I like how you're conscious of flavor and texture of the dish and not afraid to mimic the standard ingredients with something similar, for example the jam in place of a sticky sauce, reserved chicken fat in place of butter etc. I watch a lot of cooking channels, and while other creators just make me want to eat, your videos always inspire me to cook!
Well said. I am in a life stage where I am still learning to cook, and this is the only channel I’ve seen that goes more into the practical aspects of cooking that still stump me - like, I can follow a fancy recipe published by my favorite food youtuber with little to no difficulty, but I struggle with planning, shopping, and actually using everything up that I buy. Just being able to see these examples of resourceful, practical cooking for one person has been hugely helpful.
"while other creators just make me want to eat, your videos always inspire me to cook!" I think this sentiment is the exact appeal of this channel. A lot of videos just make me feel like "Man I'd eat that", and instead these videos make me feel like "Man, I SHOULD COOK that!" I started saving stuff to make soups and such at home and it has become my favorite monthly tradition to make soup out of the bits and bobs I've saved from chopping veggies, cooking chicken etc. Now I actively make decisions about whether I should throw things away or save them to make another meal better.
Growing up I didn't learn how to cook that much. I've been watching your videos for years and along the way I've picked up and learned a lot. It's nice to see the variety and deliciousness that can come from such a small selection of items. Your videos have really helped improve my mindset and saved me a lot of money on eating out. The kitchen has become a place of creation and joy for me. It's fun to just go in and look at what I have and run through the possibilities instead of stressing over trying to find and follow a recipe. I truly appreciate everything you put out on the internet!
I think adding a category for a dried food (so one jar, one can, one dried item) might help with the lack of carbs, or having a grouping of unprepared grains (including flour but nothing more processed than that, and including beans and pulses). Adding in a frozen category might also increase variety but at that point it might just be too much food!
@@happypantsfilmmaker1797 You could, but bear in mind that these videos take about 12-14 hours of work per day for Mike, so it's not an easy thing for him to just decide to extend beyond one day (he did do that here so it's not impossible, but not trivial either)
Sir, you are an inspiration. I've just had a week 'home alone', the family having gone skiing. A whole week of making meals from leftovers found in the freezer, fridge and cupboards. Good fun!
Everyone should do this every few months. Take stick of the freezer and pantry and try to use it all up before buying more. It makes you really think about what you do and don't use and what you simply shouldn't buy again.
Have you considered doing a foraging-centric food budget challenge? Wait for the best time of year to go foraging and grant yourself a minimal budget to supplement what you gathered? Do you think you could get by with just buying some lard and flour for calories or would you also need a source of protein or flavor? Do you think you could gather enough substance and variety to make 3 meals you could be proud of? I do think I would enjoy an episode that showcases how delicious these foraged ingredients can be. A stinging nettle omelette for breakfast, a wild salad for lunch, roasted mushrooms for dinner, etc. Maybe you can get permission to dig and showcase some of the ingredients you weren’t able to utilize in previous videos.
@@ericv738He’s done budget challenges with foraging for certain. But I don’t believe he’s done a challenge where foraging was the focus of the challenge.
He has done one! Trying to forage enough to make it through the day. It mostly showcases how very difficult 'living off the land' would be: th-cam.com/video/wYEI4-4oths/w-d-xo.html
I have to concur, bread was the single-most limiting factor in your choices for day 2. For me, rice is one of my staple foods these days because I get tired of bread going off before I can use it up and rice keeps basically forever in the pantry.
I have the same problem with bread so I put half of it in the freezer to stop it from going off before I use it all. Sometimes I put the whole loaf in and just get out the slices I need and use the defrost setting on the toaster to thaw them quickly.
There's one way to sort of un-bake bread: It makes a great soup thickener! Fry some onion and any vegetables you like in some fat in a pot. Add white bread, water, and a stock cube and mix it smooth with a stick mixer. Voila, a soup is assembled. Some cream, herbs, peas, meat, will all work great. A little olive oil on top is really nice.
Steaming is a good idea. I wonder if one can steam a jam sandwich to get it to some approximation of an Austrian fruit filled dumpling (Germknödel/ Marillenknödel). This will have to wait as I'm out of toast...
I'm so addicted to these budget cooking videos. Enjoying a Saturday breakfast with tea while watching one of these is legitimately one of my favourite things in life. I just pray you don't get sick of making them anytime soon hhahah
As one of your Asian fans: I am always impressed you even have or know about some of the ingredient you dabble with. Keep making these challenge videos. I can't get enough of them. So much fun.
The sandwich looked so good. I use your videos for ' Empty the freezer and last few days before pay day' meals and ideas for different foods. 😊 Thank you.
This is my favorite series of yours and the change in format does nothing to spoil it. But I will say that perhaps rather than choosing from all eight categories, randomly choosing what categories that you get might cause there to be more shortages to be overcome.
"I don't think we're in Asia anymore" 🤣I laughed so much when I read this so thanks for that. I was looking forward to part 2 it's always a pleasure to watch your take on those budget/cooking challenges. They are my favourite videos I just love your creativity.
One of these days I should try beans on toast. I’ve made spaghetti sandwiches before a little like your hoops. I was just thinking, my Grandma would love this! She raised 7 kids during the Great Depression. You did not waste a thing.
Get really good brrad and toast it hard and crunchy . Then jazz up the beans with tomato catchup and Worcestershire sauce and mustard and grilled onions .. and bacon.. You wont know its a budget meal
Your videos, though as you always explain, are not really intended to give inexpensive suggestions for hard up folks, are really inspirational, and so, so helpful. And apart from the food itself, I really enjoy just sitting and watching as you calmly prep and work through the method. Many thanks😊😊.
