What you are able to do with so little money is always so impressive. Love your channel.

As someone who cooks for 1, these recipes & your channel is perfect! Thank you.

I love how you take on these strict challenges and double up on them by trying vastly different food than you normally eat. Great job. And now I'm a little less hesitant to try cooking nopales.

I’m such a huge fan of your videos! I cooked like this for decades, and appreciate all the effort you make to research, shop, and prepare these tasty dishes. One thing that would be helpful is knowing how much food your recipes make, as it’s sometimes hard to gauge from your lovely visuals. Thanks (and kudos) for doing this important work on keeping people fed who have limited resources. May you reach a million followers!

No such thing as too many tacos! Flour, corn, soft, crunchy, meat, veggie, bean, red salsa, green salsa, crema….. so many variations!

Seafood tacos! You can even make canned tuna or sardines work -- it's working with the texture and seasonings. I grew up with leftovers inside tacos -- Mom did it all the time. I've even done leftover mac&cheese with slivered onion, bell pepper, and hot sauce. For less calorie needs go with 99% ground turkey and season the heck out of it.

You can use nopales anywhere you’d use green pepper. So good. Thank you for this very fun and informative video!

Yay new $1 challenge.

You never cease to amaze and impress.... You are so adorable and clever and your creativity is off the charts... I love your channel! You should have your own chef show on food network

If you think a Spanish grocery store is crazy with all the things you just don’t know how to use them, what a but those Asian grocery stores.l wish they had cooking classes in those grocery stores🙌🏻

When my kids were in high school bio, they needed to make some food with something growing wild and local. My son chose prickly pear cactus leaves and he made a chili which he served to his class as a dip with fritos. De-spiking the leaves is quite the task!

That supermarket looks amazing. The second implement you picked up in the Hispanic market is to make Mexican hot chocolate. You twist it by rubbing between your palms and it froths it.

I am impressed at how you research what you are going to cook, and that you can do these special meals on a tight budget!

Great use of simple ingredients! I love to shop at Mexican and Asian markets.

Thanks for taking us along on your "little adventure." So interesting and fun!!

The beans and rice reminded me of the pinto beans and rice I’d buy from Taco Bell for .59c as a poor teen living on my own. You are a sorceress🪄🪄what you did with a dollar is pure magic. 👏 Tacos😋

This was so interesting - I loved the walk around the vegetable shop and seeing all the unusual vegetables, plants, legumes, and grains. Very different from what we see in New Zealand!

Michelle, your sense of adventure when preparing food AND on so restricted a budget is outstanding! And you even came through with impressive "damage control" on the cactus and "lasagna sheet!" 😄Even if someone didn't want to incorporate certain ingredients, you always show how to create the foundation of a budget meal without sacrificing taste. Well done again! 👍

I love shopping at ethnic stores! Here in Richmond, Virginia, about 25 years ago, the only ethnic store you might find would be the occasional generic Asian store. About then, there was suddenly an explosion of ethnic stories of every type (due to our city suddenly becoming very popular as an immigrant destination) and I have been so happy ever since. There are so many interesting spices, cuts of meat, exotic vegetables, and unfamiliar condiments. Good old Google can always help you figure out what the different items are and how they can be used. I enjoy your budget challenges very much; I'm currently doing fine financially, but there may come a time when these challenges may be very helpful to me.

This was a lot of fun! Thank you for taking us along on your frugal tasty day!

I love nopales !! I always use it in breakfast burritos and with omelettes or eggs I’m glad you liked it and I’m definitely gonna think about adding it to some Mexican rice next time

Yay! Michelle is back ❤ I love your cooking and all of your creative ideas. Thanks friend

Wow ! You did SUCH AN AMAZING job on this challenge !! Well done !!!! Thanks for sharing 🥰🪷🌺🌸🌼💗✝💖🇺🇲

Your creativity is off the charts.

