cheap and easy to come by

[SizzlininIN]

Some great ideas already. I thought I'd add a few.

You will probably have some of the ingredients already like onion, garlic, spices.

Quesadilla's (I think I spelt that right)
with pieces of chicken breast and cheese
just add your spices and some onion and green peppers if you like

Chicken Fajitas........same ingredients

Spagetti......very cheap. I buy the Ragu 7 herb sauce and then add ground beef thats been browned with onion and garlic. I also add some hot sauce to the sauce. Sometimes I put in additional spices like basil and oregano.

Goulash

Brown 1#ground beef with 1 small onion thats been diced and 1/2 green pepper thats been diced. Drain off the grease and add a couple cans of tomato sauce, a can of tomato soup, some ketcup.....about 1/4 cup, 1 tbsp brown sugar, salt and pepper, about 1/2 tsp garlic powder and some worchestershire sauce.......about 10 dashes......more or less to your taste. Then add your elbow macaroi thats been cooked to where it still has a little bite and drained.
Stir occasionally to avoid it from sticking to the bottom of your pan.
**Note be sure not to taste it till after you've stirred in the noodles and let it cook for another minute or so. You may need to adjust the taste a little. I usually end up just adding a little more worchestershire sauce.
Serve it with good ole bread and butter.

Smoked Sausage with green peppers and onions served on a bun. I love them with mustard
.....I saute my onions and green peppers in a little EVOO and add S & P and a sprinkle of sugar.

 

[Lugaru]

Well thankyou guys for posting recipes and such on this thread. The raman noodles sound good, but I've never used them before. Are they already made the the chinese noodles, or are they more like pasta (cook them in boiling water). Well anyways, thanks again.

Yeah, basically think of the "cup o noodle" stuff. It's ready in 6 minutes if you leave it in boiling water.

I prefer to buy a large cardboard pack with 12 of the package ones (not the cup ones) since these you can actually cook with. Split it down the middle (so you end up with two flat cakes), put it in about an inch of boiling water and by the time it boils down a bit it's ready for stir frying, or use more water and add frozen veggies for a soup.

I once spent a couple of months (maybe 3) with no income and almost no savings... ramen and rice saved my life. That and a friend who bought me groceries a couple of times.

 

[kitchenelf]

A good quick sandwich is - marinate a slightly flattened chicken breast in some teriyaki sauce while skillet is heating up and you slice some tomatoes and get the lettuce ready. Use a bun or bread. Cook the chicken breast until done and top it with some provolone cheese add lettuce and tomato.

I also LOVE a ham sandwich with LOTS of lettuce and tomato on it - I don't know why but the lettuce is so refreshing and filling.

You can pre-make some egg salad.

You can also do a 3-cheese grilled cheese on rye with a bit of mayo on it before grilling.

Make up some chicken salad from left-over bbq'd chicken - this makes GREAT chicken salad. If you need a quick recipe I just use mayo, celery, a bit of geen onion, and some hard boiled egg.

I also like to grill a pimento cheese sandwich with a tomato on it.

The ramen noodles I think Lugaru is talking about come in individual packets. Put about 2 cups of water in a small pot - comes to a boil in no time. Cook for about 1 minute - add seasoning packet - cook 1 minute more. Takes NO time!!!! I usually pour most of the water off then add the seasoning packet.

Then there's just the plain old infamous tomato sandwich, or cucumber sandwich, or a combination of the two with mayo.

And if I really want a blast from the past I'll get some low fat bologna (you probably don't have to worry about the fat though so you could get a couple thicker slices from the deli) and fry it - again with mayo, lettuce, and tomato on white bread. YUM!

 

[kitchenelf]

You can also make up some potato salad and eat on it for a few days with your sandwiches or grilled chicken breast or grilled pork tenderloin. My husband eats potato salad and ham sandwiches

 

[Michael in FtW]

The raman noodles sound good, but I've never used them before. Are they already made the the chinese noodles, or are they more like pasta (cook them in boiling water).

Raman noodles are cooked before they are dried - so all you have to do is rehydrate them in hot water. Pasta, on the other hand, is dried before it is cooked - so you have to rehydrate and cook them. This is why you only have to add boiling water to raman noodles and wait about 3 minutes - and you have to boil pasta for 8-12 minutes.