9/10 for the food, 8/10 for the video. I would've liked to see a breakdown summary at the end, listing each of the meals and how many people they fed. That would really help visualize how far the $50 went.
$50 USD into 2 baked items spread into other meals, 2 snacks for kids, and 6 unique meals. I'd say that's a 10. Blows my mind how far $50 can stretch when you get creative and know how to push the ingredients to the limit.
This might not be for everyone, but sometime I will add cabbage to my soup to give it a fun texture. If you're recreating the soup, you could some of the cabbage that was left at the end in the soup.
I'm reading this comment right as I'm eating Moldovan borș (or borsch as it's known in other countries). The version my family makes has no meat, with the cabbage being the main star (+ it has beans, potatoes and herbs). I'd recommend giving it a go :)
You could do so much with cabbage! Sour Kraut, add to soup, add to frittata. Char with drizzle of honey as a side, fry with spices, add to pasta. Should I propose more? 😅
I am a single retired nurse living on a limited income ..a social security check once a month. I loved this video. I grew up in a family of 6 children, most everything we ate was made from scratch. Thanks for the ideas and information, this will help me have some healthy food on a very limited budget 🌷
Something to think about with leftover cabbage: shredded fried cabbage with red pepper flakes and garlic. My husband and I were introduced to it living in China and I still make for him 10 years later living back home in Canada.
When I have leftover potatoes 🥔 (ie mashed) and 1/3 or 1/2 head cabbage, I like to make Bubble & Squeak...it's like a cast iron skillet leftover casserole. You can toss in some leftover meat, but if I don't have any, I don't miss it...lots of cheese pulls it together. 😋
I love this! As a chronically single person, I find it difficult to not be wasteful, while also sticking to a budget and keeping it healthy, all while trying not to get bored with the same few meals I rotate through. This gave me a bunch of new ideas! Please keep this series going!
Like to see a spring Mediterranean challenge. Not sure how long butternut squash is going to be available w/in metro areas. So ideally need at least 1 challenge per season based on ingredients being slightly cheaper when they r in season vs not.
omg PLEASE do more of these! getting to see you stretch your creativity is one of the BEST PARTS. but also, of course, the limited budget and seeing how many meals you can get out of it.
Cooking with whatever you have left in the fridge and pantry and freezer is fun. It allows you to flex those creativity muscles. You should do these videos more often. Good job 🎉
Loved the bread crumb topping for the mac and cheese - a great use of the items. I also loved the Spanish Potato, Onion and Egg omelet. You hit a home run with this show and it gives me the knowledge to use up random items that I would have else wise thrown out.
This was really fun to watch! I hope you do more of these and maybe add onto the challenge. Like $50 plus you’re only allowed a certain amount of time to prep & cook each meal. Or $50 plus limited equipment (like only using equipment that would be available in an average dorm room).
this was amazing, watching this i can see how many people who don't have much, and very little experience in cooking can see what you can make with just these items. thank you, you re an inspiration for all of us struggling today with the food prices so high.
For a really delicious winter pasta dish, you can use butternut squash to make the winter equivalent of a tomato sauce. I saw a recipe for it, tried it recently & it came out sensational!! Cook up some sausage, reserve it and fry onions and garlic in the sausage fat. Add butternut squash and stock, cook until the squash is tender and partly mash it up with the immersion blender, like you did for your soup. Add cooked pasta, some pasta water, the sausage and a tiny bit of butter, emulsify into a sauce, serve up with permesan and a roasted pumpkin seed topping.
I also love being challenged due to budget. It's fun! I had to get super creative when I had 2 teenage step sons and our main source of income was lost for a while. If I at least had a box of pasta, olive oil and butter, and some fresh herbs in my garden, I could always fill everyone's belly. I'd also get my chicken only on sale and stock up. Most of the time, I could always find something tasty for the side, even if it was garlic bread made from a loaf I had made. I love your ideas!
Learning to make something out of whatever it is you have in your kitchen is the most essential home cooking skill. This is such an important topic, especially for people who do not have unlimited resources. In fact, this could be a regular subject of any cooking show that couldn’t get traction. Glad you decided to touch on it. 😊
I would love to see a similar video, but feeding your family for a whole week and what you make/spend! I have a 1.5 year old and my husband and i struggle trying to keep it cheap, creative, and easy! Thanks for the inspo!
Love this. Healthy and home made is what separates your budget videos from most of the rest on TH-cam. Your’s and Josh’s budget videos is how I found this channel. You guys taught me how to cook and freestyle bake. 💖
Okay, even someone who has cooked for over 50 years can be inspired. Thanks! Tonight I'm making sheet pan black bean tacos, with cabbage slaw filling and topped with guacamole from an avodaco I have left. Sometimes I get tired, sometimes I get inspired.
9/10. I agree with one of the other comments about adding a longer summary of the meals and how many people it fed. I haven't seen any comments complaining about you adding a couple small things here and there. I personally think you stuck to it pretty good. But if there ARE people out there that are nitpicking, all they have to do is buy slightly cheaper ingredients and boom, more money to get the dang sugar. LOL This actually has inspired me to do this. We're on a super tight budget, and on top of that there's been more food waste than usual. I need to get my ass back in gear on this stuff, and I think this might have given me the motivation.
