Dinner on the cheap - Ramen Bowls!

You know it.  You love it.  You probably ate nothing but it in college...it's ramen!  Times are tight, so we've been looking for creative ways to eat on the cheap.  Zack discovered the Budget Bytes blog a few months ago before the layoffs.  It's a lovely little blog by Beth M., a money conscious foodie.  It must have been fate!  Or google. 

 
This ramen bowl was our first experiment with a Budget Byte's recipe.  It was easy to do, yummy and of course, cheap!  We bought the ramen on sale for .17¢ each.  As with most of our recipes, I added way more veggies than required.  We included shredded carrots, sliced mushrooms and baby spinach.  In lieu of the flavor packet we added soy sauce and a splash of fish sauce.

Zack dislikes runny egg yolks so I opted for making egg-ribbons similar to egg-drop soup.  Apparently I haven't mastered egg-ribbon making.  It ended up more like broth with little chunks of egg floating in it.

We bought a jar of chili-garlic sauce to add some heat.  It was yummy but very similar to sriracha sauce.  If you have sriracha at home, just use it instead.  Overall I would say this is a 4 star dish.  It would be perfect for an evening when you are really tired and don't feel like making anything elaborate.

Eggs-traordinary Stuffed Toasty Baskets with Lemony Greens

Cooking in our household presents some challenges. Dietary restrictions and personal tastes make finding recipes that we can both eat and enjoy difficult. Zack is mildly allergic to soy and hates brussel sprouts, peas, sweet potatoes. I've been a vegetarian since I was 14 and only recently started eating a little bit of fish. I pretty much live on soy. And I love veggies (except for yucky cauliflower). But we're both on the same page in that we've been eating way too much convenience food. So we're trying to incorporate more fresh vegetables and less processed food into our diets. Also our food budget is pretty tight. So we almost never follow a recipe exactly without making some kind of alteration or substitution.

This recipe was easy to make, though it definitely took longer than 30 minutes. It was adapted from 365: No Repeats by Rachel Ray, pg. 48. De-crust and flatten soft sandwich bread and line a muffin tip with it, then crack in an egg and top it with sauteed garlic, onion and tomato. Sprinkle with cheese and pop in the oven for about 15 minutes. The recipe called for bacon but we sauteed bacos instead. I think Fakin' Bacon, a smoky tempeh, would work well for this, but we didn't have any. Also we used whole wheat bread instead of white and parmesan cheese instead of parmigiano-reggiano (that stuff is pricey).

The greens sucked, but that was my fault. In our rush to the grocery store I didn't fully read the recipe and thought they were supposed to be cooked. So I got mixed greens of kale & mustard greens. It was supposed to be a mixed green salad. Sooo, we sauted the greens and topped them with the lemon-mustard dressing. Not good.

Overall the eggy toast was yummy. We give it 4 out of 5 stars. The greens need a do-over.