Pocket Friendly Meals

Son, today's meals are all about pocketbook meals

Jamie and I are going to show you how to cook up some big flavor on a small budget

We're cutting every corner but the taste corner. Up first, it's going to be Jamie's mouth-watering nutty orange chicken salad

It is so delicious, y'all. Then how about a grilled flank steak sandwich, y'all, topped with a bacon horseradish sauce

I just love it. And then next, the perfect side, crispy deep fried squash

Mm, mm, mm. And later, our family friend is coming into the kitchen, y'all

We got a hungry college kid here today with us. And he's going to help us make a delicious, yet thrifty, peanut butter parfait

Saving some money, honey. Jamie and I are trying to help you with your food budget today

It's what everybody wants, is good food at a fair price. Absolutely

We're going to start with one of my favorites. What's that? We're doing a chicken salad

Love it, love it. Jamie's Nutty Orange Chicken Salad. I'm going to start with two chicken breasts

and I'm going to add a couple of things in here that's going to make it different from the chicken salad that y'all might do

and it really gives it a texture and a sweetness that is so good

So I'm going to start here, Mama. What are you doing? In addition to Jamie's Nutty Orange Chicken Salad, we're going to cook a flank steak off

that's going to be so good on a sandwich. And it's certainly less expensive cut of meat

All right, son, I'm going to get our marinade going. And I am going to start with three-fourths a cup of soy sauce

You want me to do this garlic for you? Yes, please. And I'm going to add a fourth of a cup of olive oil

bringing this to one cup. And I've got my resealable plastic bag

nestled down in an old fruit jar. And that's going to be my extra set of hands

Three tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce. And chicken salad is one of my favorite things to eat

And I just put this in boiling water, y'all. It's just as easy to boil your chicken, especially for a chicken salad

Just poach it off. Yep. And I'm going to chop up a couple of good-sized chicken breasts here and get it in

You make some of the best chicken salad, potato salad. I don't know who taught you all those things

Actually, I know who taught him those things I know that you know

Back in our bag lady days, I was in charge of all the cold salads You know, one of my favorite salads that we did, son

Was with the rice and the heavy, heavy black pepper And the green peas

Yeah, with the avocado dressing And chicken with avocado dressing I'm telling you, people couldn't get enough of that

Alright, now I've got our marinade mixed up I'm going to add about two teaspoons of pepper

But I'm not going to add any salt because I have three-fourths cup soy sauce, and that's almost entirely salt

Where do you want that garlic at, Mom? Right in there, son. You can't have chicken salad without boiled eggs, Mom

No, you can't. I've got two boiled eggs. I forgot to add the lemon juice, so would you squeeze me about two tablespoons of lemon juice, and that'd just be the whole lemon

Okey-doke. You know, we can't have our chicken salad without a couple of hard-boiled eggs

Yes, now I'm going to put our meat in here, and we're actually going to let this marinate for eight hours, y'all

So you have to do a little, little planning ahead on this one, but it's worth it

I'm going to just make sure my meat is totally covered with that

I'm going to put walnuts in this chicken salad. I just love it

Okay, so in the refrigerator this goes, Jamie. All right, in we go for eight hours

Hey, Mom, we got our nuts going in. I'm going to put a little bit of mayonnaise in here. Do you want to help me with the onions and celery

Yes. I do. I do. Now, I don't have a measurement on this mayonnaise

You're going to want to just start small because you don't want it too wet

And if it's too dry, you can always add a little bit more. but you would just have to pay the devil to get this mayonnaise out of the salad once it's mixed up

I'm telling you. I'm going to put maybe a half a cup in here

I'm just going to start with a little dab and see where this gets us

Might have hit it right the first time. I'm going to put a little bit of salt and pepper in here

Well, that ain't your first rodeo, son, is it? It's not. I could almost really literally do this while I'm sleeping

You see I've got some mandarin oranges. We're going to garnish this with mandarin oranges today, but in the holidays..

