Being able to keep your family fed for less than $10 in a crisis can be tricky. Even if you have a lot of food in your prep storage, you don’t want to rely on it every time the winds of fate blow foul through our civilization.
As we’ve seen in past crises, like the COVID pandemic, the 2008 Recession, and even the Great Depression. A lot of grocery stores manage to stay open with some limited capacity.
When I was a boy, my grandmother who survived the Great Depression and WW2 used to force me to learn how to cook using very humble ingredients. I’m not talking about some gentle vignette where I take turns stewing the pot while holding onto her apron strings. It was elbow grease cooking with chunks of discount meat and things from the garden.
When I asked her why I had to learn how to cook like this, she said “Because someday the world’s gonna go crazy again, and you gotta know how to feed yourself!”
When the world did go crazy again in 2008 and during COVID, I was able to roll up my sleeves to feed my family some seriously delicious meals, for next to nothing.
Related: 17 Items That Vanished Immediately After the Pandemic
I thought I would take some of Grandma’s lessons and my own to help you understand some of the great meals you can make to feed your family for less than $10.
Marrow Scrap & Rice Stew
My Grandma used to run a supper club kitchen, and the owner was happy to let her take home scrap bones and leftover hunks of meat that would have otherwise ended up in the dumpster.
Every night she’d bring home leftover T-bones and joints with scraps of meat still clinging to them.
She’d put them in her Dutch oven and let them stew for hours overnight on top of the wood stove. All the marrow and collagen would render out into gelatin and nutrient-rich denatured proteins to create a rich stock.
The bones would be pulled out, and copious handfuls of cheap rice or quartered red potatoes would go in to simmer in the broth. This would be lunch and sometimes even leftover supper for her six kids.
Even if you don’t have leftover T-bones and restaurant scraps to work with, you can do something similar with beef shanks, pork hocks or pork neck bones. Tossing in a frozen vegetable medley right at the end, chunks of fresh garden vegetables or half a head of cabbage turns it into an authentic belly-filling stew.
| Ingredient | Price |
|---|---|
| Pork Hock | $5.00 |
| 2 Cups of Rice | $1.00 |
| Mixed Vegetable Medley | $1.50 |
Tuna Mac
During the pandemic crisis, my daughter and I ate a lot of tuna mac to stretch the budget. To this day it’s one of her top favorites that she asked for.
It’s a cheap weeknight meal that packs a decent amount of protein. I stock up on the generic version of the blue box, and cans of tuna packed in water when they’re on sale.
A double recipe will easily feed a family of four. You just follow the directions on the box. Boil the macaroni, and drain. You can double the butter to skip the milk if you need to.
Related: Stop Throwing Away Spoiled Milk! Do This Instead
Open the can of tuna and drain it. Array the tuna on top of the mac to let the ambient heat warm the fish before stirring.
A handful of frozen peas right before stirring the whole mess together gives it color and some extra vitamins. Just don’t over stir it into a single homogeneous mass. You want chunks of tuna and peas that are still solid green spheres.
| Ingredient | Price |
|---|---|
| 2 Generic Boxes of Mac & Cheese | $3.00 |
| 2 Cans of Tuna | $2.00 |
| Milk & Butter | $1.00 |
| Frozen Peas | $1.00 |
American Goulash
American goulash is a low-cost midwestern staple made from ground beef, onions, macaroni, and tomato sauce.
Some people will even go so far as to add a little canned corn to give it sweetness.
I like to add some diced carrots to give it some more fiber, flavor, and nutrient value.
You brown the ground beef with the onions in the pan to soften them. You can include diced raw carrot if you want. Once the beef is browned, add a small can of crushed tomatoes.
Related: What Happens If You Bury Fish Heads Under Your Tomato Crops
While the meat sauce stews, you start boiling the macaroni. I prefer to use large elbow macaroni, but any small tube-style pasta will do. Once they’re soft, drain the macaroni and stir it into the meat sauce.
