*Afterthoughts & Addenda* *Prices.* One of the most common comments (often from people in the USA) is about the low price of the food. Yeah, maybe, but we pay more for other things - for example petrol (gasoline) here costs the equivalent of about 7.30 USD per US gallon, for example. *Washing Meat.* It's not normal to wash meat here and it is officially disadvised ( www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/food-types/meat-nutrition/ ). I've neither the time nor the will for an impassioned debate about this. Adam Ragusea has addressed this topic in a far better and more completely balanced way than anyone else I've seen, here: ua-cam.com/video/90Nd_vh3yk8/v-deo.html
@@PandermoaniumA gas station probably isn't ideal, as it's mostly expensive food decreased to somewhat cheaper food. Plus, you wouldn't get groceries or produce; gas station. My mother uses Too Good to Go to get baked goods for brekkie.
@@deavo74 It used to be common in the States to wash uncooked meat. I feel like it's a throwback to traditions that existed before food hygiene and health and safety became a thing.
For me too good to go was more misses than hits but I enjoy watching you make new recipes out of what you buy. And I wanted to say that I waited all week for this video and checked daily if it came out.
As a person who works for Lidl and puts out the fruit and veg and makes those £1.50 boxes it all depends on how much we take off in our morning freshness checks on how many boxes we make. It may be that 1 pepper out of a pack is not as fresh and we throw away the bad one and use the other two for the boxes or maybe the potatos are slightly sprouting they tend to come off and get used for boxes. Also note any other waste that doesn't go to in these boxes we donate to local charities (also dented tins, opened boxes of cereal etc) and raw meat goes into a freezer and gets picked up to go make feed for animals. So for anyone wondering as it may seem like maybe a lot goes to waste things are in place to reduce the ammount that actually gets wasted (at Lidl anyway).
That is really nice to hear, the supermarkets should do more advertising for that, I'm sure this will bring in more customers than the "we reduced the plastic used for bottle caps by 50%"-campaign the supermarkets here did two years ago
You might argue it was a tad easy, but as a viewer, after seeing all your previous challenges where there often is a good amount of struggle involved (where as you pointed out before I think, you have to sacrifice some nutrition or variety to keep the price down), it was nice to see you able to go further and make some really creative meals with varied ingredients! They looked less like they are just an okay meal within the challenge parameters, they looked actually delicious. Just at a change of pace, this one time. Now I'm ready for more beans and flour recipes :D
I was kinda discussing this with my cousin after the video ended, and I said it was nice to see him spend a bit more, but still keeping it at a good level, to inspire people who might spend that amount over a few days. He got a lot out of those ingredients, and if you lived on your own, it'd go even further.
Enjoyed that. Additionally, we now say “I’m gonna Shrimp that” when looking in the fridge before shopping day and cobbling together meals with imagination.
Those Lidl boxes are fantastic. They're €3 here, I've only managed to nab one but it had a ton of veg, a whole melon and about €15 worth of berries in it, I was genuinely delighted 😂
As a chef of 45yrs I think what you did with the ingredients was absolutely spot on 👍🏾 The lunchtime salad could go on any bistro menu, superb 🔥 I notice too your knife skills have come a long way. 😊 Maybe you missed your true vocation 🤔😊
It always amazes me at how many "UA-cam channels" of content you produce on just one channel. Scambating, weird stuff in a can, budget challenges, foraging videos, hand crafted creations, exploration videos, cooking, and of course your video with the wobble dog 😁. Truly the variety channel that delivers great content year after year. Thanks very much my friend for sharing your interests and life with us, it's very much appreciated 😁👍👍
What you call a courgette I believe we call in my part of the western united states a zucchini. In this area I remember growing up many of my neighbors making zucchini bread. So now it makes me wonder if in the UK they make courgette bread 🤔
@@AtomicShrimplthough I’ve never heard of courgette bread here in the Netherlands (I might just be unaware of it), we at home do sometimes make filled courgette. It’s basically a slightly hollowed courgette filled with rice + ground meat + what ever else we have, bit of cheese on top and in the oven. Might be a good one for one of the changes.
@@AtomicShrimp How did you succeed (subscriber and watch time-wise) in making "UA-cam channels" worth of content in only one channel? Quinton Reviews (in his second channel Re2s) says that the algorithm usually favors only one brand for one channel, that's why creators maintain two channels, one for their main brand, the other for everything else.
Jenny seemed to really like the breakfast, maybe it's just her warming up to the camera, but that was probably the most positive reaction I've heard of her. Good job!
Lidl pulling through for normal people 😁 That mix of fruit paste and cheese is very common here in Brazil; they make a fruit block from guava, called "goiabada", and eat that with some fresh cheese in a dish called "Romeo and Juliet". The "pizzas" looked just like a strawberry and mozzarella version on a muffin; so I'd recommend trying it, if you liked it 😜
Germany has this thing called Senfgurken or Schmorgurken, basically cucumbers briefly simmered in a mustard sauce. Maybe that would be worth exploring when you stumble upon another cucumber on these challenges. Or smashed cucumber salad, that can be varied alot and has some stronger flavours.
Higher budget and access to larger supermarkets. Similar to the States, if you lack a car and live in the cheap seats in the UK, your access to larger, and therefore cheaper supermarkets that do the good discounts can be extremely limited. From a socio-economic point of view, although it may not be Mr Shrimp's intention, these videos make a mockery of idiot Tory thugs like 30p Lee's claim that people can survive on 30p meals. If Mike can't manage it, given he's fascinated by all this stuff, is a great cook and has the platform and time to experiment, then a single mum working 20+ hrs a week in a carehome and without a car doesn't stand a chance.
@@peterclarke7240I completely understand your point of 30p a day not being achievable. That said, it looks like folks in the UK are just as divided based on political party as the USA. Has it always been that way in the UK or just since social media came out? Growing up in the late 80's/early 90's we weren't nearly as hasty make broad based assumptions about people based on who they voted for in my neighborhood. However now it's happening all the time & because of it the sense of community has gone completely out the window. Because of that I've completely stopped watching the news and have disconnected from social media other than watching certain channels like this one on UA-cam. I've found that over the last year my thought patterns/judgement has now moved back to my mindset before social media. Something super random I know, but just interested to know if there was always this level of vitriolic disgust of people who voted differently than you do in the UK, or if this is a new thing. That said, I hope you have yourself a great day 👍
@@peterclarke7240 30p meals are somewhat doable when you take into consideration bulk buying and certain meals being cheaper, so averaging to £1.20 a day. It's not comfortable, but it can be done. Mike makes the point that the challenge is unrealistic and not really representative of anything when in most cases you would buy large amounts of things like pasta and rice which provide a lot of bulk for cheap but don't fit into these challenges. He's also limited by buying everything at one place, even in small towns there are several options for buying things and shopping around. But I guess the actual facts don't matter when you want to push a political agenda.
I’ve been waiting for this all week. I would love you to do a challenge where you see how little you can spend but using garden produce, store cupboard staples calculated pro rata and foraging.
I really enjoy your wife participating in these videos! It seems it's not the easiest for her to do, so her going out of her way to do it, is very much appreciated 😊 Also wanted to say, that I really enjoy your videos that show recipes that you do off the cuff, it's a really good skill to have and that's how I enjoy cooking myself! I feel this is so much more valuable that just straight up recipe videos!