That was so fun! I used to live in southern Arizona 🌵where cactus are plentiful. But I have only had the cactus pads with eggs. Now I want to try more things. Your rice dish looked delicious. It would be fun if you did another challenge where you have a bit more budget. O r spread out over a few days where you can afford to get some of those other foods you found. I love seeing different unique foods. Great video!

I looove these videos of yours! My favorite ways I grew up eating cactus is basically as a Pico de Gallo (tomato, Serrano, onion, cilantro, salt) with cactus. I sometimes add lemon. I always grew up referring to it as a salad. And I also love eating it with pork (usually Neck bones) with a red Chile sauce (like the one used in pozole) and then throw in the nopales at the end to cook together. Both versions the nopales are precooked before incorporating. I grew up with my mom always boiling them with a dry corn husk within them (like the ones used for tamales) to take away the slime. I'm not sure if it's affective because it always seems slimy to me when done boiling. Lol. I just make sure to rinse them after with cool water. Thank you for these fun videos! They always inspire me! 😊

the pork/pasta sheet was a surprise! the first rice would have been good with peppers if you don't like nopales. my favorite meal was the last one. looks tasty!

I enjoyed watching you do this challenge! Well done Michelle!!😊

Fyi...usually one deals with the thorns on nopales and prickly pear fruits by singing them off over an open flame...gas stove is handy for this. Then can handle them without issues! Cooked nopales slices make a lovely salad with roasted red pepper slices and some onion.

Hispanic markets also offer unique cuts of meat that are hard to find anywhere else, but are great in all sorts of stews, stir fries, etc.

you can get "granulated garlic" which is without salt (if you want to avoid additional sodium, or if you are open to it "Mrs. Dash" has so many flavored options, including with garlic granules. I really like her lemon garlic salt which I use for dressing or chicken.

I didn't see the very end before commenting! I love sleeping dogs little snores! 🥰🥰

I love nopales. I usually boil them and add chili and dried shrimp patties yum.

Great video. There’s a really, really small Mexican market in my small town, but larger one about 20 miles. Have not visited one in years, but did enjoy it at the time. Just a suggestion…Garlic powder is all I use, black pepper with a little added pink salt if I need it. Thanks again, definitely interesting concept for just $1. 😊

Enjoyed the visit to the Spanish supermarket. Certainly different ingredients but the meals looked tasty. Good video😊.

Love your channel! Great ideas

You know the sad part about this is everyone goes through this everyday this video was incredible to watch as it's spreading awareness underrated as always

I get these giant cans of tomato juice from the food pantry and hated to open one for fear I couldn't drink it all myself before it went bad. One day I was making rice and and added a can of diced tomatoes (like I love to do - you know, drain the juice into the measuring cup and add tomatoes to the pot) and realized I could add tomato juice instead of water to make up the rest of the cooking liquid. I froze the rest of the juice from the can (I told you it is giant) in amounts I would use to make a pot of rice - I lay them flat to freeze and then stand them up like file folders once frozen. I like to saute onions and peppers in bacon grease (I know it's not the healthiest, but I grew up poor in the South and I'm pretty sure it is actually a crime to pour out bacon grease. At least, that's the way I heard it. lol) and add all of it to cook with the rice. It is a full meal once it's all said and done and I love it even more with the tomato juice. Since becoming disabled, I've had to do without some of the more intensive prep meals I love, but I have adapted. I buy pre-sliced or diced veggies in the freezer section and produce section (things I never bought before because I am very frugal). I cook a whole package of bacon on a day that I have leftovers in the fridge (so no other cooking for that day). I save the grease in a container in the fridge and freeze the cooked bacon slices in a baggie for later use. I still can't bring myself to buy the pre-cooked bacon and where would I get bacon grease if I did that? lol. It helps to break down tasks so that I don't have to do it all at once. I was able to make tomato dressing (it's a made-up recipe) this way recently (in a disposable 9 x 13 pan so no extra pans to wash) and I want to try squash casserole next. Now that I have ti figured out, a whole world of possibilities has opened up for me! I still have trouble pan frying things like fritters (it requires standing at the stove the whole time and I can't do that - I can fry things that don't require constant attention, but it is hard and I don't do it often), but I am thinking of making the batter a tiny bit thicker and cooking them in the air fryer since I got an oil spray bottle. Now I just have to decide if the batter will keep for the next day refrigerated or if I will have to learn to make a smaller amount of batter (I never measure). Now, can you make fried okra in the air fryer? They do sell whole frozen okra at my grocery store, so I guess I'll work on that next. :)

