Budget Meal Prep: $50 for a Week — Step-by-Step Guide & Transcript

[00:02] ingredients and I'll transform them into giving you all the recipes completely for free so anyone can follow along. All right, so we're all well aware of how [music] expensive groceries have gotten

[00:15] over the last few years, which is why it has never been more important to get as ingredients [music] that you're buying. And if I have one superpower in the kitchen, it is definitely getting a lot out of a little. put together a $50

[00:30] grocery list that has a nice variety of affordable and very accessible [music] ingredients that everyone should be able to find no matter where you live. And will range dramatically depending on your location, where you shop, and the

[00:43] local market here in New York as a reference to get me to that $50 range. ingredients, that's going to knock the budget for this grocery list up by about 15 to 25%. And what I'm not including in this budget that I'll be using for this

[00:58] meal prep is of course salt and pepper, different oils and fats that already have in my pantry, and a small amount of sweetener like honey or maple syrup. And again, you can just take inspo from these recipes or you can print out that

[01:10] free Google Doc below and you can follow the full plan recipe by recipe. It's totally up to you. Here is my $50 food meal plan for the week. >> Now, the absolute best bang for your buck in the entire grocery store is a

[01:23] amount of meals we can get from this whole bird. But of course, you're not little butchering, which is probably But if you're a beginner, I've got your back with what I think is the easiest

[01:37] The first cut you're going to make is right between the seams of the breast [music] and the legs. And then I'll just open the joints a little so the bird lays nice and flat, make the rest of the butchering much more seamless. Then I

[01:50] flip the bird over and you can just draw imaginary lines with your finger right between the thigh and the backbone. You'll feel a natural seam in there, and once you have that mapped out, just slowly follow that seam with your knife.

[02:02] chicken, you're always looking to cut between the sockets and joints and cartilage. You never want to be going through direct bone. So, if something resistance, just wiggle your knife a little bit and find a new spot until

[02:16] your knife can cut through much easier. Now, once those legs are removed, I'll separate the thigh from the drumstick right at the joint. Then I'll remove the like to do this for more flavor in my broth. Then I'll simply slice off the

[02:29] wings, and I'll break those down into the three pieces. And finally, I'll make a slice right down the backbone, and I'll slowly simultaneously be cutting [music] and peeling away that breast until it's fully removed. And remember,

[02:41] if you're new to this, it shouldn't be perfect the first time, or even the Repetition of this process will get you more comfortable and build those skills. have some more meat on the carcass or some uneven cuts. It's really not a huge

[02:56] deal. So, I've got all my prime cuts, which I'll pop on a paper towel to remove any excess moisture, and immediately into my air fryer goes that carcass, the thigh bones, [music] the wing tips, and any extra skin. And I'll

[03:08] minutes. And in the meantime, to make prep really simple, I'm just going to together with salt and pepper. Then I'll flip them over and season the other because I'm actually going to put all of this chicken in the fridge uncovered

[03:24] overnight, which is going to one, dry out the skin so it gets super crispy, but it will also give that salt time to dry brine the chicken, which will not tenderize it. And we'll get back to that chicken tomorrow.

[03:38] these extra chicken bits have roasted up nicely. I also got some nice fat reserve for cooking throughout these meals, and I'll simply pop all of those pieces into my slow cooker. I'll cover it with water, and I'll let that slow

[03:52] cook overnight. Now, if your machine also does pressure cooking, which this cook this broth for an hour or two to save some [music] time. just going to bang out some pancakes for breakfast. I'll mash up three of the

[04:07] nice and smooth. And for every one banana I use, I'm cracking in one egg. of this little yogurt. I'm adding some homemade vanilla extract. I'll first I'm going to add in [music] some flour and baking powder to create my batter.

[04:24] and baking powder to create my batter. >> [music]

[05:05] right apart. It's almost disintegrating. And when you taste this chicken, it has the texture of chicken, but it has basically zero flavor. And that's good. transferred to this. This is optional, but you can season your broth.

