$10 Challenge – Creating a Family Meal for under $10 with Kraft Foods #1DollarDeals #shop

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One of my favorite things to do is create frugal meals. I like the challenge and I love being able to experiment in the kitchen. And, now that I’m a mom, I’m finding I’m pressed for time, so I like to create easy snack recipes  for flavorful foods that I can quickly make. If you are with me while I am cooking, you will see that I very seldom follow recipes. I love creating frugal meals and adding more fruits and veggies to them. So, when I was given the opportunity to create a family meal using select Kraft Foods products that I purchased at Walmart, I jumped at it. Oh – and my family meal had to cost under $10.00. I was up for the challenge.

Did you know that Kraft Foods has lots of products priced at or under $1.00 at Walmart? Below is a list of a few of them:

• Jell-O: Instant Chocolate Pudding & Pie Filling
• Jell-O: Instant Vanilla Pudding & Pie Filling
• Kraft Original Flavor Macaroni & Cheese Dinner
• Easy Mac Macaroni & Cheese, Micro Cups
• Kool-Aid Bursts, 6 count.
• Capri Sun Spouts, 15 count

I headed to Walmart planning on purchasing Jell-O: Instant Vanilla Pudding & Pie Filling, Kraft Original Flavor Macaroni & Cheese Dinner and Kool-Aid Bursts. I had a menu planned out and I was pretty certain I would come in at $10.00. Go HERE to Walmart’s Facebook page and stay up-to-date on their promotions!
I loaded my cart with the ingredients for my Kraft Macaroni & Cheese with Broccoli and Beans, Vanilla Pudding & Fruit Trifle and Kool-Aid Spritzer.  I was thrilled to see that the Jell-O: Instant Vanilla Pudding & Pie Filling was $0.94, the Kraft Original Flavor Macaroni & Cheese Dinner was $0.98 and the Kool-Aid Bursts, 6 pack was $1.00! The two ingredients for my meal that I did not purchase (because I already had it at home), was an onion and milk.  Those are two necessities that I always keep stockpiled in my house – since my son drinks milk practically non-stop and since I cook with onions daily.

As you can see from the receipt pictured above, I ended up spending $7.98 on everything I needed to create a family meal. Under budget! Woohoo

Pictured below is everything I cooked with for my family meal.

Kraft Original Flavor Macaroni & Cheese with Broccoli and Beans

For my main dish, I wanted to add some beans and broccoli to the Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. While I cooked the Kraft Original Flavor Macaroni & Cheese Dinner (following the recipe on the box), I microwaved the frozen broccoli and drained the black beans. I sautéed just a little onion (approximately ¼ of a medium size onion) in olive oil. To the onion, I added the black beans and broccoli so that they would absorb some of the flavor of the sautéed onion. You could very easily skip this step and instead add the drained black beans and cooked broccoli right to the macaroni & cheese omitting the onion.

This dish came out perfectly. My husband was raving on the flavor. And my son enjoyed eating all of it as well! (I had to cut the broccoli up very small for my son since he still doesn’t have a ton of teeth 😉 )

Kool-Aid Spritzer

The Kool-Sid Spritzer I made was SIMPLE. In a glass, I poured half Kool-Aid and half sparkling water. The sparkling water gave the refreshing drink a nice fizz.

Jell-O: Instant Vanilla Pudding & Fruit Trifle

Since it is almost summertime, I wanted to create a recipe using the Jell-O: Instant Vanilla Pudding & Pie Filling and fresh fruit. I bought wafer cookies, a banana, peach and kiwi to add to my trifle. For the pudding, I followed the directions on the box. Once I had it chilled in the fridge, I layered glass bowls with wafers, pudding, sliced bananas, pudding, more wafers and then sliced peaches and kiwi.  This desert not only looked amazing but it was so refreshing. The wafers gave a nice crunch. And the fresh fruit was a great addition to the creaminess of the vanilla pudding.

Have you created budget family friendly meals? I would love to hear about the meals you make for your family!