Fish & smoked sausage noodle soup

I can't say it enough, it doesn't take a big budget to make a big budget meal.

A can of sardines, a package of smoked sausage, some chopped onion and a packet of shrimp-flavor Ramen noodles and you're there.

Whoa! Did I say Ramen noodles? Okay, now I know (I know!) there are people out there that went through some lean times and were stuck eating Ramen noodles every day. I've heard about them. I've even heard it said some have sworn that once they started making a living wage they would never, ever, ever, ever ... EVER! eat Ramen noodles again.

Okay, so to you Ramen noodle haters -- hey, I felt that way about pizza for years -- I say to you, pick a different noodle. But my point is this is a low-budget meal.

So, calm down. Let's get started.

Open one can of sardines packed in olive oil; how painful was that to your wallet? Chop some onions, the quantity depends on whether you're cooking for one person or two, and whether either of you really likes onions, or not so much.

For the sausage, we're going to use Meyer's Elgin Smoked Sauage with Garlic. Why? Because I can, or could until I ate my supply of Meyer's. But any kielbassa style sausage with garlic will do.

Meyer's is called Meyer's Elgin because these sausage makers are from Elgin, Texas and Texans tend to identify Elgin with sausage. Their website is called 'cue-topia because they like to make cute with the word barbecue, as in the Utopia of BBQ, and not to be confused with Utopia, Texas, which is 177 miles southwest of Elgin and an entirely different story altogether.

Boil the Ramen noodles with the shrimp flavor seasoning and chopped onions. That takes, what, seven minutes? Now take your diced sausage bits (one or two links, depending on how fond you are of meat byproducts) and toss them in the soup, let that simmer for a couple of minutes to get the grease flowing.

The last item to go in is the sardines. You just want to heat the sardines, so turn the heat off and let the heat you already have simmering do all the work. This should take all of 60 seconds.

And serve!

Now don't that look great? It's righteously tasty, too.

Notice that I didn't even break up the sardine. It's about as whole as I could get it coming out of the can.

Oh, yes, and there's a salad involved. I made a big salad. It had romaine lettuce, tomato, chopped bits of dried fruit (apricot and plum), sesame seed, garlic croutons, olive oil and a twist of lime juice.

Buen provecho!