Category Archives: Very Budget Friendly

Food is not included in the U.S. Government’s Inflation numbers. But, anyone with common sense knows that Food is one of the things we all spend the most money on other than housing and maybe gasoline (also not included when calculating inflation). That said, everyone needs budget friendly meals to help ends meet. Please feel free to share your favorites!

Taco Salad Recipe

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Easy Taco Salad Recipe. Throw all in a bowl. Done!

Easy Taco Salad Recipe. Throw all in a bowl. Ready for tossing. So easy and delicious.

This is a one of the staple recipes in our house. It’s an easy and delicious, no fail dinner recipe that our kids and their friends have always loved. And, this recipe is a great way to use up any kind of leftover taco meat or even chicken or turkey. In fact, I always make it after we’ve had homemade tacos and I just use up whatever is left over from that meal (meat, tomatoes, cheese, onions etc…)  I don’t measure the ingredients at all. I just throw whatever we have leftover in a large bowl, ( as shown in the photo, lettuce is on the bottom of the bowl). If you add a little less onion, or a little more cheese, it’s not big deal. Just throw it in! Make it easy! You’ll have plenty of time left to make an easy margarita.

 

  • 1/2 lb. Ground or Chopped Chicken or Turkey or Beef (if not using leftovers, cook in a pan with 2 teaspoons cumin, 1 teaspoons chili powder, and 1 teaspoon garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste). Or, leftover chicken or turkey pieces. 
  • 6 Cups of Chopped Lettuce (or so).
  • 1/2 Cup Shredded Cheese
  • 1/2 Cup Canned Kidney or Black or Pinto Beans 
  • 1/2 Cup Crushed up Tortilla Chips or Leftover Taco Shells
  • 1/2 Cup Chopped Tomatoes
  • 1/2 Cup Chopped Onion (any kind is fine)
  • 1/4 Cup Salsa (any kind) 
  • 2 Tablespoons Sour Cream
  • 2 Tablespoons Italian Dressing

 

If you are not using leftover chicken or turkey or beef, cook your meat with spices until completely cooked. Drain off the fat.

 

Put everything in a bowl and toss well. Done! When I worked in restaurants, I learned that many restaurant sauces and dressings are often mixtures of different dressings that they have on the line. This dressing using salsa, sour cream and Italian dressing is a good example. 

 

 

 

Chinese Cold Spicy Sesame Noodles – a la Shorty Tang’s recipe

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Pasta like Spaghetti can be used instead of the Noodles in most recipes.

Pasta like Spaghetti can be used instead of Chinese Noodles or Soba in many recipes.

There’s a restaurant in Manhattan Beach that serves a great spicy sesame noodle recipe topped with peanuts that I was seriously craving the other night. When I worked at Cheesecake Factory, we had a similar dish called the Peking Salad although I don’t believe it is on the menu any longer. As I pondered how to recreate either of the sweet, salty, nutty, tangy noodle dishes, I wondered if there were an authentic, original version for Spicy Cold Sesame Noodles. 

 

After some research, I learned that there is actually a guy named Tang Win Fat, nick-named Shorty Tang who legend has it, is responsible for the first cold, sesame noodle

Shorty Tang gets credit for inventing the Cold Spicy Noodle Recipe

Shorty Tang was a well known New York restauranteur who invented the Chinese Cold Spicy Noodle Recipe.

recipe. His story is featured on his grandson’s WordPress Blog RiceWineVinegar and he was also featured in a story about his historical New York restaurant and in the recipes section in the New York Times. Shorty Tang was born in 1926 in Sichuan’s Nianchang, worked in restaurants starting at the age of 12, and left China for Taiwan in 1946 where he worked as a street vendor before opening his first restaurant there. Then, he moved to Queens, NY in 1967 and opened a restaurant in Manhattan’s Chinatown which was famous for among other dishes, his Cold Sesame Noodles. This recipe is supposed to replicate Shorty’s but I’ve also listed Madame Wong’s recipe below it which I just happened to have found (strange coincidence) when making a version of her Chinese Lemon Chicken recipe. We served these noodles with a simple Pork Loin Roast and it was a great pairing. 