As things get tighter, I can see your videos helping so many people out. I didn't really know how to cook until I reached my late 20's finding myself as a single father. I can only imagine how much money I could have saved if your videos (and youtube) were around then.
I think the fact that it was easy is a good thing. The £1.50 waste not boxes are a real bargain (just got my first one as I didn't know abt them until I saw them on here). My £5 for two people provided fruit porridge, vegetable soup, chicken stir fry with rice, a big pan of borscht (half of which was frozen for another day along with vegetable stock and chicken stock for future use). We got two days out of the £5 budget (38p left over). Also have a load of onion, peppers, mushrooms etc in the freezer. Shopping like this will easily save over £100 month on food bills. Thank you Mike. 🥰
I don't often comment, but I feel like I should say your vids are like free therapy, I greatly enjoy them, and they always manage to take my stress off. I really appreciate what you do
I cannot get over the deal on the produce box! I’m in New Zealand and even in prime season I think that would cost a minimum of $35 for what was in the box
Returning to the video to say: your 'quick pickle' in this video inspired me when I was cooking (for a lot of people) in a family reunion earlier this month to rescue some cucumbers that gotten a little too cold (par frozen). I had rice vinegar instead of cider, but it was being served with bbq pork and it seemed to go over quite well! So thank you for your unique content, I would never get that kind of inspiration anywhere else. :)
Mike, Jenny, Eva and fellow uncutables. This was much more enjoyable than the too good to go experiment. 2 small observations, all citrus works in a similar manner, making minor adjustments for sugar or acid etc. I'm always interested in how language sets our minds against combinations of food. Apples and oranges indeed. The Whey from the mozzarella contains lactic acid which could have been used in either the pickle or to stop the apples and or pears from oxidizing. Mild cheeses combine very well with fruit. All the best Jim Oaxaca Mexico
You're an amazing cook who inspires others. Your meals look scrumptious. Just a couple of ideas inspired by what you did, I wonder if zest from your orange could go into the fruit puree and adding Pear to your cucumber quickle.
Had to chuckle when you said the exact thing that had popped into my head on seeing those neat little pizzas -- swee'zzas! Raspberry, pear, and mozza sound as though they'd go really well together. I imagine a good Cheddar might hit well, too. You were so lucky to get that Waste Not box -- a real treasure trove of fruit and veg! Always love watching these challenge videos, even when they don't go so swell, like that last one.
I wish I could subscribe to this channel twice. Easily my favourite UA-cam channel of all time. Another banger of a video Mike, keep them coming! Nice to see Jenny and Eva making an appearance also
I would say this is the best-looking series of meals you've had in your budget series. I think the boxes of veggies are such a brilliant idea. We have some stores around me (Boston area in the US) that will do reduced vegetables, but they tend to be all one type of veg in a big container, which doesn't always work for me as a single person cooking for one.
I love how efficient your cooking is, and how quickly you disregard and compost things that won't make 'good' food depsite being under a budget - I aspire to the level of creativity!
Some smaller grocery stores here will have "nearly expired" and "nobody is buying this" displays. As noted, you have to get there early to find the good stuff.
@@jibcot8541 you need to get there when they open. If you don't see them ask if they've already sold out or if they're still making them. A lot of produce sells before it reaches this stage so it may just be too busy of a store. The store I work in is fantastic for their boxes, they're very generous and fill the whole thing if they can but we can only make a 2-5 a day as a result. The boxes may also be in an odd place in the store, we put ours next to the self service checkouts.
I found your channel through scambait videos. And you even had a disclaimer in said videos, that those are not the only types of videos you make. I shrugged off the fact at the time. But seeing this in my sidebar feed from you, made me click none the less. And through your honest and humble demeanor, you are quickly becoming one of my favourtie youtube channels. Amazing work and effort, humbling yet inspiring!
I bought my daughter the students cook book which has loads of cheap recipes and an app attached to it when she went up to university. Has she used it? Has she fuck.
One thing I like to do with chicken wings is pick the raw meat of the bone and then chop into a rough paste and form patties. You can still use the bones for stock and you can pan fry the skins crisp and cook with the excess oil.
I think with any store, it depends what you're after. Mike has done videos comparing Aldi and Lidl to other supermarkets, based on a specific list, often the sort of list a food bank uses for people.
@@toast99bubbles Of course, but from my experience on average I can buy a lot more going to the Aldi then I can going to the Jumbo or Albert Heijn which we also have here
i was soooo sceptical but then again people eat cheese with fruit all the time the more i watched the more sense it made. but i am totally with you, i would never have thought about making sweet pizzas
@@girlsdrinkfeck either your supermarkets must have a lot more than ours have our the discounters have a lot less.. the range at ALDI especially has grown in the last 10 years to be close to a normal supermarket. They even sell brand name stuff like nutella and so on.
That £1.50 box is incredible value! That's about $18.00 worth here in Aotearoa, if not more. For example, it's early spring here and tomatoes are 9.00NZD per kg, Cherry tomatoes 6.00NZD per punnet, salad mix 150g bag NZD5.50 AND, we pay a bloody fortune for everything else too. That overgrown zucchini will be fabulous, sliced and sautéed with a knob of butter, ½ a chopped onion and a couple of chopped tomatoes - season to taste and saute uncovered until tender. It's actually one of my favourite ways of eating it. 😊
I loved this video. I don't really care about the difficulty of the challenge what i most enjoy out of these kind of video's is seeing the creativity with the ingredients as it inspires me to cook more without set recipe's. A harder challenge reduces the change a delicious recipe gets created so i don't mind a more lax budget at all
I love these kinds of crates. I hope we will get those soon as well where I live. I do not particularly have a need for them, but I am sure a lot of people do.
I really love this series - from the relaxing trip around the supermarket to watching you turn random ingredients into pretty good looking meals is really inspiring. Thank you AtomicShrimp! ❤️
I have been trying to make both ends meet with this LIDL style method for 3 years now thanks to inflation.... it works! LIDL makes me survive. Greetimgs from Germany!
Never ever have I seen such a beautiful collection of produce in a waste not box, this is AMAZING! Here they go for 2-4 € and mostly contain semi spoiled fruit and veg...
A two person two day five pound challenge would be excellent. It is the most common challenge faced just starting out, or when we unexpected expenses occur. That and your creativity shines.
Thanks for another great video - I find these budget ones really helpful for opening my mind and thinking more deeply about what could be possible with stuff I have left in the fridge and pantry, and coming up with something not immediately obvious. Excellent inspiration!
Been looking forward to this one since you teased it at the end of the last one, always love your limited budget challenges and seeing what you do with the ingredients you can snaffle. (Although Lidl is such good value sometimes that £5 doesn't even feel like that much of a limitation :P Bless Lidl)
I pretty much never comment, but I just want to say that I don't remember how I found your channel a few weeks ago, but I'm very happy I did! Absolutely love the mix of your content, your general positive attitude and more! Every video just leaves me a little bit happier than I was before I started watching, and I think that is worth so much!