How much onion do you want, son? I'm going to need about a quarter of a cup. Okay, well then this should get you

But in the holidays, I will put the oranges in here. I will put apples in here

You can put pieces of pear in here. Chicken salad. And you know, I used to make a lot of grape

You know, I've always loved sweet and savory, and the sweetness from the grapes with the chicken is awfully good

The sweetness of the fruit is a great complement with the chicken salad. So pretty much anything you can put in here

When we were running the bag lady y when we first started out I made every speck of food myself I was in charge of complaining Mama was in charge of cooking He was in charge of that I was good at my job But I finally our routes got so big that I had to have some help

And because Jamie had a natural flair and knack for the kitchen, he was elected

I was in charge of the salads. So he was in charge of all the cold salads

Okay, now I'm going to plate this up for us, Mom. I'm going to put this on some butter lettuce

I'm using this today because it's Mom's favorite, I know. Love, love, love it. But in the summertime, if you can find a fresh tomato and just kind of score the top and spread it open

and scoop this into your tomato and put a little bit of parsley on top, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous

It's really good. I'm going to garnish with mandarin oranges. Now, the sweetness of this fruit is so good

Yes, it looks yummy, son. So we're working on a budget today, and y'all want to know how much this costs to make

Oh, my gosh. Let's ask the expert this thing, Ma. Okay. We got two chicken breasts, onion, celery, mandarin oranges

It probably cost between $2.50 and $3. So good with the oranges

Mm-hmm. That little bit of sweet. It is so delicious, y'all. So $2.50 to $3 is not bad, and it is crumptious

When we come back, we're going to have a steak sandwich that's just as good, so y'all stick around

Coming up next, we're going to be getting our flank steak on the grill and frying up some yummy yellow squash

Delicious. Mm-hmm. And then our friend Arthur King, y'all, is coming in and going to be putting together the most amazing peanut butter parfait

Today, we're working on budget-friendly meals. We're worrying about your pocketbook for you

And if there's anything that I love more than a good, good meal

Saving money. Saving me some money, honey. Yes. Cutting every corner but the taste corner

Yes. Which is fully intact on this show. Yes, yes, yes. Speaking about flavor

Now look at our steak. We have been marinating this steak, y'all. Yes

It smells so good. I'm going to throw it right. Yes. Look at that

four or five minutes per side. We're using a flank steak, y'all

A lot less expensive than filet mignon or a ribby. All the flavor. A quarter of the cost. Got all the flavor

Alright, now while our steak is cooking, I'm gonna slice us up some squash. Okay

And we're gonna fry them up. Now Jamie's gonna mix up our dry ingredients

I'm gonna slice our squash. I've got four yellow squash here. You know, y'all

it's all about the seasons. When they're at their peak, they're the most inexpensive

I'm gonna go ahead and do this, y'all, so I can get Mama with the squash. I'm gonna put one cup of cornmeal

Cup of meal. One cup of all-purpose flour. Got a half a teaspoon of baking powder

and I love, love, love, love all the flavors that are in Creole seasoning

so I'm going to add three tablespoons of Creole seasoning here, Mom

Before I turn it around, I'm going to add a little salt and pepper. Yeah, but add a big pinch of salt, son

because you're working with all purposes here which contain no salt. All right, now son

I have got my squash sliced and so I'm gonna break three eggs into my bowl

Uh-oh. The shell, I don't charge extra for that, y'all. A little bit of shell in there

And I'm gonna pour about a half a cup of buttermilk in

and I'm just eyeballing that. And I'm gonna beat that together and we're going to run our squash through our eggs and buttermilk so that our dry coating will stick

And now I'm just going to throw my squash right in to our buttermilk and eggs

And you can see about how thick I've sliced them. I don't particularly want these too thin, but I don't want them too thick either

I'm going to turn our stag, Mom. Okay. looks delicious, son. So they're ready for you, son, when you're ready

Let's get them in the flour, and we'll drop them in the fryer. Okay, sounds good. We'll get these coated up really well

We're going to drop those down in the deep fryer, y'all. And let them cook until they're nice and brown

All right those are looking good These aren going to take that long Yeah I wouldn handle them too much until that coating has a chance to get brown and stick to them good son

