Cookbook touts Dollar Store Gourmet

[Food Network Fan]

Cookbook touts Dollar Store Gourmet
KTKA.com - Topeka,KS,USA
ABC News gave Food Network Chef Sarah Copeland the ultimate challenge by sending her out of her cooking comfort zone to the dollar store. ...

[Food Network Fan]

I think it would a great show to have a chef show people how to make meals with real ingredients, not stuff from a box and give them a different amount of money each time to feed a family.

See if they can make a delicious pot of soup for 4 for less than 10 dollars. A casserole for 5 dollars. See how low they can go and make a good meal. Make certain allowances, like the use of salt ... pepper ... basic spices that could be used for many meals. And make that the set up for the show, tell the viewer they already have on hand the basic staples and they would purchase the remaining ingredients.

[Sukie]

Was this shown on Sunday morning TV? Thhink I saw the show yesterday AM.
Compared gormet food with food bought at a dollar store.

[BerryBaby]

When I was in junior high cooking class, we were given $2.00 to put together an entire meal for a family of four. Back then, things were WAY cheaper, but it was fun looking through ads in the paper and coming up with creative ways to stretch your $'s.

This would be an interesting concept for a show, but using fresh, not boxed or pre-made items.

[MayQueen]

Dave Lieberman did that on his show, I think. I seem to remember he always talked about how much per person each meal/party cost. I don't think a show needs to be bargain basement; for example, I would never buy food from a Dollar Store. But good quality for a good price would be a show I'd watch.

[BerryBaby]

Yes, he did use to say how much per person the meal cost. I found that interesting. Many times I do that as well. It's amazing how little you have to pay for a really good homecook meal.

[Chefnot]

Amen to that.

[bluejeanz]

I didn't see the show but I'm assuming she used all packaged foods. At least that's all our dollar stores carry. And 99% of the foods have brands that I've never heard of before.

[BerryBaby]

Really? Ours carries only brand names. I think they buy over-runs from grocery stores so it is always different products in different parts of the country.

I'd bet none of the stores have the same items. It's fun to just go there are browse around.

[bluejeanz]

Originally Posted by BerryBaby

Really? Ours carries only brand names. I think they buy over-runs from grocery stores so it is always different products in different parts of the country.

I'd bet none of the stores have the same items. It's fun to just go there are browse around.

I think we have maybe 3-4 different 'dollar stores'; Dollar General; Dollar Paradise, The Dollar Store, etc.; but only ONE actually has items for a dollar. The dollar store was a big concept here years ago when they started popping up but then, as more started moving into the area, they started having other goods that were way more than a dollar. The only thing I buy in them are my word search books. Other than that, their stuff is mostly junk and, as I stated before, products that have brands I've never heard of before. Occasionally, you'll come across a well-known brand name but I always wonder how 'old' the product is to end up in a dollar store.


Anyhoo, we have what they call a 'deep discount store' in our area called Marc's (also called Bernie Shulman's in some other areas) that have all brand name items that they obtain from overstock as well as fresh produce, meats and drugstore items. It's a popular all-in-one store here that started out very small in the 70's or 80's but have become one of the largest stores of this type in the area. In fact, when my daughter Jill (who lives only a few streets away from me) and I do our grocery shopping, we always hit Marc's first to get the best prices before we drive around the corner to our Giant Eagle for the rest of our groceries. Marc's produce is excellent quality and their prices are extremely lower than G.E.'s.