My husband is from Texas, so he loves to add pickled nopales to chili and beans. Delicious! 😊

In my fairly small town, we actually have a Thai market and some Hispanic grocery stores. I've never been in them, but you're inspiring me! As usual!

Seasonings can take something ordinary to fabulous!

The bulk bins down below is a neat design!

The stick with the end 'ball' at the end is normally used for hot chocolate to foam it up 😀

I love that you're not afraid to try new things! I have learned a lot watching your videos. I love the cactus rice but I doubt that's something I can find in Ohio!

Hello i just wanted to say that those types of chicharrón is the same as the pin wheels u made we (mexicans) like to eat the flat ones with raw green cabbage,tomatoes,sour cream or crema,hot sauce and lime its so delicious i enjoyed your video and your sense of adventure and trying new things!

I love your challenges! Your creativity is inspiring! I’m going to try your tomato rice; two things we love! Not sure why I’ve never thought to cook that😂😂😂

I have such a good time exploring new markets! Great fun to have you as our guide!

Thank you Michelle. I love your adventurous food spirit. I love tomatoes too. Beans and rice are a perfect protein and so economical. I liked how you flavored up the refried beans. The canned ones are like wallpaper paste. I love salsa. I am thinking the cactus leaf might be a nice addition. I think I might sit down and see how much I spend on an average day for food. I know I will be far off from $1. 🎉 kudos to you for doing so much with so little $

This was such a great video! I have a jar of nopales sitting in my pantry now, thank you for the inspiration! Have a great week!

I love it when you try new things as it make me want to try them too! Thanks for sharing. :)

Other good seasonings to have on hand are the various Mrs. Dash varieties. You can replace a shelf of spices with just two or three versions. The Chipotle is especially good.

I love your $1 challenges ❤ Helps me to think outside the box. The rice looked delicious 😋 My husband has been wanting to try the nopales. I think we'll try the rice dish first. XOXO Dawn

Very interesting. I loved this episode

Another amazing video!

I love our Hispanic market. Sometimes lines are 15 for a dollar, cilantro 4 for a dollar, etc. I've gotten chicken leg quarters for 3 lbs for a dollar. Cabbage, onions and tomatillos for 2 lbs for a dollar. So fun to go see what they've got. They also have some bulk items but not as big a variety. You did good today and that rice looked 🔥.

Exciting

Love your videos! So creative!

The rice really did look delicious! Thank you for the video!

I did not know people eat cactus, you really do learn something new everyday.

I normally boil the nopales with salt until the slime is gone. Add the nopales to a pico de llagó, or I’ll fried the nopales a little then add beans and fried the beans, or I’ll make nopales with meat and chili, or nopales with scrambled eggs. Or just eat with a tortilla and Mexican cheese and chili

you are very creative and think out of the box. I love your channel

This was really enjoyable! And wow, Meesha has the life. :)

omg that hot food bar looks so scrumptious! I'd be going back for those tamales... and no such thing as too many tacos lol! creative recipes as usual. And, just curious, any idea of total calorie count?

Impressive! The food looks really good.

