How to Save More from Your Paycheck: Meals at Work

Now that you have some income from your brand spankin’ new summer job, you might have the sudden urge to start spending all this new found money on breakfast, lunch and coffee everyday. The crazy thing is….your money is going to disappear really fast if you buy all of your meals etc. This is the start of a series on how to save more from your paycheck. Check out the blog throughout the summer for posts like these!

How to Save by Bringing Food to Work

  1. When making dinner the night before make 2 times the amount you would normally eat,   divide up 1 portion for dinner that night and before you start eating dinner pack the other half up in a Tupperware container.
  • Great options include; quinoa, rice, pasta etc. with veggies as well
  • If you’re a fan of bean salads, quinoa, pasta salad etc. make a big batch on Sunday night, refrigerate and you will have meals for a good portion of the week.
  • Make sure to either eat breakfast at home before leaving to go to work OR bring breakfast to work. If you don’t eat breakfast you will end up buying a lot more food then you should.
  • Buy snacks to store at your desk or somewhere at work. These munchies may help you get through the day and save you from buying snacks at work. Obviously if you’re into that whole healthy eating thing, the healthier the snacks the better.
  • When buying groceries, purchase foods that are easy to bring to work ie. Sandwiches as well as portion size yogurts. Plan out what you want to eat for breakfast and lunch before the morning of.
  • Despite how stubborn I have been for the last 4 years of work at 9-5 jobs in the summers. My mom always had some great advice. Pack your lunch the night before! It saves you from giving up and leaving the house without a lunch and having to buy one at work if your running late etc.
  • Also if you are living at home this summer while working, make sure to snatch the best of the leftovers first. You know it can be a free for all sometimes, especially when the leftovers are pizza.
Great Recipes & Meal Ideas
Breakfast
Oatmeal (small pouches or quick oats)- Bring a tupperware container to work, put the oatmeal in and the appropriate amount of water, microwave or add boiling water. Add a variety of fresh or frozen fruits. Easy to make and healthy.
Oatmeal Recipes
“Egg McMuffin”
Or you could just go with cereal…
Lunch
Presto Pasta Salad
Cheap Healthy Lunch Ideas for Work
Brown Bag Lunches
Great Dinner/Lunch Leftover Ideas



Ramen Noodle Recipes

Here’s another blog post all about how to spice up a plain and sometimes boring student staple – The Ramen Noodle (also known as Mr. Noodles, Ichiban etc.) Below you can find a variety of ramen noodle recipes.

Some of my own cooking tips;

Although not flashy, in the past I have simply boiled the noodles and added things like spinach, frozen peas, oriental style frozen veggies and topped it off with soya sauce. I rarely use the flavouring package any more because its crazy salty and I also don’t have a broth and will just use the boiled noodles.

The easiest thing to do, and this is often the case with pasta as well; add an extra vegetable that can easily be boiled towards the end of the noodle cooking, its super easy, you strain and you haven’t used more than 1 pot/pan to make veggies and noodles. 
Another way I used to cook these noodles was by boiling kettle water, putting the dry noodles in a cereal bowl (large enough to fit the noodles), adding the flavouring packet and then pouring the boiled water on top so the noodles are covered. Place a plate on top to prevent the steam from escaping, wait about 5 minutes, and your noodles should be cooked.

Some other awesome ideas;


While checking out stumbleupon I managed to find a few articles about other ways to customize Ramen noodles. Check them out and see what you like. You can apparently make shepherd’s pie out of Ramen noodles?!?

Ramen Hacks: 30+ Easy Ways to Upgrade Instant Noodles 

(click the image to see the recipes);
 
Here are some recipes pulled from Crazy Ramen Recipes
Note* I didin’t write these…
 
For Spaghetti-O’s Fans
Ingredients:
2 pkgs Ramen noodles (I like the spicy flavor)
1 can tomato soup
Hot sauce (I like Tabasco)
Shredded cheese
 
Break noodles into quarters, place in pot. Add enough water to almost cover the noodles. Boil until almost all the water is gone, stirring the noodles often. (Or just cook the noodles and strain; it just makes more dirty dishes.) Add one seasoning packet and can of soup, stir, then add hot sauce and/or cheese to taste.
 

