Thursday, July 22, 2010

Cheap Eats

I have always had some what of an obsession/love affair with food. I would even go as far as to consider myself a foodie, you know those food snob pretentious types you see on Bravo's Top Chef.
I love food.
I love eating it.
I love cooking it.I even like just looking at it, but mostly I love to eat it.

Unemployment puts a wrench in foodie-ism by making you too broke to enjoy the things you once did like dinners out. It also gives you an exorbitant amount of time to watch food television which in turn makes you hungrier. It leaves you with less options to cure this hunger and most of these options can be found on a value menu near you. Not exactly the heights of gourmet. After enduring yet another day of value menu meals I decided that I would not let unemployment take my food joy from me. No, I would fight unemployment and search for the cheapest best eats around Las Vegas and recipes to boot. This is the first of many installments to come of cheap eats.
I began my search online for cheap yet tasty recipes and came across this winner from http://www.budget101.com through http://www.onlinecollege.org because when you are unemployed lets face it, you are pretty much surviving in the world like a starving college student, on your parents' kindness and Ramen.

WARNING: I took some creative license with the recipe but you can find the original through the link provided below.


Ramen Ham Frittata
3 Scallions, sliced ($0.60)
1 Tbsp. Butter or Margarine ($0.05)
1 Ham Steak, medium dice ($3.00)
2 packages Chicken flavored Ramen ($1.20)
(only use 1 of the 2 flavor packets)
4 Cups of water (FREE)
6 eggs ($1.50)
Total cost of deliciousness: $6.35

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil water and add Ramen noodles. Cook three minutes. Strain and set aside. Melt the butter in a large ovenproof skillet. Add the scallions and ham. Cook until ham is browned and fat is rendered. Beat 6 eggs and flavor packet together. Add noodles to ham and scallions. Add eggs to skillet as well. Put skillet in oven. Bake 6-8 minutes or until eggs have set.

I was worried at first that our first cheap eats attempt might not turn out so tasty, but this frittata made a great breakfast and my 3 year old ate it without whining. That makes it a winner in my book.
Check out the original at: Ramen Ham Frittata

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