Sunday, October 19, 2008

The KFC Challenge

Have you seen those commercials. The mom has her 2 kids, one boy and one girl. They decide to do the KFC $10 challenge. Make a 7 piece fried chicken dinner, complete with mashed potatoes w/ gravy, and biscuits. Of course, according to the commercial they can't buy everything for 10 bucks. At the end they show the mom saying they are over 10 bucks and they merrily jaunt off to KFC to be so economical and thrifty.
So I decided to take on the KFC challenge. Can you make a family meal for 10 bucks? Of course you can. Provided you have a pantry that is already stocked with common staples. Which most of us do. And if you don't then I suggest the following list.

1. Flour-self-rising is what I prefer-buy a smaller bag if you don't use it that much. I put mine in a glass container to keep out bugs.
2. Pasta-I like to buy all different kinds-but usually spaghetti noodles are a good staple to start off with
3. Spices-salt, pepper, season salt are good ones to start. I love spices, so I have a cabinet full, ones that I have gotten when they are on sale.
4. Brown gravy mix-for those times when you don't fill like making it from scratch.
5.Box Mashed potatoes-another thing that comes in handy. You can use it as a breading for chicken or fish too. Or to make potato pancakes.
6. Spaghetti sauce
7. Beans-dried or canned. Chili, pinto, navy and northern are all good.
8. Rice
9. Jiffy or Bisquick mix- They have tons of recipes on the back from pancakes to dumplings.
10. Potatoes.
11. Oil-olive, peanut, vegetable-take your pick
12. Tomato sauce and paste.


Okay, now that you have a stocked pantry. You just need to buy your chicken. The rest is pretty simple. As long as you have a stocked pantry. I guess the little family in the commercial has a bare pantry. I will give it credit, if you had to buy your flour, spices, chicken, potatoes, biscuit mix,and oil then of course it would be well over 10 bucks.
But this commercial did get me thinking. What meals can you make for 10 bucks? Ones that would be filling, good tasting and nutritious too.
I came up with a list of ones that I make already and my family likes. I know in this time of economic hardship, we are all looking for ways to shop smart and have more money to save.
I will be posting a recipe that can be made for 10 bucks or less. Of course this will depend on what you have in your pantry all ready. See the stocked pantry list. There will be soups, stews, pasta dishes, and more. I might even through in some dessert and snack recipes that are cheap too.
Just let me know what kinds of things you would like to see made cheap.

1 comments:

Kim Ryden said...

Love this idea! Can't wait to see your meals!