We know this video is a part 2/week later..we hear 'yesterday' , but it has already felt like an eternity to the rest of us (at least for me).. thankful as always for your fulfilling content ❤
I'm always amazed at how inventive you are. You've saved me a fortune in recent months, I used to do a big weekly shop no matter what we had in the house but now I try to push it out as far as possible before doing a shop. We have had a few fails 😂 but overall it's been brilliant for the kids to experiment and learn about flavours and reducing food waste. THANK YOU 😊😊😊
On a separate note, I tend to shop sales almost exclusively. Sometimes what I get doesn't always go together. These help me think outside the box and fill in the gaps. Thanks!
Shrimp I want you to know that such a huge smile dawned on my face when I saw this had been uploaded, cannot wait to watch it. The same as all your videos. I think your videos have been my favourite for a while now, especially since late 2021 when i watched all your scambaiting videos and food challenges, although i most certainly watched some of them before this point. I just love all the types of content on this channel, I think if i had to choose any channel to watch at the expense of all others on youtube, it would be yours. The variety is amazing, and the quality makes me feel like I have watched something educational and productive afterwards. Thank you so much for everything!! Your videos mean more to us than you may realise.
Currently studying to become a chef and i really enjoy these challenge videos, your croque looked really nice and using the jam for a stirfry was a great idea! Keep up the good job Shrimp!
For any fellow gaming nerds out there, there's a great game called Farthest Frontier, a medieval simulator where you have to take a ragtag bunch of settlers and build a city from scratch. It has one of the most in-depth farming mechanics I've ever seen, you have to add/subtract sand/clay for crops, rotate growing seasons, build hunter/forager shacks, and eventually build cow barns for milk/cheese. Managing everything from spoilage to stockpiles for winter is fascinating, and really shows just how tough it was in "the old days". In our modern times, scrounging for deals is about as close as we can come, unless you're an actual farmer, and farmers deserve all the respect in the world.
I can't decide if this sounds awful or enjoyable. It reminds me of Banished which has a really strong seasonal cycle, if you don't get you planting and/or harvesting done on time you villagers starve to death before spring rolls around. Same for firewood and freezing to death. It's much more challenging than other castle sims as food is constantly being consumed rather than just used on new unit building.
I've been waiting all week for part 2! I've not eaten since watching part 1, waiting for recipe ideas for the left over haul I copied from you last week!!
I loved the faux danish! I made it for a Valentine’s Day picnic with my partner. They’re coeliac, so it was gf white bread, pears, cheese, with peach and mango jam. I made them in little ramekins, and put the lid on to take them in the picnic basket. Super tasty, but had to be eaten with a spoon (probably because of the gf bread). I need to find more ways to eat pears other than making stews fruit with apples, because my partner doesn’t like them but the food bank gives them to us each week. I currently have a big bag of pears and apples that’s been growing for the last month… need to put in the work to peel and chop them to make stewed fruit, and then maybe a crumble
As per my comment in your last video I'm always impressed how creative you are with the ingredients, turning them into actual meals! I would love to know where / how you come up with such creative ideas.
I have almost zero intention too use anything in your videos. But I really enjoy them, your voice is so soothing and you seem like you'd be cool to hang out with.
Watching these helps me have the motivation to make a quick meal for myself when I don’t have a lot of ingredients at home or don’t feel like eating at all. Thank you for providing some creative ideas on how to make due with stuff one may have available
Loved this 2 parter. Always love these - very accessible and I think in an understated way, shows that everyone should get confident with cooking skills in general to make the best of any ingredients.
Couple of soup ideas for your ingredients: Italian Wedding soup, Tuscan Bread & Tomato soup, Italian Pasta & Bean Soup. If you haven’t any eggs, but have milk make eggless French Toast. Cinnamon Toast, used the apple to have made apple butter to spread on toast. Using the apple peals separate, gives you a little pectin to thicken up apple juice and sugar to drizzle over the French toast. The pasta rings with beans could be turned into the pasta bean soup, the ground chicken turned into chicken, cheese & ( some type of greens) meatballs. If had bought spinach( frozen or cheapest version) could have been used in all three soups, and you might of had enough to had as a side dish or put into a cream sauce poured over the chicken patty on toast. Also, could have made an eggless Spinach, cheese & mushroom quiche. Just some ideas.😊
Brilliantly done as always, and much more realistic for how many of us cook, best value as opposed to cheapest. And spreading it over a number of days instantly shows how much the luxury of economy of scale impacts what you can do. I’d love to see what you could do if the budget was something different, such as : energy (either units of power that you have to decide how and when to allocate, or your own - how would you do this with limited prep time or with a limitation around how long you can work in one go or in total doing planning/prep/cooking). Or perhaps limiting kitchen space and supplies. (One pot, one tray, and a set volume of fridge space). Plus you can only spend a certain amount of time in the shop, representative of someone calling in on the way home from work but can’t miss the last bus,…and they have to take the food on the bus. So you have to be able to carry it and it can’t stink. When I’ve lived in shared space having to work around other people who may have conflicting life styles and who you may not be able to/want to communicate with adds to the cooking fun.
Beans on toast is one of my favorite comfort foods. Long ago, I bought my children a children’s British Cookbook. We cooked everything in it. Beans on toast was my favorite. I use two pieces of toast, butter it decently, pour the very hot beans, with all the sauce, over the toast. I can taste it now! I will try the cheese on top.
I'm a very picky eater by nature and as a result am an unadventurous cook so I love these types of videos bc I'm always so amazed at your creativity and what you're able to come up with using such limited ingredients. I feel like I'm living vicariously through you without the worry of wasting food if I were to do it myself and not like the results lol
On the topic of using bread as main sustenance you should try making a bread soup next time - there is lot of varieties but Czech bread soup (chlebová polévka) is very good :-) although that would ideally be done with different kind of bread
I've got what I think would be a fun food challenge idea: take one ingredient that you can get fairly cheaply and use that as the main ingredient for 3 meals using whatever else you've got or can get at a reasonable price.
