Budget beef vegetable lo mein is the cornerstone of a satisfying family meal for under six dollars for Hunger Awareness Month.
Budget Beef Vegetable Lo Mein
By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime
My recipe of the day is for Budget Beef Vegetable Lo Mein, a recipe that will allot a family of four with a complete dinner meal for $5.13.
It is all inclusive of ingredients, and needs just a working kitchen with pans, plates, a stove and water. Drag the bag of groceries into a working (albeit refrigerator is empty) kitchenette and have at it. I didn’t get you everything I desired for this meal, but it does have fresh vegetables, and protein and will fill you up.
My husband and I ate this for our dinner and would do this in a pinch, so for those of my friends in need of a real budget meal, this is it.
September is Hunger Action Month
September is Hunger Action Month – a time to bring attention to food insecurity. According to the US Department of Agriculture, 1 in 8 Americans were food insecure in 2017. That’s 40 million people – more than 12 million of which are children – with a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life.
The meal below were made with a budget of $5.50 – the average amount a family of four would have for a meal on a SNAP budget.I shared this recipe today to show you how far these dollars go – or don’t go.
What is SNAP?
SNAP is also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (or what most people refer to as food stamps).
In 2018 alone, SNAP helped more than 40 million Americans afford a nutritionally adequate diet. For low-wage working families, low-income seniors and people with disabilities living on fixed incomes, finding ways to pay for the rising costs of food is a problem. And for families with children, which comprise 2/3 of those receiving assistance, it is vitally important to our future. The other third is made up of seniors on an inadequate fixed income, or those with disabilities which make it difficult if not impossible, to earn basic living expenses.
The Pickings
It’s exactly why I picked it- those salty seasoning packets with bouillon inside and salt and more salt- yeah. That’s the seasoning we would not otherwise have.
And I chose ground meat- not because it was low fat. But because it had the fat in it to keep the meat from sticking to the skillet.
Of course, you can drain off the extra fat and not use all the seasoning packets and I did just that.
But in itself it is not a cinch to do these things to keep the price down. I had to ask the butcher to give me only half a package of beef. How humiliating.
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Budget Beef Vegetable Lo Mein
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound lean ground beef
- 4 packages Oriental flavor ramen noodle soup
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 medium zucchini
- 1 bunch scallions
- 2 fresh white mushrooms
Instructions
- Cook the ramen in hot water until tender and drain.
- Brown ground beef in a skillet and drain excess fat.
- Add vegetables to pan and cook until crisp tender, seasoning with three of the four seasoning packets from the ramen.
- Toss cooked noodles with the stir-fry mixture and serve.
Notes
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