[05:20] >> Mhm. This is very neutral, no aromatic flavor in here. But what this represents for all of my meals is body and nutrients. Such a deep, rich, roasted chicken flavor. Ready to go, so I'll let it cool, and I'll package it up. All

[05:33] is freed up, I'm actually going to cook the entire package of lentils in one go, which will really help speed up my meal prep moving forward. This package is around 2 and 1/2 cups of lentils, and I'll add in equal parts chicken broth

[05:47] ginger and garlic. I'm keeping these lentils pretty neutral since I'm going to be using them in a variety of different ways. different ways. >> [music]

[06:04] going to save the breast for now and just focus on the thighs, the drumsticks, and the wings. I'm isolating that dark meat since it all cooks in a similar fashion. To a wide saute pan I'm going to add in some of that chicken fat

[06:17] that came from the air fryer and I'll get all of the pieces rendering on the skin side down on just a medium low heat. And in the meantime I can prep some veg. I'm slicing up about half of that cabbage into these small little

[06:30] wedges. I'll cut up one onion into quarters. I'll peel and rough chop a few carrots into these nice bigger chunks. And finally I'll peel a few of those garlic cloves. I'll give the chicken a flip when it's super crispy and I'm only

[06:43] cooking it on the other side for about a minute. I'll remove all the chicken from my veg. And the pan at this point was a bit dry so I did need the rest of that chicken fat. Now while the veggies are cooking I just threw that entire tray of

[06:57] chicken in the oven just to cook completely through. And after about 5 color I poured in a little bit of chicken broth. I squeezed in a little in just a bit of honey and I seasoned everything up with salt and [music]

[07:10] pepper and I let these veggies braise to perfection for about 10 to 12 minutes. Nice, soft. I'm just going to cook this down till this liquid gets a little more

[07:22] down till this liquid gets a little more glaze.

[07:56] Alaska. It snowed maybe 3 weeks ago and it's been so cold that all of this snow froze and just stayed here for about 3 weeks. I mean it's melting a little bit now, but it's virtually made it impossible to do any

[08:09] type of chores around the homestead or at least it just makes things much more cool, I'm going to show you right now. This right here is the new climate battery greenhouse. Although it was not the best year to plant little baby trees

[08:24] considering it's been so cold. trees are holding up. This is a Meyer lemon. This is really exciting. These are kumquats and they're actually starting to ripen a [music] coming in. So even just being in here kind of outside is nice. It's about

[08:38] 60° in here and I'm just very excited to see what happens to these trees. All that we're getting more sun and it's starting to [music] warm up a bit.

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[09:18] get a ton of storms here on Long Island. This has been the most intense winter in decades. While I'm filming this video we just had the biggest blizzard we've had in years which just took down a tree which took down a power line in my

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[10:12] enjoying those lentils with the chicken and veggie dish I just made, but let's utilize them in some more creative ways by making a lentil cracker. To a food of the cooked lentils. You can see I still have a good bit left for other

[10:26] recipes. I'll add in three of my eggs, some salt to season, and a garlic clove. And I'll just pulse that together until it's very nice and smooth. it's very nice and smooth. >> [music]

[10:41] there's eggs in it. I'm eating raw eggs. Well, still damn good. I'm going to add some flour to bind it up.

[10:56] I'm going to line it with some parchment paper, and I'll dump that lentil mixture leftover mixture, which I added to a smaller sheet pan. And I'm just doing my best here to smooth out this mixture without creating any gaps or holes in

[11:10] the crackers. Ultimately, I'm putting in minimal effort. This cracker is very forgiving at any level of unevenness or thickness. Now, for some additional flavor, something that wasn't on my grocery list, but highly recommended, I

[11:22] seasoning leftover from these amazing rice paper bagels I made in a recent air fryer video, which I'll sprinkle right on top. And these get baked low and slow, so they can get nice and crispy at 300° F for about an hour to an hour and

