Another in my "Less than 5" recipe series. All recipes beginning with that title will have less than 5 ingredients and/or cost less than $5. Bonus for ones that also take less than 5 minutes. =)
Ramen used to be the greatest after-school snack ever. Then in college, it was pretty much a daily staple. At 10-20 cents per pack, the good people of Ramen keep poor college kids worldwide from starving. When I started graduate school, and started taking this blog more seriously, I figured Ramen was no longer part of my life. I had graduated to frittatas, lasagna, and white bean chicken chili. Big kid food.
But then in my masters study, my Taiwanese advisor had Ramen for lunch nearly every day. She just fancied it up by adding a handful of fresh spinach and an egg. Well of course I had to try it, as the chicken-salt smell of Ramen is hard to resist. Adding veggies ups the nutritional value (which previously was negative zero) and an egg or tuna will bump up the protein.
It turns out to make a decently healthy meal, for way less than a dollar per serving. Ever since then, when I have a random Ramen craving, I give in with the justification that at least it's "big kid" Ramen. Now you can too!
Ingredients:
1 package Ramen noodles
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables or spinach
1 egg
Spices (I used parsley, parmesan, and red chili pepper for kick)
Step 1: Heat the noodles and water for 3 minutes in the microwave. Let stand for another 3 minutes.
Step 2: Add the vegetables and egg. Break the yolk so it doesn't explode. Microwave another 3 minutes.
Step 3: Stir in seasoning packet and spices, enjoy!
The chili flakes gave it a nice bite of heat, and I like the frozen mixed veggies because of the corn and carrots' sweetness. You can get creative with this. Use tofu, beans, tuna, chicken. Any cooked vegetable will work well. I'm partial to the chicken flavoring only, but there are beef and shrimp flavorings too. For 0.10 (noodles) + 0.10 (egg) + 0.10 (frozen veg) = $0.30 not a bad meal!
What do you put in your Ramen?
Labels: big kid ramen, cheap, cheap and healthy, cheap recipes, easy, fancy ramen, get creative, ramen, ramen noodles, ramen recipe, soup, student, student recipes
