To address to the fast pace society, what you need is probably some cheap meal ideas to save money and time yet being able to prepare nourishing and wholesome meals for you and your family. This is where our weakness lays, hence the taking advantage by fast food chains to prepare instantaneous meals for those who do not have even several minutes to cook. Most people spend their entire day working and do not look forward to cooking after being worn out from the exhaustive workload.

But there are smart fast food substitute where you need no cooking or cleaning and it takes the maximum up to 25 minutes of preparation period. The first brilliant idea is to have a marriage of vegetables, meat with rice or pasta in one dish. You can begin by cooking the rice or pasta at one pot and while waiting, you can shift to cooking the meat and vegetables. The best is to stir fry slices of meat, be it beef, pork or chicken. Slightly add soy sauce and cook until fully done before adding a bunch of vegetables. You can add a little water to soothe the dryness. When all is done, put a serving on each plate and a nutritious meal is done.

Another way to be used as a fast food substitute is to whip up a batch of pancakes, completed with scrambled eggs. This healthy yet loving meal is suitable for a family and be done in easily half an hour. Instead of making it your breakfast, you can try dining it for a light dinner. There is one cheaper meal that is simple cheese macaroni with some meat. Allow approximately 20 minutes for the beef or turkey to cook and while waiting, prepare the cheese macaroni and the moment you are done, the meat should be ready to be served.

No doubt more people are indulging into these cheap meal ideas as they are sick of getting themselves buying fast food via the drive through. While it could be quite a hassle to shopping for groceries, cook and clean up, people have come to grow conscious about health and the awful consequences of excessive fast food consumption. Perhaps you can take it as a token of exercise and act of learning how to cook by applying these simple ideas. At least you know you are eating healthily.

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Looking for fast cheap meal ideas? Busy moms often do not have the energy at the end of the day to cook a family meal from scratch. Our busy lifestyle makes it hard to put 4-course meals on the dinner table every night like our mothers did. Wouldn’t it be nice to cook a fast meal that even the kids will enjoy. Children are notorious for being picky eaters and most budget recipes include things that kids don’t like

Noodles are typically the fastest cooking recipe ingredient because it only takes 10 minutes to have a plate of hot, steaming noodles ready to top with your favorite sauces. Cheap meal ideas can be made delicious and healthy by adding vegetables, protein like chicken, beef or eggs and cheese.

Make your own kid-friendly meals by adding some meat, leftover vegetables and your favorite toppings or sauces and you have a custom made dinner that took less than 30 minutes from kitchen to table. There are few pots to use so cleanup is easy too. Here are a few cheap and easy meal ideas using noodles:

Spaghetti and Chili

Ingredients:

Cooked spaghetti noodles

Canned Chili

Shredded cheese

Cook spaghetti noodles in boiling, salted water for approximately 10 minutes. Heat 1 or 2 (15 oz.) cans of chili over medium until heated through. Drain noodles and toss with butter, season with salt and pepper. To serve, ladle 1 scoop of chili onto each plate of noodles, top with shredded cheddar or mozzarella cheese.

Noodle Stir-Fry

Ingredients:

Leftover hamburger, beef or chicken

Bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables

Hot cooked noodles

Favorite stir-fry sauce

Chopped onion and garlic

Soy sauce

Thaw vegetables in a colander under running water for 5 minutes or until softened. Cook over medium heat in a tablespoon of oil. Add chopped garlic and onion to vegetables and cooked until onions are translucent. Pour stir-fry sauce into pan, add leftover meat and cook until heated. To serve, spoon sauce mixture onto a plate of hot noodles and top with soy sauce and your favorite condiments. Sliced almonds or sesame seeds make a nice garnish to the finished plate.

Tip:

Cook a batch of hot, buttered noodles and let the kids top it with their favorite toppings like shredded cheese, chili, canned chicken, seasoned taco meat, jarred alfredo sauce, creamed soups or any other topping or sauce you can think of. In my family, we have a leftover night where we pull everything out of the fridge and dish it up buffet-style and let everyone serve themselves. I make a pot of noodles or rice and some garlic bread to make a filling meal.

Most noodle or pasta recipes can be adapted for any type of noodles, even ramen noodles. Ramen is a versatile noodle because it cooks faster than traditional spaghetti noodles and can be topped with different sauces, vegetables and condiments. Noodle shops in Japan are very popular with students and tourists for their cheap, filling meals.

For more fast and budget-friendly noodle dishes visit my Frugal Dinner Recipes