Greek Yogurt: Cheap Students style

So I'm sure a lot of people that read this blog are aware of Greek yogurt, but like me may buy it as more of a treat since it costs almost double or triple the price of regular yogurt. It's definitely a product that doesn't fit within the Cheap Student lifestyle.

When you aren't able to snag a container on sale or with a coupon try to make some yourself for a lot less.

Here's a recipe I have used before, and if strained enough can also be used as a yogurt cheese type spread. A tip. Warn your roommates what your contraption in the fridge is, one of my roommates may have gotten a really nasty yogurt drippings surprise one time, it didn't end well..

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What you need;

• A small strainer
• A container of plain yogurt, for healthier options choose organic or fat free versions
• Cheesecloth, or for broke students a few sheets length of paper towel. (you may be able to find cheesecloths from Dollarama though)
• A decent size bowl (to catch the drippings, yeah I know its nasty, but its just moisture so don't be scared)

What to do.

1. Line your strainer with the doubled or tripled paper towel sheet. 
2. Place the strainer so it can drain into the bowl (you don't want your straining yogurt sitting inside the liquid that dripped out of it).
3. Once the strainer is set up and ready to go in the bowl, scoop a large amount of plain yogurt so it sits in the middle of the paper towel within the strainer.
4. Cover the strainer with some paper towel

Now put the contraption into the fridge and let the magic happen. The longer you wait the more moisture drains from the yogurt and the thicker it gets. About every 8 hours or so squeeze the "ball" of yogurt to remove moisture and replace the paper towel, and empty the bowl filled with moisture.

For some added flavour you can add spices (maybe some cinnamon?), or garlic powder and herbs (if you want to make it into a spread). I'm going to try a few combinations and will definitely post photo's and reviews when I do.

Once its at your desired thickness. Add honey, berries or anything else you normally eat greek yogurt with.

It will literally cost you the container of plain yogurt and maybe the paper towel and a new small strainer from Dollarama if you don't have one already.

Plain yogurt is usually on sale and about 2 dollars for a large tub (or less). The amount of "Greek" yogurt you can get out of it is worth your money and even if it takes a little bit of time and effort.

Hope this helps!

If you have any other great cheap recipes feel free to send them to cheapstudentcanada@gmail.com and they could be featured on the blog.

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Ramen Noodles - Refreshed

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.)


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. Check out Shoppers Drug Mart this week. A case of 12 is $2.49 (works out to about $0.20 a package).

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Kraft Dinner. 10 Different ways

As students we love our Kraft Dinner. Especially Canadian students. 

According to an interesting statistic I found on Wikipedia..in 2008 over 7 million boxes of Kraft Dinner were sold globally per week, Canadians were buying 1.7 million of them.With a price around $1 a box how could you not buy it.

So we all normally eat it just like the box tells us to, easy enough.

But why not try something different.

Here are 10 different ways to change up your KD

(don't worry I made sure to pick the easy ones)

Click on the different titles to view the detailed recipes and instructions.

1. The Healthy Version

• This is the simply on the box recipe, but a bit healthier then usual prep
• Switch up your butter and 2% or higher milk, and use low fat margarine and Skim or 1% milk.

2. Who knew you could make lasagna?

• All you need is the following
• 1 package of KD
• 1lb of lean ground beef
• 1 cup of pasta sauce (some Ragu works)
• 1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese

3,4,5,6. Mix and Match 

• Check out the Kraft site, this has multiple different ingredients that you can add to Kraft Dinner.

7. Hot Dogs

• My personal favourite, take about 2-3 hot dogs, cut them up into thin slices and put them into the boiling pot of pasta for the last 1-2 minutes of cooking.
• Then prepare the KD like you usually do

8. Italian Style

• What you need
• 1 package of KD
• 1 cup of chopped pepperoni
• 1 cup of each chopped green peppers and mushrooms
• 1/2 cup of pizza or spaghetti sauce
• 1/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese (you could probably substitute mozzarella here)

9. Tomato Soup

• All you need is
• 1 package of KD
• 1 can of tomato soup (usually under a dollar for 1 can)
• This is instead of completely drowning your KD in ketchup..save your ketchup for some chicken fingers and fries

10. Peas and Tomatoes

• I usually use about 3-4 spoonfuls of canned tomatoes (usually around a dollar for a can of tomato chunks-make sure they are chunks) add a pinch of salt for taste
• You can also add some frozen peas if you want 
• These can be cooked in the microwave and then mixed into the KD after it's been completely cooked with cheese, milk and butter/margarine added

Other KD tips

How to fix KD leftovers so they taste just as good as they did the day before.
Option 1 - Half and Half
Cook the entire portion of pasta, once cooked separate half of the pasta into a Tupperware container.
Prepare the portion you're eating like usual (saving half of the cheese for later).
When you want to eat the second half of your KD, add margarine then put into microwave for about 30 seconds to a minute
Stir, then add cheese sauce and milk as you would normally and then to stir you can even just put the lid on the tupperware and shake.
Make sure to half your margarine and milk when making each half of the KD

Option 2.
Cook all the KD as you normally would. Any leftovers you may have put in the fridge in a Tupperware container.
When you want to eat your leftovers, add a bit of milk and then microwave. Stir and eat.


For Nights You Go Out....
Also as more of a portion control thing, and to prevent you from injuring yourself after a night of drinking. Buy KD easy mac cups instead, all you need to do is add water, microwave, add cheese sauce and stir. Maybe read the instructions..when your sober.


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Images:
http://www.premierlife.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/kraft-dinner.jpg

http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/recipes/kraft-dinner-easy-lasagne-89421.aspx

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