I would definitely say this performance was on 10! Like for sure! It is amazing how many great things can be done from a relatively small list of ingredients. For next time, could you insert like a summary of all you made? Like a list on the screen, having a list of all things made would be pretty impressive to see next to the ingredients you bought :)
i know its not the same but if check the description, there's a link to the individual costs of the items as well as timestamps to each meal made listed out... hope this helps
8/10. Great vid. Honestly about the rue was comindable. I would have liked a picture at the end of all of the meals that could have been Photoshopped together. Do you have a staple pantry video. With the seasonings and other items? Could you have pickled the cabbage
That cabagge could've been a nice salad with some salt, pepper, oil and vinegar. It would've tasted really fresh alongside the pasta. Also, in my country we make pasta with fried cabbage, you saute the cabagge until it's brown and sweet and add cooked pasta in it. You can also add some sausages. It tastes like heaven ❤
I would love a video were you show spice blends that you do. Like your go to spice mixes for roasted veggies, meats and chicken and some crazy blends. (Ofc salt and pepper is nice and simple but sometimes you want more spices)
Great job! Hint for others: make Thursdays or whatever day you wish into "leftover day". 6 days of leftovers should yield a full meal. Planning meals that fit into this leftover scheme can be inspiring❤
I'm feeling an 8.5 to a 9. Rules were stretched a bit, but some of the product, esp. that last meal when you basically had just a bunch of leftovers, was pretty epic.
Great video! I always forget the cabbage in winter dishes. One of my most loved veggies is the celery. Once you add it to a chilli or pasta sauce it just gets significantly better. Quite cheap for the amount of flavour you get.
I remember mum making this in the 1970's - she called it a "Spanish omelette" though - probably a result of her travels to Spain as a young adult. I still make it to this day. It is a cheap, really satisfying meal.
@@charlottetooth1457 in Spain it is called tortilla de patatas or simply tortilla española to differentiate it from tortilla francesa = pure egg omelette
I cried a little when he added cheese to the tortilla 🥲. Also, please peal those potatoes and use olive oil. But I’m happy to see this dish on the channel
I give you a 10/10, but of course I also give myself 10/10 because I live like this all the time cuz I'm poor and refuse to waste any food box or purchased food. People tell me I am the most imaginative cook they know and stuff always turns out - if not absolutely killer then at least creative and edible. Good job!
Man! I'm so glad I found your channel! I'm 62 and had to take early retirement because of a wound on my ankle that has refused to heal... 😢 lol, Anyway, fixed Income and my five rescue pups, work together to make for a really tight budget. Personally, I think you did fantastic on your challenge and you picked a favorite cuisine of mine! Got to explore your videos. 👍
WOW! I always knew I saved more when cooking at home (I try to cook 4-5 meals a week), but the way you did this challenge blew me away. One of my problems is that I don't have the vision or ideas on what to do with the items. I need recipes. I would definitely give you a 10/10. I am so thankful our three girls followed in my footsteps and eat at home most nights too. I would have liked to see each meal listed with the ingredients used, kind of like a visual. Thank you for doing this.
To be honest, i was going to settle with a 8.5/10. The idea to process some of the soup incredients and then add it back to get that consistency was genius. However, after that final dish i will easily say this was a SOLID 9.7/10.
You make it so easy 😭. I appreciate and learn from every video. Thank you for every recipe. It’s not about the money nor the items one buys. It’s about how to put all the ingredients to use. Every video is amazing 😋
I have been watching your videos for the past 5 years. I started with your video, "Pimp My Kitchen - Organize Your Small Space" that got randomly suggested to me.While I enjoy watching you cook, a lot of the time, I don't what you cook to be relateable in the sense of something I would cook for myself or my family. But I loved all of these meals.
Here I am, frantically taking notes (awesome recipes❤) and I hear this cute "omnomnom". Made my day ☺️ I am making the last recipe tonight. Literally have a small chunk of the last of my homemade bread from your recipe. Mine was a little hard (my fault for not kneading it thoroughly). Killed it with this one 🙌
I feel like I do this challenge every week. Not the $50 budget- but finding ways to creatively use up what’s left in the fridge. Hate wasting food. That cabbage probably would have kept until you needed it for something else. Hope the chickens enjoyed it 😊
This is a 7 for me. I love these budget cooking concepts and I found this video very entertaining! But I always find it a bit challenging when there is a rule of "I can use X from my pantry because I'm only using Y cents worth." If you're positioning the video as being about reducing food waste (which you stated - but then it should be about "what can I make with these ingredients" and not about the budget) then you're good. But for people who are seeking inspiration on how to work within a budget because *that's all they have* then they're not going to necessarily have a random spice here and there, the pint of oil you used in this video, etc etc. I'd love to see this challenge as a series where video 1 is one such that you're buying those staples and not using all of them so someone following along COULD have those pantry items in week 2 or 3 or 4 of the challenge. Maybe getting the spices from the bulk section where you ARE only getting a few cents at a time could also fit.
When I was building a new pantry on a strict budget, I bought a few pantry staples and an herb or spice that was on sale over a period of weeks and built meals around them. I began with a good bottle of olive oil, mustard seed, honey, garlic, onion, and ginger, then sage, thyme, rosemary, coriander, cumin, and more as needed from there. It really depends what foods someone most enjoys which would be first for building a new pantry from scratch. I was also fortunate to be able to grow some aromatics and have a vegetable garden, which took so much pressure off of tight budget meals. We all have to figure out what works for us.
Very nice video and so many cool Ideas. When I want to be "full" but don't want to gain weight, boiling those cabbages and making a salad out of it is a very good alternative, I sometimes eat it with some salt.
My best friend and I do the same thing. We're always sending each other pics of what we made with whatever ingredients are left behind, we both dislike wasting food so out comes the creative side. I'm giving you 9.75/10 because I believe there's always room for improvement. Love a good torta but that mac tho!
