Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and with all of the dinner invites and family gatherings, you’ve got to come up with a quick and easy dish to bring over because you can’t show up empty handed. So for those of you who are a bit domestically challenged, like us, we’ve got you covered with some simple and inexpensive Thanksgiving worthy side dishes. Keep on reading for our Top 5 sure-to-please recipes.

Think Ramen is just for broke co-eds scraping a few quarters together for a week’s dinner? True, it is one large consumer group. But those Marachun noodles can come in handy with a quite a few other meals, too. We’ve pulled together some of our favorite hearty meal ideas with our dirt cheap ingredient of choice: Ramen.

You know those weeks – you’re midway between paychecks and you’ve already spent the bulk of your income (hopefully on essentials instead of spontaneous spending) and now you have $20 to feed yourself for the week. But before you hop on over to your local grocer and start sorting out the many flavors of Maruchan, you may want to have a look at some other cheap meal options. We at LifeStyler bring you 5 healthy and cheap (although not .25 cheap) alternatives to that 10-pack box of Ramen.