Reverend Conehead
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Sometimes you need an ultra cheap and easy meal that's reasonably healthy for you. Here's one of my favorites, and you don't even need an stove or an oven. I make this with a rice cooker and a microwave. The ingredients are:
A box of rigatoni or penne pasta.
A bag of frozen broccoli
A jar of your favorite cheater sauce (like Ragu, Prego, Paul Newman, or whatever).
Spices: Salt, pepper, oregano
This is a "set it and forget it" recipe. You just put about 2 cups of the pasta in the rice cooker and about 4 cups of water and a dash of salt. Then you put that steam tray thingie in the top of the rice cooker and put the broccoli pieces into that. Then you just turn on the rice cooker and wait. It should take somewhere around 22 to 26 minutes. When it's ready, you just microwave maybe about half a cup or a full cup of your cheater sauce and pour over it. Then mix in however much salt, pepper, and oregano you prefer. Mix it all up in a bowl and you've got your cheap, but good meal.
This meal is ultra simple, easy, and affordable. It doesn't matter if you're a meat lover or a vegetarian. If you're a meat lover, then you use cheater sauce that includes meat. If you're a vegetarian, you choose meatless sauce. Simple. Of course, for the meat version, you could conceivably stir fry some ground beef and onions on the stove and then mix that in. It would totally work, but it does reduce the cheapness and easiness.
I like this one, because I can just plop that stuff into the rice cooker, set a cooking timer, and go do something else. Then some 25 minutes later I have a meal that I barely had to do any work to make and didn't cost much money. I normally don't even use up the whole box of pasta, the whole bag of broccoli, or the whole jar of sauce. That means I can make it more than once with those supplies.
If you want to share your cheap and easy meal ideas, please feel free to.
A box of rigatoni or penne pasta.
A bag of frozen broccoli
A jar of your favorite cheater sauce (like Ragu, Prego, Paul Newman, or whatever).
Spices: Salt, pepper, oregano
This is a "set it and forget it" recipe. You just put about 2 cups of the pasta in the rice cooker and about 4 cups of water and a dash of salt. Then you put that steam tray thingie in the top of the rice cooker and put the broccoli pieces into that. Then you just turn on the rice cooker and wait. It should take somewhere around 22 to 26 minutes. When it's ready, you just microwave maybe about half a cup or a full cup of your cheater sauce and pour over it. Then mix in however much salt, pepper, and oregano you prefer. Mix it all up in a bowl and you've got your cheap, but good meal.
This meal is ultra simple, easy, and affordable. It doesn't matter if you're a meat lover or a vegetarian. If you're a meat lover, then you use cheater sauce that includes meat. If you're a vegetarian, you choose meatless sauce. Simple. Of course, for the meat version, you could conceivably stir fry some ground beef and onions on the stove and then mix that in. It would totally work, but it does reduce the cheapness and easiness.
I like this one, because I can just plop that stuff into the rice cooker, set a cooking timer, and go do something else. Then some 25 minutes later I have a meal that I barely had to do any work to make and didn't cost much money. I normally don't even use up the whole box of pasta, the whole bag of broccoli, or the whole jar of sauce. That means I can make it more than once with those supplies.
If you want to share your cheap and easy meal ideas, please feel free to.