We have the waste not boxes in Ireland Lidl too- only €3. Another cheap but great meal to get is Lidl’s frozen paella- it has chicken and some seafood in it but if you buy Lidl’s seafood mix in the fridge section (one of their cheapest fish options) you can make a genuinely impressive dinner out of it for cheap. Always goes down well
early on i was asking myself "quick pickle? surely the mind that brought us oneion wouldn't just leave the opportunity for 'quickle' on the table" so i'm pleased that you didn't disappoint also wow, really made out like a bandit with that produce box! i've never seen stores doing something like that in my neck of the woods (suburban utah). at my local stores that much will get you one carton of strawberries that 50/50 are already moldy before they've left the store, yet are still full price. of course a lot of the produce was on its way out, but the amount and *variety* of usable food you got for that price is still really impressive. and the garlic looked better than just about any head of fresh garlic i've tried my luck with here
My store does those waste not boxes, but at least half the fruits and veggies are beyond saving... So even if they are cheap you are just buying stuff to throw away.
I got those Waste Not boxes before. Amazing value, and I do my own mini budget challenges with them, to find ways of using the lot. Quite the inspiration you are, Mr Shrimp. =D
This was the first time the budget challenge included cheese!❤️ Even though the last one has been a bit of a beige disappointment to you, I feel you are getting better at it every time - even though the prices have increased. (I'll count the last challenge as the exception that confirms the rule.) The sweet mini pizzas might also go well with a bit of gorgonzola, and maybe some walnuts, if you're not on a budget challenge. Yeah, how innovative, I know - since pears and gorgonzola are staple, anyways. Btw, the food of this challenge looked very appetizing and opulent. 😋
I loved that challenge! I think that this one might have been less of a challenge... Yet I think it was really educative how to make really nice meals with still a small budget! Love your videos! Tremendously inspiring!
Here in Switzerland Lidl and Aldi sell the bread from yesterday with a steep discount too. It's good for another day or two and then you can make a variety of different dishes from stale bread. Like french toast or bread soup that I often make when I have stale bread.
I often check out the deals at Lidl here in Finland, and I've seen those veggie boxes but unfortunately they were mostly apples, carrots and swedes. Admittedly I think the last time I saw the boxes was in winter. I don't often get to Lidl when it just opens, usually a few hours later.
After seeing you struggle with some challenges it was a real pleasure to watch you make meals you were really happy with, while still not spending a fortune.
I never got a waste not box.(or the German bag equivalent) Cause I work to early for that😢 I really appreciate that it exists for people though. I had quiet a funny to good to go bag last weekend and got 3kg of verry ripe strawberries. I ate 500g on the same day and diced and froze the rest of them for cocktails, breakfast Joghurt toppings and ice-cream.
In my experience most Lidls here in Germany ( at least the ones around me) don't have anything equivalent to these boxes. In general there are barely any deals at Lidl here like the ones one can find in the UK
@@Esablaka Lidl has it in my area here in germany, but you have to be very quick when they open at 7 AM. Most of the time the few bags called "Rettertüte" are all gone after 5 minutes. Also Kaufland has reduced produce since a few weeks. But there you have to inspect it carefully. Mushrooms are often moldy, salad is already mushy, but sometimes you find stuff like cucumbers for like €0.15. Also Norma has reduced produce that still is looking absolutely fine. But at least here its always at a different spot, so you have to search for it every time.
Dr Johnson came across an excellent recipe for cucumber which you may like to try; "It has been a common saying of physicians in England, that a cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing." I've tried it and it works surprisingly well.
My favorite recipe for cucumber is to buy it with hopes I'll somehow become a person who likes cucumber and then let it thoroughly rot in my fridge until I eventually scrape it out and throw it away.
I love that you got a Waste Not box at the store & how that fit the theme of the first part of the challenge. I wish grocery stores here did something similar but the closest I've seen is one of those red mesh fruit/veg bags filled with odds & ends for 99 cents at Smith's (Kroger). Usually it's all one type of food (however many apples or potatoes or onions will fit) but I have picked up once or twice what I call a Stew Bag: A handful of baby potatoes, an onion, a small bulb of garlic and a ripe tomato (or a couple small Roma tomatoes). Add in from home whatever cut of beef I've pressure cooked (cheap cuts here need that to not turn out tough sad shoe leather), a handful of baby carrots & a stalk of celery I've roughly chopped... Added to some liquid from the instapot and simmer a bit to let the tomato(es) & potato starch thicken the gravy and with a couple slices of toasted day old bread & it's not a bad meal for 3 at about $2.00.
Thanks for making a more realistic budget challenge! It would be great if you are doing two days to up the budget to maybe 6-7 pounds so it's not too challenging or limited nutritionally. WDYT? Love love the videos! It's truly inspiring! Appreciate the time and effort put into make these!
I was happy to see that the dog barking in the background didn't annoy you. I personally don't care if Eva is barking while you're talking, she's a dog, dogs bark, Also you should give Garlic Confit a try. I made some the other week and it was one of the best things I've cooked. So incredibly simple too.
I loved this! Your creativity with cooking knows no bounds. This was actually more enjoyable then the one pound challenges because in those the variety in food just gets so small
The ingredients you used for the breakfast is mindblowing, I would never have expected someone to be able to make something with them combined, let alone it taste nice. You sir have a real talent and you need to put it to wider use!
the sweetza's are almost like a danish or another type of pastry. if brie was on sale it would be AMAZING. 5 pounds (about 6:50 USD) a day is a budget a lot of a people may have to live on and people dont even think of that. this is a really good guide and a show of how to make meals that fill you on a budget. i'm not sure if the USA, despite having lidl in SOME places, has waste not box.... but if they dont i want to try and convince them to have such a thing. such a great value for people who may not be very well off.
Mike I've seen nearly all of your cooking videos, and I'd love to see one where you go in the opposite direction and make 3 meals with the absolute best ingredients available to you. Love your cooking!
Love your food challenges, not only to see what you can do with a small budget, but you also provide creative cooking options and tips that I will be using in my own cooking! Keep'em coming! Looking forward to the £5 for two people over 2 days challenge! :D
This by far has been my favourite episode. Two big reasons, one of them being that Jenny was participating which shows that these meals can be stretched to please the family. Secondly, is that the meals made were very little effort & they were without a doubt really good! I like when you don't need to stretch your imagination (I still love the whacky meals too, imagination is a cooks best tool!) too far because its, more of a... commonly consumed meal? Basically I can see more people making these meals, than any of the other meals you've made. Keep up the good work Mr Shrimp, thank you for the great content & keep on smiling :)
For most of my life I misunderstood what "fork split" meant on the Thomas' English Muffins package, until one day Atomic Shrimp showed me the way. It's a beautiful split every single time!!!
It was truly impressive the amount of food you were able to get from Lidl vs the "too good to go" bags! I wish we had plain chicken wings at Lidl here in Finland - Finns are really really into pre-seasoned meat so the only plain chicken I can get at Lidl (or almost any shop, really) is drumsticks, breast and thigh fillets. Not even whole chickens. I've never gotten one of those veggie boxes because it's often way too many vegetables for just the two of us and sometimes it's really heavy in stuff I don't want, like swedes. But maybe I've just never gone early enough in the day.
Supposedly, they put these boxes, or in our case bags, out at around 10am. However, the only time I've gotten one was at 6.15pm on a Wednesday. Thankfully, we have pre-seasoned and unseasoned chicken at Lidl.
a tip for the too good to waste boxes - wash everything in them thoroughly. the stuff in there is more than likely been sat in close proximity to mould, but worse to me is how many people stick their hands in them and touch everything in there to 'make sure it's ok' and very often being naughty and sneaking extra things in from other boxes that they want. i'm 90% sure the reason they have them after the checkouts is because otherwise people would be putting anything they liked in them.