You can make heaps of this stuff, and the leftovers are just as good the next day. You can add a little bit of beef stock to up the rich flavor. However, I don’t give in to the temptation to add garlic, as it makes the dish feel like you’re forcing it to be discount spaghetti when it’s meant to be a meaty casserole.
| Ingredient | Price |
|---|---|
| 1 Pound of Ground Beef | $4.00 |
| Medium Yellow Onion | $1.00 |
| Half Box of Large Macaroni | $1.00 |
| Can of Crushed Tomatoes | $1.50 |
| Diced Carrot (Optional) | $0.50 |
| Cup of Beef Stock (Optional) | $1.00 |
Chicken Sandwich Made from Leg Quarters
Even when they aren’t on sale, you can still get a big package of chicken quarters for $5 or less.
Sometimes chicken leg quarters, which include the bone-in thigh and drumstick are on sale for as little as 50 cents a pound!
Related: Chicken vs Duck
If you try to cook them like chicken breasts, the meat will be too tough, or it will burn on the outside before it’s done on the inside. No problem, all you have to do is toss the chicken leg quarters in a crock pot and let them slow cook for 4 to 6 hours or until they’re falling off the bone tender. The rendered fat and gelatin in the bottom of the crock pot can be used for soup or even the base for soup dumplings.
You can shred the chicken meat to use for just about anything. One of my favorites is to make elevated chicken sandwiches with garlic mayo (Aioli), and a slice of garden tomato, onion, and a little lettuce. For a bun, you can use simple bread, hamburger buns, or if you’ve got money left in the budget, you could splurge for discount ciabatta buns.
| Ingredient | Price |
|---|---|
| Chicken Leg Quarters | $5.00 |
| Buns | $2.00 |
| Onions & Lettuce | $2.00 |
| Garlic Mayonnaise | $1.00 |
Chicken & Vegetable Stir-Fry
One of the other belly-filling meals I like to make for under $10, repurposes the picked meat from chicken leg quarters and the skimmed fat to make stir fry.
Particularly in the month of June when my garden is pumping out pea pods, baby carrots, and the first-of-the-season peppers.
If you don’t have leftover meat from chicken leg quarters, you can just as easily use canned chicken. Vegetables like onions, peppers, baby carrots, and frozen peas from the store can replace garden fare.
Related: Foods You Can Regrow From Scraps
The stir fry can be served over a bed of white rice, or you can simmer some spaghetti until it’s soft, and toss it in the stir fry at the last minute. Finishing with a little soy sauce and some chopped green onions is a nice touch that gives the chicken stir fry an authentic Asian feel.
| Ingredient | Price |
|---|---|
| Chicken Meat or Canned Chicken | $2.00 |
| Medium Yellow Onion | $1.00 |
| Green Bell Pepper | $1.00 |
| Diced Carrot | $0.50 |
| Frozen Peas or Pea Pods | $0.50 |
| 2 Cups of Rice | $1.00 |
Rice & Bean Burritos
Rice, beans, and tortillas are common, inexpensive belly-filling staples in many forms of Latin cuisine. When you combine them into a burrito, you get a sort of blank culinary canvas that plays with a lot of other accent ingredients.
Adding cheese is an easy way to upgrade this somewhat low-protein meal.
Cheap chicken and ground beef, or even shredded pork leftover from a pulled pork sandwich are easy ways to increase the burrito’s protein value.
In a crisis, fresh meat might be hard to come by or even unavailable. To make sure you have a reliable meat supply, you should preserve your own while you still have the chance. I used this guide to can hamburger, chicken, and pork, which can all last for over 20 years.
Onions and peppers, garlic, and salsa are ways to add flavor and heat. You might already have some of these in your garden, or you can find them for next to nothing in the produce section.
| Ingredient | Price |
|---|---|
| 2 Cups of Rice | $1.00 |
| Can of Kidney or Pinto Beans | $1.00 |
| Bag of Premade Tortillas | $2.50 |
| Onions & Peppers | $2.00 |
| Leftover Meat from Chicken Leg Quarters | $2.00 |
Pork Picnic Shoulder
A pork picnic shoulder is a great alternative to a traditional Boston butt, which you can usually find for less than $10.
You can do just about everything you would normally do with a traditional pork shoulder. It’s just a Boston Butt is from the scapula region of a pig and a picnic shoulder is from the ball joint.
