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Secretly Budget Pasta


Diamond Post Medal for All Time! 1,246 Posts

Secretly Budget PastaI call this Secretly Budget Pasta because I make it when I'm short on funds. This recipe is super quick and cheap, but the outcome is something fancy and delicious. Enjoy!

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Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 17 minutes

Total Time: 22 minutes

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients:

Secretly Budget Pasta
 

Steps:

  1. Bring a pot of water to boil. Cook spaghetti as directed to al dente.
  2. Secretly Budget Pasta
     
  3. Warm up a pan to medium high with a bit of oil. Add all your vegetables except for the tomato. Fry until lightly browned and softened, about 5 minutes, Stir often.
  4. Secretly Budget Pasta
     
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  5. Drain pasta but reserve the water it was boiled in. Add pasta to vegetables.
  6. Secretly Budget Pasta
     
  7. Add the granulated stock and the diced tomato.
  8. Secretly Budget Pasta
     
    Secretly Budget Pasta
     
  9. Add some of the reserved pasta water to the mix a tablespoon at a time. The starch in the water helps create a beautiful thick sauce, and picks up all the yummy browned vegetable bits at the bottom of your pan. To finish up, add salt and pepper to taste. I like mine with a bit of cheese and hot sauce. ;)
  10. Secretly Budget Pasta
     
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Silver Post Medal for All Time! 408 Posts
November 23, 20160 found this helpful

Looks yummy!

Reply Was this helpful? Yes

Diamond Post Medal for All Time! 1,246 Posts
December 3, 20160 found this helpful

It is ;) Thank you, Benetta!

Reply Was this helpful? Yes

Bronze Feedback Medal for All Time! 167 Feedbacks
January 26, 20221 found this helpful

That's a luxury dish compared our version in college! Instead of pasta, we used instant ramen. And instead of fresh veggies, we used a pack of Asian Stir Fry or California Blend frozen vegetables (the latter had mushrooms, but the former had multicolored peppers). Generally, for 2 people, we used 3 packs of ramen and ½-1 pack of veggies, depending on how poor we were. Since we bought everything from Dollar Tree, the total cost was less than $2 (they recently raised the price of everything to $1.25). Ramen was $1 for 5-6 packs, and the veggies were $1. If it was a special occasion, or we felt decadent, we added a little meat in the form of shredded deli cold cuts, about 50 cents for 2-3 slices.

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Or maybe half a can of tuna from Dollar Tree.

The ramen came with seasoning packs so there was no need for flavor granules. For variety, we sometimes used 2 tablespoons of Dollar Tree salad dressing instead of the flavor packs. Caesar and Ranch were especially nice. A bonus was that instant ramen cooks faster than pasta, about 2-3 mins, and like the veggies, it can be cooked in the microwave. The biggest difference is that the ramen has no starch so we didn't have any sauce (no college kid has cornstarch or arrowroot in their dorm). It was more like Chinese lo mein or chow mein. But for starving college students short on time and money, it was relatively healthy and kept us full.

Good times.

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