Yeah, they're on the shelf (where you're supposed to pack your bags). I'm guessing you're meant to either just be buying one of the boxes alone, or you're meant to point and say 'and one of those' as your stuff is being rung through - but that runs the risk of them all being gone by the time you've completed your other shopping. I just grabbed one and put it in the trolley - nobody seemed to mind.
@@AtomicShrimp I do the same with mine - grabbed one then went back through the checkout saying "excuse me" to everyone queuing up, then got my trolley!
That's a pretty impressive haul. Lidl is also a budget favorite in Poland, their store brand items are genuinely better than the originals at times. Man, I remember during some Asian week ages ago they had these wasabi chips that were amazing. They weren't just spicy, they also had a nice sweetness to them as well as potato flavor. Also, with cucumbers you should try Polish "salad" called mizeria - it's just cut cucumber with cream or yogurt and salt and some chives/green onions. With optional splash of lemon juice or vinegar. I know cucumbers taste weird to you but I wonder if it woul work.
I suspect this wasn't very challenging, just comfortable cooking! interesting as a comparison to the TGTG as a sort of example of what to do vs what not to do when you've got £5 for a day.
Handy little tip for garlic, cut the bottom off the bulb (flat bit not the pointy bit) put cut side down on a plate and pop in the microwave for about 20 seconds, remove and then squeeze the bulbs out, they come out clean with no faff and you can use as normal :)
Hey Atomic Shrimp, I've heard some concerns about the quality of chicken from certain places, so I've been more cautious with my choices. It would be interesting to see a video where you explore different sources for chicken or discuss food safety. Thanks for the content!
Omg those chicken muffins with the soup! My mouth is actually watering haha it looks so good! I would absolutely devour those chicken sandwiches 🤤 Also I am laughing so hard at you and Jenny's back and forth "yeah" conversation 😂
This was the best budget video. £5 for two people for one day was hard enough to have to think carefully about what to get, but not as restraining that you're stuck with the same products. I liked that you tried the too good to go and gave it a go without subjecting Jenny to it. That salad looked delicious and I liked the idea with short pickling the cucumber. It'll help me with utilising any reductions I see on my shops.
Those muffin pizzas honestly looked delicious - it’s amazing how creative you are! It’s nice being able to see you make meals without too much restriction
@@countesscableme too. I love the tiny zucchin and summer squash but we get hot by squash vibe borers here where i am in the US and im lucky if i get 2 or 3 before the plants collapse. I do have an organic spray but it just hasnt really helped that much. I did buy some mesh bug netting i will try this coming season. I will have to go out in morning and hand pollinate the plants but i want more squash.
Something like that is my go to when I need to eat for cheap - 2 large carrots - 1 onion (oneion) - couple of celery sticks Chop and fry off - veg (I usually pick 1 courgette, 1 head broccoli, 1 leek, and 1/2 large cabbage, mix up and put whatever you like in) Chop and dump in - 1 can butter beans - 2 cans tomatoes (plum or chopped, your choice) Dump in (drain beans first) - as much garlic as you like (for me usually a lot) - cover with chicken stock, simmer for 1 hour Taste and season. Add some orzo pasta or potatoes or rice in 20 mins before the end if you want extra carbs. This makes approximately 6lb of stew for less than £10 which I usually get 8 meals out of. Freezes great too. If you get bored add curry powder / paprika / some bacon to liven it back up.
Love these videos Mike! I would be curious to watch a 7 days for 2 budget challenge, there are just so many options. Also, I just can't believe how inexpensive food is in the UK comparing to us in Canada, well in my part of the country anyway (Atlantic).
*Afterthoughts & Addenda*
*Prices.* One of the most common comments (often from people in the USA) is about the low price of the food. Yeah, maybe, but we pay more for other things - for example petrol (gasoline) here costs the equivalent of about 7.30 USD per US gallon, for example.
*Washing Meat.* It's not normal to wash meat here and it is officially disadvised ( www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/food-types/meat-nutrition/ ). I've neither the time nor the will for an impassioned debate about this. Adam Ragusea has addressed this topic in a far better and more completely balanced way than anyone else I've seen, here: ua-cam.com/video/90Nd_vh3yk8/v-deo.html
@@PandermoaniumA gas station probably isn't ideal, as it's mostly expensive food decreased to somewhat cheaper food. Plus, you wouldn't get groceries or produce; gas station. My mother uses Too Good to Go to get baked goods for brekkie.
I would never think to wash meat. I’m guessing this is a thing in some other countries?
@@deavo74 It used to be common in the States to wash uncooked meat. I feel like it's a throwback to traditions that existed before food hygiene and health and safety became a thing.
@@deavo74 American meat is filled to the brim with shit that is illegal to touch food in Europe :D
For me too good to go was more misses than hits but I enjoy watching you make new recipes out of what you buy. And I wanted to say that I waited all week for this video and checked daily if it came out.
That whole box for £1.50 is a crazy deal !
What is 1.50 pounds to Australian dollars?
@@hypercane2023 2.86 Australian Dollar
@@hypercane2023$3 aud
@@ThierryPeekthat is so crazy!
@@Akotski-ys9rr yeah but they'll still throw away 8000x that amount and not give it away
As a person who works for Lidl and puts out the fruit and veg and makes those £1.50 boxes it all depends on how much we take off in our morning freshness checks on how many boxes we make. It may be that 1 pepper out of a pack is not as fresh and we throw away the bad one and use the other two for the boxes or maybe the potatos are slightly sprouting they tend to come off and get used for boxes. Also note any other waste that doesn't go to in these boxes we donate to local charities (also dented tins, opened boxes of cereal etc) and raw meat goes into a freezer and gets picked up to go make feed for animals. So for anyone wondering as it may seem like maybe a lot goes to waste things are in place to reduce the ammount that actually gets wasted (at Lidl anyway).
Thanks for sharing this insight!
Aldi is pretty much exactly the same. Only rotten/off food doesn’t get donated or eaten by some kind of animal!
That is really nice to hear, the supermarkets should do more advertising for that, I'm sure this will bring in more customers than the "we reduced the plastic used for bottle caps by 50%"-campaign the supermarkets here did two years ago
Wish these boxes were at any of the US locations
German efficiency. 😅
You might argue it was a tad easy, but as a viewer, after seeing all your previous challenges where there often is a good amount of struggle involved (where as you pointed out before I think, you have to sacrifice some nutrition or variety to keep the price down), it was nice to see you able to go further and make some really creative meals with varied ingredients! They looked less like they are just an okay meal within the challenge parameters, they looked actually delicious. Just at a change of pace, this one time. Now I'm ready for more beans and flour recipes :D
I feel a challenge with a similar budget, at either Aldi or Lidl but no reduced items could be interesting.
Foraged herbs allowed
I was kinda discussing this with my cousin after the video ended, and I said it was nice to see him spend a bit more, but still keeping it at a good level, to inspire people who might spend that amount over a few days. He got a lot out of those ingredients, and if you lived on your own, it'd go even further.
Enjoyed that. Additionally, we now say “I’m gonna Shrimp that” when looking in the fridge before shopping day and cobbling together meals with imagination.
Yes, I also reference Mr. Shrimp alot when cooking
In my family we call them bottom of the fridge meals
Me too. We're really trying to cut back on waste in our household.