Awesome video. My best takeaways were browning the beef longer for flavor, having one flavor profile in mind, those smashed plantain in the air fryer (soooo easy) look so delicious, and your baked goods to set you up for the week. Everything looks so delicious. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experiences with us, I have been enjoying your content for years now and always learn something.
Mike's great and all but Josh was the one who inspired me to get into cooking. Dude was really passionate about it. He's got his own channel @YouEnjoyLife
What a throwback! I remember seeing them both on some random show with Sean Evans and discovering their channel/this one now has legit gotten me through college, not to mention made me a lot of friends by knowing how to cook without recipes
Especially since it's just half a pound of Penne. In Germany I can get 500g for like 2€ if I buy a brand like De Cecco. Non Brand products are less than half of that
this reminds me of the type of cooking that I had to do this past week for our family with 6 kids and grandparents at an AIRBNB! With only limited pantry/spices we had to cook with the groceries we bought, and try to use everything up before we left (cause we didnt want to travel home with much) - the creativity is so FUN!
I will say, I respect your creativeness in writing video concepts, not that this video was super original in itself but it's boring when one food youtuber starts a trend and everybody follows it so for two weeks all the food youtubers will have videos about the same stuff. I appreciate the quality of your videos while retaining the feel of originality every time.
This was so amazing. Loved what you created. Reminded me of the earlier days of you and your brother living together and doing challenges. I hope he is well.
Dishes: 7/10. They looked good. I would definitely enjoy them, but they didn't blow my socks off. Doability: 9/10. I don't have your skills, so I don't think I would get the same results, but they looked very doable. Creativity: 11/10. Wow! The way you put things together was amazing! I will try to remember to think outside the (recipe) box a little more when creating meals. Great video! Thank you for the inspiration!
10/10 super inspiring for me, I always struggle on those days where ingredients have dwindled before grocery day. It’s really hard to be motivated in the kitchen when you’re the family cook, it feels more like a job than getting creative and things can get a little repetitive but this has definitely given me inspiration thank you!
And sesame seeds, yeast, sugar, oil spray and normal oil, to name a few but not all that weren't included in the price. It's depressing how expensive everything is these days.
Keep in mind some of this cost would be offset by buying things store brand amd conventionally grown: instead of name brand organic (like the 2 cups of precooked beans from thrive... i get he needed to plug his sponsor, but they're too pricey.)... and he could have used chicken eggs from the yard... and bananas are cheaper per pound than butternut squash. But ya... it's depressing.
love this, this is basically how i try to cook, especially the "welllll let's see if it works" like the squash mac. makes sense considering this is one of the channel's i've been watching to improve my cooking for ages now lol
I thought you did very well. On the last recipe I was like what is he going to do with that slice of bread, cilantro and whatever else that was you threw in to your food processor. Then when you sprinkled it on top of the Mac and cheese and baked it and pulled it out of the oven I was like ..whoahhhhhhhhh that was genius and looked so delicious. You did a great job. I am making that soup for sure. And being that the cost of living for most folks has substantially increased as our pay has stagnated this was a very appropriate and inspiring episode. I have been trying to make lunches and breakfasts for my hubby to take to work each day to save money and this gives me new ideas so he doesn't get bored. You get a 10!!🎉
In Spanish we don’t say Torta, it sounds weird. It’s “tortilla” the same word as flour tortillas for tacos, I guess the correct translation should be Spanish omelette. Great video, I love this kind of experimentation in the kitchen with what ever you happed to have left
Love the approach of no food waste. It can really help the environment and your wallet with the cost of groceries these days. I've love to see it again with a more veggie-heavy grocery bag next time. I try to minimize carbs and starches where I can and load up of veggies instead for nutrients.
I am so incredibly impressed! I am not thrilled about butternut squash, but the meals looked really good. The most impressive for me was the Mac & Cheese with the topping. That truly put the meal over the top! Definitely gave me some great ideas, I truly appreciate you!!!
Excellent, really enjoyed watching the dishes you created especially as ingredients began to diminish. As you rightly said it’s key to have an idea as to what style of cooking you’re intending to create as this will keep waste to a minimum. Loved the Spanish omelette and the pastes dish is definitely one to try. It would be great to make a series of these videos Mike as so many of us would benefit from the no waste, limited budget menu for both the singletons amongst us as well as for families needing to cook to a budget while keeping things interesting. Great episode as usual.
I would LOVE to see you do a ground beef challenge. How many new, and creative meals can you make with ground beef as the protein? We buy our beef once a year from a local rancher and as the year closes and we’ve used up all the steaks and roasts I am always banging my head against the wall trying to find interesting ways to utilize the ground beef.
A focus on a single ingredient made many ways is an interesting idea. Off the top of my head have you already tried: meatballs in various sauces (tomato, cream, cheese, pesto, sweet, pepper-based, etc) with different veggies (mushrooms, spinach, zucchini, squash, onions) in the meatballs to ensure they are moist and stretch the meat, stuffed peppers, cabbage or grape leaves, rice or noodles casseroles, "pot pie" style with veggies and gravy topped with pie crust, biscuits, or cornbread, cheeseburger casserole, "cheese steak" egg rolls, lettuce wraps, tacos, burritos, enchiladas, quesadillas, cooked into pancake or waffle batter, added to biscuit dough in a muffin tin with cheese, mushrooms, onions or whatever you like on a burger, added to Spanish omelette or frittata, fried rice, breaded patties and saute or bake served with gravy and biscuits, served over a salad with caramelized onions and thousand island or honey mustard dressing, dirty rice with beans of choice, lasagna, moussaka, raviolis, canoloni with spinach, pasticcio?
