This meal cost me just 14p! One meal, or quick lunch, I have quite often is a pack of instant noodles and I’ll usually add something into the bowl. Quite often called ramen noodles, or just ramen, people are really just using instant noodles as the basis of either a soup, or a plate of noodles.

These are cheaper than buying noodle pots in the supermarkets, where you don’t need the pot at all once you’ve finished eating!

OBA Mie Kori Gesnili Curry Flavour Instant Noodles

I’ve always got my eyes open in the shops for cheap instant noodles – today I’ve used a pack of OBA Mie Kori Gesnili Curry Flavour Instant Noodles. This 75 gram pack includes three flavour sachets and I added them all in. These are hot/chilli noodles and really tasty, one of the sachets is the chilli and can be left out! It’s a good job I like them as I bought 40 packs of out of date noodles from an out of date food warehouse for £4. At just 10p/pack this made for a cheap meal!

I am not interested in which brand any noodles are – I buy purely on price; flavour sachets can always be removed if you don’t like a flavour; you can add your own flavours in if you wish.

Instant Noodle Meals = Easy Meals in Under 5 Minutes

It’s quick and easy – all you need is a kettle.

• 1 pack of instant noodles
• 60 grams frozen peas

How to Make Instant Noodles:

1. Put the kettle on to boil
2. Break up the noodles while they’re still in the pack – it saves you making a mess once unpacked.
3. Put the frozen peas into a mug.
4. Pour boiling water into the mug, to defrost the peas. After 1-2 minutes drain the water off and refill the mug with fresh boiling water.
5. Hook out any flavour sachets that come in the pack of noodles – and decide which, if any, you’ll be using. Put the noodles into a bowl (I usually use a Sistema Soup Bowl to make these, but used a glass bowl today so the photo looked better). Open the sachets if you’re using them and add those to the noodles.

6. Pour boiling water slowly over the noodles, then mix the noodles into the water so they’ll become re-hydrated. Cover the bowl with a plate to keep the heat in. Check/stir the noodles after 2-3 minutes; put the lid/plate back in place and let the noodles continue to sit for another 2+ minutes.
7. Once the noodles are hot and rehydrated, drain off the peas. Add the peas to the noodles and mix them together. You might choose to drain off a little excess water if you like at this stage – these noodles are often used in a soup, so it’s OK to leave it in if you wish.

Optional: If you’ve a microwave handy, you might like to microwave the noodles and peas for a minute or so, to get them steaming hot again, but this is optional.

Cost of Cooking Noodles & Peas

The noodles I bought from an out of date food warehouse, I bought a case of 40 packs for £4, so 10p/packet. They are about a year out of date, which isn’t a problem as they’re dried noodles so fine to eat!

The peas were Aldi Four Season frozen garden peas; these aren’t their cheapest, they’re the ones I prefer. The cost today is 55p for a 900 gram pack – and I used 60grams of peas, which is 3.6p!

£1 Per Day

If you’re trying to live on £1 per day for food then cheap noodles and vegetables are a great way to get a filling hot meal inside you with the minimum of effort!

If you’ve started your day with 10p of crumpets and margarine, then this could be lunch and you’ve still only spent 24p!