Sometimes ya gotta 🍤 it up
Those Lidl boxes are fantastic. They're €3 here, I've only managed to nab one but it had a ton of veg, a whole melon and about €15 worth of berries in it, I was genuinely delighted 😂
As a chef of 45yrs I think what you did with the ingredients was absolutely spot on 👍🏾
The lunchtime salad could go on any bistro menu, superb 🔥
I notice too your knife skills have come a long way. 😊
Maybe you missed your true vocation 🤔😊
@@keptleroymg6877 possibly but not in my case 👍🏾😊
Also a Chef, Also Agree!
@@keptleroymg6877lol what
@@keptleroymg6877tf?
Yes and happily get over charged for it. 😉
It always amazes me at how many "UA-cam channels" of content you produce on just one channel. Scambating, weird stuff in a can, budget challenges, foraging videos, hand crafted creations, exploration videos, cooking, and of course your video with the wobble dog 😁. Truly the variety channel that delivers great content year after year. Thanks very much my friend for sharing your interests and life with us, it's very much appreciated 😁👍👍
"Is it still a pear if there's only one of them" 😂😂 Excellent dad joke to start my Saturday 👏👏
What you call a courgette I believe we call in my part of the western united states a zucchini. In this area I remember growing up many of my neighbors making zucchini bread. So now it makes me wonder if in the UK they make courgette bread 🤔
Yeah, I think it's probably called courgette cake, or loaf
@@AtomicShrimplthough I’ve never heard of courgette bread here in the Netherlands (I might just be unaware of it), we at home do sometimes make filled courgette. It’s basically a slightly hollowed courgette filled with rice + ground meat + what ever else we have, bit of cheese on top and in the oven. Might be a good one for one of the changes.
@@AtomicShrimp How did you succeed (subscriber and watch time-wise) in making "UA-cam channels" worth of content in only one channel? Quinton Reviews (in his second channel Re2s) says that the algorithm usually favors only one brand for one channel, that's why creators maintain two channels, one for their main brand, the other for everything else.
Jenny seemed to really like the breakfast, maybe it's just her warming up to the camera, but that was probably the most positive reaction I've heard of her. Good job!
Agree !
Lidl pulling through for normal people 😁
That mix of fruit paste and cheese is very common here in Brazil; they make a fruit block from guava, called "goiabada", and eat that with some fresh cheese in a dish called "Romeo and Juliet". The "pizzas" looked just like a strawberry and mozzarella version on a muffin; so I'd recommend trying it, if you liked it 😜
Germany has this thing called Senfgurken or Schmorgurken, basically cucumbers briefly simmered in a mustard sauce. Maybe that would be worth exploring when you stumble upon another cucumber on these challenges. Or smashed cucumber salad, that can be varied alot and has some stronger flavours.
Higher budget really does make a difference, the meals just looks and probably taste a lot better.
This is a really interesting episode
Higher budget and access to larger supermarkets. Similar to the States, if you lack a car and live in the cheap seats in the UK, your access to larger, and therefore cheaper supermarkets that do the good discounts can be extremely limited.
From a socio-economic point of view, although it may not be Mr Shrimp's intention, these videos make a mockery of idiot Tory thugs like 30p Lee's claim that people can survive on 30p meals. If Mike can't manage it, given he's fascinated by all this stuff, is a great cook and has the platform and time to experiment, then a single mum working 20+ hrs a week in a carehome and without a car doesn't stand a chance.
@@peterclarke7240 30p meals?! That sounds insane.
Please remember that 30p Lee in an idiot
@@peterclarke7240I completely understand your point of 30p a day not being achievable. That said, it looks like folks in the UK are just as divided based on political party as the USA. Has it always been that way in the UK or just since social media came out? Growing up in the late 80's/early 90's we weren't nearly as hasty make broad based assumptions about people based on who they voted for in my neighborhood. However now it's happening all the time & because of it the sense of community has gone completely out the window. Because of that I've completely stopped watching the news and have disconnected from social media other than watching certain channels like this one on UA-cam. I've found that over the last year my thought patterns/judgement has now moved back to my mindset before social media. Something super random I know, but just interested to know if there was always this level of vitriolic disgust of people who voted differently than you do in the UK, or if this is a new thing. That said, I hope you have yourself a great day 👍
@@peterclarke7240 30p meals are somewhat doable when you take into consideration bulk buying and certain meals being cheaper, so averaging to £1.20 a day. It's not comfortable, but it can be done. Mike makes the point that the challenge is unrealistic and not really representative of anything when in most cases you would buy large amounts of things like pasta and rice which provide a lot of bulk for cheap but don't fit into these challenges. He's also limited by buying everything at one place, even in small towns there are several options for buying things and shopping around. But I guess the actual facts don't matter when you want to push a political agenda.
I’ve been waiting for this all week.
I would love you to do a challenge where you see how little you can spend but using garden produce, store cupboard staples calculated pro rata and foraging.
Great idea. Hope Shrimp takes you up on it.
isn't that basically a lot of the earlier challenges? would be nice to see foraging + buying challenges again though
Yes please!
I really enjoy your wife participating in these videos! It seems it's not the easiest for her to do, so her going out of her way to do it, is very much appreciated 😊
Also wanted to say, that I really enjoy your videos that show recipes that you do off the cuff, it's a really good skill to have and that's how I enjoy cooking myself!
I feel this is so much more valuable that just straight up recipe videos!
As things get tighter, I can see your videos helping so many people out. I didn't really know how to cook until I reached my late 20's finding myself as a single father. I can only imagine how much money I could have saved if your videos (and youtube) were around then.
I think the fact that it was easy is a good thing. The £1.50 waste not boxes are a real bargain (just got my first one as I didn't know abt them until I saw them on here). My £5 for two people provided fruit porridge, vegetable soup, chicken stir fry with rice, a big pan of borscht (half of which was frozen for another day along with vegetable stock and chicken stock for future use). We got two days out of the £5 budget (38p left over). Also have a load of onion, peppers, mushrooms etc in the freezer.
Shopping like this will easily save over £100 month on food bills. Thank you Mike. 🥰
I don't often comment, but I feel like I should say your vids are like free therapy, I greatly enjoy them, and they always manage to take my stress off. I really appreciate what you do
These meals came out amazing! Your creativity never fails to astound me. You've inspired me to only use what's in my house for meal prep this week.
That was incredible, I genuinely can’t believe how intuitive you were at putting those meals together. There’s a lot to learn from this!
Quickle, Oneion, Sweetza. Is there no stopping this man?
I cannot get over the deal on the produce box! I’m in New Zealand and even in prime season I think that would cost a minimum of $35 for what was in the box
100% bro. AU/NZ prices are fucked compared to the UK and US. We get ripped off royally.
Yeah I'm in Aus and I'm amazed at what you can get in the UK price wise. Even when you get lucky with a mark down it's still expensive!
@@mwethereldmate it’s an absolute rort over here eh
Straya tax at its finest.
Does AUS and NZ import most of their veg and fruit?
That might be why they are so expensive. Not sure. But that box is a bargain.
I’d honestly love to see a video of how you shop/cook normally. You’re very creative within the constraints, what happens when you’re just let free
Returning to the video to say: your 'quick pickle' in this video inspired me when I was cooking (for a lot of people) in a family reunion earlier this month to rescue some cucumbers that gotten a little too cold (par frozen). I had rice vinegar instead of cider, but it was being served with bbq pork and it seemed to go over quite well!
