Weekly Round-Up: Making Ramen Go Further

I made a particularly tasty noodle stir fry for dinner last night and I thought I’d share the recipe:

• About two cups cooked green beans
• 2 chicken breasts
• 2 packages ramen noodles (or about three cups cooked long noodles)
• 2 cups cabbage, finely cut into long strips
• olive oil
• sesame oil
• sesame seeds

I had cooked the green beans the night before, and let them cool tossed with some sesame seeds and sesame oil. Then I chopped the chicken breasts and stir-fried them in olive oil. While the chicken was cooking, I sliced the cabbage and tossed it in the pan. Once the chicken and cabbage were mostly done, I added the green beans and cooked noodles and let the whole thing heat up. The dish only took about 10 minutes start to finish (a boon for hot summer nights) and was delicious.

With no further ado, here are my favorite links for the week:

• Despair as Job Search Drags On and Money Dries Up – NYTimes.com
• LauPre » Zip-up Earbuds

  This is a cool yet geeky / geeky yet cool solution to a problem. And easy too! You just have to not mind having zippers attached to your ears…

• Acquiring Emergency Supplies :: The Dollar Stretcher
• 10 Creative Ways To Educate Your Children About Money and Investing Without Making Them Hate You
• Design*Sponge :: diy project: recycled cardboard kitty pad

  Those cat scratchers are expensive (especially now that Ikea has stopped selling them), but I always have an extra box or two lying around.

• Chilled Cucumber Soup With Salami, Feta, and Olives Recipe | Real Simple Recipes

  I think this recipe sounds so good!

• 99 Great Ways to Save Money: Save on Anything, Cut Costs Tips – AARP Bulletin

  Make sure to check out the last link, tips from real people which has this gem:

  Look at each $1 bill you get and note the letter of the alphabet in the circle on the left half. (These seals denote Federal Reserve regions and run from A to L.) Save bills with a letter of significance to you for specific purposes, such as C for a gift for Carol, or B for a new bicycle. You can easily save $500 or more a year without missing a dollar here and a dollar there. -Leita Spears, Waldron, Ark.

• Frugal Babe » The Luxury Of Frugal Thinking
• 50 Sneaky Grocery Store Tricks That Trim Your Wallet and Pad Your Waistline
• Jewelled Shrink Curls :: Origami Mommy
• On the one hand, this seems like a fin project. On the other hand, it seems like you’d just end up with more tiny pieces of plastic in your house. And I’m sure it goes without saying to do this in a well-ventilated area.

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Kelly Rigotti started Almost Frugal as a thirty-something American trying to dig her way out from under a mountain of debt (~€60,000). She's almost frugal and would like to be more so, but shops at Ikea too often for her own good.

Kelly has blogged 556 posts here.