Somehow all the stars were aligned, and my store had chicken pieces for $.39 a pound. I bought everything they had and then went and got a rain check for more so I’m gonna put about 100 pounds of chicken up in my freezer for $39. I could not be more excited.!! I love all your store, base challenges, but have you thought of doing a pantry challenge from what you have at home already kind of a no spend week? It’s always interesting to see what people have there regular food items not purchased for a challenge. Thanks for keeping me company while DoorDash today.😆

Hi Michelle, this was a very fun video. All the meals were different and exciting. I wish my small town had some of these great items. Yum❤

that twig whisk looking thing is a scrubber for cast iron pans and pots. I got a bag of matcha online and i love it. I used to have a russian tortoise and i fed her nopales as treats. she loved it :)

These are my favorite kind of videos! I want to try your method with the tomatoes in the rice. That looked very good. I live in AZ, but have never seen how the cactus can be prepared.

You are so creative and inventive. Michelle! The food looks delicious, although I asume that the portions would be a little too small for me. Many greetings from the Netherlands, Enny.

Love these challenges! How about doing one with just food grown in a home garden? (Since that’s mostly my life! Lol)

I think that the wooden utensil with the black markings is for frothing mexican hot cocoa.

Wow, so creative and lovely!❤. I live in NM and some people fry the nopales with bacon.

Great ideas again in that video Michelle 👏 I will do some searching here in Amsterdam... And happy belated b-day 😅

@6:03 That's a molinillo which is used for making hot chocolate

❤❤Meesha❤❤ Lovely video. Thanks for the inspiration.

You gave me a idea to use it in a different way instead of a snack, thank you

love it!

What a great video, Michelle.

So yummy and creative 😊

the durro thing turned out almost like a tostada. I love cactus, so yummy!

Very impressive and creative and all for just $1.

Well done as always Michelle. Glad you got to try cactus and liked it, it's really good in tacos or fajitas. The fake lasagna sheet seems similar to Indian papadums, they can be made it the microwave, brush both sides with oil and place on a paper towel and it will puff up. Pity about the hominy, I know of a way you could have made a drink from it tho. Thanks for the video.

I'm so glad I found your channel.

Yay bodega..glad you tried one i love the bodegas where I live

Great options. I need to pick up Spanish Paprika. I've had the cacti before. Best with slime cooked off.thank you.

Omg I didn't know you could eat cactus leaves! Love your channel ❤️

I agree that ethnic food shops are a great discovery. Here in Australia, we have a wide range of Asian groceries that stock a great range of Asian vegetables, rices, noodles and dim sum, as well as good value bulk spices and sauces. The only thing that daunts me is the meat section, because Asian cuts of meat are so different, and I’ve no idea how to use them 😂

omg the birds were so cute

The small hand brush is used for either whisking eggs or adding oil to a wok or pan

Wow! Very impressive.

I love love love your $1 challenges! These all looked really tasty. Nopales is a favorite of mine, I eat it like a salad with canned hominy, tomatoes, jalapeño, cilantro, onion, and lime. If you blanch it put two washed pennies in the pot boil for 2 minutes the drain and shock it in ice water.

I'm so proud of you for you did some research and found out that you fry it, you go girl

Thanks

🎉🎉Happy Birthday Michelle! 🎂 🎁💐🥳🎈 not sure if belated but hope it's great all the same. Thank you for your wonderful videos! ✨️🍾🧋🍵

Where i live every grocery store has a tortillaria . Nopalitos growns wild in our back field we eat it chopped and fried with eggs on occasion its more tender in rhe early spring i never thought of it tasting like asparagus. In early summer I pick the cactus tuna i make jelly and sometimes vinegar with it.

traditional molinillo whisk (the pretty wooden piece that had the ring) is used to make Mexican hot chocolate

Add that rice and chorizo to tacos. Yum! You can never have enough tacos. xD

Wow great ideas! 🥰 That rice looks awesome! 😍🤩🥳

Great video. I love ethnic markets. I’m pretty sure what you were calling hominy must be nixtamalized (processed with an alkali agent) before it becomes hominy. It also makes the nutrients bioavailable. Nopales are fantastic with eggs.

The first item you picked up is a brush to wash veggies, the other is to make tradicional hot chocolate, and yes the last one is to mash beans.