Chicken (kinda) Chow Mein - Eating better...you CAN afford it!

So a dear friend of mine sent me a Snapchat of of his lunch the other day:  a Lunchables. When I jokingly commented that I had taught him better than that, he replied that didn't pay his grocery bill. Truth.  So it got me to thinking...when I reworked this blog from a baking blog to what it is now, I did it with the idea of showing good food at prices that hopefully everyone could afford. It's been a long time since I did a "How Much is This Meal?" entry, and it's long overdue.

Last week I went shopping and got some great deals on some produce. I was particularly excited about the fresh snow peas, and immediately knew that I wanted to do a stir fry or something closely related to that. Chicken Chow Mein sounded really good to me last night, but when I went to the pantry, I didn't have chow mein noodles. I did have spaghetti, which I have seen used and is actually very good, but I only had fettucini and angel hair and those don't quite cut it. The next logical step for me was chicken ramen!

Make sure you have all of your ingredients measured and ready, because this kind of cooking goes really quickly! Start by chopping your vegetables and then cutting your chicken into bite sized pieces. Place them in separate bowls and set aside. In another bowl, add your rice vinegar, soy sauce, corn starch, sugar - and it sounds weird - but also stir in one of the chicken seasoning packets from the ramen. Now take two blocks of naked ramen noodles and place them in boiling water for two minutes. Immediately drain them and toss them with a few teaspoons of oil so they don't stick together. Set aside.

Place two tablespoons of oil into a hot wok or nonstick skillet. Stir fry your chicken just until no longer pink, then remove from pan. Add the water chestnuts, onions and celery, letting them cook until the onions are just beginning to get soft, not translucent - about five minutes. Now throw in your snow peas and cook for two more minutes. Add in your ramen noodles and gently toss with the vegetables, then stir your sauce together well and add it to the pan. Toss together gently to mix, then add your chicken back to the pan followed by the fresh ginger. Cook just until sauce begins to thicken slightly.  That's it!  You're done!

I am drooling all over again just thinking about this.

Okay now for the best part!  Can you believe this whole entire meal cost just a little over FIVE dollars?! I was completely astounded when I added up the price, and when I shared it with my husband, he responded with a knuckle bump. That's some serious props right there, people.

So here's the breakdown:
1 lb. chicken tenders = 2.69
2 packs ramen @5 for $1 = .40
1 onion @$2.99 for the bag of 9 = .33
ginger root - .68 for the piece I got which I used 1/5 of = .14
snow peas = .64
celery @.99 for the whole bunch of which I used 1/8 of = .13
1 can water chestnuts = .79
I didn't count the soy, corn starch or rice vinegar since they were in my pantry already.
Total spent = $5.12.
No, seriously.  For a whole four serving meal. Now that is awesome!