Loved this video! As a SAHM and the main cook in the family, it is so important for me to use up every ingredient. I make soups all the time (it is a Polish custom to eat soup as a first course) and that soup looked very delicious! Love all the kid options it gave me more ideas to try !
in Germany it is also very common to start a meal with soup. In no way is it considered old people's food ! You get a delicious variety of soups also in fine dining restaurants.
I love this format, and I hope you do more of these! I cook like this a lot--looking at what I have in the fridge and figuring out what to make from there. I feel like I don't use up things quick enough and elements go bad. Hearing your thought process, especially for unconventional recipes, is very inspiring. 9/10
I love challenging myself on grocery budgets due to inflation. Your "use it all" method is amazing. I learn so much from you. That last pasta dish rocks!
This i give an absolute 10!! Thank u for the inspiration and your 1st videos glimpse of the whole emty refrigerator challenge not to waste food and gives your creativity a challenge ❤❤ God bless you and your beautiful family
9/10. Gotta say I love that you were able to feed your kids as well which is who this type of video might be useful for, a parent on a budget. Had to take away the one point because you could’ve fermented the cabbage. But amazing!
I love budget cooking. Always gives an excuse to get creative. Also, saving money is good. I'd love to do more baking on my own, but the inertia to actually do it is unreal. I give that loaf of bread a 10/10.
Impressive, 10/10 for using everything. I'm inspired to try this. I'm not very good at not having waste. I'm trying so hard to be better and your video has given me so many ideas and inspiration
Rating on how many dishes you could make with a $50 budget, I would say a 5. You could have doubled the amount of meals depending on the food choices. But eating in creativity is definitely a 10! You always excite me to get back in the kitchen with your inspiration and creative dishes. 🤗
You can take bits of produce like that cabbage and either ferment them and make things like quick saurkraut or kimchi or do a quick stirfry or do a quick pickle if you have vinegar and use that as a topping or as a salad dressing type deal.
It did inspire me to go into the kitchen and start cooking. Thanks Mike! I was kinda fed up with the content lately but this has brought back a spark I once got from yt cooking channels :)
Have you seen the book, Good and Cheap, by Leanne Brown? Her challenge was to work with what was a U.S. food stamp allotment of $4 a day. I enjoy the comparison between her father’s recipe for doctored canned baked beans, and her own baked beans using dry beans. The book also includes shopping and equipment recommendations.
9/10 for the food, 8/10 for the video. I would've liked to see a breakdown summary at the end, listing each of the meals and how many people they fed. That would really help visualize how far the $50 went.
That is exactly what I was thinking. I need all of the statistics.
For real I would have been fine without some of the cooking if he just showed stats great video though
i believe it was him his 2 girls and wife. my thing is the portions looked small. but this waa a great and fun video! great ideas to use in my future
THIS- I was waiting for the breakdown the whole time
noted for next time!
$50 USD into 2 baked items spread into other meals, 2 snacks for kids, and 6 unique meals. I'd say that's a 10. Blows my mind how far $50 can stretch when you get creative and know how to push the ingredients to the limit.
This why I never get how people say their 100$ pays for 2 days of food. They are obviously just buying the wrongs things
@@AdrionVolts this also takes hours of work. in the end the cost is the same whether you were getting paid to work instead of cooking.
@@iJukes it doesn't always take hours though
@@iJukesand some people enjoy cooking
With prices so high on everything, we need more inspiration like this!
Keep 'em coming
This might not be for everyone, but sometime I will add cabbage to my soup to give it a fun texture. If you're recreating the soup, you could some of the cabbage that was left at the end in the soup.
Portuguese soup always has cabbage 😅
if you have leftover lettuce. Same thing
I love using cabbage on dumpling or potsticker soups, soooo good!!
Because we do pozole with cabbage, that sounds fantastic to me.
I'm reading this comment right as I'm eating Moldovan borș (or borsch as it's known in other countries). The version my family makes has no meat, with the cabbage being the main star (+ it has beans, potatoes and herbs). I'd recommend giving it a go :)
You could do so much with cabbage! Sour Kraut, add to soup, add to frittata. Char with drizzle of honey as a side, fry with spices, add to pasta. Should I propose more? 😅
Yes! I thought the same. Tossing it to the chickens felt ... Not relatable to most people.
10
I am a single retired nurse living on a limited income ..a social security check once a month.
I loved this video. I grew up in a family of 6 children, most everything we ate was made from scratch.
Thanks for the ideas and information, this will help me have some healthy food on a very limited budget 🌷
Well maybe you shouldn't have been hoeing around and you wouldn't be alone.
Something to think about with leftover cabbage: shredded fried cabbage with red pepper flakes and garlic. My husband and I were introduced to it living in China and I still make for him 10 years later living back home in Canada.
It’s also killer with Roman noodles
Sounds like a fantastic low carb noodle substitute as well! Wife has PCOS so always looking for the low carb options
When I have leftover potatoes 🥔 (ie mashed) and 1/3 or 1/2 head cabbage, I like to make Bubble & Squeak...it's like a cast iron skillet leftover casserole. You can toss in some leftover meat, but if I don't have any, I don't miss it...lots of cheese pulls it together. 😋
heya! what do you fry it in
@@SadLittleClownGore my go to is always avocado oil
I love this! As a chronically single person, I find it difficult to not be wasteful, while also sticking to a budget and keeping it healthy, all while trying not to get bored with the same few meals I rotate through. This gave me a bunch of new ideas! Please keep this series going!
