Cheap Meal Equals Bad Idea

Like I have mentioned, I LOVE FOOD BLOGS! One blog that I am a huge fan of is The 99 Cent Chef! Meals made from the 99 cent only store, uh hello, that is right in my budget. I have used some of his ideas to spice up some meals and I thought his dishes looked delicious, but I hadn't replicated a meal until tonight. Now, I know I am no Julia Child and I definitely burn things on a regular bases, but I didn't really think I could fug up this recipe.

The 99 Cent Chef's: Spaghetti alla Carbonara with Bacon Bits

I assembled the ingredients...

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I boiled the water and started heating through the bacon bits...

I beat the eggs silly, combining the Pepper and Parmesan, with my little egg beater while I cooked the pasta...

Added some of the boiling water, pasta, and egg mixture to the bacon bits, added some more parmesan like suggested. Tossed it all together...


I bowled it, tasted it, and added garlic salt to it.

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I was disappointed... hence the garlic salt. The 99 cent chef, don't hate me, if somehow you stubble upon my pathetic blog, I really do love your site! When I doubled the recipe so that I would have enough to feed my...uh hem roommate (ok, ok, my MOM), I think I added too much water. The sauce didn't thicken up as nicely as I thought. I also decided to temper my egg prior to adding it to the skillet, which may have added to the too much water. Overall, I rate this dish a 3. It didn't have much taste to it (garlic salt makes everything taste better fyi) and then I started worrying about salmonella poisoning. You can't heat the egg for too long or you'll get scrambled eggs! I might make this again minus the egg (so I don't die) and just use butter and garlic salt with the noodles and sprinkle bacon bits because I am poor and will add anything to a dish to make my dollar stretch!

What did the roommate think? She ate the whole bowl. So, while I wasn't impressed, it did get eaten. Nothing goes to waste in this household!

Cupcakes and Unicorns,
Ryan

P.S.* All pictures are mine via cell phone, don't hate.
**And the needles on the counter aren't from an addiction to heroin. I swear! One of my crazy cats has diabetes. He needs two shots a day, but I think he likes it because of the abundance of kitty treats he gets because we feel bad for stabbing him!