MAYBE YOU MISSED it, but something kind of wild happened earlier this year when U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins went on NewsNation to help promote new federal nutrition guidelines.
In a now-notorious quote, Rollins said, regarding how Americans can eat real food on a tight budget: “We’ve run over 1,000 simulations. It can cost around $3 a meal for a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, a corn tortilla, and one other thing.”
Rollins’ comment shook budget-strapped Americans, roiled social media, and got dietitians like me worked up. A corn tortilla, a piece of chicken, one floret of broccoli. No salsa? No seasoning? Not even my three-year-old would touch that meal.
While the rest of the U.S. raged or laughed at Rollins’ rationale, I thought of Kevin Curry.
You know Curry, the founder of Fit Men Cook, one of the most-followed budget cooking voices in the country. Shortly before Rollins’ NewsNation appearance, Curry built an inexpensive meal plan for Americans who shop at Dollar General. True to his knack for creativity, he created 10 real meals with just $29.15. Rollins’ simulation existed in a spreadsheet. Curry’s plan lives in real life.
“The USDA was trying to prove that it was possible,” Curry says. “But you’re optimizing for optics, not outcomes. There’s a disconnect from reality. Well-intentioned or not, there’s a subconscious bias in who gets to define what healthy eating looks like for everyone else.”
And Curry got me thinking: What does $3 look like in a meal that a person would actually want to eat?
Here’s his approach based on flavor strategy, batch logic, and the kind of knowledge that only comes from cooking your way there.
Focus on Versatility
Curry designed his system around ingredients that do multiple jobs.
- Eggs and canned protein are integrated into almost every recipe.
- Dried beans work the same way: a base, a side, or a filling, depending on what else is on the counter.
- White rice, which stretches further than almost anything in the store.
- Frozen vegetables that are often more nutritious than fresh produce that’s been sitting in transit for days.
- Canned tomatoes that can become something different every time you season them differently.
- Low-sodium broth as the base for a three-minute microwave meal when you have nothing left in you.
“Every ingredient has to earn its spot by showing up in at least two or three meals in different ways,” Curry says. “If an ingredient can only do one thing, it’s a luxury you can’t afford on a tight budget. Versatility is the whole game.”
You can’t simulate your way to that logic. You have to cook your way there.
Prioritize Protein
This is where most Men’s Health readers have an edge—and where they can also trip up.
Eggs are the most cost-effective complete protein on the shelf. Three eggs run you under a dollar and deliver around 18 grams of protein. Canned chicken or tuna is shelf-stable, ready at your call, and hits 20 to 30 grams per serving, depending on can size. Dried beans, at roughly $0.15 to $0.25 per serving when cooked from dry, add 7 to 10 grams of protein per half cup, plus fiber and iron that animal sources don’t provide.
Where budget eating breaks down for the guy who trains is on the plant side. Most men figure out protein early and load up on animal sources. But fiber, micronutrients, and magnesium are where the gaps show upas poor recovery, inconsistent energy, and bowel movements. A $29 budget can absolutely be plant-dominant if you build intentionally around it.
From a performance standpoint, extra carbohydrates matter most on training days when glycogen replenishment is the priority, like after a long run or a multi-workout day. Adding a box of orzo or pasta for $1 to $2 addresses that without making anything else in the system more complicated.
Hit the Spice Cabinet
Ground cumin wakes up scrambled eggs, revitalizing your breakfast. A little Tajin completely changes the flavor of a bean-based chili or rice bowl. Black pepper, garlic powder, smoked paprika—these are tools.
The USDA simulation missed out on flavor entirely. Fat like olive oil carries flavor deep into food. Adding acid, like lime juice or vinegar, wakes everything up, IYKYK. And spice gives the meal a personality and a reason to eat it again tomorrow.
“Once you understand fat, acid, and spice as tools rather than indulgences, a 69-cent can of beans becomes a meal worth sitting down for,” Curry says.
And if your spices are past their use-by date and have gone flat, toast them inside a dry pan for 30 to 60 seconds until they bloom and turn aromatic again.
Curry has also developed his own spice blends for when you want to go beyond the cabinet staples. Find them at fitmencook.com.
3 Low-Cost, High-Flavor Meals
So, how do you put this all in practice? Let Curry show you.
Meal 1: Egg and Bean Scramble
3 eggs, ½ cup slow-cooked beans, ¼ cup seasoned frozen vegetables, 1 tablespoon of oil.
Protein: 28 to 30g
Fiber: 7 to 8g
Works for breakfast, dinner, or the morning after a hard training session when you need protein fast and your wallet is thin.
Meal 2: Sautéed Bean and Vegetable Skillet Over Rice
¾ cup slow-cooked beans, ½ cup seasoned frozen vegetables, 1 tablespoon of oil, ¾ cup cooked rice, salt, and pepper.
Protein: 18 to 20g
Fiber: 10 to 12g
The highest-fiber meal in Curry’s plan. For the guy who trains and ignores his plants, this is the one that fixes that and keeps your recovery on track.
Meal 3: Tuna Fried Rice
¾ cup cooked rice, one 5oz can of tuna, ½ cup seasoned frozen vegetables, 2 eggs, 1 tablespoon of oil.
Protein: 32 to 35g
Fiber: 4 to 5g
The highest-protein meal of the three. Cold rice works better here. Quick, filling, and completely different in flavor and texture from the bean meals.
The Bigger Picture
Food insecurity doesn’t exist because people don’t know that chicken and broccoli are healthy. It exists because of food deserts, limited transportation, and neighborhoods formed by decades of policy decisions that left certain communities reliant on convenience stores and small neighborhood stores (bodegas, carnicerias, etc), where fresh produce is scarce and markups are high because those stores can’t access wholesale pricing as larger supermarkets do.
“The USDA was optimizing for optics,” Curry says. “There’s a subconscious bias in who gets to define what healthy eating looks like for everyone else, and because of that, policy misses the nuance. It’s hard to feel connected to food you’re unfamiliar with, and when the mainstream tells you what you’re eating is wrong, what people actually hear is: your culture is bad for you.”
The people best equipped to solve budget nutrition problems are the ones who’ve lived them and built real systems around them. Kevin Curry walked into a Dollar General with $29.15 and walked out with a week of real meals. That’s the proof of concept.
You don’t need 1,000 simulations. You need dried beans, a versatile pantry, and a flavor strategy you’ll actually use twice. Start there.
Dezi Abeyta, RDN, is a Men’s Health Nutrition Adviser, author of Lose Your Gut Guide, and founder of Foodtalk Nutrition LLC.
