How Low Can You Go? NPR Makes a Push for Frugal Dinners

Looking for some inspiration for budget-friendly meals? Check out all the entries in National Public Radio's "How Low Can You Go?" contest last week - there are over 300 of them! Coriander meatballs with yoghurt-mint sauce? Crab spring rolls? Lentil burgers? Yes please!

The only rules for the contest were to make a meal to feed four people for under $10 with extra bragging rights for dishes that keep it frugal while seeming expensive. Just glancing through the first handful of entries, we think most of the entries hit the mark!

In addition to the listener-submitted recipes, NPR includes four recipes from professional chefs. A friend of ours (the one who told us this contest was going on) tried Chef Ming Tsai's recipe for Chicken-and-Corn Fried Rice with Lemon Spinach and pronounced it a new favorite.

It's too late to submit our own recipes, but we can still head over to the site and browse through all the entries!

• How Low Can You Go? $10 Meals from NPR

What's your favorite frugal dinner?

(Image: Flickr member Unhindered by Talent licensed under Creative Commons)

Comments (7)

From scratch falafel. Hands down. With homemade pita, pickled onions, a bit of yoghurt, and some feta if I'm not feeling too frugal.

posted by sjbreeze on May 6th 2009 at 2:23pm
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Vegetable lasagna, hands down. Serves 8 for less than $20. Vegetable stir frys and Japanese noodle soups are also filling, yet cost they very little (less than $10 to serve 4) to make.

posted by david @ justveggingout.com on May 6th 2009 at 2:43pm
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$10 is a LOT! that would make a $70 weekly grocery bill for dinner alone. yikes!

i understand that it's all relative and that $10 for dinner is still a lot less expensive than dining out, but my point is that cooking a $10 dinner doesn't seem like much of a challenge.

i'm single and have had to whittle down to $4/day for food, using mostly bulk foods (grains, beans, etc.), frozen veggies, and low-cost protein like eggs. this leaves my monthly grocery budget around $120, which is still tight, as i'm making very little money these days.

posted by fivealive1969 on May 6th 2009 at 4:05pm
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I agree with fivealive. $10 for dinner for 4 isn't hard at all. The veggie dishes that feed 8 for under $20 make me wonder how complete the protein is.

Truth be told, most of the NPR audience doesn't have to shop very frugally, so this is sort of slumming for them. Buying in bulk for a family planning meals ahead of time, etc. are sort of obvious.

But the Navy chef cooking up skate is a genius. It's an under-appreciated fish and usually dirt cheap in Chinese markets.

posted by FantasticMrFaux on May 6th 2009 at 5:26pm
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huh? NPR audience is "slumming"? When i think of NPR, i think of liberal, over-educated, frugal folks (and i count myself as one of them). Although i do agree that $10 is not much of a challenge. My old roommate and i used to have this contest, and we would get down to like $1.50 per serving for some pretty delicious stuff!

posted by mh330 on May 6th 2009 at 6:54pm
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I have so many recipes that I could enter... too bad the deadline was last week.

posted by gingercookiewithlime on May 6th 2009 at 7:36pm
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FanasticMrFaux, I think that's a rather broad generalization. I'm a frequent NPR listener and I'm certainly below the poverty line. I still think 4 people fed for $10 is pretty awesome. I'd say my average dinner is $8-$10 to feed myself and my dude. Granted, we generally buy organic so that might push the price up a bit from coventional prices.

posted by ihateacrylic on May 7th 2009 at 5:07pm
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