 

 

 

The easy way to add Fresh Ginger to any recipe. Freeze it, then grate it in.

The easy way to add Fresh Ginger to any recipe. Freeze it, then grate it in.

  • 8 ounces Chinese Egg Noodles or Soba or Spaghetti, cooked and cooled. 
  • 4 Tablespoons Soy Sauce or Tamari 
  • 2 Tablespoons Sesame Oil
  • 2 Tablespoons Rice Wine Vinegar
  • 1 Tablespoon Peanut Butter
  • 1 Tablespoon Sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon Red Chili Paste (or Chili and Garlic Paste or even Sriracha Sauce)
  • 1 Tablespoon Grated Fresh Ginger 
  • 1 Tablespoon Chopped Fresh Garlic
  • 2 Tablespoons Sesame Paste (I forgot this ingredient and it still tasted amazing!)
  • 1/2 Cup Chopped Peanuts
  • 4 Chopped Green Onions
  • 1/2 Red Bell Pepper, diced (my addition)
  • 2 Cups Spinach Leaves (my addition)
  • Feel free to add any other vegetables you like (like broccoli, bean sprouts, celery, cucumber etc…)
  • Feel free to add egg, tofu, leftover chicken, ham or turkey. 

 

Make noodles per package instructions. Drain and rinse in cold water. 

I add Spinach, Peppers and Grated Carrots to the mix.

I add Spinach, Peppers and Grated Carrots to the mix.

When cool, mix all ingredients with the sauce. Done.

 

 

 

As an alternative, here is Madame Wong’s Easy Cold Spicy Noodles Sauce Recipe Ingredients (a quicker, easier version but both recipes are delicious):

 

  • 1 Tablespoon Red Chili Sauce (or Chili and Garlic or Sriracha Sauce)
  • 1/4 Cup Sesame Oil
  • 1/4 Cup Soy Sauce or Tamari
  • 1/4 Cup Rice or Regular Vinegar
  • Salt and pepper to taste

 

Either of these recipes work well for a kids’ lunch, or to bring to a picnic or a party although I would use Cashew or Almond Butter and Cashews instead of Peanuts as you never know who might be allergic if you’re sharing this dish with a crowd. Summer is over, but it is still warm in California. Jackson Brown just played at the Santa Monica Pier last weekend. So, I will eat these noodles until it starts to rain and think of Shorty and his lovely family and how even a single recipe can touch so many for years down the road.

 

  

Curried Lentil Salad

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Just had a great gig at a Concert in the Park in San Juan Capistrano. There were so many friendly families and kids and once the sun went down, a nice breeze came in

Great gig. Warm breezes. Summer in San Juan Capistrano, California.

Great gig. Warm breezes. Summer in San Juan Capistrano, California.

over the mountains.

I love Concerts in the Park, whether I’m singing or watching other bands play. It’s so fun to bring and share food and wine with friends. I am sad that Summer is almost over.

 

This is one of my “Picnic Basket” side dishes that is inspired by the Indian Dahl recipe. It is incredibly inexpensive to make and a little goes a long way. When I was in college, I’d make a huge pot when I was out of money and eat it on toast topped with sour cream. Sometimes, I’d eat it for a week until I had money for groceries again. Lentils have no fat, are low in calories and high in fiber and nutrients – even iron so if your’e anemic, lentils are a great staple to add to your diet. And as usual, this side dish recipe is incredibly easy to make. 

 

Easy Lentil Salad Recipe.

Easy Lentil Salad Recipe.

  • 1 Cup Dried Lentils
  • 2 Cups Water or Broth
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • 1/4 Diced Onion
  • 2 Tablespoons Red Wine or Apple Cider Vinegar
  • 1 Tablespoon Olive OIl
  • 1 Tablespoon Tamari or Soy Sauce (left it out of this batch as I had run out.)
  • 2 Tablespoons Curry Powder and/or Cumin
Lentils have no fat and are high in nutrients.