So thank you for your unique content, I would never get that kind of inspiration anywhere else. :)
Mike, Jenny, Eva and fellow uncutables. This was much more enjoyable than the too good to go experiment. 2 small observations, all citrus works in a similar manner, making minor adjustments for sugar or acid etc. I'm always interested in how language sets our minds against combinations of food. Apples and oranges indeed. The Whey from the mozzarella contains lactic acid which could have been used in either the pickle or to stop the apples and or pears from oxidizing.
Mild cheeses combine very well with fruit. All the best Jim Oaxaca Mexico
Your budget challenges are always very thought provoking and interesting , I now walk round the supermarket checking what I can buy for a pound!
You're an amazing cook who inspires others. Your meals look scrumptious. Just a couple of ideas inspired by what you did, I wonder if zest from your orange could go into the fruit puree and adding Pear to your cucumber quickle.
Had to chuckle when you said the exact thing that had popped into my head on seeing those neat little pizzas -- swee'zzas! Raspberry, pear, and mozza sound as though they'd go really well together. I imagine a good Cheddar might hit well, too. You were so lucky to get that Waste Not box -- a real treasure trove of fruit and veg! Always love watching these challenge videos, even when they don't go so swell, like that last one.
Something really creamy like Brie or Camembert would go very well, but usually not a very budget friendly choice.
Sweezzas went through my head too 😂
You remind me of my late grandfather so much. He acted exactly like you and was the nicest man ever.
I wish I could subscribe to this channel twice. Easily my favourite UA-cam channel of all time. Another banger of a video Mike, keep them coming! Nice to see Jenny and Eva making an appearance also
Sadly not, can't like the video twice either, but you can view multiple times, which I believe.
Also comments are good for the algorithm, I'm told. 😁
I would say this is the best-looking series of meals you've had in your budget series. I think the boxes of veggies are such a brilliant idea. We have some stores around me (Boston area in the US) that will do reduced vegetables, but they tend to be all one type of veg in a big container, which doesn't always work for me as a single person cooking for one.
I love how efficient your cooking is, and how quickly you disregard and compost things that won't make 'good' food depsite being under a budget - I aspire to the level of creativity!
I really wish my local Lidl here in the states had 'waste not' boxes, but I haven't seen them in store. Love the budget challenges!
My local Lidl in the UK doesn't do those boxes either, they just give it to staff or throw it away.
@@jibcot8541 To be fair if it's a busy store there might not be any.
@@jibcot8541have you asked? They usually sell out early doors.
Some smaller grocery stores here will have "nearly expired" and "nobody is buying this" displays. As noted, you have to get there early to find the good stuff.
@@jibcot8541 you need to get there when they open. If you don't see them ask if they've already sold out or if they're still making them. A lot of produce sells before it reaches this stage so it may just be too busy of a store. The store I work in is fantastic for their boxes, they're very generous and fill the whole thing if they can but we can only make a 2-5 a day as a result. The boxes may also be in an odd place in the store, we put ours next to the self service checkouts.
I found your channel through scambait videos. And you even had a disclaimer in said videos, that those are not the only types of videos you make. I shrugged off the fact at the time. But seeing this in my sidebar feed from you, made me click none the less. And through your honest and humble demeanor, you are quickly becoming one of my favourtie youtube channels.
Amazing work and effort, humbling yet inspiring!
Thanks for helping to prepare me for life on a budget as a graduate student, Mr. Shrimp.
I atart uni in September and I've been watching all your cooking videos for meal ideas and ways to eat for cheaper. Thank you!
I bought my daughter the students cook book which has loads of cheap recipes and an app attached to it when she went up to university.
Has she used it? Has she fuck.
A really good way to save money on food at uni is to batch cook. Get some tupperware and make things you can buy/cook in bulk and freeze.
One thing I like to do with chicken wings is pick the raw meat of the bone and then chop into a rough paste and form patties. You can still use the bones for stock and you can pan fry the skins crisp and cook with the excess oil.
Lidl and Aldi on a budget are good places to check out
Also: I would have NEVER thought to make those sweet mini pizza's
I think with any store, it depends what you're after. Mike has done videos comparing Aldi and Lidl to other supermarkets, based on a specific list, often the sort of list a food bank uses for people.
@@toast99bubbles Of course, but from my experience on average I can buy a lot more going to the Aldi then I can going to the Jumbo or Albert Heijn which we also have here
i was soooo sceptical but then again people eat cheese with fruit all the time
the more i watched the more sense it made.
but i am totally with you, i would never have thought about making sweet pizzas
@@girlsdrinkfeck either your supermarkets must have a lot more than ours have our the discounters have a lot less.. the range at ALDI especially has grown in the last 10 years to be close to a normal supermarket. They even sell brand name stuff like nutella and so on.
Its a no for me with that weird sweet pizza
That £1.50 box is incredible value! That's about $18.00 worth here in Aotearoa, if not more. For example, it's early spring here and tomatoes are 9.00NZD per kg, Cherry tomatoes 6.00NZD per punnet, salad mix 150g bag NZD5.50 AND, we pay a bloody fortune for everything else too. That overgrown zucchini will be fabulous, sliced and sautéed with a knob of butter, ½ a chopped onion and a couple of chopped tomatoes - season to taste and saute uncovered until tender. It's actually one of my favourite ways of eating it. 😊
I loved this video. I don't really care about the difficulty of the challenge what i most enjoy out of these kind of video's is seeing the creativity with the ingredients as it inspires me to cook more without set recipe's. A harder challenge reduces the change a delicious recipe gets created so i don't mind a more lax budget at all
You are so inventive. £1.50 for the box and 80p for the wings wow. I absolutely love these videos. Keep em’ coming. 👍
Saturday morning shrimp is the highlight of the UA-cam week!
Keep up the good work fella and, as always, stay safe!
I love these kinds of crates. I hope we will get those soon as well where I live. I do not particularly have a need for them, but I am sure a lot of people do.
I really love this series - from the relaxing trip around the supermarket to watching you turn random ingredients into pretty good looking meals is really inspiring. Thank you AtomicShrimp! ❤️
I have been trying to make both ends meet with this LIDL style method for 3 years now thanks to inflation.... it works! LIDL makes me survive. Greetimgs from Germany!
Loved the optimistic tone of this shopping trip compared to the previous one😃
My favourite kind of Atomic Shrimp video…just had breakfast, and a shower! Time for another cup of tea, and I’m ready to watch!
Never ever have I seen such a beautiful collection of produce in a waste not box, this is AMAZING! Here they go for 2-4 € and mostly contain semi spoiled fruit and veg...
The recorded as live thought process in the Lidl grocery/supermarket is much appreciated.
*thinking out loud process
A two person two day five pound challenge would be excellent. It is the most common challenge faced just starting out, or when we unexpected expenses occur. That and your creativity shines.
Yes my cooking skills and nutritional intake grew a lot whilst on a restricted budget.
Wow, was waiting for this! Thank you Mr. Shrimp, your videos are such a treat!
Thanks for another great video - I find these budget ones really helpful for opening my mind and thinking more deeply about what could be possible with stuff I have left in the fridge and pantry, and coming up with something not immediately obvious. Excellent inspiration!
also, I would love and adore to see you try a fiver, 2 days, 2 people in a similar way and similar rules as todays video
A curry is always a safe bet to throw left over stuff into. Or a Stew.
Been looking forward to this one since you teased it at the end of the last one, always love your limited budget challenges and seeing what you do with the ingredients you can snaffle.