[11:37] a half, depending on the thickness. So, we'll check back in on those crackers in make one of my favorite desserts. I've actually only made this once before, and it was with peaches, but today I'm working within my budget and the season,

[11:50] I'll first give a peel, and then I'm going to slice around the core, and then I'll take those pieces and I'll cut them in half, so you get some nice even apple chunks. Now, this is an upside-down cake that you make in a cast-iron pan, so

[12:03] medium heat, and I'll add a few tablespoons of butter into the pan, and away. I am adding just a little bit of honey to accentuate the natural sweetness of the apples and help them caramelize up. I'll also add just a

[12:17] little squeeze of lemon juice to balance out that sweetness with some tartness, Now, while that's happening, I'll work on this batter, which couldn't be that have been sitting at room temperature. I'll crack those into a

[12:30] of honey, which is all of the sweetener hand mixer and start whipping these eggs. And this step is crucial right some air in these eggs, which takes around 5 to 7 minutes on a high-speed

[12:44] electric mixer, and you're looking for those eggs to transform into a more pale yellow fluffy airy mixture like this, which is when I'll add in some flour. I'll zest some of that same lemon, a little homemade vanilla extract, and

[12:57] some salt, and I'll just gently fold everything together until that batter is everything together until that batter is nice and [music] smooth. lightly stewed. They don't need to be super soft, since they're going to bake

[13:11] in the oven, and I'll pour that batter evenly over all of those apples, and this puppy goes in the oven at 350° F, which conveniently was the same exact temperature my crackers were cooking at, and it needs to cook for just about an

[13:23] hour until that cake is perfectly spongy and cooked through. All right, so just from cooling you can see a lot of this has already released from the side, which is a very good sign. I am just going to run my knife

[13:36] around just for that extra shebang shebang. All right, so I've only done this one other time with the peach turnover, very similar recipe, and it >> surprisingly. I did freestyle this one a little bit. We'll see.

[13:51] Sha! Sha sha sha! Oh my god. Oh, Oh, no. >> [laughter] >> The one freaking apple! Are you kidding me? I'm going to place him back so

[14:05] gently. There you go. Flake was always there. So last time I made this with almond flour and peaches, and I said it was I think my favorite cake I've ever made. For some reason, I haven't made it again since now, but clearly this recipe

[14:17] is customizable with the flour you use and the fruit. It's like a sponge cake, in that crust. I had some ice cream in this challenge. Oh, wait. Oh, wait. Yes. left. I might just eat it on this spatula.

[14:33] Mhm. What in the hell is that? >> You can't be serious with that. they create almost one texture. I remember last time I could not stop very little sugar in it. You can make it gluten-free very easily. It's been so

[14:47] If you make one thing from this entire video, make this and report back to me.

[15:21] chicken breasts? Well, it's time to put them to work. And I'm going to be making a absolutely delicious and refined chicken salad. Now, since I already going to get some oil in a frying pan, and I'll start to cook them on the skin

[15:34] going to dice up some celery. I've got a few carrots left, which I'll peel and the parsley, which I'll just give a sear on the skin side. So, what I'll do to keep these chicken breasts super

[15:48] tender is I'll cook them for about 1 to 2 minutes on the other side just for with some chicken broth, add a squeeze of lemon juice, and I'll pop a lid right on the pan so they can just slowly steam until they are perfect. And while

[16:02] quick little mayo dressing. I'll crack one egg into a bowl, and I'll remove the mixing bowl. And I'm just going to start whisking that up while simultaneously slowly drizzling in some olive oil one a little bit at a time. And if you do this

[16:18] nice and slowly, you will see that that mayo is going to thicken in no time. And once I have about a quarter cup of mayo, I'll add a little homemade fermented garlic, I'll squeeze in a little bit of lemon juice, I'll season it up, and

[16:31] boom, that is a delicious dressing just in time for that chicken to be perfectly cooked through. >> [music] Oh, yeah. I just completely guessed on the timing. Sometimes things work out.

