Hello everyone! Happy Monday, and as we have been doing week after week, I will be giving you a fresh list of low-cost yet highly delicious ulam recipe ideas for your family. If you are new to our website or to this series, you may want to check out the past lists here, after you’ve read today’s seven mura yet masarap na ulam ideas.
As usual, the main dishes in this blog post cost between P150.00 to Php200.00 for four to five adult servings. To save on time, you may wish to double some (not all) of the suggested recipes for freezing, so that instead of ordering take out you can quickly thaw an ulam when you quickly need one.
Anyway, without further ado, here’s the fresh list of low-budget ulam or main dish ideas:
Low budget ulam or main dish recipe ideas for the week:
1. Crispy Eggplant paired with Ginisang Pechay with Giniling na Baboy. While ginisang pechay and Giniling na Baboy are constant in most homes cooking repertoire, Crispy Eggplant is not. Just slice the eggplant about half an inch thick, season with salt and pepper, and dredge in flour – beaten egg – and then panko or Japanese breading. Deep or shallow fry until crispy. Serve with tonkatsu sauce or if you do not have that at home, then just mix banana and tomato ketchup with a bit of soy sauce.
2. Tuna Penne Pasta with Garlic Bread. A small pack of penne will go a long way in terms of doing this yummy pasta dish. Just saute your favorite canned tuna and add cooked penne pasta. Season with salt, pepper and herbs such as Basil and parsley and whatever Italian herb you have at home. If you have left over olives in the ref, then go ahead and slice some to top the pasta. Meanwhile, you can make Garlic Bread using any type of bread. In a pan, melt butter or margarine, saute finely minced or grated garlic, sugar, and a bit of parsley. Brush the sauce over the bread then toast till desired crispness.
3. Chicken Sotanghon Soup. I know this is a soup recipe, but I know some Filipino families eating this with rice too. Check out this easy to follow happy recipe here. P.S. make sure to put a lot of garlic to make it extra flavorful.
4. Bagis. This dish tastes like sisig but instead of pork jowl, this uses ground beef. So 1/4 or even 1/3 kilograms will go a long way (and will still make it to our budget goals!). Here is my recipe.
5. Tortang ampalaya and crispy tawilis. Have a healthy mid week lunch by cooking easy tortang ampalaya or Ampalaya with egg, and thinly battered crispy tawilis. Super easy yet super yummy!
6. Binagoongang Talong. This is one super yummy yet a bit sinful main dish that will keep you reaching for more rice servings. I suggest that you crispy fry the pork pieces to give the dish added yummy texture, but if you are pressed for time then I am sure, the original recipe dish here will still work great!
7. Okoy na Hipon at Kalabasa. I know shrimp is expensive, but you do not need much for this recipe. A quarter of a kilogram will do. So follow this recipe, and make sure to prepare sweet and spicy vinegar, and of course steaming hot rice!
So that’s it, hope you could use some (if not all) of the tipid ulam ideas in this week’s post. See you again next week.
Food for the soul
At this point, I hope you could allow me to share with you one of my favorite bible passages:
"For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline." 2 Timothy 1:7
Thank you for stopping by and till next post!