(Although Lidl is such good value sometimes that £5 doesn't even feel like that much of a limitation :P Bless Lidl)
I pretty much never comment, but I just want to say that I don't remember how I found your channel a few weeks ago, but I'm very happy I did!
Absolutely love the mix of your content, your general positive attitude and more! Every video just leaves me a little bit happier than I was before I started watching, and I think that is worth so much!
This channel does wonders for my mental health 😊.
We have the waste not boxes in Ireland Lidl too- only €3. Another cheap but great meal to get is Lidl’s frozen paella- it has chicken and some seafood in it but if you buy Lidl’s seafood mix in the fridge section (one of their cheapest fish options) you can make a genuinely impressive dinner out of it for cheap. Always goes down well
early on i was asking myself "quick pickle? surely the mind that brought us oneion wouldn't just leave the opportunity for 'quickle' on the table" so i'm pleased that you didn't disappoint
also wow, really made out like a bandit with that produce box! i've never seen stores doing something like that in my neck of the woods (suburban utah). at my local stores that much will get you one carton of strawberries that 50/50 are already moldy before they've left the store, yet are still full price. of course a lot of the produce was on its way out, but the amount and *variety* of usable food you got for that price is still really impressive. and the garlic looked better than just about any head of fresh garlic i've tried my luck with here
oh, and if i can put forward one more dubious portmanteau for this video: sweetza
My store does those waste not boxes, but at least half the fruits and veggies are beyond saving... So even if they are cheap you are just buying stuff to throw away.
Shout out to Utah! I can often find discount produce bags at Smith's but never equal to the value of that lidl box
I got those Waste Not boxes before. Amazing value, and I do my own mini budget challenges with them, to find ways of using the lot. Quite the inspiration you are, Mr Shrimp. =D
This 2- part series really shows the difference when you by ready foods vs cooking from scratch....every thing looked amazing!
You’ve given me some ideas for using up things in the refrigerator and cupboards. Thank you.
This was the first time the budget challenge included cheese!❤️
Even though the last one has been a bit of a beige disappointment to you, I feel you are getting better at it every time - even though the prices have increased.
(I'll count the last challenge as the exception that confirms the rule.)
The sweet mini pizzas might also go well with a bit of gorgonzola, and maybe some walnuts, if you're not on a budget challenge. Yeah, how innovative, I know - since pears and gorgonzola are staple, anyways.
Btw, the food of this challenge looked very appetizing and opulent. 😋
I loved that challenge! I think that this one might have been less of a challenge... Yet I think it was really educative how to make really nice meals with still a small budget!
Love your videos! Tremendously inspiring!
the deal on that box is insane, think I need to check out Lidl at early hours
Here in Switzerland Lidl and Aldi sell the bread from yesterday with a steep discount too.
It's good for another day or two and then you can make a variety of different dishes from stale bread. Like french toast or bread soup that I often make when I have stale bread.
I often check out the deals at Lidl here in Finland, and I've seen those veggie boxes but unfortunately they were mostly apples, carrots and swedes. Admittedly I think the last time I saw the boxes was in winter. I don't often get to Lidl when it just opens, usually a few hours later.
I think this is one of your better ones because of food really looks good. And I like the way you’ve incorporated the fruit! Well done👏👏🇺🇸
After seeing you struggle with some challenges it was a real pleasure to watch you make meals you were really happy with, while still not spending a fortune.
I never got a waste not box.(or the German bag equivalent) Cause I work to early for that😢 I really appreciate that it exists for people though. I had quiet a funny to good to go bag last weekend and got 3kg of verry ripe strawberries. I ate 500g on the same day and diced and froze the rest of them for cocktails, breakfast Joghurt toppings and ice-cream.
They are perfectly timed for us working overnight so are hanging on the door at opening so we can pick up shopping on the way home to bed.
In my experience most Lidls here in Germany ( at least the ones around me) don't have anything equivalent to these boxes.
In general there are barely any deals at Lidl here like the ones one can find in the UK
@@Esablaka Yeah, I'm not sure about Lidl either, but I did see a box like that at Rewe before!
@@Esablaka Lidl has it in my area here in germany, but you have to be very quick when they open at 7 AM. Most of the time the few bags called "Rettertüte" are all gone after 5 minutes. Also Kaufland has reduced produce since a few weeks. But there you have to inspect it carefully. Mushrooms are often moldy, salad is already mushy, but sometimes you find stuff like cucumbers for like €0.15. Also Norma has reduced produce that still is looking absolutely fine. But at least here its always at a different spot, so you have to search for it every time.
@@frankseyen9156 The one and only one I've ever gotten at my Lidl was at 6.15pm on a Wednesday. I wonder if it was because the bag was partially torn.
Dr Johnson came across an excellent recipe for cucumber which you may like to try;
"It has been a common saying of physicians in England, that a cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing."
I've tried it and it works surprisingly well.
My favorite recipe for cucumber is to buy it with hopes I'll somehow become a person who likes cucumber and then let it thoroughly rot in my fridge until I eventually scrape it out and throw it away.
@@driverjayne Sounds intriguing. I might try it sometime. Perhaps a light dusting of smoked paprika would be beneficial?
I love that you got a Waste Not box at the store & how that fit the theme of the first part of the challenge. I wish grocery stores here did something similar but the closest I've seen is one of those red mesh fruit/veg bags filled with odds & ends for 99 cents at Smith's (Kroger). Usually it's all one type of food (however many apples or potatoes or onions will fit) but I have picked up once or twice what I call a Stew Bag: A handful of baby potatoes, an onion, a small bulb of garlic and a ripe tomato (or a couple small Roma tomatoes). Add in from home whatever cut of beef I've pressure cooked (cheap cuts here need that to not turn out tough sad shoe leather), a handful of baby carrots & a stalk of celery I've roughly chopped... Added to some liquid from the instapot and simmer a bit to let the tomato(es) & potato starch thicken the gravy and with a couple slices of toasted day old bread & it's not a bad meal for 3 at about $2.00.
Your ability to improvise is astounding. Always a joy to watch.
19:42 is a next level cooking tip! So useful in a manor of ways, will have to try this
Thanks for making a more realistic budget challenge! It would be great if you are doing two days to up the budget to maybe 6-7 pounds so it's not too challenging or limited nutritionally. WDYT? Love love the videos! It's truly inspiring! Appreciate the time and effort put into make these!
I was happy to see that the dog barking in the background didn't annoy you. I personally don't care if Eva is barking while you're talking, she's a dog, dogs bark,
Also you should give Garlic Confit a try. I made some the other week and it was one of the best things I've cooked. So incredibly simple too.
Love Eva and the chicken tax was collected for her ;-)
I loved this! Your creativity with cooking knows no bounds. This was actually more enjoyable then the one pound challenges because in those the variety in food just gets so small
The ingredients you used for the breakfast is mindblowing, I would never have expected someone to be able to make something with them combined, let alone it taste nice. You sir have a real talent and you need to put it to wider use!
Tried the breakfast pizzas with a cheddar cheese and my kids loved it! Thanks much for your ideas.
the sweetza's are almost like a danish or another type of pastry. if brie was on sale it would be AMAZING. 5 pounds (about 6:50 USD) a day is a budget a lot of a people may have to live on and people dont even think of that. this is a really good guide and a show of how to make meals that fill you on a budget. i'm not sure if the USA, despite having lidl in SOME places, has waste not box.... but if they dont i want to try and convince them to have such a thing. such a great value for people who may not be very well off.
