Frugal College Student Recipe - Savory Noodles in Broth

Here's a quick and simple (and low fat) way of cooking up noodles or pasta when you don't feel like spending hours in the kitchen. All of the ingredients are inexpensive and pantry items like broth, bouillon cubes, and noodles/pasta last a long time, so stock up and buy in bulk!

For those who have never had to cook for themselves, you only have to know how to boil water and use a knife/scissors.

Ingredients

• Approx. 2 cups the broth of your choice (either canned or bouillon is fine)
• Some chopped scallions (green onions)
• 1 person serving size of pasta (such as elbow macaroni) or noodles (either rice noodles or vermicelli are good choices)
• White pepper
  
• Sesame oil, the secret ingredient that turns ordinary bland dishes into exotic Asian
  

1. Heat up your broth in a small saucepan and add a drizzle of sesame oil.
2. In a large pot, bring some water to boil with a pinch of salt. Once the water comes to a boil, add your pasta/noodles and put on the lid. Steam cook your noodles/pasta by turning off the heat and leaving the lid on the pot. This ensures that you will never end up with undercooked or overcooked mushy noodles/pasta.
3. Pour the hot broth into a large bowl and once the noodles are cooked, drain them and add them to the bowl of broth.
4. Flavor to taste with white pepper and top with a sprinkle of chopped scallions.
   

Technorati: thrifty, frugal, cooking, recipes, asian, noodles, college, student

Frugal College Student Recipe - Garlic Bread

One trick to eating frugally is to have one or two soup and bread nights every week. One of my favorite breads to go with a nice bowl of soup is garlic bread. The great thing about garlic bread is that because the bread has to be toasted/baked, it's okay (even preferable) to use stale bread! A large baguette runs about $1 at my local bakery and there's usually enough bread for several meals. Use fresh baguettes for sandwiches/subs and use hardened bread for toasting, dipping in soup, or making croutons. Note that I use olive oil for this recipe because buying good quality butter is expensive!

Garlic Bread

Ingredients

• Baguette
• One or two cloves of garlic
• Olive oil
• Salt

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.
2. Cut your loaf of bread in half lengthwise and either dig out the middle of your bread by hand or use a fork to create spaces for the garlic/oil to soak in.
3. Brush or (if you're like me and don't want to buy a brush especially for cooking) drizzle some olive oil over the insides of the bread.
4. Peel your garlic, but don't mince it!
5. Rub your garlic over the oiled surface of the bread like you would if you were grating the garlic.
6. Lightly sprinkle some salt over the bread.
7. Put the bread on a baking sheet with the cut sides up and bake until the tops are crispy/brown or you start to smell the yummy smell of garlic bread (about 7 to 10 minutes).
8. Let cool and enjoy!
   

Technorati Tags: frugal, thrift, recipe, college student, garlic bread