- 5 hours ago
One bag of groceries, three easy dinners! In this video, Nicole shares how to turn a $50 grocery haul into three flavorful meals that are perfect for busy weeknights. From a cozy coconut curry broth bowl to comforting chicken spaghetti and crispy beef and bean burritos, these simple recipes make dinner planning easier with just one grocery run.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00In this one bag are three dinners to feed my family.
00:02Same groceries, different flavors,
00:04and a whole lot less wondering what to make tonight.
00:06Starting with my proteins, chicken,
00:09boneless, skinless chicken breast.
00:10You can use chicken thighs also.
00:12You just need at least two pounds worth.
00:13Also a pack of ground beef,
00:15and we've got a lot of freshness in here.
00:17Some cilantro, green onions, cucumber.
00:20Some peppers, I'm doing jalapeno pepper.
00:22You could also just do bell peppers here if you want.
00:25And a couple limes.
00:27From the dairy department, just some sour cream
00:28and a big block of cheese.
00:30To bulk it up, we've got some pasta, rice, tortillas,
00:34some chicken stock.
00:35However, this should be a pantry staple,
00:38so maybe you didn't have to buy this.
00:39Some canned beans, coconut milk,
00:42a little cream of mushroom, and a big jar of salsa.
00:45Oh, and some curry paste.
00:47That's the bag, and would you believe it,
00:49it all fits on a cutting board,
00:51and this is enough to feed my family three times.
00:54Watch me.
00:55First thing I'm making is a very popular dish right now.
00:57It is a coconut curry broth bowl.
01:00First thing I'm gonna do is cook my chicken.
01:02This is going to be for dinner one and dinner three.
01:05Do it once.
01:05We don't need to do it multiple times.
01:07So I'm just gonna season my chicken.
01:09I'm cooking this what I like to call the restaurant way,
01:11where I start it on the stove and finish it in the oven.
01:13You get the caramelization,
01:15so you get a lot of flavor on the outside,
01:16but then it's also nice and juicy on the inside.
01:20These flavors are gonna work with both dishes,
01:22so I'm keeping it pretty neutral.
01:24We can add more flavors specific to each dish down the road.
01:28These brothy bowls have recently been made popular
01:30by a lot of content creators.
01:32However, they are a long-time regional comfort food of Asia
01:37and parts of Europe, and comfort is exactly what this dish is.
01:40So I've got salt, pepper, a little garlic powder,
01:42a little onion powder, and some paprika.
01:44Just trying to season enough to establish a little crust.
01:47Season the other side after we get this down.
01:50So heat up a skillet, you want it to be an oven-proof skillet.
01:53And add in some oil,
01:54and you're gonna go down with your chicken, season side down.
01:57Okay, I'm just gonna repeat the same seasonings
01:58on the other side.
01:59And we're just gonna cook this until it easily releases
02:02from the pan and has a nice color on it.
02:04The trick to getting multiple dinners
02:06from one bag of groceries is to make a grocery list.
02:10Have a little game plan before you go to the store.
02:12You will save so much more money that way.
02:14That bag of groceries was less than 50 bucks,
02:17so three dinners for less than that.
02:20Not too shabby.
02:22Definitely cheaper than takeout.
02:23Don't force this.
02:24You want it to release from the pan on its own, like that.
02:27That's that good color.
02:29Now we're gonna cook it for just about one minute
02:31on this side, and then I'm gonna deglaze
02:33to start building my broth.
02:35Gotten that hard sear on it.
02:37And now we want it to cook a little more gently.
02:40If you cook it the whole time at that high temperature,
02:42you're just gonna end up with chicken jerky.
02:44While the chicken cooks, you have enough time
02:46to make your rice and cut your veggies.
02:50A benefit to not washing the rice
02:52is it's going to stick together a little more.
02:54And for this dish, that's perfect.
02:56Probably don't need an entire cucumbers.
02:58You could probably use some of this
03:00for also a second dinner.
03:02The veggies are our toppings for the bowl.
03:04And also you can top with whatever you want.
03:06You could add some avocado here,
03:08sugar snap peas, or broccoli.
03:10This is also a good dinner for a busy weeknight,
03:12because you can have everything ready.
03:13And then if you've got kids like I do,
03:16where everyone's on different schedules,
03:17they can build their own bowl whenever it's convenient.
03:20These green onions are also gonna serve double duty.
03:23I'm mainly just using the tops for this dish.
03:26I'm gonna save the bottoms for something else.
03:29That's what it's all about
03:30when you are making that grocery list,
03:32is to find things that can serve more than one purpose.
03:35You're gonna save a lot of money that way.