I was thinking the exact same thing!
Like to see a spring Mediterranean challenge. Not sure how long butternut squash is going to be available w/in metro areas. So ideally need at least 1 challenge per season based on ingredients being slightly cheaper when they r in season vs not.
omg PLEASE do more of these! getting to see you stretch your creativity is one of the BEST PARTS. but also, of course, the limited budget and seeing how many meals you can get out of it.
Especially with that mac and cheese 🤤👌
Cooking with whatever you have left in the fridge and pantry and freezer is fun. It allows you to flex those creativity muscles. You should do these videos more often. Good job 🎉
Loved the bread crumb topping for the mac and cheese - a great use of the items. I also loved the Spanish Potato, Onion and Egg omelet. You hit a home run with this show and it gives me the knowledge to use up random items that I would have else wise thrown out.
This was really fun to watch! I hope you do more of these and maybe add onto the challenge. Like $50 plus you’re only allowed a certain amount of time to prep & cook each meal. Or $50 plus limited equipment (like only using equipment that would be available in an average dorm room).
I love this idea! How bout $50 plus gluten and lactose free?
Just say you a poor college student lol.
10 love the recipes and you showing your kids actually eating it. That is a bonus!
this was amazing, watching this i can see how many people who don't have much, and very little experience in cooking can see what you can make with just these items. thank you, you re an inspiration for all of us struggling today with the food prices so high.
Definitely a 10/10. Great inspiration, especially with the cost of food constantly going up!
For a really delicious winter pasta dish, you can use butternut squash to make the winter equivalent of a tomato sauce. I saw a recipe for it, tried it recently & it came out sensational!! Cook up some sausage, reserve it and fry onions and garlic in the sausage fat. Add butternut squash and stock, cook until the squash is tender and partly mash it up with the immersion blender, like you did for your soup. Add cooked pasta, some pasta water, the sausage and a tiny bit of butter, emulsify into a sauce, serve up with permesan and a roasted pumpkin seed topping.
Great idea! You could just roast up the butternut squash seeds instead of buying a pumpkin seed topping. Cheaper and less waste!
That sounds amazing!
@ClaireRousseau: Where did you see the recipe?
@ClaireRousseau: Where did you see the recipe?
I also love being challenged due to budget. It's fun! I had to get super creative when I had 2 teenage step sons and our main source of income was lost for a while. If I at least had a box of pasta, olive oil and butter, and some fresh herbs in my garden, I could always fill everyone's belly. I'd also get my chicken only on sale and stock up. Most of the time, I could always find something tasty for the side, even if it was garlic bread made from a loaf I had made. I love your ideas!
Learning to make something out of whatever it is you have in your kitchen is the most essential home cooking skill. This is such an important topic, especially for people who do not have unlimited resources. In fact, this could be a regular subject of any cooking show that couldn’t get traction. Glad you decided to touch on it. 😊
Love these videos, Mike nails that trifecta of practicality, flavour, and economics for great family cooking
10/10!
I would love to see a similar video, but feeding your family for a whole week and what you make/spend! I have a 1.5 year old and my husband and i struggle trying to keep it cheap, creative, and easy! Thanks for the inspo!
10/10! Please do more of these budget challenges.
Love this. Healthy and home made is what separates your budget videos from most of the rest on TH-cam. Your’s and Josh’s budget videos is how I found this channel. You guys taught me how to cook and freestyle bake. 💖
Okay, even someone who has cooked for over 50 years can be inspired. Thanks! Tonight I'm making sheet pan black bean tacos, with cabbage slaw filling and topped with guacamole from an avodaco I have left. Sometimes I get tired, sometimes I get inspired.
9/10. I agree with one of the other comments about adding a longer summary of the meals and how many people it fed. I haven't seen any comments complaining about you adding a couple small things here and there. I personally think you stuck to it pretty good. But if there ARE people out there that are nitpicking, all they have to do is buy slightly cheaper ingredients and boom, more money to get the dang sugar. LOL This actually has inspired me to do this. We're on a super tight budget, and on top of that there's been more food waste than usual. I need to get my ass back in gear on this stuff, and I think this might have given me the motivation.
I would definitely say this performance was on 10! Like for sure! It is amazing how many great things can be done from a relatively small list of ingredients. For next time, could you insert like a summary of all you made? Like a list on the screen, having a list of all things made would be pretty impressive to see next to the ingredients you bought :)
i know its not the same but if check the description, there's a link to the individual costs of the items as well as timestamps to each meal made listed out... hope this helps
I was thinking the same. A nice overview of what was made at the end to recap would have made the video perfect!
8/10. Great vid. Honestly about the rue was comindable. I would have liked a picture at the end of all of the meals that could have been Photoshopped together. Do you have a staple pantry video. With the seasonings and other items? Could you have pickled the cabbage
That cabagge could've been a nice salad with some salt, pepper, oil and vinegar. It would've tasted really fresh alongside the pasta. Also, in my country we make pasta with fried cabbage, you saute the cabagge until it's brown and sweet and add cooked pasta in it. You can also add some sausages. It tastes like heaven ❤
I added just a similar comment - cabbage salad would have been nice addition to pasta :)
Nice Video!😊
The last third of cabbage could become an Korean vegetable pancake. Just mix flour, Water and salt to the cabbage and then fry in oil.