Lentils are high in nutrients.

 

Boil water (or broth) and add lentils.

 

 

Cook for 20-30 minutes until water is gone. (Drain if you have to). Remove from heat (don’t overcook.You want the lentils to have a bite to them and not be mushy).

 

 

Yummy Chilled Curried Lentil Salad. So easy.

Yummy Chilled Curried Lentil Salad. So easy.

Cool the lentils. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Done!

 

 

 

 

Maura’s Italian Grandmother’s ” Jumbot “

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Maura is one of my BFF’s. She is the youngest of 11, from Peabody, Mass.. She has so much East Coast spirit, it’s contagious. Her mother’s name is Carmella. Of course she has a sister named “Tony” and Eva, who is the oldest. When I was describing the point of this recipe blog to Maura ( to post only easy recipes that are as healthy as possible and ideally handed down generation to generation so that I too could share with my kids), she immediately said, “My Grandmother’s Jumbot!”. I had to look up the spelling because it is not pronounced how it is spelled. Maura can say it like a true Italian.

 

Italian Jumbot Ingredients. ( Sausage optional.)

Italian Jumbot Ingredients. ( Sausage optional.)

You know someone is  a “foodie” when (like Maura) they describe a recipe and are so detailed, even when it’s a simple recipe like this one. “You have to use CRUSHED tomatoes, NOT diced or whole – CRUSHED!”. I had to twist her arm a little to share this recipe with me as lovely and simple as it is – that , and I showed up with a pitcher of Margarita’s when we went to Palm Desert together for a girls’, “get out of Dodge” weekend. I think the Tequila (even though it’s not Italian) may have helped motivate her to share. While this recipe is specific, the traditional “Jumbot”, is made with whatever vegetables and meats one has in the house. Without the sausage and cheese, it’s still a delicious vegetarian and vegan meal. Either way – it’s a great, healthy gluten-free option for my kids as well!

 

1 or 2 of each vegetable. So easy.

1 or 2 of each vegetable. So easy.

Ingredients:

 (double for a larger family or crowd):

  • Few Tablespoons of Cooking Oil (Olive or Coconut…)
  • 1/2 Yellow Onion, chopped
  • 2 Cloves Garlic, chopped (optional)
  • 1 Can Crushed Tomatoes + 1 Can of Water
  • 1 Sm. Can Tomato Paste
  • Tablespoon Dried Parsley
  • 1 Cup Mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 Cup Whole Green Beans
  • 1 Red Bell Pepper, cut into squares
  • 1 Large Potato, cut into cubes (personally, I scrub potatoes clean, it’s easy)
  • 1 Zucchini, cut into cubes
  • 1 Yellow Squash, cut into cubes
  • 2 Tablespoons of Grated Parmesan
  • Salt and Pepper, to taste
  • 2-3 Sweet Italian Sausage, cooked in water (pierced to let the fat out) 

 

Cook onions in oil until start to look clear.

Cook onions in oil until start to look clear.

Cook onions in a large pot in oil until they start to look a little clear. Add the garlic if you’re using it and cook for an additional 20 seconds.

 

 

Add 1 can of water to crushed tomatoes,onion and garlic.

Add 1 can of water to crushed tomatoes, onion and garlic.

Then, add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, parsley and water. Reduce for 30-60 minutes on a low flame.

  

Then, add all the cubed vegetables except the zucchini and squash. When the potatoes are almost done, add the zucchini and squash and cook until done.  

 

If you are eating with sliced sausage, add and heat through. You can also add earlier if you want more sausage flavor infused in the liquid.

 

Add parmesan and serve alone, with crusty bread or over pasta or cous cous.

Add parmesan and serve alone, with crusty bread or over pasta or cous cous.

Serve in a bowl with crusty bread, or over pasta, rice or couscous.