Lol I play that game!😂it's called "How many meals can I get from one rotisserie chicken from costco/Sam's club?" Lol With only myself and the hubby at home I can stretch that poor rotisserie chicken into 4 to 5 meals lol Our favorite is taking one leg quarter and one breast and chop finely and add taco seasoning and just make chicken tacos. All bones go directly into a soup pot for stock. I do usually save a bit of meat for the soup but not always. I personally love chicken salad sandwiches but my hubby hates mayo based salad so his portion gets chopped a bit and grilled into a grill cheese(cheese toasty for the UK/AU) And I have also chopped chicken with a bit of Italian herbs and cheese and stuffed into either ravioli or tortellini, but I like to hand-make pasta. Not sure how available pasta sheets are around the world. How about anyone else? How do you stretch one item? And apparently I'm hungry 😅
I do that whenever I buy a cabbage because you can only buy the whole enormous thing and it is also super affordable while in season. So I need to think of 4 to 5 different meals to use it up. Slaw, traditionally cooked as a side, stir fry, pickled, in a soup...
@@Emeraldwitch30Are cooked hot chickens a really common thing in American shops then as I'm always seeing them being mentioned as a quick dinner? We do have some supermarkets who sell them here in the UK, but it tends to only be the bigger supermarkets, not the local shops people pop into after work.
@@tracey2109 I don't know if they're common or not, but rotisserie chickens from Costco (and Sam's Club, I suppose) are almost a cultural icon. They sell the chicken so cheap it actually sells at a loss for them. The reason they do that is they have the chickens near the back, so you're forced to go through a good portion of the store to get to them. Also, Costco (and Sam's Club?) make most of their money off of their memberships, not the items sold, so it's still not a huge deal if they take a bit of a hit on a few items. If you don't know what these stores are, both stores have a business model where you need to buy their membership to buy from them, however they sell their wares for warehouse prices rather than retail. They also offer cashback, so given sufficient purchases, you can actually end up paying next to nothing for groceries if you get them there. The only downside being the quantities of items they sell are so huge you want to make sure it's non-perishables or easily preserved food you're buying, if you're not going to use it up before it goes bad
These budget challenges (see also imaginative recipe challenges) always blow me away. I have so much less recipe imaginative. Though, I did actually have one additional thought for the bread, but it would probably have a similar flavor profile as the chicken sandwich. Stuffing! Cube and toast the bread, use the extra stock, carrots and celery, maybe even apple. A heaping pile with some chicken... mmm
Yes I was convinced he was going to make stuffing balls and then use them as "dumplings" in a stew. As per usual he manages to think even further outside of the box instead ✨️
It's always fun to see what you come up with when your options are limited, especially when you end up learning some legitimately good new recipes in the process.
Perfect timing Mike, I've been doing this the last week, scoping out all the markdowns and deals I can find, and building meals out of it all. Came up with a couple that I think I'll be making in the future again as they're cheap and really tasty.
Hey, long time lurker, first time commenter here. I greatly enjoy these challenge videos and have rewatched most of them more times than I care to admit. I have no idea if you are still looking for ways to shake up these sorts of challenges, however a sort of interesting-ish idea that I recently had was inspired by my own family's shopping habits. My parents have this habit where they basically buy only reduced items, making their shopping and the supplies they have around extremely varied when compared to someone who just has a list of items that they buy every time. So I thought a challenge with the stipulation of only being allowed to buy something that is currently reduced in price (probably also with a maximum budget in place, though it wouldn't have to be super restrictive) might be interesting. It would certainly help avoid some of the pitfalls of just buying the same low-price good-value items over and over again, since those probably won't be reduced at the same time. And it will also change up what exactly will be available greatly depending on the time you actually go shopping. An additional rule that could but doesn't have to be added to not make the time of day too important is that items which are reduced because they are about to go bad or similar scenarios aren't permitted either, only stuff that is reduced because of a limited time offer or something similar. Not hugely attached to it, but it might be interesting. Just kind of wanted to get it out as a thought. Greatly enjoy your videos regardless, and I hope you have a wonderful day!
Your sandwich reminded me of the fried sandwich experiments I conducted as a stoned student and I mean that in the kindest possible way, those were the days and it looks delicious.
These cooking challenge videos always give me inspiration on meals when I haven't a clue what to make for supper and I appreciate that! I actually made the leek soup you cooked in the recent random stuff video you did. It was delicious! Love your channel!
I love these videos, please keep doing them. I enjoy theoretically doing it myself according to the same rules by pulling up the online supermarket sites, ‘shopping’ and then writing down what I’d do with the things I’ve chosen. It’s a great mental exercise, and fun to boot!
As someone trying to get into cooking more, these videos are so inspiring. So many cooking videos seem to involve buying a hundred unique ingredients that are each used for a single dish. The techniques you use here seem so helpful to someone trying to use up what they have sitting around-- I'm debating picking up a food processor so I can try out that chicken patty technique!
Every one of your videos brings me some level of joy seeing something just a bit different. Your cooking videos in particular always faintly make me think of Chef Jacques Pepin and his style of cooking. (Using every "scrap" you possibly can to make a dish strictly better than if you didn't.) Much love and cheers as always~❤
I'm always impressed at what you make on these challenges but I thought this one was fantastic. My mouth was watering a few times on both videos as yes simple limited ingredients but used very very wisely. The jam for example, I usually use honey in my stir fry sauce so I bet it was very similar mixed in with the ginger and soy.Im going to have to try and replicate the chicken fried sarnie as looked scrumptious. You're one very creative man 👍
I love these video's, watching you cook random things over the years made me dare to try and experiment myself, and now I'm baking bread every week and we eat a lot more different things! I really want to thank you for that!
me and my partner love watching these videos of yours thank you for uploading and please keep it up we always look forward to your next upload on these cheap series meals
My power was off for 4 days. Your videos really encouraged me to go out and forage when the time came to bin everything in the fridge/freezer.. I know you’re cutting the sandwiches off centre on purpose but I think it might be a superior mix of the 2 cuts.
