Pecuniarities

Hold a “Financial Lent” or fast to see what luxuries you can live without and how much money you can save by cutting back or giving it up altogether.

This is one of my favorite and easiest recipes for taco salad. It may not exactly be authentic Mexican cuisine, but it is fast at less than 3 minutes to prepare, inexpensive at $1.00 – $1.25 per serving, and in my opinion, very yummy.
The ingredients are as follows:

Tortilla chips
Chili
Salad*
Salsa
Ranch Dressing

* I like to use the [...]

We thought we’d start off our fast & frugal recipes with our version of Yaki Soba, the Japanese equivalent of Chow Mein. This meal can be made in about 5-10 minutes and for under $1.00 per person.
Yakisoba Ingredients

1 pack of Ramen Noodles (Maruchan, Top Ramen, etc.) – but we won’t be using the soup base [...]

This is a very simple and fairly healthy dish, very easy to make in large quantities or single portions. The ingredients are few and the recipe flexible; the basic sauce only requires soy sauce, water & sugar, but can also be enhanced with ginger and rice wine if desired. Our recipe only includes vegetables, [...]

This is my most recent invention modeled after Chinese and/or Thai cuisine, chilled noodles (in this case Ramen) with cucumbers, corn and peanut sauce. This is a great meal for summertime and warm weather days when you don’t feel like eating hot food, and it can be served as an appetizer or entrée.
Ingredients

Noodles – can [...]

We often use this “recipe” (it is so simple it might not qualify as an actual recipe) when we’re busy and don’t have time to cook. And no, this is not one for making your own pizza crust. Prep time is less than 3 minutes and 20 minutes in the oven. There is hardly any [...]

April 15th is coming up fast. If you haven’t filed your tax return yet, you’re in luck. I have been offered 2 FREE Prepaid Access Cards for TurboTax Premier Online, which includes Free Federal + State Preparation + e-File, an $85 value to give away to 2 lucky readers.