But they're brown and nice and quick. Look at those. Yum. These aren't going to take but one second

I'm going to turn that down. It's just a hair over 350 degrees on the deep fryer, so I'm going to put it exactly on 350

How about our meat? We'll get about two sandwiches out of that, don't you think? Two sandwiches

Maybe. You think these are done now, Mom? We're on the edge of golden brown

Yeah, those are probably done. They look wonderful. You know, and it's a great, nutritious, healthy vegetable

It was. Yes, we're frying it. It was about five minutes ago

In peanut oil. but you know you can't have everything. Two out of three

ain't bad. This is just going to be so dadgum hot. It's going to be fire hot

Look at that. It's perfect. Mmm. Whoa. Yum. So good and hot

Y'all don't go anywhere because when you come back we're going to put those sandwiches together

and make a little sauce to go with it. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm

Coming up next, our friend stops by to help mix up the perfect complement to our flank steak sandwiches

That is delicious. Then, it's a creamy peanut butter parfait. Hey, y'all, welcome back

Today is all about budget-conscious meals. And look who just popped in

I've been wanting to introduce y'all to this young man. This is Arthur King

and Arthur goes with one of Michael's nieces, Kiera. Yes, ma'am. And they're students at

She's at UGA. I'm at Gainesville. In Gainesville, Florida or Georgia? No, ma'am

Not Florida. Georgia. Gainesville, Georgia. That's completely different. Well, listen, y'all. Arthur is making quite a name for himself on the website

He is teaching college kids how to cook on a budget and have delicious meals

So we are going to help Jamie put together these wonderful flank steak sandwiches

Sounds great. I'd love to help. Got to work for my food. Yes. All right

Well, we're going to work on a mayonnaise, bacon, horseradish sauce to put on our sandwiches

So if you would chop the onions and the bacon, I'm going to be measuring out the mayonnaise

One cup of mayonnaise. Yes, ma'am. Well, while you're all doing that, I'm going to show you the steak

Now, this is a flank steak, which is a steak that you can afford to do at school. and it's got all the flavor

But the trick here, y'all, is you got to know how to cut it. And you're going to cut it at an angle, as much as an angle as you can

And super thin because there's so many fibers in this meat. That's going to cut down on the amount of fibers that are in each piece of this meat

Oh, look. It's perfect. Look, how do you like your meat, Arthur? Just like that. Kind of very close to medium rare

Yes, ma'am. If you cut it this way, you can chew it. I'm going to add, Arthur, a half a teaspoon of lemon zest

Yes, ma'am. to my sauce. And Jamie, that steak looks incredible. We marinated this, Arthur, for about

eight hours in a soy sauce. So this should be full, full

full of flavor without spending a ton of money. And we start putting my ingredients in there

Yeah, go ahead and drop yours in, and then if you'd cut that lemon in two for me

Yes, ma'am. Get the seeds out. Uh-huh. I don't need but like

a half a teaspoon of this. So how big is your kitchen? Oh, not very big

Smaller than this countertop. I thought it looked very small because I've watched him on the website

Yes, ma'am. Mmm, this steak is perfect, y'all. Good? Now, this calls for four teaspoons of horseradish, Arthur

Yes, ma'am. But I think I'm going to start with two, and let's taste it and see what we've got

Sounds good to me. So stick your finger in there. I can try that

Tell me if you think it could stand a little bit more horseradish. I don't think I'd mess with it

You don't think so, Jamie? You want a taste? I trust Arthur. All right, Arthur, we're going to put our sandwiches together

So just get busy, son. I forgot about these. You've got to try the squash

And I'm going to put a little bit of this sauce next to it. We didn't do a sauce for the squash

This would be delicious on the squash as well as on the sandwiches. Yes, ma'am

You can just throw that right in there on the bun. Yes. That is delicious

Oh I'm so glad you like it Let me try the salmon Mmm Mmm Mmm Delicious Mmm

I'm gonna have to try that when I get home That was very good

That steak is perfect I mean it is perfect Just take care how you cut it

Because if you were to cut this straight up and down It'd be so tough you wouldn't be able to chew it up

