Freaking amazing baked pasta casserole. Freaking CHEAP, too.

Did you ever think you would read "amazing" and "pasta" and "casserole" in the same sentence?  Well.  Welcome to my playground.

I can't take credit for the original recipe, but as I modified the crap out of it, I will anyway.  Here are the ingredients:

Cooking with ramen

Really?  Yes.  And let's be honest.... don't you secretly WANT an excuse to buy a huge case of ramen?  I know I always do.  Hell, I watched my husband eat a pack of uncooked ramen noodles last week.  Sure, I was a bit appalled, but the fact remains that I'm the one that supplied them.
And you know what?  It's CHEAP.  Soooooo cheap.  The noodles themselves aren't in league with the devil... it's the seasoning packet that you have to shield your soul from.
So here's the ingredients:

We've got:

• 2 tbsp olive or sesame oil
• 1 onion cut in half then into long thin slivers
• 1 carrot, thinly sliced
• 2 c slivered cabbage
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 3 packages oriental flavor ramen noodle packages
• 1 c bite-size broccoli florets
• 1 c water
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 t grated fresh ginger
• Sprinkle of sesame seeds

Baked Falafel Balls!

Baked falafel balls!  I still had a couple of cans of chick peas, and I was craving falafel, so I gave this recipe a whirl.  Lemme link you the recipes:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/jeanies-falafel/detail.aspx

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/tzatziki-ii/detail.aspx

I love allrecipes.com.  

They were a *little* dry, but I did bake them and not deep-fry them as suggested.

Maybe you don't mind working with scalding oil & then cleaning it up... and more power to you!  I wanted no part of it.  Not that I thought this at the time, but a wandering, ball-throwing toddler would be an excellent reason to never deep-fry.