Thrifty Thursday: Thai peanut butter noodles

A background on Thrifty Thursday- My husband gets paid every other week, so by the end of that second week, the day before payday, it's time to dig into the darkest nooks of the pantry, dust off those old cans, and defrost what ever frozen brick of food you found hiding behind that box of popsicles. Well as delicious as all that sounds, I quickly discovered that I'm not creative enough to combine frozen peas, a can of carrots, the last drops of BBQ sauce, and the last three lasagna noodles left in the box into a lovely meal for five. So my next course of action was to come up with staples that are shelf stable and inexpensive enough to always have on hand.

Thai Peanut Sauce


1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup water
 1 package top ramen seasoning 
2 TB lemon juice or vinegar
2 TB sugar
2 TB soy sauce
1 te coriander (I suggest investing in coriander, it really makes a difference in this sauce)
1/2 te red pepper flakes


Place all ingredients in a pot and slowly heat/mix until peanut butter is completely melted and heated through.

Variations: You can use creamy peanut butter, but we use chunky because we like the crunch of the peanuts
If you can't get your hands on vegan top ramen flavor packets, you can use a vegan broth powder or mock chicken flavoring. Or, you can replace the flavor packet and the 1 cup of water for vegetable broth.

How to use the sauce- We always have Top Ramen on hand, at 5/$1 it makes the perfect emergency food that keeps forever. We use the noodles in dishes like this, and keep the packets to flavor seitan. We just cook the noodles as directed on the package (the peanut sauce recipe works well with two packages of ramen noodles), drain completely, and pour on the sauce.
You can also chill this sauce and pour it over salad or brush onto seitan skewers and bake.

If I have tofu on hand I make broiled tofu

Broiled tofu 

• cut tofu into small triangles
• cover a baking sheet with foil
• lay tofu out and spray with cooking spray
• flip tofu over and spray other side
• place under broiler til tofu turns golden
• flip tofu then broil til golden

Then I just toss the tofu in the the noodles and sauce