Stretch-It Kitchen

Dinner for Four Under $10: Seven Real Plates, Priced at the Shelf

Seven published, well-rated dinners that put four plates on the table for $5.12 to $7.89 at a Greer, SC Harris Teeter, plus the version that missed. Real shelf prices, the recipes, and the math.

A family table set for four with a skillet of red beans and sausage over rice, a pan of tuna noodle casserole and a pot of potato soup

Ten dollars, four people, one dinner. Plenty of lists promise that. Very few say where their prices came from.

These come from one place: the Harris Teeter at Hudson Corners in Greer, on October 21, 2026, at regular shelf price. Every dinner is a published recipe with real ratings behind it, linked so you can read the original. Seven of them put four plates on the table for under $10. One version did not, and we will show you that one too.

The three rules we used

Four plates, from the recipe’s own yield. If a recipe makes eight servings, four plates cost half the pot. The rest is tomorrow’s lunch, and we show the whole-pot price too.
Regular shelf price, one store, one day. No sale prices, no coupons, no “about $3.” Spices and other pantry items count at the share of the jar you actually use.
Published recipes only. Each one is linked to its source with its rating. We changed a recipe only to make it cheaper, and every change is named.

All seven, side by side

Dinner	Recipe makes	Whole pot	Four plates	Per plate
Old-Fashioned Potato Soup	6 servings	$7.69	$5.12	$1.28
Mennonite Cabbage Potato Kielbasa Bake	8 servings	$11.02	$5.52	$1.38
Tuna Noodle Casserole from Scratch	6 servings	$9.54	$6.36	$1.59
Easy Red Beans and Rice	8 servings	$12.82	$6.40	$1.60
Pasta e Fagioli	4 servings	$6.99	$6.99	$1.75
Chicken Fried Rice, doubled	4 servings	$7.48	$7.48	$1.87
Baked Chicken Leg Quarters, rice, green beans	4 servings	$7.89	$7.89	$1.97

Prices are from one Greer store on one day. Your Harris Teeter, Ingles or Publix will read a little different.

1. Old-Fashioned Potato Soup: $5.12 for four

The cheapest plate on the list is the plainest one. Allrecipes’ Old-Fashioned Potato Soup has a 4.8-star average from 513 ratings, and it is mostly potatoes, milk and an onion. Three pounds of russets were $3.87 at $1.29 a pound, the biggest line in the pot.

Our one change: the recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of chicken bouillon powder. We priced store-brand bouillon cubes instead, about one cube per teaspoon, so six cubes.

1/4 cup butter
1 large onion, chopped
6 potatoes, peeled and diced
3 cups water
2 carrots, diced
2 tablespoons chicken bouillon powder (we used 6 bouillon cubes)
ground black pepper to taste
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups milk
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat and cook the onion until it turns translucent, about 5 minutes.
In a second pot, bring the potatoes, carrots, water and bouillon to a boil and cook until the vegetables are just tender, about 10 minutes. Do not let them go to mush. Season with pepper.
Stir the flour into the onions and keep stirring for about 2 minutes, until it forms a paste. Slowly whisk in the milk and cook over low heat, stirring, until it is warm.
Add the potato and carrot mixture, then the parsley and thyme, and cook until everything is heated through.

The recipe makes six bowls, so four plates is $5.12 and two bowls go in the fridge.

2. Cabbage, Potato and Kielbasa Bake: $5.52 for four

Mennonite Cabbage Potato Kielbasa Bake on Allrecipes (4.2 stars, 133 ratings) turns a head of cabbage into a 9x13 pan that feeds eight. The sausage is most of the cost: $5.59 of the $11.02 pan. Cabbage was $1.29 a pound, so a 2-pound head was $2.58.

Our one change: the recipe calls for a 16-ounce package of smoked kielbasa. This store sells it in 14-ounce packs, so we used one.

1 small head cabbage
2 cups diced potatoes
1 (16 ounce) package smoked kielbasa sausage, sliced (we used a 14 ounce pack)
1 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 slices bread, cut into cubes
1/2 cup butter, sliced

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Peel off the outer cabbage leaves, wash them, and line the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish with them. Shred the rest of the head.
Toss the shredded cabbage, potatoes and sliced sausage together and spread it over the leaves.
Whisk the milk, eggs, salt and pepper in a big bowl, fold in the bread cubes, and let them soak for a minute or two. Pour it over the cabbage and dot the top with the butter.
Bake until the potatoes are tender and the top is lightly browned, about 45 minutes.

Cut the potatoes small. The pan only bakes 45 minutes, and big chunks will still be hard in the middle. Poke one with a fork before you pull it.