[16:49] Oh, yeah. Lemon [music] chicken goodness.

[17:24] like there's some thicker or chewy parts, almost like a pita. And then obviously super crispy parts. You can also just go super thin and make much more chips. It's really kind of choose your own adventure. This is an awesome

[17:37] little snack or lunch. Lentil chips with the chicken salad. I was just thinking too, when you get chicken salad from the market, it's generally around 95% lot of mayo. And the term salad almost doesn't make sense for something like

[17:49] that. Whereas this, that looks like a salad, feels like a salad, tastes a this is what chicken salad was supposed to be. That's wonderful. Those lentil chips taste like pita chips, yet they're like

[18:01] taste like pita chips, yet they're like 80% lentils. I'm praying. dishes already and this is every single ingredient I have left. We've got some

[18:15] chicken stock, cooked lentils. This is all my fresh ingredients right here. Got this chicken juice, some eggs, the egg white and some flour. Now I've been racking my brain because I will use every last ingredient. That is the point

[18:29] of this meal prep challenge and I think I have two perfect dishes that should wrap all of this up. Now one of the best ways to use up a bunch of leftover random ingredients is of course making soup, especially with what I have. So

[18:42] I'll dice up this last onion. I'll dice up the rest of my celery. I'm peeling chop up a little piece of ginger and I'll chop up the rest of my parsley. Now juice which was leftover from the braising of the chicken breast. And when

[18:56] it solidified in the fridge, it actually had a really nice layer of fat which was rendered from the skin of the chicken breast. So I skimmed that off, popped these aromatics. And I'm just going to season them up with salt and they'll

[19:09] they have some color, I'm dumping in the rest of that chicken juice flavor bomb and I'll dump in all of the chicken stock just reserving a little bit for the next recipe. Then the rest of the

[19:21] cooked lentils are going in, all of that parsley and then finally the last little here. I'll bring this soup up to just a gentle simmer and then I'm going in with my immersion blender. This is my absolute favorite trick for making soup.

[19:35] I'll usually blend up about half of the ingredients so you've got the smoothness and a little bit of that chunkiness for texture. It's the best of both worlds soup a final seasoning. Now this lentil soup is going to be served right along

[19:49] with this final recipe which is going to be inspired by the Japanese okonomiyaki but of course just using what I have left which is not much but is definitely enough to make a delicious cabbage pancake. So I thinly slice the remaining

[20:03] I added the rest of the chopped parsley that I had. I grated up my last garlic clove. I also grated in some ginger. I added that leftover egg white I had from the mayo as well as the remaining three eggs, the last few tablespoons of

[20:16] chicken broth that I reserved, a little bit of flour to bring this batter pepper and I gave it a mix to get my frying up about half of the mixture. With this little 8-in pan I had enough

[20:29] for [music] these two bigger pancakes and the pancake takes about 5 to 7 minutes on a medium heat for that bottom to get super brown. And if you want to live dangerously, just give this a flip right in the pan. I'm not that brave so

[20:41] I popped it right onto a tray and I slid it back into the pan to cook on the it back into the pan to cook on the other side. [music]

[21:06] >> So unfortunately, I have failed the challenge. I've got little bit of chicken stock, a knob of ginger, a little piece of cabbage, and a banana, which I'll eat for dessert, but I think I did pretty damn good. I mean, I'm very

[21:18] satisfied with the amount of food, with the creativity, the lack of waste, and just overall how delicious everything was. And I got a final little shebang That soup is simple, but that is a perfect winter lentil soup. Mm, try this

[21:32] Mm. That's nice. hopefully you got something out of this video, whether it's a technique, a philosophy, a specific recipe, or if you want to just follow the entire video

[21:44] completely, recipe by recipe, just check out the free Google Doc below, print that baby out, buy the ingredients, and be on your way. be on your way. >> [music]