Love your dad energy, and your creativity! Thanks for the inspiration ❤
I would love a video were you show spice blends that you do. Like your go to spice mixes for roasted veggies, meats and chicken and some crazy blends. (Ofc salt and pepper is nice and simple but sometimes you want more spices)
10/10. Would love to see more of this concept.
Great job! Hint for others: make Thursdays or whatever day you wish into "leftover day". 6 days of leftovers should yield a full meal. Planning meals that fit into this leftover scheme can be inspiring❤
Your daughter is adorable!
I love videos that show how to prevent food waste.
I started out at a 3... but quickly went to 7 and finished at a 9... wonderfully done.. a masterful job..
I'm feeling an 8.5 to a 9. Rules were stretched a bit, but some of the product, esp. that last meal when you basically had just a bunch of leftovers, was pretty epic.
Great video! I always forget the cabbage in winter dishes. One of my most loved veggies is the celery. Once you add it to a chilli or pasta sauce it just gets significantly better. Quite cheap for the amount of flavour you get.
Spanish tortilla instead of torta. Torta would be like a flat sweet cake. Nice work!
Came to say this. It looks pretty legit though, minus the cheese. I’m going to have to make some this week!
I remember mum making this in the 1970's - she called it a "Spanish omelette" though - probably a result of her travels to Spain as a young adult. I still make it to this day. It is a cheap, really satisfying meal.
Tarta a papas
@@charlottetooth1457 in Spain it is called tortilla de patatas or simply tortilla española to differentiate it from tortilla francesa = pure egg omelette
I cried a little when he added cheese to the tortilla 🥲. Also, please peal those potatoes and use olive oil. But I’m happy to see this dish on the channel
I give you a 10/10, but of course I also give myself 10/10 because I live like this all the time cuz I'm poor and refuse to waste any food box or purchased food. People tell me I am the most imaginative cook they know and stuff always turns out - if not absolutely killer then at least creative and edible. Good job!
You are always one of my favorite channels! I love your approach to cooking. All of your dishes were hits with me!
Man! I'm so glad I found your channel! I'm 62 and had to take early retirement because of a wound on my ankle that has refused to heal... 😢 lol, Anyway, fixed Income and my five rescue pups, work together to make for a really tight budget. Personally, I think you did fantastic on your challenge and you picked a favorite cuisine of mine! Got to explore your videos. 👍
Wow, definitely 10/10, especially with the last dish 😮 Thank you for the inspiration 😁
WOW! I always knew I saved more when cooking at home (I try to cook 4-5 meals a week), but the way you did this challenge blew me away. One of my problems is that I don't have the vision or ideas on what to do with the items. I need recipes. I would definitely give you a 10/10. I am so thankful our three girls followed in my footsteps and eat at home most nights too. I would have liked to see each meal listed with the ingredients used, kind of like a visual. Thank you for doing this.
Love having a pot of soup in the fridge for quick and inexpensive meals.
To be honest, i was going to settle with a 8.5/10. The idea to process some of the soup incredients and then add it back to get that consistency was genius. However, after that final dish i will easily say this was a SOLID 9.7/10.
haha thanks
You make it so easy 😭.
I appreciate and learn from every video. Thank you for every recipe.
It’s not about the money nor the items one buys.
It’s about how to put all the ingredients to use.
Every video is amazing 😋
I loved all the dishes so much so I would love all the written recipes. You should do a cookbook, please.
10/10! A collective image at the end would be fun to see all the wonderful things you made with so little. Recipe links bring the gold star!
You are amazing and have inspired me to not just learn how to cook better, but truly enjoy cooking as a staple in my life. Thank you so much Mike!
You are an absolute inspiration.
I have been watching your videos for the past 5 years. I started with your video, "Pimp My Kitchen - Organize Your Small Space" that got randomly suggested to me.While I enjoy watching you cook, a lot of the time, I don't what you cook to be relateable in the sense of something I would cook for myself or my family. But I loved all of these meals.
Congratulations 🎉 i love all the recipes. 10
10/10 great creativity! Your family is blessed by your cooking
Here I am, frantically taking notes (awesome recipes❤) and I hear this cute "omnomnom". Made my day ☺️ I am making the last recipe tonight. Literally have a small chunk of the last of my homemade bread from your recipe. Mine was a little hard (my fault for not kneading it thoroughly). Killed it with this one 🙌
I feel like I do this challenge every week. Not the $50 budget- but finding ways to creatively use up what’s left in the fridge. Hate wasting food. That cabbage probably would have kept until you needed it for something else. Hope the chickens enjoyed it 😊
Yes cabbage keeps, the next week you could buy onion, apple and vinegar and make a jar of it as a side or topper for the next week's meals.
This is a 7 for me. I love these budget cooking concepts and I found this video very entertaining! But I always find it a bit challenging when there is a rule of "I can use X from my pantry because I'm only using Y cents worth." If you're positioning the video as being about reducing food waste (which you stated - but then it should be about "what can I make with these ingredients" and not about the budget) then you're good. But for people who are seeking inspiration on how to work within a budget because *that's all they have* then they're not going to necessarily have a random spice here and there, the pint of oil you used in this video, etc etc. I'd love to see this challenge as a series where video 1 is one such that you're buying those staples and not using all of them so someone following along COULD have those pantry items in week 2 or 3 or 4 of the challenge. Maybe getting the spices from the bulk section where you ARE only getting a few cents at a time could also fit.