This was my father’s discount way to enjoy a fancy ham on a holiday, passed down from his mother. The trick is to score the skin and rub it down with salt or wet brine the shoulder for a day.
Then pat it dry and smoke it for 4 to 6 hours. At that point, the meat will have picked up as much, or more smoke than a high-end Christmas ham. If you don’t have a smokehouse, you can learn here how to build one for cheap, with items you most likely already have on your property.
Then you simply roast it in the oven or slow-cook in a crock pot until the meat is falling off the bone.
For me, this is a holiday meal served with a simple baked potato, a big scoop of corn, and some homemade biscuits. You could certainly pick this meat and put it on a bun for an awesome pulled pork sandwich, or even turn it into carnitas for a burrito!
| Ingredient | Price |
|---|---|
| Picnic Shoulder | $7.00 to $10.00 |
| 4 Baked Potatoes | $4.00 |
| Can of Corn | $1.00 |
Gnocchi
Gnocchi is a stomach-filling Italian-style potato dumpling that you can easily use to feed a family of four for less than $10.
All you need is four baked potatoes, a cup of flour, and an egg or two to make the gnocchi.
⇒ How to Can Potatoes for 5+ Years Shelf-Life
You want to get as much steam out of the baked potatoes as possible, before removing the skins and mashing them with a fork or a ricer. Then sprinkle in some salt, a small amount of flour, and a large egg.
Gently knead the gnocchi dough with your finger, adding little doses of flour until it comes together. You want it to be just firm enough to roll out into a “Snake” on a floured cutting board. Then chop the rolled dough into thumb size chunks. Then roll it with a fork to give the gnocchi texture enough to hold onto a sauce.
The easiest sauce is a cheap can of Alfredo from a discount dollar store or pesto made from garden basil. You can eat it as is or serve it with some chicken chunks of grilled pork sausage.
| Ingredient | Price |
|---|---|
| 4 Baked Potatoes | $3.00 |
| Cup of Flour | $0.50 |
| 1-2 Large Eggs | $0.50 |
| Can of Alfredo Sauce | $2.00 |
Yogurt Parfait with Fruit & Nuts
Yogurt on its own isn’t a complete protein source, but it is a good source of protein. Over the years, I’ve learned that creating yogurt parfaits or sundaes is a great way to enhance my fitness and muscle-building diet.
I include ingredients like chopped berries, fresh fruit, or jam.
Buying fruits in-season will save you money, and you can even make your own canned jams. Some fruits, like strawberries, are also easy to grow yourself on a budget.
I put down a hearty layer of chopped fruit, with perhaps a squirt of lemon juice for brightness and vitamin C. Then spoon some cheap low-fat yogurt from a discount tub of yogurt over it. I top it with a big handful of walnuts for crunch as well as to create a complete amino acid protein profile.
| Ingredient | Price |
|---|---|
| Discount 32 oz Yogurt | $3.00 |
| 1-pound in-season Berries | $2.00 |
| Small Bag of Walnuts | $3.00 |
With some smart shopping, there are a lot of flavorful and nutritious meals you can feed your family for $10 or less. The trick to getting through a crisis like this is to know how to work with inexpensive protein sources.
Chicken leg quarters, pork picnic shoulders, and shanks can be slow cooked to tenderize them. It also gives you a lot of gelatin, rendered fat, and easily digestible protein that can be added to a pot of rice for a belly-filling meal.
The rice and bean burritos are a culinary blank canvas that you can use to add all kinds of other ingredients. Including meat picked from those slow-cooked, discount primal cuts. These are very cheap ingredients that can feed a family of four to six or more for under $10.
Comfort foods like American goulash, tuna mac, and potato gnocchi are also great ways to feed a lot of hungry mouths for cheap during a crisis. Best of all they’re easy to make, which saves you time to put toward other important things.
You may also like:
Actions to Take Immediately After a Nuclear Blast
How to Build an Invisible Root Cellar in Your Backyard (Video)
Martial Law Movies You Should Watch
11 Overrated Prepping Items You Don’t Really Need
Money Saving Tips From Real Survivors of the Great Depression
Read the full article here