You wouldn't be able to chew it with George Washington's wooden teeth It is really super good Delicious Well do you make many desserts Arthur in the kitchen I do I make a couple I don bake too much but I got a couple desserts

Okay. Well, Jamie is going to make us a wonderful parfait. Okay, y'all, I'm doing a peanut butter parfait

So tell us what you're doing. And I'm going to work on one part of it. Okay. And I've got a quarter

And I'm going to work on this part, y'all. I got a quarter of a cup of powdered sugar and a cup of peanut butter

Okay. And I'm going to, this is not going to be the easiest thing

So to incorporate. That means help. I'm going to mix the peanut butter and the powdered sugar together and kind of get it married up a little bit

Because to this, I'm going to add three ounces of cream cheese

All right. So, Arthur, we got to do our part to help Jamie here

We've got our two cups of milk. And if you'd come over here, you can man this mixer

Yes, ma'am. And then we've got one small, like the three-ounce package of an instant chocolate pudding

Right here? Yeah, just start mixing. Okay. And when we come back, we're going to put these parfaits together

Yes, ma'am. We're going to add a lot of other good stuff to it. That sounds great

While y'all do that, I'm going to eat sandwich. You're doing a good job over there, son. Yeah, yeah, yeah, how does this happen

Coming up next, let's dig in. It's going to be a mouth-watering peanut butter parfait

This is amazing. This is so good. Hey, y'all. Welcome back

I'm in here in the kitchen today with Jamie and Arthur King

Arthur is a college student that really has to cook. He cooks every night of the week, he said, but he has to cook on a budget

And that's what we're doing today. We're doing budget meals. We are fixing to fix the most wonderful little easy, easy parfait

So, Arthur, honey, if you'll slice us some bananas. Okay. You've made the chocolate pudding

Yes, ma'am. And I've got some peanuts here that I've chopped. I've got these peanut buttery cookies that I love so much

I adore these. Have you ever had these? Yes, ma'am. I love those things. So I'm going to be chopping these up because this is going to be a layered dessert

It's going to be so good, too. I've got what I started with down here, peanut butter, powdered sugar, and cream cheese

And I'm going to fold in some whipping cream into this peanut butter

That's going to make that peanut butter concoction so much lighter, y'all

I've probably put about a cup of cream into this. I'm going to hold some back for the top

All right, so y'all ready to start assembling? Yes, ma'am. All right, Arthur, if you would take our parfait cups, and let's start with a layer of chocolate pudding

Okay. Layer of bananas. Pass it to me. I'll put a layer of peanuts, a layer of the cookies, and then Jamie can do his magic with his peanut butter concoction

Yes, ma'am. Now, layer of bananas. Okay. Layer of peanuts

All right, a layer of our cookies. And now on to you, son, for the next layer

This is our peanut butter whip. Oh, my gosh, look how white that whipping cream made it, y'all

That looks amazing. Doesn't it? Yes, ma'am. And so simple and easy

Yes, ma'am. And you can do a different take on this kind of dessert off of just changing up your pudding

and your cookies. All right, so another layer of this, another layer of this

and pass it to you for another layer of bananas and then chocolate

Yes, ma'am. Okie doke. Oh, I need to get my bananas. Don't want to forget those

That's the healthy part. Yeah. I love the way this kid thinks

I'm going to pass this one to Jamie. Okay. And I'm going to let him garnish it because it looks like our parfait bowl is full

Yes, ma'am. Why don't you put a little layer of just the white whipped cream

Don't you worry, Mama. I think Jamie's on top of this situation, y'all

Yes, he is. Oh, great, Arthur. On to you, Jamie. I think, Arthur, a family that cooks together

stays together. Yes, ma'am, that's very true. Well, let's dig in

Sounds good. Mm, mm, mm. That is delicious. Good. Do you need a moment in the closet

Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am, I need to go sit by myself. So I hope these have given y'all some great ideas today

And Jamie and Arthur and myself always send y'all love and best dishes

Yes, ma'am. From my college kitchen to my home kitchen to Jamie's kitchen

All to you. Cheers, y'all