Cheap Food Mods 2: Wrath of Pasta

In our last installment of Cheap Food Mods, I told you how to make ramen extra tasty. After a very successful, very cheap pasta dinner for six last night, I thought I would share with you some of the easy and cheap ways to make your pasta extra delicious. Pasta is one of the great three cheap college staples (pasta, ramen and rice) and is super cheap - even after the added cost of toying with it and adding stuff to it.

Sauce!
When shopping for sauce, if you can afford it it's always better to get one of the slightly more expensive and tastier brands rather than settling for the bargain brands. In fact, while we're on the subject of shopping, it's always a good idea to have plenty of pasta on hand, since it's a good "what-the-hell-else-is-in-the-kitchen?" meal. If you see pasta or pasta sauce on sale, stock up!

By the by, if you're not all that into your average pasta sauce and you're a bit sick of butter or olive oil, try Italian Dressing or a vinaigrette of some kind. It's yummy! You may also be into pesto. Yes, I know, it looks funky. It's basically just a bit of cheese, basil and olive oil, though, so it's really good!

Back on the topic of normal sauces, if you need to buy the bargain brand (or even if you buy the good brand), you can easily augment your sauces to make them your own and very tasty, to boot. Always taste your sauce warm before adding anything to it, as without knowing how it tastes you won't know what to add. Salt and pepper are often the first things that people think of adding, and you'll probably know when to add that. A touch of cayenne can add a nice little bite to your sauce. A little bit of sugar is a nice addition to some of the all-natural, super-healthy sauces but is probably not needed for most mass-manufactured sauces. Adding meat can also add some flavor to the sauce...

Protein!
One of the reasons why you feel so unfulfilled when eating nothing but ramen or pasta is the fact that you aren't getting any protein in your diet. Now, meat is usually a bit costly, but you can make a little bit go a long way with pasta. For example, take a half pound of cheap ground beef and cook it up with some diced onions, salt and pepper, drain the fat and add it to your sauce. Easy! For something a bit more flavorful, take a half pound of Italian sausage, cut open the casings and crumble off pieces of the meat into a hot pan, cook with onions, and add it to your sauce. By breaking apart the sausages, you stretch out the meat a bit farther. Chicken is delicious just by itself in pasta, but you can get a bit fancier...

Pan-fried Chicken for Pasta
Serves: 2-3
Active Cook time: ~30 minutes
Difficulty: Super Easy

Hardware
-Medium-sized or smallish pan (I use a 10" diameter pan)
-Fork
-Small Mixing Bowl
-Plate with Paper Towels

Foodstuffs
-2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
-1/2 cup breadcrumbs, preferably Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
-1/2 cup all-purpose flour
-1 tsp Italian seasoning
-2tsp pepper
-1 tsp salt
-2 to 3 cups Olive Oil

Cut the chicken into small pieces, no bigger than one inch cubes. Mix the breadcrumbs, flour, and seasonings in the bowl until all the seasonings are evenly spread throughout the mixture. Bread each piece of chicken in the mixture. Meanwhile, place your pan over medium-high heat and put in enough oil to cover the bottom well. When the oil is hot, place some of the chicken pieces to the pan, leaving about 1/4 inch of space between each piece - you'll be cooking in batches, so don't worry when you can't fit everything in the pan.

Cook for 2-3 minutes, flipping over each piece of chicken when the bottom is golden brown and the edges have gotten a bit white. Cook for another 2-3 minutes on the other side. Check for done-ness on the first piece you remove by breaking it in half with your fork. If the meat is white the whole way through, it's done. Remove from pan and put on a plate covered with one or two paper towels to absorb the excess oil. Start the next batch when there's room and cook as above. Serve with Pasta and enjoy!
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SXSW Quick-post: Ramen!

Okay, so I'm doing SXSW this weekend, so I don't have a ton of time. Luckily, there are recipes that don't take much time to talk about or do! Okay, well this isn't so much a recipe as a guide: How to make ramen suck less. All of us have been there, poor enough that we have little else but ramen, or perhaps there's not much else in the kitchen aside from ramen. Luckily, there are a number of ways to reduce the tedium of plain noodles in a salty broth.

Throw Away the Seasoning Packet
No seriously, that thing has so much unneeded sodium in it, it's not even that good tasting. Replace it with a bullion cube of either chicken or beef, a bit of salt and pepper and a shake or two of Italian Herbs. Alternatively, you can cook your noodles in a canned broth.
If you simply must keep the seasoning packet, my friend Erin swears by cooking the noodles, draining them, then add 1/4 cup whole milk (or half and half) and the seasoning packet to the noodles, giving the sauce a tasty, creamy flavor.

Veg out
Chopped carrots, celery and onion all go very well in a bowl of ramen. Now, fresh vegetables will need to cook a little longer than the noodles will, so add them to your water/broth before the noodles and let them cook nearly through before adding the noodles. As an alternative to fresh vegetables, you can add frozen vegetables to the ramen after the noodles are cooked. It serves a two-fold purpose, both to add flavor and to cool down your soup!

Protein Matters
Adding a little bit of protein will make this somewhat thin meal a little more filling and satisfying. A very cheap way to do this is to add scrambled egg to the soup as the broth is boiling, stirring vigorously to make the egg break up like in egg drop soup. If you prefer something a little meatier, chicken breast or beef strips can be quickly pan-fried and added to your soup.

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