Was watching "Next Level Chef" yesterday and now watching your video. I think you'd do well on a cooking show like that. From what I have seen, you have plenty of creativity and know what works together and what doesn't. Your videos are always good inspiration - even for us outside the UK.
Ive watched a lot of your cooking challenges, and its really changed how we buy and cook food. We dont need to skimp and save, but its nice to be efficient and challenge yourself with cooking. Fantastic stuff 👌🏼
Love starting the weekend with Atomic Shrimp! Hoping for the dice roll challenge again, was very entertaining and something to learn. A really good weekend to our man and also to all his followers!
Its inspiring how you can make good food with limited ingredients if you put thought and skill into it! It really helps me out to think through food in my house.
Its inspiring to watch these cooking chellenges. To take on some risks and create new things from what can be found in the kitchen just might become very helpfull. The wins as well as the failed ones. There is every time something to learn from.
Some naming suggestions for the alternative to your recipe redemption series - recipe restyling - recipe revision - recipe reconsideration - recipe retrospective - recipe revisal - recipe recycling - recipe refreshing - recipe renovating
Love this series! You inspire me so much to be resourceful and creative in the kitchen- something which I sometimes lose interest in/forget while I get lost in life. Thank you so much, please keep making videos!
I always enjoy your mind-gym challenge videos as I like to do something similar going on business trips abroad, having the added difficulty of being lactose intolerant. Anyway, I'd like to suggest a challenge theme to you: you don't have a limited allowance as money for shopping goes, but you have to go by with just a kettle or without a fridge for a week (week is my experience, you can go shorter if it fits the production better). Some time ago I had to jerry rig a portable water hear just to have instant noodles.
Hi Mike, I really enjoy the way you think outside the box with your recipes. As someone who has to cook on a budget your videos are a great source of inspiration. Would you consider doing a low budget few days with less restriction on herbs, fats and spices? My thinking is that most people have these things to hand but not necessarily your creativity when cooking on a budget. I’d be interested to see what you come up with and I think others would too what with there being a cost of living crisis and all. Thanks for the great videos xx
I would love a mini series on Asian inspired cuisine. So many interesting recipes to play around with. Would love to see what you could do with a bigger budget
11:30 The trick to getting that internet photo cheese pull is to press the sandwich down a little after you cut it and let it sit a beat before you pull it apart to let the cheese ooze and stick back to itself on the other half. The "cheats" method is to cut the sandwich, add an extra full slice of cheese keeping the halves together and heating it through again before pulling, this guarantees the most cheese stretch but takes a few extra steps.
I loved your videos where you included “urban foraging.” Those were so interesting to me for some reason, I’d love to see that included again in a video someday!
“Croque Shrimp”, obvs! I love the way that so many things lend themselves to becoming patties, burgers, rissoles or sausages. Will it mash? Will it blend? Then make a patty, and fry it. This was an interesting challenge and thank you.
We do love our ‘Shrimpy’ vlogs on a Friday evening. Great start to the weekend with what we call ‘an early doors’ in other words we open the bar ! Well, get a drink from our conservatory. We are so Rock and roll 😂 Cheers 🍻
I found it very cute how Eva was kind of pouting for chicken that's adorable❤ 🐓 I do the same thing when I see chicken it is very tasty it is very tasty and my favorite food as well😊
These cooking challenge videos are always a treat to watch.
Agreed
I guess you could say I've worked up an appetite for this second one!
Yep! It’s like a shine of light in an otherwise mundane routine of life. Even if the thought may seem silly, it really does bring joy
Understatement
They’re my absolute favourites
I like how you're conscious of flavor and texture of the dish and not afraid to mimic the standard ingredients with something similar, for example the jam in place of a sticky sauce, reserved chicken fat in place of butter etc. I watch a lot of cooking channels, and while other creators just make me want to eat, your videos always inspire me to cook!
Well said. I am in a life stage where I am still learning to cook, and this is the only channel I’ve seen that goes more into the practical aspects of cooking that still stump me - like, I can follow a fancy recipe published by my favorite food youtuber with little to no difficulty, but I struggle with planning, shopping, and actually using everything up that I buy. Just being able to see these examples of resourceful, practical cooking for one person has been hugely helpful.
"while other creators just make me want to eat, your videos always inspire me to cook!"
I think this sentiment is the exact appeal of this channel. A lot of videos just make me feel like "Man I'd eat that", and instead these videos make me feel like "Man, I SHOULD COOK that!" I started saving stuff to make soups and such at home and it has become my favorite monthly tradition to make soup out of the bits and bobs I've saved from chopping veggies, cooking chicken etc. Now I actively make decisions about whether I should throw things away or save them to make another meal better.
@@singerofsongss this is such a good distinction! exactly my troughts, too
Growing up I didn't learn how to cook that much. I've been watching your videos for years and along the way I've picked up and learned a lot. It's nice to see the variety and deliciousness that can come from such a small selection of items. Your videos have really helped improve my mindset and saved me a lot of money on eating out. The kitchen has become a place of creation and joy for me. It's fun to just go in and look at what I have and run through the possibilities instead of stressing over trying to find and follow a recipe. I truly appreciate everything you put out on the internet!
I think adding a category for a dried food (so one jar, one can, one dried item) might help with the lack of carbs, or having a grouping of unprepared grains (including flour but nothing more processed than that, and including beans and pulses). Adding in a frozen category might also increase variety but at that point it might just be too much food!