3. Tuna Noodle Casserole from Scratch: $6.36 for four

Tuna Noodle Casserole from Scratch has 1,743 ratings on Allrecipes and a 4.4-star average. It skips the canned soup and makes its own white sauce, which is cheaper than it sounds: the flour and milk together came to 51 cents. We made no changes.

1/2 cup butter, divided
1 (8 ounce) package uncooked medium egg noodles
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
8 ounces button mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste
2 (5 ounce) cans tuna, drained and flaked
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
3 tablespoons bread crumbs
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Heat the oven to 375 degrees F and butter a medium baking dish with 1 tablespoon of the butter.
Boil the noodles in lightly salted water until tender but still firm, 7 to 9 minutes, and drain.
Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a skillet over medium-low heat and cook the onion, celery and garlic until soft, about 5 minutes. Turn the heat to medium-high, add the mushrooms, and cook until most of their liquid is gone, about 5 more minutes.
Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan and whisk in the flour until smooth. Slowly whisk in the milk and cook until the sauce is smooth and a little thick, about 5 minutes. Season it, then stir in the tuna, peas, mushroom mixture and noodles. Pour it into the baking dish.
Melt the last 2 tablespoons of butter, stir in the bread crumbs, and sprinkle them over the top. Cover with the Cheddar.
Bake until it bubbles and browns a little, about 25 minutes.

The mushrooms were the most expensive line at $2.49. Leave them out and the pan drops to $7.05, which is our suggestion, not the recipe’s.

4. Easy Red Beans and Rice: $6.40 for four

Easy Red Beans and Rice (4.4 stars, 596 ratings) is the weeknight version, built on canned kidney beans instead of a pot of dry ones. The whole pot is $12.82 for eight servings. It and the cabbage bake are the two dinners here where the full pot runs past $10, and both still put four plates down for well under it: $6.40 here.

Three changes, all for price or package size. The recipe calls for a 16-ounce package of turkey kielbasa; the only turkey kielbasa on this shelf was a 13-ounce pack at $6.39, so we used a 14-ounce pork kielbasa at $5.59. The recipe’s 16-ounce can of tomatoes became the 14.5-ounce can the store carries. And we used Italian seasoning, which has oregano in it, instead of buying a separate jar of oregano.

2 cups water
1 cup uncooked rice
1 (16 ounce) package turkey kielbasa, cut diagonally into 1/4 inch slices (we used 14 ounce pork kielbasa)
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 clove chopped garlic
2 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans, drained
1 (16 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, chopped (we used a 14.5 ounce can)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (we used Italian seasoning)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
salt to taste

Bring the water to a boil, stir in the rice, cover, turn the heat down, and simmer for 20 minutes.
While the rice cooks, cook the sausage in a large skillet over low heat for 5 minutes.
Add the onion, green pepper and garlic and cook until they are soft.
Stir in the beans and the tomatoes with their juice, then the oregano, pepper and salt.
Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes and serve over the rice.

One cup of raw rice makes about three cups cooked, which is thin for eight servings. If your table eats a lot of rice, cook a second cup. That adds 44 cents.

5. Pasta e Fagioli: $6.99 for four

Pasta e Fagioli on Allrecipes (4.6 stars, 558 ratings) is pasta and beans in a tomato broth. It makes four bowls of soup, so the whole pot is the four plates. It is a lighter supper than the others. Put a sleeve of crackers or a few slices of bread on the table if your crew is hungry.

Two changes. The recipe uses two fresh tomatoes, peeled and chopped. Roma tomatoes were $2.99 a pound, so we used a $1.29 can of whole tomatoes and crushed them by hand. And instead of a 14.5-ounce can of broth at $1.99, we poured that much out of a $1.79 carton that holds 32 ounces.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
salt to taste
1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth (we poured it from a 32 ounce carton)
2 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped (we used a 14.5 ounce can of whole tomatoes)
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1/2 cup ditalini or other small pasta
1 (15 ounce) can cannellini beans, with liquid

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, garlic, parsley, Italian seasoning, pepper flakes and salt, and cook until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.
Stir in the broth, tomato sauce and tomatoes. Turn the heat to low and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
Add the pasta and cook until it is tender, about 10 minutes.
Stir in the beans with their liquid and cook until hot, 3 to 4 minutes.

6. Chicken Fried Rice, doubled: $7.48 for four

Chicken Fried Rice has 2,114 ratings and a 4.5-star average. It says it serves four, but it uses only 2 cups of cooked rice and 1 cup of chicken, which is side-dish size. For dinner we doubled everything, and the list below is the doubled amount.