03:37Also, probably don't need a whole lime.
03:38I'll probably have just enough leftover for a cocktail.
03:42Chicken is done.
03:43Don't forget this handle is hot,
03:45so keep something on it.
03:46All right, I'm gonna remove the chicken
03:48and just let it stand.
03:49And then I'm gonna scrape up any bits that remain.
03:52Now we're gonna make our curry broth.
03:54I'm gonna add a big spoonful of curry paste.
03:57You can do that to your liking.
03:59It's not super spicy, but it does have a kick.
04:01Kind of stir that around in there.
04:03Then I've got our can of coconut milk.
04:05And you want a lot of broth.
04:06When we have any sort of soup situation,
04:09my kids love the broth the most.
04:11And these are broth bowls,
04:12so you want plenty per person.
04:14I'm gonna add in some soy sauce,
04:16a little dried ginger.
04:18And then I'm just gonna bring this up to a simmer
04:20and let those flavors come together.
04:22Give it a little taste.
04:23See if we're on the right track.
04:27It's gonna be delicious.
04:29Just a little bit of brown sugar.
04:31Kind of round it all out.
04:32And you could just use white sugar
04:34if brown sugar is not in your pantry.
04:36So all that has to do, come to a simmer.
04:39Our chicken is resting.
04:40Then I'll slice it up.
04:41That's the extent of dinner.
04:42I'm just going to do little slices of chicken in my bowl.
04:46But you can see how good the chicken is cooked.
04:49Hot rice.
04:50We're gonna add our chicken.
04:52Trying to do it the way I see other people do it.
04:54The star of the show for this meal is the broth.
04:58Cucumber.
04:58This is one if you wanted to add other veggies,
05:00you could for sure.
05:02You're just building those perfect bites.
05:03A little green onion.
05:05And then a good squeeze of lime.
05:07Dinner number one is complete.
05:09Coconut curry chicken broth bowls.
05:11See the perfect bite right there?
05:18It's like the warm hug from your cool grandmother.
05:21It feels like a bowl of comfort with some sophistication.
05:23It's got a lot more flavor than your normal,
05:25just chicken soup or chicken and rice.
05:28That coconut and that curry, mmm.
05:31Second meal, we're gonna use the rest of our chicken
05:33to make chicken spaghetti.
05:35I cannot believe,
05:36I don't think I have ever made this for a video.
05:39I've done a lot of videos and a lot of recipes.
05:42So I was just inspired to use my groceries
05:46to make chicken spaghetti.
05:47A lot of recipes call for a can of Rotel
05:50or diced tomatoes with green chilies.
05:52I'm going to use salsa.
05:54Some recipes do call for salsa,
05:56because I'm also using this for meal number three.
05:58And I'm using some jalapeno
06:00instead of a can of green chilies,
06:02because this is a green chili.
06:03I'm also gonna use some more of those green onions,
06:06just to give a little onion flavor.
06:08This is going to create the flavor,
06:11the base flavor for our sauce.
06:12So we'll get that going back here.
06:14I've got a pot of water coming to a boil for the spaghetti.
06:18I'm going in with some butter
06:21to saute my veggies, start our sauce.
06:24A lot of recipes use cream of chicken
06:26and cream of mushroom,
06:28sometimes one, sometimes the other.
06:30I'm just going to use cream of mushroom,
06:31but I'm kind of going to make
06:32a little cream of chicken too.
06:35To the butter, peppers and onion,
06:37and a little garlic powder.
06:39These do not need a lot of cook time,
06:40just about a minute to become fragrant.
06:42I'm going to add in just a little bit of flour.
06:44I'm doing that because I have a little chicken stock
06:46leftover from our broth bowls.
06:48May as well make use of it.
06:50And this is going to be cream of chicken.
06:52To that, I'm going in with our cream of mushroom,
06:54and then some salsa.
06:56All right, and that's the base for the chicken spaghetti.
06:59I'm going to cook the spaghetti,
07:01and then toss it in here,
07:03and we just have a couple more ingredients to prep.
07:05Shredding the rest of that chicken.
07:07See, when you slice and shred your meat,
07:09it goes further because people don't have to think
07:11you have to do one whole breast per person.
07:14I like kind of chunky shreds when I shred my chicken.
07:17So I shred it and then I kind of break it in half
07:19so it's a little chunkier.
07:21Okay, chicken's done.
07:23When you're trying to get double duty out of ingredients,
07:26it's another sign to be flexible when it comes to a recipe.
07:29For example, maybe this recipe called for cheddar cheese,
07:32but you wanted to use Colby Jack
07:36because you want that for another recipe.
07:38Things like that are not going to make a huge difference,
07:40so be flexible.
