NELG

I added shredding chicken and a can of Ro-Tel (well, the Walmart knock off) into mac n cheese tonight. We topped it with sour cream and added crushed corn chips.

Ew. Buy a whole chicken (raw) take it apart yourself, and freeze it. You can use the carcass for broth, too. It's actually not that difficult.

If you don't have a crock pot, get one from Goodwill or something. (I got a $10 pasta machine from there, and they normally run about $70-$90). After you take apart the bird, toss the carcass in the crockpot with water. Cut up an onion, and maybe add some poultry seasoning. Let it cook over night. Strain it in the morning. You can pick off more meat while you strain it, too, and save it for soup.

I used those Ramen to make a complete meal. First soak the Ramen in some boiled water. Stir fry some chicken or pork or fish of whatever protein you like, add some fresh vegies, whatever you like (vegetables for soup are great), add the flavoring that is in the package, add the soaked (drained!) noodles and bazinga, a good, balanced meal in under 15 minutes.

I second Lalou's suggestion of stir fries. I went shopping for stir fry ingredients today and got a lettuce, spring onions and mushrooms for £2.78, most of which I didn't use tonight. The problem is meat though. Can easily cost the same amount or more than all the other ingredients put together, and for much less of it, though perhaps frozen meat is cheaper. It's much easier to buy a large bag of cashews and toast a handful.

But it's always fun to look at what you happen to have in your cupboards/freezer and see what you can make with them.

I've used alfredo sauce.

A quick Google suggested this recipe, using cream of mushroom soup: http://www.campbellskitchen.com/recipes ... role-24254