Canadian Mark posted this wonderful article on his blog as well as SmartCanucks’ forum. Thanks Mark!
You can visit Canadian Mark’s blog here for many interesting articles 
Mark also earns 7 candies for posting a blog-worthy topic on SmartCanucks’ forum.
If you’ve been into (mostly) any major Canadian fast food establishment — or even greasy spoons for that matter, you’ll have discovered that a meal size plate of nearly anything goes for between $7 and $12 after tax.
Comparatively, a home-cooked meal worth the same amount will often provide 4 or 5 portions. What I’m suggesting here, is a good old fashioned recipe swap of frugal Canuckian cuisine — tried and true recipes from those college days, when Mr. Noodles was the main component of 90% of your recipe repertoire. You can mix up anything with those noodles, I swear.
I’m going for interestingly creative and fun here, but nonetheless practical — and certainly not limited to Mr. Noodles. Quick, cheap, inexpensive, obscure, yet gourmet recipes.
And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is what this thread is all about. I hope.
I’ll even go first:
Andre’s End of the Month Spicy Fiesta
Ingredients:
2 packages of instant oriental beef noodles
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 White onion
1 — 3 of the hottest peppers your local grocer happens to sell. Ask if you’re unsure — I’ve never met a produce manager that didn’t love talking about food.
1 Package of fast-fry steak (thin cut)You should be paying less than 5 dollars at the checkout for this 2 plate meal.
Preparation:
Prepare noodles as directed, meanwhile, slice the steak, onions, and peppers into strips. Saute the onion and peppers in a heavy skillet (or preferably a wok) over medium heat (using the vegetable oil, of course). Once the vegetables become translucent, add the fast fry steak.
At about this time, and depending on the peppers you chose, eye protection might be necessary, due to the possibility of mustard-gas-like fumes.
Toss this mess about for close to two minutes, then add the prepared noodles. Now is a good time to see if there’s any soy sauce packages laying about from the last time you got Chinese take-out. It’s not necessary, but it does add a little something extra. Toss constantly for about a minute, remove from heat, and serve immediately. Although the spicy-heat remains constant, this dish tends to lose its temperature-heat rather quickly.
Serve with bread or crackers — You’re going to need it — and much cold beverage of your choice, let’s not forget about that.
You’re most welcome. Hopefully there will be more where this came from. Thanks for the guest-spot!
Kickass.
Lazy Cabbage Rolls:
1lb ground beef (lean, reg’lar, whatever has the best price that day)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tins tomato paste
1 smallish cabbage, shredded
1/2 cup uncooked rice
1 or two crumbled beef bouillon cubes (or some soy sauce, or whatever that’s kinda salty and deep in flavour)
a good honkin’ pinch of sugar
a good honkin’ pinch of cayenne pepper
salt and black pepper, to taste
In a deep, heavy-bottomed skillet, brown the beef, kinda, until only SOME pink remains. Bung in the onion and crumbled bouillon; mix well and sizzle a bit. Add in the tomato paste, add a bit of water (about two tins’ worth) before throwing in the cabbage. Mix well, and add a little more water so the pan doesn’t dry out. Add pinch of sugar and mix.
Put a lid on the pot for about 3 minutes to help ‘sweat’ the cabbage, then add the rice and mix in thoroughly. Add another few tins of water, re-cover the pan, bring to boil, then simmer until rice is cooked, checking periodically to see if you’ve got enough liquid goin’ on; add more water as necessary.
Season with salt and pepper, stir, and let sit at room temp before consuming. Eat it on its own, or with some nice bread (rye is best, but whatever bread you use, and whatever you do, use effing butter on it, man. Margarine is the Devil).
BTW, excluding spices (which I’d assumed anyone would have in the pantry), this should cost about 6 bucks (not including bread) and makes…a lot. Seriously, a lot.
Just want to thank you for keeping at this and say how much I appreciate your clear and comprehensive comments. I missed the Richmond connection in the original Nation article. Really do hope and expect that someday soon we’ll be reading your work, or something comperable, in the RTD. In the meantime, I’m glad we can read it here.
I will be trying that out for myself, nice clear instructions are a must for guys like me! We can change stuff to suit when we’ve got it right a few times following instructions. (or am I just stupid?) maybe you better not answer that!
Dodge