This was my thought as well, brie would be fantastic on these, or chevre, ricotta, cream cheese, etc.
Stilton even better!
Mike I've seen nearly all of your cooking videos, and I'd love to see one where you go in the opposite direction and make 3 meals with the absolute best ingredients available to you. Love your cooking!
Love your food challenges, not only to see what you can do with a small budget, but you also provide creative cooking options and tips that I will be using in my own cooking! Keep'em coming! Looking forward to the £5 for two people over 2 days challenge! :D
This by far has been my favourite episode. Two big reasons, one of them being that Jenny was participating which shows that these meals can be stretched to please the family. Secondly, is that the meals made were very little effort & they were without a doubt really good! I like when you don't need to stretch your imagination (I still love the whacky meals too, imagination is a cooks best tool!) too far because its, more of a... commonly consumed meal? Basically I can see more people making these meals, than any of the other meals you've made. Keep up the good work Mr Shrimp, thank you for the great content & keep on smiling :)
Your creativity with food never ceases to amaze me, my brain would literally never go there given these ingredients, bravo 🙌
For most of my life I misunderstood what "fork split" meant on the Thomas' English Muffins package, until one day Atomic Shrimp showed me the way. It's a beautiful split every single time!!!
They're kind of pre-cut but it's subtle, so you can just stick a fork in there and they split open.
It was truly impressive the amount of food you were able to get from Lidl vs the "too good to go" bags! I wish we had plain chicken wings at Lidl here in Finland - Finns are really really into pre-seasoned meat so the only plain chicken I can get at Lidl (or almost any shop, really) is drumsticks, breast and thigh fillets. Not even whole chickens.
I've never gotten one of those veggie boxes because it's often way too many vegetables for just the two of us and sometimes it's really heavy in stuff I don't want, like swedes. But maybe I've just never gone early enough in the day.
Supposedly, they put these boxes, or in our case bags, out at around 10am. However, the only time I've gotten one was at 6.15pm on a Wednesday. Thankfully, we have pre-seasoned and unseasoned chicken at Lidl.
a tip for the too good to waste boxes - wash everything in them thoroughly. the stuff in there is more than likely been sat in close proximity to mould, but worse to me is how many people stick their hands in them and touch everything in there to 'make sure it's ok' and very often being naughty and sneaking extra things in from other boxes that they want. i'm 90% sure the reason they have them after the checkouts is because otherwise people would be putting anything they liked in them.
And wash your hands after using the toilet and put on your socks before the shoes.
after the checkouts?
how do you pay for them?
...you should speak to the manager. lol
Yeah, they're on the shelf (where you're supposed to pack your bags). I'm guessing you're meant to either just be buying one of the boxes alone, or you're meant to point and say 'and one of those' as your stuff is being rung through - but that runs the risk of them all being gone by the time you've completed your other shopping.
I just grabbed one and put it in the trolley - nobody seemed to mind.
@@AtomicShrimp I do the same with mine - grabbed one then went back through the checkout saying "excuse me" to everyone queuing up, then got my trolley!
Those Waste Not boxes are fantastic! You made some tasty, healthy meals with $5. Nicely done!
That Chicken salad looked so good! I even did it myself but with the honey/mustard dressing! I love it!
That's a pretty impressive haul. Lidl is also a budget favorite in Poland, their store brand items are genuinely better than the originals at times. Man, I remember during some Asian week ages ago they had these wasabi chips that were amazing. They weren't just spicy, they also had a nice sweetness to them as well as potato flavor.
Also, with cucumbers you should try Polish "salad" called mizeria - it's just cut cucumber with cream or yogurt and salt and some chives/green onions. With optional splash of lemon juice or vinegar. I know cucumbers taste weird to you but I wonder if it woul work.
Not a carrot, and no rice/spaghetti in sight!!!! 😮
Havent watched yet.... any baked beans?
@@mwethereldyes
I suspect this wasn't very challenging, just comfortable cooking! interesting as a comparison to the TGTG as a sort of example of what to do vs what not to do when you've got £5 for a day.
Handy little tip for garlic, cut the bottom off the bulb (flat bit not the pointy bit) put cut side down on a plate and pop in the microwave for about 20 seconds, remove and then squeeze the bulbs out, they come out clean with no faff and you can use as normal :)
I loved seeing you cook with an abundance of choices (compared to most other challenges)
Hey Atomic Shrimp, I've heard some concerns about the quality of chicken from certain places, so I've been more cautious with my choices. It would be interesting to see a video where you explore different sources for chicken or discuss food safety. Thanks for the content!
Omg those chicken muffins with the soup! My mouth is actually watering haha it looks so good! I would absolutely devour those chicken sandwiches 🤤
Also I am laughing so hard at you and Jenny's back and forth "yeah" conversation 😂
You can tell pops was trying extra hard to please the missus 😅 everything you made looked delicious! ❤
Yes its sad isn't it ? she never seems appreciative or grateful, frankly, I wouldn't bother !!
This was the best budget video. £5 for two people for one day was hard enough to have to think carefully about what to get, but not as restraining that you're stuck with the same products. I liked that you tried the too good to go and gave it a go without subjecting Jenny to it.
That salad looked delicious and I liked the idea with short pickling the cucumber. It'll help me with utilising any reductions I see on my shops.
Those muffin pizzas honestly looked delicious - it’s amazing how creative you are! It’s nice being able to see you make meals without too much restriction
That 'waste' box was amazing...
We don't have anything like that here in Holland ☹️
Haven’t seen anything like it here in Australia either…. Unless I’m missing something…?
"It's not like I need more courgettes"
Me laughing as a fellow gardener....
Tell me about it 😂
Weirdly….my courgette plant is pathetic!!!! Everyone else is overrun with the things 😐
@@countesscable I hope to be overrun by them. But my plant hasn't really started producing yet.
So I'm still having to buy them here.
@@countesscableme too. I love the tiny zucchin and summer squash but we get hot by squash vibe borers here where i am in the US and im lucky if i get 2 or 3 before the plants collapse. I do have an organic spray but it just hasnt really helped that much.
I did buy some mesh bug netting i will try this coming season. I will have to go out in morning and hand pollinate the plants but i want more squash.
Great video. "Nearlystrone Soup" could become a useful go-to for longer-period challenges.
Something like that is my go to when I need to eat for cheap
- 2 large carrots
- 1 onion (oneion)
- couple of celery sticks
Chop and fry off
- veg (I usually pick 1 courgette, 1 head broccoli, 1 leek, and 1/2 large cabbage, mix up and put whatever you like in)
Chop and dump in
- 1 can butter beans
- 2 cans tomatoes (plum or chopped, your choice)
Dump in (drain beans first)
- as much garlic as you like (for me usually a lot)
- cover with chicken stock, simmer for 1 hour
Taste and season.
Add some orzo pasta or potatoes or rice in 20 mins before the end if you want extra carbs.
This makes approximately 6lb of stew for less than £10 which I usually get 8 meals out of. Freezes great too.
If you get bored add curry powder / paprika / some bacon to liven it back up.
This man is saving lives with these low cost yet nutritious cooking guides
The food budget challenges are the best my favorite series by far.
Love these videos Mike! I would be curious to watch a 7 days for 2 budget challenge, there are just so many options. Also, I just can't believe how inexpensive food is in the UK comparing to us in Canada, well in my part of the country anyway (Atlantic).