When I was building a new pantry on a strict budget, I bought a few pantry staples and an herb or spice that was on sale over a period of weeks and built meals around them. I began with a good bottle of olive oil, mustard seed, honey, garlic, onion, and ginger, then sage, thyme, rosemary, coriander, cumin, and more as needed from there. It really depends what foods someone most enjoys which would be first for building a new pantry from scratch. I was also fortunate to be able to grow some aromatics and have a vegetable garden, which took so much pressure off of tight budget meals. We all have to figure out what works for us.
Very nice video and so many cool Ideas.
When I want to be "full" but don't want to gain weight, boiling those cabbages and making a salad out of it is a very good alternative, I sometimes eat it with some salt.
My best friend and I do the same thing. We're always sending each other pics of what we made with whatever ingredients are left behind, we both dislike wasting food so out comes the creative side. I'm giving you 9.75/10 because I believe there's always room for improvement. Love a good torta but that mac tho!
Awesome video. My best takeaways were browning the beef longer for flavor, having one flavor profile in mind, those smashed plantain in the air fryer (soooo easy) look so delicious, and your baked goods to set you up for the week. Everything looks so delicious. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experiences with us, I have been enjoying your content for years now and always learn something.
This reminds me of the videos your brother made years ago. Living of $3 a day or something. Hope he’s doing well.
Yes! I would love an update
Mike's great and all but Josh was the one who inspired me to get into cooking. Dude was really passionate about it. He's got his own channel @YouEnjoyLife
@@MXdemexhey! Thanks for plugging him! I had no idea and subbed.
What a throwback! I remember seeing them both on some random show with Sean Evans and discovering their channel/this one now has legit gotten me through college, not to mention made me a lot of friends by knowing how to cook without recipes
That video started it all for me
That last dish looks soooo gooood. Also, as someone who doesn't often have milk in stock for reasons, the coconut french toast was inspired!
$3.25 for penne and $5.50 for eggs is a lot. I would be paying $2 (WF) and $2.50 (TJs, cage-free), respectively. Good deal on the squash, though.
It's June 2024, and I just paid 98 cents for a pound of penne, and $1.53 for a dozen eggs at Aldi.
Especially since it's just half a pound of Penne. In Germany I can get 500g for like 2€ if I buy a brand like De Cecco. Non Brand products are less than half of that
Constraint creates creativity! This is great. You’ve opened my eyes to make some killer dishes with just a handful of ingredients. 10/10 honestly
One of your best videos ❤
this reminds me of the type of cooking that I had to do this past week for our family with 6 kids and grandparents at an AIRBNB! With only limited pantry/spices we had to cook with the groceries we bought, and try to use everything up before we left (cause we didnt want to travel home with much) - the creativity is so FUN!
You could have fermented the cabbage for another side dish….😊
And added it to the wraps he made
I will say, I respect your creativeness in writing video concepts, not that this video was super original in itself but it's boring when one food youtuber starts a trend and everybody follows it so for two weeks all the food youtubers will have videos about the same stuff. I appreciate the quality of your videos while retaining the feel of originality every time.
love your stuff! helped inspire my home cooking and homegrown journey!
This was so amazing. Loved what you created. Reminded me of the earlier days of you and your brother living together and doing challenges. I hope he is well.
Dishes: 7/10. They looked good. I would definitely enjoy them, but they didn't blow my socks off.
Doability: 9/10. I don't have your skills, so I don't think I would get the same results, but they looked very doable.
Creativity: 11/10. Wow! The way you put things together was amazing! I will try to remember to think outside the (recipe) box a little more when creating meals.
Great video! Thank you for the inspiration!
10/10 super inspiring for me, I always struggle on those days where ingredients have dwindled before grocery day. It’s really hard to be motivated in the kitchen when you’re the family cook, it feels more like a job than getting creative and things can get a little repetitive but this has definitely given me inspiration thank you!
Okay basically after the whole video you do need to count the $5 you spent on Oil, but otherwise a solid 9/10 🎉
And sesame seeds, yeast, sugar, oil spray and normal oil, to name a few but not all that weren't included in the price. It's depressing how expensive everything is these days.
He used like half a cup maybe, how is that worth 5$?
@@brinicole2999 Sugar and yeast like he said it himself are not THAT expensive to individually count every gram
@@hermiona1147 Proper Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Olive Oil as a spray are not cheap
Keep in mind some of this cost would be offset by buying things store brand amd conventionally grown: instead of name brand organic (like the 2 cups of precooked beans from thrive... i get he needed to plug his sponsor, but they're too pricey.)... and he could have used chicken eggs from the yard... and bananas are cheaper per pound than butternut squash.
But ya... it's depressing.
love this, this is basically how i try to cook, especially the "welllll let's see if it works" like the squash mac. makes sense considering this is one of the channel's i've been watching to improve my cooking for ages now lol
wake up babe new Pro Home Cooks vid dropped
I'm up! Wanna watch together?
I thought you did very well. On the last recipe I was like what is he going to do with that slice of bread, cilantro and whatever else that was you threw in to your food processor. Then when you sprinkled it on top of the Mac and cheese and baked it and pulled it out of the oven I was like ..whoahhhhhhhhh that was genius and looked so delicious. You did a great job. I am making that soup for sure. And being that the cost of living for most folks has substantially increased as our pay has stagnated this was a very appropriate and inspiring episode. I have been trying to make lunches and breakfasts for my hubby to take to work each day to save money and this gives me new ideas so he doesn't get bored. You get a 10!!🎉
In Spanish we don’t say Torta, it sounds weird. It’s “tortilla” the same word as flour tortillas for tacos, I guess the correct translation should be Spanish omelette. Great video, I love this kind of experimentation in the kitchen with what ever you happed to have left
This is the first video of yours I am seeing! The whole presentation is 10/10 🎉 Thanks for the ideas and the joy that food can bring to families!