07:41A lot of times you save money that way,
07:43buying one bigger block versus two different kinds of cheeses.
07:46And you're also going to save money when you shred your own.
07:48Drain my spaghetti and I returned it to the pie
07:51because that's now going to be our mixing bowl.
07:52Now everything else goes in.
07:54Chicken, that delicious cream sauce,
07:57a little sour cream, and most of our cheese.
08:00It's reminding me of like a meal you take to people
08:02when they've moved into a new house or had a baby.
08:09The crew's going to like that.
08:11The crew's going to like that.
08:11I'm going to transfer this to a casserole dish
08:14and the rest of our cheese on top.
08:16And it just goes into the oven until it's bubbly.
08:19Of course, everything's hot, so this will not take long.
08:20I'm going into 375.
08:22Hot and bubbly coming right up.
08:25Oh yeah.
08:30Chicken spaghetti, meal number two.
08:32We're even going to have leftover groceries.
08:34Nothing like a creamy, cheesy pasta casserole.
08:37There was room in that bag for a veggie
08:40if you wanted to add a salad or some broccoli
08:44or something to this meal.
08:45Or you can say, no, there's veggies in here.
08:53This type of dinner is one of my favorite foods of all time.
08:56Chicken spaghetti, our first time together for the win.
09:00And for the record, not only is this enough to feed my family,
09:03but there will also be leftovers.
09:05And we're going to put our final groceries
09:07to work with our final dinner.
09:09For my final dinner, we're using ground beef as our protein
09:12and we are making crispy beef and bean burritos.
09:15So we're just going to make some taco meat.
09:18You've seen me do this a million times.
09:19Get that good and crumbled and then we'll season it up.
09:22If you have a packet of taco seasoning, you can use that.
09:24Going in with chili powder, cumin, onion powder.
09:27Normally I would put some onion in here, but being lazy.
09:30And a little garlic powder, salt and pepper.
09:36Activate those spices in the heat.
09:37And then I'm going in with pinto beans.
09:39You could do whatever bean you like.
09:40I'm going to add a little splash of water.
09:42I had rice left over from my bowls.
09:44I'm going to throw that in here.
09:46You could also, we had half a pack of rice left,
09:48so you could cook more rice.
09:49This is going to feed more than my family.
09:51Definitely makes several nice size burritos.
09:55Let me show you.
09:57Tortillas, going down with a little cheese,
09:59which is the rest of our block of cheese.
10:02I'm filling a little more cheese,
10:04some of our salsa, roll it up.
10:07But I'm also going to use the remaining ingredients we have
10:09to make a delicious sour cream sauce.
10:11That's how you make your Taco Tuesday
10:13feel a little more special,
10:14like we put a little more effort into it.
10:16I know I say this every time I roll a burrito,
10:17but I know how to roll a burrito
10:19because I used to do it for a living.
10:20Before I make them crispy,
10:21I'm going to have a sauce ready to go.
10:23So that's going to be the rest of our sour cream.
10:25Your girl screwed up.
10:27I bought this whole thing of cilantro
10:28because some was supposed to go in our broth bowls,
10:31but I forgot, so just remember that.
10:34We've also got more peppers.
10:37The creaminess cuts some of the kick.
10:39And our other lime.
10:41Good little pinch of salt.
10:43That should be it.
10:44See, it's like a sauce, not like a thick dip.
10:47To make our burritos crispy,
10:48you could do this in the oven or the air fryer.
10:50I'm just going to do it in a skillet.
10:52This is not quite a chimichanga
10:53because those are deep fried.
10:54This is just a little crisping,
10:56and it just makes for a better burrito
10:58because you get all the things.
10:59And place it seam side down and let it get crispy.
11:02It's like a meal prep thing.
11:04You could prep a bunch of these burritos
11:05and just keep them in your freezer or fridge.
11:07Then you can just thaw it out
11:08and crisp it in the skillet.
11:09It's giving Taco Bell Grilled Burrito a crispier.
11:14Oh my, this is going to be good.
11:17Yes, y'all, yes.
11:18I'm going to drizzle sauce all over because it's mine.
11:22It's a perfect bite burrito.
11:23Every bite's going to be perfect.
11:27Mmm.
11:28You know what I'm going to say.
11:30It's hot and cold and creamy and crunchy.
11:34I probably didn't have to be so messy about it,
11:35but this is a recipe you have to try,
11:37or next time you make your burrito,
11:39you better make it crispy.
11:40Three dinners, one bag, and zero reruns.
11:43Smart shopping just pays off.
11:45And these were three amazing dinners, not just average.
11:49My job here is done.