But then you could try to make it three days
@@happypantsfilmmaker1797 You could, but bear in mind that these videos take about 12-14 hours of work per day for Mike, so it's not an easy thing for him to just decide to extend beyond one day (he did do that here so it's not impossible, but not trivial either)
Sir, you are an inspiration. I've just had a week 'home alone', the family having gone skiing. A whole week of making meals from leftovers found in the freezer, fridge and cupboards. Good fun!
Everyone should do this every few months. Take stick of the freezer and pantry and try to use it all up before buying more. It makes you really think about what you do and don't use and what you simply shouldn't buy again.
@@JisforJenius Absolutely, I dislike waste and that's a good idea 👍
Why didn't you go skiing?
@@Jamie28999 The sordid business of earning a living somewhat got in the way 😡
Have you considered doing a foraging-centric food budget challenge? Wait for the best time of year to go foraging and grant yourself a minimal budget to supplement what you gathered?
Do you think you could get by with just buying some lard and flour for calories or would you also need a source of protein or flavor? Do you think you could gather enough substance and variety to make 3 meals you could be proud of?
I do think I would enjoy an episode that showcases how delicious these foraged ingredients can be. A stinging nettle omelette for breakfast, a wild salad for lunch, roasted mushrooms for dinner, etc. Maybe you can get permission to dig and showcase some of the ingredients you weren’t able to utilize in previous videos.
He's done that
@@ericv738He’s done budget challenges with foraging for certain. But I don’t believe he’s done a challenge where foraging was the focus of the challenge.
It's pretty slim pickings for his area in the UK for foraging this time of year
He has done one! Trying to forage enough to make it through the day. It mostly showcases how very difficult 'living off the land' would be: th-cam.com/video/wYEI4-4oths/w-d-xo.html
great idea
I really enjoy watching these challenges. Love the "toast tax." Eva is adorable. 🐾
I love Eva, the tax collector too 😊
Cracks me up 😂
I love Eva's little eyebrows
@@artistknownaslisa2850 I love her passport too! ❤ 🐾
The sad ghost of beans on toast, 10/10 name
The ghost of meals that have... been.
I have to concur, bread was the single-most limiting factor in your choices for day 2. For me, rice is one of my staple foods these days because I get tired of bread going off before I can use it up and rice keeps basically forever in the pantry.
I think for me, it would be flour; I can make a lot of different things from flour (including bread).
@@AtomicShrimp I can see that, definitely. To each his own on that front.
I have the same problem with bread so I put half of it in the freezer to stop it from going off before I use it all.
Sometimes I put the whole loaf in and just get out the slices I need and use the defrost setting on the toaster to thaw them quickly.
What I enjoy the most from these videos is just you flexing your creativity.
There's one way to sort of un-bake bread: It makes a great soup thickener! Fry some onion and any vegetables you like in some fat in a pot. Add white bread, water, and a stock cube and mix it smooth with a stick mixer. Voila, a soup is assembled. Some cream, herbs, peas, meat, will all work great. A little olive oil on top is really nice.
Steaming the bread would give it nice Asian touch - there are a number of delicious buns in China, Korea and Japan made with steamed bread.
Steaming is a good idea. I wonder if one can steam a jam sandwich to get it to some approximation of an Austrian fruit filled dumpling (Germknödel/ Marillenknödel).
This will have to wait as I'm out of toast...
@@jengis_i - We need Mr Shrimp to try this
I'm so addicted to these budget cooking videos. Enjoying a Saturday breakfast with tea while watching one of these is legitimately one of my favourite things in life. I just pray you don't get sick of making them anytime soon hhahah
As one of your Asian fans:
I am always impressed you even have or know about some of the ingredient you dabble with.
Keep making these challenge videos. I can't get enough of them. So much fun.
As a chef I commend your use of ingredients. Definitely couldn’t do better myself 🔥👍🏾
Nice one Mike, we really enjoyed this and part one.
The lunch sandwich should definitely be named a Croque Shrimp 🤣
The sandwich looked so good. I use your videos for ' Empty the freezer and last few days before pay day' meals and ideas for different foods. 😊 Thank you.
This is my favorite series of yours and the change in format does nothing to spoil it. But I will say that perhaps rather than choosing from all eight categories, randomly choosing what categories that you get might cause there to be more shortages to be overcome.
"I don't think we're in Asia anymore" 🤣I laughed so much when I read this so thanks for that. I was looking forward to part 2 it's always a pleasure to watch your take on those budget/cooking challenges. They are my favourite videos I just love your creativity.
Your cooking videos are some of the most inspirational on TH-cam. Love how creative you are with limited ingredients
you have REAL talent for cooking and innovation in the kitchen my sir!
One of these days I should try beans on toast. I’ve made spaghetti sandwiches before a little like your hoops.
I was just thinking, my Grandma would love this! She raised 7 kids during the Great Depression. You did not waste a thing.
Get really good brrad and toast it hard and crunchy . Then jazz up the beans with tomato catchup and Worcestershire sauce and mustard and grilled onions .. and bacon.. You wont know its a budget meal
Seven kids!? At least we know what they were doing to keep their spirits up!
@@SunnyDays00 Worcestershire sauce should be mandatory for beans, it turns up the taste to 11.
I can’t believe you have never had beans on toast..
@@CricketEngland nope! I have the beans
Your videos, though as you always explain, are not really intended to give inexpensive suggestions for hard up folks, are really inspirational, and so, so helpful. And apart from the food itself, I really enjoy just sitting and watching as you calmly prep and work through the method. Many thanks😊😊.
I was looking forward to this all week. I love this series!!!
Same
Me too😂
Wonderful series.
Awwww… poor Eva…. No chicken?
We know this video is a part 2/week later..we hear 'yesterday' , but it has already felt like an eternity to the rest of us (at least for me).. thankful as always for your fulfilling content ❤
I'm always amazed at how inventive you are. You've saved me a fortune in recent months, I used to do a big weekly shop no matter what we had in the house but now I try to push it out as far as possible before doing a shop. We have had a few fails 😂 but overall it's been brilliant for the kids to experiment and learn about flavours and reducing food waste. THANK YOU 😊😊😊
On a separate note, I tend to shop sales almost exclusively. Sometimes what I get doesn't always go together. These help me think outside the box and fill in the gaps. Thanks!
