you  know it didn't need any salsa it didn't eat any   anything it just it was tasty in fact like i said  i'm still thinking about it um i think i might   want to make this again uh in the next day or two  and you know the spinach is it's healthier for you   it wasn't as crispy uh like i said  before as lettuce is but it was delicious   and here's my last dinner of the week and maybe  one of my favorites as well i was so excited   to use my sun dry tomatoes you know you really  appreciate something so much more when you have   a limited quantity or when you're working to make  it yourself and that's the way i feel about these   sundried tomatoes and um i was thinking when  i was making this i used to watch uh actually   i was about 19. i used to get off of work at  late at night and i'd come home and i'd watch   a nick stelino and he would cook he had a italian  cooking channel i think at that time it was on pbs   but i used to love to watch him make his italian  dishes and i've had such a love of italian cooking   and probably because i i was a vegetarian  for many years and i was able to you know   eat a lot of good food being a vegetarian it  just kind of lends itself to that pretty well   but anyhow i i was thinking about this  and i watched him again the other day   and i like watching him now just as much as i did  back then but anyway for this dish i'm gonna make   spaghetti with sun-dried tomatoes lots  and lots of garlic and spinach and   most of the flavor is gonna come from  the garlic and the sun-dried tomatoes   we're going to go ahead and start by  putting the garlic in the in some oil   and then i'm going to get all of the water out  of the spinach and cook my pasta to al dente and   have uh the water heavily salted that you're  going to be cooking the pasta in and i'm   not even gonna be gonna be using half of the  spaghetti so when i'm cooking any kind of   pasta i always keep my pasta water right there  so that if i need to thicken my sauce or make   an addition to the sauce i can just  spoon some of the starchy water in   and it always mixes really well and blends nicely  but in this case i felt like it was it was perfect   just the way it was with the right amount of  liquid i have to say this was really tasty it just   had such a wonderful flavor and those  sun-dried tomatoes were delicious and i love   having the spinach in there you  know i had had that at a restaurant   like this and i think it was made with linguine  and i think it also had pine nuts in it but it was   really good i think i would start adding spinach  to my dish from here on out actually because i'm   always trying to get a little bit more spinach  in my diet because i know it's so healthy for you   and there's a lot of ways like this that you can  sneak it in and it definitely tastes different   than when you um like for the chipotle bowls  that had a completely different consistency   but this was really fabulous and i didn't eat all  of it because this again this is a these are some   pretty big bowls that i'm putting it in um i had  a little bit left and i'm thinking about making   a frittata tomorrow with it  so we'll see how that goes this pasta was only 25 cents and when i purchased  it i figured i would use about half of it to put   in a soup of some kind and maybe another half  for macaroni and cheese and that's what i'm going   to make right now just make it up as a snack  and i'm using the cheese that i've got and i i   reserve some of the pasta water the same way i did  with the spaghetti in order to make it nice and   creamy and a better a thicker sauce  and i have to say it was really   really super creamy but i i felt  like it lacked a little bit of flavor   and i think if a kid was you know a little kids  or something i was eating this they may love it   and maybe somebody that loves macaroni and cheese  more than i do would also love it but i tend to   like my cheeses a little bit sharper so i can't  say that i enjoyed it that much but it was creamy it would have been great too to use that other  half of the macaroni for a quick macaroni salad   probably most people have in their pantry a  little bit of mayonnaise and mustard and maybe   maybe a few pickles and that would have just been  perfect for like i said for a macaroni salad but   yeah this is not doing it for me but i do have  one of the surprise meals of the video coming up   i was mentioning nick stelino  earlier and i remember watching him   make a spaghetti frittata and um that's  what i'm going to go ahead and make   right now with my leftover spaghetti and i just  whipped up a couple of eggs and i actually forgot   that i needed to spray this so i had to transfer  the eggs back out and then i'm just going to pour   in the spaghetti mixture that i had left over all  of that yummy flavor is going to be in there so   i'm not going to really have to season anything  i'm just going to put that in there and then i'm   going to pour in a couple of eggs now typically  frittata is made and and cooked in a cast iron   skillet and it's a really beautiful dish but  uh when it's i'm just cooking for myself uh   i just grabbed this little um container that  i had that i can put in my in my little oven frittatas are good for either breakfast lunch  or dinner or even a midnight snack and they will   accommodate pretty much anything you want to put  in them typically they do put heavy cream in them   along with eggs cheese meat and vegetables and  obviously some nice grated parmesan or something   like that or even a sharper cheese like feta i  would love to have feta in here or you know maybe   even a goat cheese that would be delicious but i  do have to say this was so good i actually did not   expect it to be as yummy as it was and i gave it  to everybody in the house and everybody thought   this was just i don't i don't know why i haven't  been making this already and to think that i   discovered this little gem uh when i was trying to  eat on 15 this week is just crazy uh i do not feel   like i have gone without at all but anyway you on  you basically uh put this out on a plate if you   were making a bigger one uh you know you would do  the same thing and then you're just gonna cut it   in pie pie like slices and then and then serve it  that way again i was just making this for myself   so it's it's like a miniature frittata uh you  could also do this obviously if you didn't want   to put the spaghetti in there if you had some  leftover vegetables just throw those in but i   really like that i use the leftover spaghetti  because it had all of that flavor in there and   i don't think it would have been as delicious if  i didn't have the sun-dried tomatoes and garlic   and all of that in there so i think it's really  a nice application for the leftover spaghetti i do hope you guys try try this if you haven't  already it's just so easy and when we're doing   these budget challenges we do always have eggs  on hand so this just makes it really super easy   to make a little frittata  out of just a couple eggs and i do have some basil on hand so more for  presentation than anything i think the flavor is   already spot on so but for for the presentation  i'm just gonna sprinkle some over the top   i also made some egg fried rice for lunches and  i didn't film it because i've already made that   on my channel so if you would like to know how to  do that i will put a link to that video down below thanks so much for watching if you like my channel  please do subscribe and i'll see you next week

Channel: Ardent Michelle

Views: 206,982

Keywords: eat for $2 a day, eat for 2 dollars a day, extreme grocery budget challenge, grocery budget challenge, eating on a budget, how to save money on groceries, walmart grocery haul, aldi grocery haul, budget challenge, grocery challenge, frugal, budget grocery haul, feeding a family on a budget, food haul on a budget, eating for 10 a week, eating for $10 a week, ardent michelle, saving money on groceries, how to save money, budget meal plan, extreme grocery budget

Id: 0oKYkRCHBAw

Length: 29min 35sec (1775 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 07 2021