Love the approach of no food waste. It can really help the environment and your wallet with the cost of groceries these days. I've love to see it again with a more veggie-heavy grocery bag next time. I try to minimize carbs and starches where I can and load up of veggies instead for nutrients.
I love this idea and it really helps me save money to be able to use in other areas. Also being fluent in the kitchen is a great skill.
I am so incredibly impressed! I am not thrilled about butternut squash, but the meals looked really good. The most impressive for me was the Mac & Cheese with the topping. That truly put the meal over the top! Definitely gave me some great ideas, I truly appreciate you!!!
Excellent, really enjoyed watching the dishes you created especially as ingredients began to diminish. As you rightly said it’s key to have an idea as to what style of cooking you’re intending to create as this will keep waste to a minimum. Loved the Spanish omelette and the pastes dish is definitely one to try. It would be great to make a series of these videos Mike as so many of us would benefit from the no waste, limited budget menu for both the singletons amongst us as well as for families needing to cook to a budget while keeping things interesting. Great episode as usual.
Without tasting anything, it's a 10!. I will be watching this again so I can write down the ingredients to some of the recipes. Thanks!
I would LOVE to see you do a ground beef challenge. How many new, and creative meals can you make with ground beef as the protein? We buy our beef once a year from a local rancher and as the year closes and we’ve used up all the steaks and roasts I am always banging my head against the wall trying to find interesting ways to utilize the ground beef.
A focus on a single ingredient made many ways is an interesting idea. Off the top of my head have you already tried: meatballs in various sauces (tomato, cream, cheese, pesto, sweet, pepper-based, etc) with different veggies (mushrooms, spinach, zucchini, squash, onions) in the meatballs to ensure they are moist and stretch the meat, stuffed peppers, cabbage or grape leaves, rice or noodles casseroles, "pot pie" style with veggies and gravy topped with pie crust, biscuits, or cornbread, cheeseburger casserole, "cheese steak" egg rolls, lettuce wraps, tacos, burritos, enchiladas, quesadillas, cooked into pancake or waffle batter, added to biscuit dough in a muffin tin with cheese, mushrooms, onions or whatever you like on a burger, added to Spanish omelette or frittata, fried rice, breaded patties and saute or bake served with gravy and biscuits, served over a salad with caramelized onions and thousand island or honey mustard dressing, dirty rice with beans of choice, lasagna, moussaka, raviolis, canoloni with spinach, pasticcio?
Loved this video! As a SAHM and the main cook in the family, it is so important for me to use up every ingredient. I make soups all the time (it is a Polish custom to eat soup as a first course) and that soup looked very delicious! Love all the kid options it gave me more ideas to try !
in Germany it is also very common to start a meal with soup. In no way is it considered old people's food ! You get a delicious variety of soups also in fine dining restaurants.
We all love your channel! You did great! You're the king of flavor.
I love this format, and I hope you do more of these! I cook like this a lot--looking at what I have in the fridge and figuring out what to make from there. I feel like I don't use up things quick enough and elements go bad. Hearing your thought process, especially for unconventional recipes, is very inspiring. 9/10
I love challenging myself on grocery budgets due to inflation. Your "use it all" method is amazing. I learn so much from you. That last pasta dish rocks!
This i give an absolute 10!! Thank u for the inspiration and your 1st videos glimpse of the whole emty refrigerator challenge not to waste food and gives your creativity a challenge ❤❤ God bless you and your beautiful family
10! More challenges plz! Like every month you have leftovers in fridge or freezer like most people do. Thx!
9/10. Gotta say I love that you were able to feed your kids as well which is who this type of video might be useful for, a parent on a budget. Had to take away the one point because you could’ve fermented the cabbage. But amazing!
I love budget cooking. Always gives an excuse to get creative. Also, saving money is good. I'd love to do more baking on my own, but the inertia to actually do it is unreal. I give that loaf of bread a 10/10.
Impressive, 10/10 for using everything. I'm inspired to try this. I'm not very good at not having waste. I'm trying so hard to be better and your video has given me so many ideas and inspiration
Rating on how many dishes you could make with a $50 budget, I would say a 5. You could have doubled the amount of meals depending on the food choices.
But eating in creativity is definitely a 10! You always excite me to get back in the kitchen with your inspiration and creative dishes. 🤗
You can take bits of produce like that cabbage and either ferment them and make things like quick saurkraut or kimchi or do a quick stirfry or do a quick pickle if you have vinegar and use that as a topping or as a salad dressing type deal.
It did inspire me to go into the kitchen and start cooking. Thanks Mike! I was kinda fed up with the content lately but this has brought back a spark I once got from yt cooking channels :)
Have you seen the book, Good and Cheap, by Leanne Brown? Her challenge was to work with what was a U.S. food stamp allotment of $4 a day. I enjoy the comparison between her father’s recipe for doctored canned baked beans, and her own baked beans using dry beans. The book also includes shopping and equipment recommendations.
A 10!!! You are teaching me to be creative within the restrictions of what you have on hand - I love it!!!
10/10, very fun challenge and you used almost everything. Please do more!
Such a cool video. Thanks for sharing! The ripe plantains (we call them Maduros) in the air fryer, what a great idea!
Super inspiring! Helpful as I am currently needing to cut my food budget.
things like this are my favorite on your channel. this and the $3 a day style. all the money challenge ones end up really making you shine!!