Shrimp I want you to know that such a huge smile dawned on my face when I saw this had been uploaded, cannot wait to watch it. The same as all your videos. I think your videos have been my favourite for a while now, especially since late 2021 when i watched all your scambaiting videos and food challenges, although i most certainly watched some of them before this point. I just love all the types of content on this channel, I think if i had to choose any channel to watch at the expense of all others on youtube, it would be yours. The variety is amazing, and the quality makes me feel like I have watched something educational and productive afterwards. Thank you so much for everything!! Your videos mean more to us than you may realise.
I've been doing a keto version of this due to extreme poverty and poor health.
It's actually been very stimulating coming up with cheap meals.
Currently studying to become a chef and i really enjoy these challenge videos, your croque looked really nice and using the jam for a stirfry was a great idea! Keep up the good job Shrimp!
For any fellow gaming nerds out there, there's a great game called Farthest Frontier, a medieval simulator where you have to take a ragtag bunch of settlers and build a city from scratch. It has one of the most in-depth farming mechanics I've ever seen, you have to add/subtract sand/clay for crops, rotate growing seasons, build hunter/forager shacks, and eventually build cow barns for milk/cheese. Managing everything from spoilage to stockpiles for winter is fascinating, and really shows just how tough it was in "the old days". In our modern times, scrounging for deals is about as close as we can come, unless you're an actual farmer, and farmers deserve all the respect in the world.
I can't decide if this sounds awful or enjoyable. It reminds me of Banished which has a really strong seasonal cycle, if you don't get you planting and/or harvesting done on time you villagers starve to death before spring rolls around. Same for firewood and freezing to death. It's much more challenging than other castle sims as food is constantly being consumed rather than just used on new unit building.
Just as I said on the first video! Part two is just as good as part one!
I've been waiting all week for part 2! I've not eaten since watching part 1, waiting for recipe ideas for the left over haul I copied from you last week!!
That's dedication 😅
@raraavis7782 new year diet is going very well!!!
lol
I loved the faux danish! I made it for a Valentine’s Day picnic with my partner. They’re coeliac, so it was gf white bread, pears, cheese, with peach and mango jam. I made them in little ramekins, and put the lid on to take them in the picnic basket. Super tasty, but had to be eaten with a spoon (probably because of the gf bread).
I need to find more ways to eat pears other than making stews fruit with apples, because my partner doesn’t like them but the food bank gives them to us each week. I currently have a big bag of pears and apples that’s been growing for the last month… need to put in the work to peel and chop them to make stewed fruit, and then maybe a crumble
As per my comment in your last video I'm always impressed how creative you are with the ingredients, turning them into actual meals!
I would love to know where / how you come up with such creative ideas.
I have almost zero intention too use anything in your videos. But I really enjoy them, your voice is so soothing and you seem like you'd be cool to hang out with.
Watching these helps me have the motivation to make a quick meal for myself when I don’t have a lot of ingredients at home or don’t feel like eating at all. Thank you for providing some creative ideas on how to make due with stuff one may have available
Loved this 2 parter. Always love these - very accessible and I think in an understated way, shows that everyone should get confident with cooking skills in general to make the best of any ingredients.
Couple of soup ideas for your ingredients: Italian Wedding soup, Tuscan Bread & Tomato soup, Italian Pasta & Bean Soup. If you haven’t any eggs, but have milk make eggless French Toast. Cinnamon Toast, used the apple to have made apple butter to spread on toast. Using the apple peals separate, gives you a little pectin to thicken up apple juice and sugar to drizzle over the French toast. The pasta rings with beans could be turned into the pasta bean soup, the ground chicken turned into chicken, cheese & ( some type of greens) meatballs. If had bought spinach( frozen or cheapest version) could have been used in all three soups, and you might of had enough to had as a side dish or put into a cream sauce poured over the chicken patty on toast. Also, could have made an eggless Spinach, cheese & mushroom quiche. Just some ideas.😊
Brilliantly done as always, and much more realistic for how many of us cook, best value as opposed to cheapest. And spreading it over a number of days instantly shows how much the luxury of economy of scale impacts what you can do.
I’d love to see what you could do if the budget was something different, such as : energy (either units of power that you have to decide how and when to allocate, or your own - how would you do this with limited prep time or with a limitation around how long you can work in one go or in total doing planning/prep/cooking). Or perhaps limiting kitchen space and supplies. (One pot, one tray, and a set volume of fridge space). Plus you can only spend a certain amount of time in the shop, representative of someone calling in on the way home from work but can’t miss the last bus,…and they have to take the food on the bus. So you have to be able to carry it and it can’t stink.
When I’ve lived in shared space having to work around other people who may have conflicting life styles and who you may not be able to/want to communicate with adds to the cooking fun.
Limit on the amount of time you can spend cooking is a good idea!
Beans on toast is one of my favorite comfort foods.
Long ago, I bought my children a children’s British Cookbook.
We cooked everything in it.
Beans on toast was my favorite.
I use two pieces of toast, butter it decently, pour the very hot beans, with all the sauce, over the toast.
I can taste it now!
I will try the cheese on top.
Plus a dash of pepper. Oh yeah!
For me a sprinkling of chilli flakes really elevates beans on toast
Or Worcestershire sauce, yum!
