Trader Joe's: Saviour of Men

So anyone who's ever eaten food on the fast and cheap before knows that Trader Joe's is totally ingenious. Their food is of a remarkably high quality, and they do a good job of keeping it interesting. They lack a lot of the staples of my office cuisine, particularly canned vegetables, but I don't mind hitting a few grocery stores at a time, so it's all good.

Tonight's dinner employed one of my favored TJ's discoveries - the Marinated Bean Salad. It's just a bunch of beans soaking in what amounts to a light salad dressing, but in one can you get 630 calories - not bad for $1.50 or however much it actually costs. I cleverly discarded the price prior to dinner today. Whoops!

Anyway, beans go remarkably well with couscous, which, as we know, cooks like a dream in the microwave. 3 minutes, a can of corn and beans later, and you've got a tasty, incredibly filling, and relatively high-protein meal.

There are variations on this which are super delicious at the ever-wonderful RecipeZaar. The problem is that unless you fancy chopping green peppers or you've got cumin next to your microwave, you've really got to keep it simple. Fortunately, the bare minimum is plenty for a balanced and delicious meal. Let's round it up!

Beans: $1.50?
Corn: $0.30
Couscous: $0.15

Total: $1.95

Ah, the taste of scrumptious poverty.

If you want a more professional take on this college eating thing, definitely hit up RecipeZaar's Guide, which looks fun and useful. I'll even look at it myself!

Indian Ramen

Ramen is probably the cheapest way to find calories, period. The problem with Ramen is that the local American brands seem to focus on Asian flavors, which frankly, I am really not a fan of. "Mushroom Chicken" flavoring? Yikes. Fortunately, there are alternatives, namely Indian ramen, which comes with these little joyous spice packets that pack a pretty good punch. I haven't tried many flavors, but the Curry Smoodles and Maggi Masala Noodles are both spectacular.

A four-pack of imported Indian noodles will vary in cost at your local import store, at Kashmir in Coolidge Corner, I think it's about $1-$1.50. It's well worth the extra change, as your noodles are spicy and wonderful. My present meal consists of one noodle serving, a can of tuna and half of a can of peas.

The only trick to making ramen in the microwave is to make sure you don't add too much water. I hate when my noodles are too soupy, and am a much bigger fan of just regular old noodles. So I use only about 1/2 cup of water for one noodle block, and that leaves only a little bit of watter at the bottom. Make sure you microwave your ramen and water together, and don't try and boil water in your microwave first. If you put water and nothing else into your microwave, you risk superheating your water, which is really pretty cool, but not the sort of thing you want to get up close and personal with.

Let's round it up!

Noodles: $0.35
Tuna: $0.85
Peas: $0.33

Total: $1.53