Budget Friendly Meals

I've been trying to cook healthy, easy and most importantly budget friendly meals. Hubby has been really good with trying and eating (especially Chinese food) different kind of dishes every since we got back from Malaysia therefore now I don't have to cook up a storm to hope that he will at least like a dish of two. All I have to do is cook what comes in to my mind and so far he's eaten everything I made but I figured if he really didn't like it he could find something else to eat too.

This packet of noodles just cost $0.70 and it lasts for a few meals!

Noodles with mushroom and pork plus stir fry vegetables

Pork and mushroom noodles

Ingredients
A packet of noodles
Pork
mushroom
garlic
oyster sauce
soy sauce
sugar

dark soy sauce-for noodles
sesame oil-for noodles

Method
Heat the wok/pan and drizzle some sesame oil.
Add garlic and cook till fragrant.
Add pork and cook till brown.
Add the rest of the ingredient in with the pork and cook till the pork is done.
For the noodles cook them following the directions on what ever noodles you buy.
Pour a dash of sesame oil and dark soy sauce on a plate then put the noodles on it and mix well. Scoop pork on the noodles.

p/s: I quick stir fried some vegetables to go with my noodles. Hubby apparently really like this noodle.

I know that instant noodles is not the most healthiest thing to eat for a meal but then if you put the right food in it and don't use a lot of the seasoning it can be a pretty healthy meal. A packet of ramen/instant noodles cost about $0.15(The one below is more expensive because is Korean Ramen but hubby said $1.00 for a packet is still cheap) and add some vegetables, meat and eggs it would only cost at most $1.00 a meal (Mine would probably be a little more but not much though)

Ramen/Instant Noodles

Ingredients
A packet of instant noodles
eggs
luncheon meat
vegetables

Method
Cook instant noodles according to direction and put in vegetables and seasoning. Cook until noodles and vegetables are done.
A. You can put in the meat and eggs (if you want eggy ie egg drop soup kind beat eggs before putting in the pot)in the pot with the noodles and cook until done
OR
B. You can cook the meat and egg in a pan.

Barbeques is another simple and cheap dish you can quick whip up and would last for days (depending on how many people eating it). You can eat it with bread or if you are like me that don't care from bread you can eat it with noodles too.

Barbeques
Ingredients
2# of hamburger (ground beef)- you can also use turkey or pork
1/2C of Ketchup
1/2 C of barbeque sauce
2tsp of chili powder
1 tsp of worchestire sauce
1C water
One packet of dry onion soup mix
Method
Cook hamburger with water then drain water and rinse hamburger (rinse the oil away).
Add the rest of the ingredients in and cook until it is moist but not wet.

Hubby don't really care for steam chicken (he thinks is tasteless) I like to steam my chicken because is really simple and if we have the right ingredients it can taste pretty good too. This chicken was a little spicy for hubby because I think I might have put a little more chili pepper since I wasn't using chili padi (birds eye chili) so I thought it would not be spicy but it was.

Rice wine chicken

Stir fry bak choy with garlic

Rice Wine Chicken

Ingredients
4 chicken drumstick and two chicken breast
ginger thinly sliced
3 red chili chopped
10 cloves garlic chopped (medium size)
6 tbsp Rice Wine
Oyster Sauce
White Pepper
Soy Sauce

Method
Marinate Chicken with the rest of the ingredients for about an hour.
Cover the bowl/plate with aluminium foil and steam until done.

p/s: I just served my meal with stir fry bak choy with garlic and white rice.

After trying these dishes I found out that yummy dishes need not be expensive and takes a long time to prepare. Healthy, simple and budget friendly dishes taste as good too. I also found out that you can save a lot of money by preparing budget friendly meals. I'm hoping to find more ways to be frugal and save more for rainy days..Any suggestions is also welcome :)