I'm a very picky eater by nature and as a result am an unadventurous cook so I love these types of videos bc I'm always so amazed at your creativity and what you're able to come up with using such limited ingredients. I feel like I'm living vicariously through you without the worry of wasting food if I were to do it myself and not like the results lol
On the topic of using bread as main sustenance you should try making a bread soup next time - there is lot of varieties but Czech bread soup (chlebová polévka) is very good :-) although that would ideally be done with different kind of bread
good job on reusing all the chicken juices, definitely changed for the better all the recipes! Great video as always❤
I've got what I think would be a fun food challenge idea: take one ingredient that you can get fairly cheaply and use that as the main ingredient for 3 meals using whatever else you've got or can get at a reasonable price.
Lol I play that game!😂it's called "How many meals can I get from one rotisserie chicken from costco/Sam's club?" Lol
With only myself and the hubby at home I can stretch that poor rotisserie chicken into 4 to 5 meals lol
Our favorite is taking one leg quarter and one breast and chop finely and add taco seasoning and just make chicken tacos.
All bones go directly into a soup pot for stock. I do usually save a bit of meat for the soup but not always.
I personally love chicken salad sandwiches but my hubby hates mayo based salad so his portion gets chopped a bit and grilled into a grill cheese(cheese toasty for the UK/AU)
And I have also chopped chicken with a bit of Italian herbs and cheese and stuffed into either ravioli or tortellini, but I like to hand-make pasta. Not sure how available pasta sheets are around the world.
How about anyone else?
How do you stretch one item?
And apparently I'm hungry 😅
I do that whenever I buy a cabbage because you can only buy the whole enormous thing and it is also super affordable while in season.
So I need to think of 4 to 5 different meals to use it up.
Slaw, traditionally cooked as a side, stir fry, pickled, in a soup...
@@Emeraldwitch30Are cooked hot chickens a really common thing in American shops then as I'm always seeing them being mentioned as a quick dinner? We do have some supermarkets who sell them here in the UK, but it tends to only be the bigger supermarkets, not the local shops people pop into after work.
@@tracey2109 I don't know if they're common or not, but rotisserie chickens from Costco (and Sam's Club, I suppose) are almost a cultural icon. They sell the chicken so cheap it actually sells at a loss for them.
The reason they do that is they have the chickens near the back, so you're forced to go through a good portion of the store to get to them. Also, Costco (and Sam's Club?) make most of their money off of their memberships, not the items sold, so it's still not a huge deal if they take a bit of a hit on a few items.
If you don't know what these stores are, both stores have a business model where you need to buy their membership to buy from them, however they sell their wares for warehouse prices rather than retail. They also offer cashback, so given sufficient purchases, you can actually end up paying next to nothing for groceries if you get them there. The only downside being the quantities of items they sell are so huge you want to make sure it's non-perishables or easily preserved food you're buying, if you're not going to use it up before it goes bad
This challenges always give me ideas of things to invent. Great!
Had to make a weird stir-fry/noodle thing the other week as I had a load of odd ingredients to use up
These budget challenges (see also imaginative recipe challenges) always blow me away. I have so much less recipe imaginative. Though, I did actually have one additional thought for the bread, but it would probably have a similar flavor profile as the chicken sandwich. Stuffing! Cube and toast the bread, use the extra stock, carrots and celery, maybe even apple. A heaping pile with some chicken... mmm
Yes I was convinced he was going to make stuffing balls and then use them as "dumplings" in a stew. As per usual he manages to think even further outside of the box instead ✨️
I'm not sure what makes me watch this channel but I love it!
Time to get a slotted spoon for easy draining. As always, an enjoyable watch.
That sandwich looks delicious 😋
That lunch sandwich looks SO good!
It's always fun to see what you come up with when your options are limited, especially when you end up learning some legitimately good new recipes in the process.
Perfect timing Mike, I've been doing this the last week, scoping out all the markdowns and deals I can find, and building meals out of it all. Came up with a couple that I think I'll be making in the future again as they're cheap and really tasty.
Hey, long time lurker, first time commenter here. I greatly enjoy these challenge videos and have rewatched most of them more times than I care to admit.
I have no idea if you are still looking for ways to shake up these sorts of challenges, however a sort of interesting-ish idea that I recently had was inspired by my own family's shopping habits. My parents have this habit where they basically buy only reduced items, making their shopping and the supplies they have around extremely varied when compared to someone who just has a list of items that they buy every time.
So I thought a challenge with the stipulation of only being allowed to buy something that is currently reduced in price (probably also with a maximum budget in place, though it wouldn't have to be super restrictive) might be interesting. It would certainly help avoid some of the pitfalls of just buying the same low-price good-value items over and over again, since those probably won't be reduced at the same time. And it will also change up what exactly will be available greatly depending on the time you actually go shopping.
An additional rule that could but doesn't have to be added to not make the time of day too important is that items which are reduced because they are about to go bad or similar scenarios aren't permitted either, only stuff that is reduced because of a limited time offer or something similar. Not hugely attached to it, but it might be interesting.
Just kind of wanted to get it out as a thought. Greatly enjoy your videos regardless, and I hope you have a wonderful day!
Your sandwich reminded me of the fried sandwich experiments I conducted as a stoned student and I mean that in the kindest possible way, those were the days and it looks delicious.
These cooking challenge videos always give me inspiration on meals when I haven't a clue what to make for supper and I appreciate that! I actually made the leek soup you cooked in the recent random stuff video you did. It was delicious! Love your channel!
I love these videos, please keep doing them. I enjoy theoretically doing it myself according to the same rules by pulling up the online supermarket sites, ‘shopping’ and then writing down what I’d do with the things I’ve chosen. It’s a great mental exercise, and fun to boot!
As someone trying to get into cooking more, these videos are so inspiring. So many cooking videos seem to involve buying a hundred unique ingredients that are each used for a single dish. The techniques you use here seem so helpful to someone trying to use up what they have sitting around-- I'm debating picking up a food processor so I can try out that chicken patty technique!