Divorced and Homeless Ramen (mostly posted this because of the title)
Ingredients:

Maruchan Chili-flavor (Spicy) Ramen (2 packets, because you’re hungry, very very hungry)
Creamy Peanut Butter (two big tablespoons worth)

Boil noodles until cooked.

At this moment, bust open the two hot chili-flavor packets onto the ramen. Then, using the fork, dig out a big wad of peanut butter (about two tablespoons but why measure) and use fork to stir peanut butter, chili-flavored-salt, remaining hot water, and ramen all together. Very soon the water/seasoning/peanut butter will have merged into a tasty, nutritious sauce, that’s darn good with those ramen noodles. Guaranteed to cheer you up for 10 minutes.

 
And some really weird ones…
 
Sweet and Spicy Coke Ramen
Ingredients:
1 pack Texas Beef Ramen (or regular beef, or asian – but Texas Beef is best)
1/2 to 3/4 can Coke (not diet)
1 pack salted peanuts
1 Beef stick (aka Slim Jim) –Optional–
 
Cook noodles. Crush the peanuts inside the bag. Add about 2/3 of the peanuts and eat the rest while you’re “cooking”. Drain water from noodles, then add seasoning packet and coke. Add peanuts and optional sliced beef stick or summer sausage. Add more coke to achieve the right amount of sauce and balanced flavor.
 

Cheesy Ranch Ramen
Ingredients:

2 packages of any flavor ramen (your not gonna use the packet anyway)
1 cup ranch dressing
1 cup shredded cheese ( I prefer cheddar, to each his own)
a pinch of parsley (optional)
a pinch of basil (optional)
salt and pepper to taste


Take out the ramen packets and while the noodles are still in the packages crush the ramen up, don’t turn it into dust, but in many, many pieces. Now put the ramen in a pot and fill the pot with water to cover the noodles. Cook them like the package says. Drain the noodles with a fork, I wouldnt suggest a strainer, seeing how the noodles would fall out.
Put the drained ramen back on the stove and under low heat add the cheese and ranch dressing and stir until the cheese is melted and add any seasonigs you please.

Hyperactive Candied Choco-Ramen
Ingredients:

1 block of Ramen (a package? lol)
¼ cup Brown Sugar
¼ cup Chocolate Sauce (Hershey’s… or whatever)
Powdered Sugar
Optional: ½ teaspoon Vanilla
Optional: Whipped Cream



This Ramen recipe is quite a sugar overload. Your mouth will be pleased and it will keep you up all night. Great for dessert (and for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!). Highly recommended: A tall glass of milk to wash down the intense ‘Hyperactive Candied Choco-Ramen’.
Preparation:
1. Fill pot with 2-3 cups of water, and mix in ¼ cup of Brown Sugar. Also, if available, a ½ teaspoon of Vanilla (too much vanilla would make it tastes crazy… like Godzilla… be careful).
2. Cook Ramen block when sugar-water boils. Cook until soft and quite ‘noodley’.
3. Strain Ramen until most water has left the pot and gone down the drain.
4. Pour in a few dashes of Brown Sugar, and ¼ cup of Chocolate Sauce. Make sure to mix it well, until the noodles are a nice golden-brown color.
5. Dump Choco-Ramen onto a plate, preferably NOT a paper plate. Then sprinkle as much powdered sugar as you desire upon the Choco-Ramen. This makes it look cool, and taste more awesome.
6. If you’re super-fancy, try adding a large mountain of Whipped Cream upon your Choco-Ramen creation.

Buying Ramen Noodles;
 
Mr. Noodles are often priced at about $0.25 a package so make sure to work out the pricing if you are purchasing in a multi-pack.