Top Chef

[E_Edgerton]

I am not sure if many of you watch Top Chef...I don't catch it all the time, but in the spirit of the most recent challenge ($10 budget for a family of four) What are your inexpensive, yet nutritional meals for your family?:)

[Mom2boys]

I just went to the web site and printed out Antonia's pasta recipe.

 

My family loves spaghetti and a tossed salad - cheap, fast, and nutritious.

[Elisabeth in IL]

I love to watch Top Chef as well. My boys love chicken pot pie. I stuff it full of veggies.

[Closeacademy]

Pick me!

 

Healthy meals for under $10--I can do that.

 

Bean burritos--basically a whole wheat tortialla, fat-free refried beans with water added to desired consistency, salsa, and sour cream. We can usually get 10 burritos out of a can of beans.

 

Buffalo Chicken sandwiches pan style--fillet a chicken breast, coat with a little chilie powder and paprika, spray a pan with pam, cook until done, put a T each of Olive oil and Tabasco sauce in another pan and heat up, put the chicken in there for that buffalo taste. Place chicken in a bun and serve with carrots and celery sticks with a T of fat-free ranch dressing.

 

Spaghetti-Squash--cook the squash according to directions, heat a little tomato sauce, mix and serve with a piece of homemade garlic toast (1-2 slices of bread, fat-free margarine and a dash of garlic salt).

 

 

BBQ Chicken--Put some chicken in a crock pot with BBQ sauce and heat until it falls from the bone, serve on a bun with veggies on the side.

 

:001_smile:

[Jen in PA]

As soon as they announced the challenge, my DH cracked up because I could win this sort of challenge at least a dozen ways! Tonight we are having homemade pizza and a salad, which will come in at about 4 dollars and leave us with leftovers. I do a stir-fry using tofu marinated in all sorts of yummy Asian flavors, whatever veggies are in season, and tossed with whole wheat spaghetti. I also make big pots of cuban style black beans (sometimes vegetarian, sometimes with ham or a piece or pork shoulder tossed in) and serve them with brown rice and salad. I make shepherd's pie with any sort of meat and veggies I have around and use up extra mashed potatoes. A big hit this week was salmon loaf made with portabella mushrooms. It made a big loaf, so we had it one night with a mustard glaze and couscous, and another night with a soy-ginger glaze and brown rice. I make crustless quiche full of veggies and lowfat cheese on a regular basis. Dessert around here is usually fresh fruit, either on its own or diced and stirred into plain yogurt. I think the hardest part of the challenge was doing the shopping at Whole Foods -- I don't imagine many of us shopping on tight budgets are getting much of our food there.:)

[Claire]

Two of my family's favorite recipess that come in under $10 are in the Easy Dinners Vegetarian cookbook by Carrie Holcomb. (I got it for $10 in the bargain books section of B&N.) We love the Black Bean Vegetable Burritos recipe and also the Chunky Potato-Pepper Soup recipe. Actually, most of the recipes in this cookbook would come in under $10 for 4 servings. I need to try out some of the other recipes in there that look good.......