Every one of your videos brings me some level of joy seeing something just a bit different. Your cooking videos in particular always faintly make me think of Chef Jacques Pepin and his style of cooking. (Using every "scrap" you possibly can to make a dish strictly better than if you didn't.) Much love and cheers as always~❤
I'm always impressed at what you make on these challenges but I thought this one was fantastic. My mouth was watering a few times on both videos as yes simple limited ingredients but used very very wisely. The jam for example, I usually use honey in my stir fry sauce so I bet it was very similar mixed in with the ginger and soy.Im going to have to try and replicate the chicken fried sarnie as looked scrumptious. You're one very creative man 👍
I love these video's, watching you cook random things over the years made me dare to try and experiment myself, and now I'm baking bread every week and we eat a lot more different things! I really want to thank you for that!
me and my partner love watching these videos of yours thank you for uploading and please keep it up we always look forward to your next upload on these cheap series meals
This is the best one yet
A very Baldrick sandwich. Excellent.
These are always a joy to watch! Thank you for your dedication, I’ll look forward to whatever form this series takes next time!
There are always days when we just have to make do with what we have got. Your videos are inspiration to improve our improvisations.
My power was off for 4 days. Your videos really encouraged me to go out and forage when the time came to bin everything in the fridge/freezer.. I know you’re cutting the sandwiches off centre on purpose but I think it might be a superior mix of the 2 cuts.
Was watching "Next Level Chef" yesterday and now watching your video. I think you'd do well on a cooking show like that. From what I have seen, you have plenty of creativity and know what works together and what doesn't. Your videos are always good inspiration - even for us outside the UK.
Ive watched a lot of your cooking challenges, and its really changed how we buy and cook food. We dont need to skimp and save, but its nice to be efficient and challenge yourself with cooking. Fantastic stuff 👌🏼
Always creative, and inspiring. Will definitely steal the sauce idea
Thank You AS
Love starting the weekend with Atomic Shrimp! Hoping for the dice roll challenge again, was very entertaining and something to learn.
A really good weekend to our man and also to all his followers!
These videos are definitely my favourite and I love seeing variations of the original idea take it in new directions.
Been using the 'chicken legs on top of veg' in the oven a few times since seeing this, such a simple idea but it's bloody brilliant, thanks Shrimp!
Its inspiring how you can make good food with limited ingredients if you put thought and skill into it! It really helps me out to think through food in my house.
Its inspiring to watch these cooking chellenges. To take on some risks and create new things from what can be found in the kitchen just might become very helpfull. The wins as well as the failed ones. There is every time something to learn from.
Some naming suggestions for the alternative to your recipe redemption series
- recipe restyling
- recipe revision
- recipe reconsideration
- recipe retrospective
- recipe revisal
- recipe recycling
- recipe refreshing
- recipe renovating
Thanks again Mike for another little series that engages the mind and relaxes the body. Enjoyed this one.
I would love to see more of this in the same sort of series.
Love that you made something akin to a panade with your ground chicken and bread crusts there -- so clever!
Love this series! You inspire me so much to be resourceful and creative in the kitchen- something which I sometimes lose interest in/forget while I get lost in life. Thank you so much, please keep making videos!
Your budget challenges always bring me joy.
I always enjoy your mind-gym challenge videos as I like to do something similar going on business trips abroad, having the added difficulty of being lactose intolerant.
Anyway, I'd like to suggest a challenge theme to you: you don't have a limited allowance as money for shopping goes, but you have to go by with just a kettle or without a fridge for a week (week is my experience, you can go shorter if it fits the production better). Some time ago I had to jerry rig a portable water hear just to have instant noodles.
I love how inventive this one was, the dinner especially seems really delicious for so cheap
Hi Mike, I really enjoy the way you think outside the box with your recipes. As someone who has to cook on a budget your videos are a great source of inspiration. Would you consider doing a low budget few days with less restriction on herbs, fats and spices? My thinking is that most people have these things to hand but not necessarily your creativity when cooking on a budget. I’d be interested to see what you come up with and I think others would too what with there being a cost of living crisis and all. Thanks for the great videos xx
...Dear Mr Shrimp.... you knocked this outta the park. Wonderful
So fun. That's wild that you have literal onions and garlic just growing in your neighborhood.
I would love a mini series on Asian inspired cuisine. So many interesting recipes to play around with. Would love to see what you could do with a bigger budget
Great again. As a former cook in asian restaurants, you are not far off. Thanks
11:30 The trick to getting that internet photo cheese pull is to press the sandwich down a little after you cut it and let it sit a beat before you pull it apart to let the cheese ooze and stick back to itself on the other half.
The "cheats" method is to cut the sandwich, add an extra full slice of cheese keeping the halves together and heating it through again before pulling, this guarantees the most cheese stretch but takes a few extra steps.
I loved your videos where you included “urban foraging.” Those were so interesting to me for some reason, I’d love to see that included again in a video someday!
“Croque Shrimp”, obvs! I love the way that so many things lend themselves to becoming patties, burgers, rissoles or sausages. Will it mash? Will it blend? Then make a patty, and fry it. This was an interesting challenge and thank you.
I'm always impressed with what you come up with, always makes me want to push my creativity in the kitchen!
We do love our ‘Shrimpy’ vlogs on a Friday evening. Great start to the weekend with what we call ‘an early doors’ in other words we open the bar ! Well, get a drink from our conservatory. We are so Rock and roll 😂 Cheers 🍻
Greenwich time zone aside ( I get the feed same day morning) feel the same kinda happy 🍻
Great video Mr Shrimp, I love your budget food and foraging videos it is inspires me all the time
I really love how creative you are and do such a great job thinkin outside the box.
Thank you Mike once again you delivered a great menu ,x
That sandwich looked divine 🤤
Really looking forward to the mushroom foraging videos! Love them.
I found it very cute how Eva was kind of pouting for chicken that's adorable❤ 🐓 I do the same thing when I see chicken it is very tasty it is very tasty and my favorite food as well😊