The bigger change is the chicken. The recipe just says cooked, chopped chicken. Boneless thighs at this store were $8.99 a pound, which is what sank the version in the next section. We priced 1 1/2 pounds of bone-in leg quarters at $2.49 a pound instead, which gives a little under 2 cups of meat once it is off the bone. That is plenty in fried rice. The easy way: bake three extra quarters on leg-quarter night (dinner 7) and pull the meat for this.

2 eggs
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 onions, chopped
4 cups cooked white rice, cold
2 cups cooked, chopped chicken meat (from about 1 1/2 lb leg quarters)
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 teaspoons ground black pepper

Beat the eggs with the water. Melt the butter in a large skillet or wok over medium-low heat, pour in the eggs, and let them cook without stirring for 1 to 2 minutes. Slide them out and cut them into shreds.
Heat the oil in the same skillet and cook the onions until soft, about 3 minutes.
Stir in the rice, chicken, soy sauce and pepper and cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Stir the egg back in and serve hot.

Use cold rice, the way the recipe says. Fresh rice turns gummy in the pan. About 1 1/3 cups of raw rice makes the 4 cups you need, so cook it the night before.

7. Baked Chicken Leg Quarters with rice and green beans: $7.89 for four

Baked Chicken Leg Quarters is the newest recipe here, 4.9 stars from 43 ratings, so it has fewer reviews behind it than the others. We checked its numbers ourselves. It bakes at 425 degrees F and finishes at 165 degrees F near the bone, which is the USDA’s safe minimum for all poultry. Forty minutes plus a few under the broiler is right for 8-ounce quarters.

Leg quarters were $2.49 a pound. The recipe names 8-ounce quarters, so four of them, about 2 pounds, came to $4.98. Store packs often run bigger than 8 ounces a quarter, so weigh yours; every extra pound is $2.49. The recipe is written for five; we bought four for four people and kept the rub amounts as written, which leaves a little extra. We used regular paprika instead of smoked paprika because it cost less. The plain rice and the bag of frozen green beans on the side are not part of the recipe, but they are in the price, because a chicken quarter alone is not supper.

2 teaspoons smoked paprika (we used regular paprika)
2 teaspoons granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
5 (8 ounce) chicken leg quarters (we cooked 4)
1/3 cup melted unsalted butter
On the side: 1 cup rice, cooked, and a 12 ounce bag of frozen cut green beans

Heat the oven to 425 degrees F and line a sheet pan with foil.
Stir the paprika, garlic, onion powder, salt and pepper together.
Pat the chicken dry. Lift the skin and rub 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of the seasoning underneath, then brush both sides with the melted butter.
Sprinkle the rest of the seasoning on both sides and set the quarters cut side up on the pan.
Bake for 20 minutes. Flip them cut side down and bake about 20 minutes more, until a thermometer near the bone reads 160 degrees F.
Turn on the broiler and brown each side for 3 to 4 minutes, until the thermometer reads 165 degrees F.
Cover with foil and let them rest for 5 minutes before serving.

The one that missed

Same fried rice, same doubled recipe, but with the chicken bought the easy way: three-quarters of a pound of boneless, skinless thighs at $8.99 a pound. That one line is $6.74, and it pushes the pan to $10.48 for four plates. Everything else in the cart is identical. The bone-in quarters do the same job for $3.74.

Look down the list and the pattern is plain. The dinners that clear $10 are not the ones with the fewest ingredients. They are the ones where the meat is canned, cured, still on the bone, or left out.

The checkout total, if your pantry is bare

The four-plate prices above count spices and staples at the share you use. If you are starting with an empty cabinet, the register total is higher, because you are buying the whole jar of pepper and the whole bag of flour. For the potato soup, a bare-pantry checkout is $21.08; for the red beans, $17.00. You walk out with enough flour, butter and spices to cook several of the other dinners on this list, which is why it pays to pick three or four of these and shop for them together.

Keep going

If you only have energy for the lowest-effort version of dinner, five cheater dinners for under $10 is the companion to this list. To shop once for a whole week, five dinners from one grocery run lays out the order to cook them. And the cheap foods worth buying list is the staples shelf behind all of it.

Which of these would actually get eaten at your table without a fight?

Recipes: Allrecipes, linked in each section, followed as written except the changes we name. We priced every recipe; we did not test-cook each one for this list. Prices: regular shelf prices at Harris Teeter Hudson Corners, 2145 Old Spartanburg Rd, Greer, SC 29650, pulled October 21, 2026 through the Kroger Products API. Sale prices left out. Pantry items are counted at the share of the package used. Your store and week will vary.