Less than 5: Big-kid Ramen

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?

Quick Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette on a Hawaiian Salad

Salad is ubiquitously known as a diet super-staple. One can NEVER have too many leafy greens. I'm pretty sure it's physically impossible to eat enough volume to overdose on any given nutrient in leafy greens (disclaimer: not fact-checked, just widely accepted opinion). But a bowl full of greens can get boring pretty fast. Even with the plethora of toppings and novel ingredients available, it's important to dress your salad well. Just like a new pair of shoes, a new dressing can perk up a ho-hum meal. Making your own vinaigrette is easy and healthier than bottled dressings, because you determine what goes into it and can choose the freshest ingredients. Get a re-useable bottle and try it yourself! You'll never go back once you realize how much fun you can have experimenting with different spices, flavors, vinegars, oils, and juices.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup plain vinegar
3/4 cup olive oil
1 tbsp diced garlic
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp ground ginger
Dash black pepper

Step 1: Assemble your dressing ingredients. You basically need a 1:2 or 1:3 ratio of sour to oils, and any spices you like. You can add sweetness like raspberry or sugar, or extra tang from citrus.

Step 2: Mix everything in a glass jar and shake it up well! You want to create an emulsion, where the droplets of non-oil are suspended inside the oil. Oil and hydrophobic things mix, while water-based things (like vinegar) won't mix with the oil. Make sure you shake well just before adding to your salad.

Step 3: Pour a few tbsp over your salad and enjoy! This dressing here was perfect on my Hawaiian Salad.

Ingredients in Hawaiian Salad:
1 cup spinach
2 slices ham, diced
1/4 cup pineapple
3 baby carrots, julienned
Sprinkle of mozzarella

So the next time your lettuce-tomato-cucumber combo gets a little bland, whip out a glass bottle and spice it up!

What's your favorite way to top a salad?

Easy-peasy mini pizzas

These adorable appetizers are sure to be a big hit with a crowd! They are also easy & quick enough for any weeknight dinner, and kids are sure to love them too. You could even build a "top-it-your-way" bar with various (quick-cooking or pre-cooked) toppings, veggies, and cheeses.

Ingredients: 

Bagel thins, cut in half

Jar of pasta, pizza, or marinara sauce

Fresh grated parmesan

*Any other toppings you want!

Step 1: My mom insists everything is better with some fresh grated Parmesan. I'm beginning to believe her.

Step 2: Spread the sauce on the bagel thins. Top with cheese (and/or veggies, pepperoni, sausage, etc) and pop into a toaster oven. You can also use a baking sheet in a real oven, or a toaster on its side.

Step 3: Arrange prettily and serve! Told you they are easy-peasy!

What do you put on your pizza?

Slow cooker soup-in-a-bag

Dinner can literally not get any easier than:
Step 1 - take bag out of freezer
Step 2 - pour in crock pot
Step 3 - hit "start"
Ok, maybe "pick up phone and dial Pizza hut" is one step shorter, but you have to order, wait, tip the delivery guy, their customer service is outsourced to Pittsburgh... it's way healthier my way. In my humble opinion.


Maybe this is partially inspired by these things you see on Pinterest all the time about a salad in a mason jar. Which is a great idea, and someday I'll try it. But anyhow, with bits and pieces from other meals, I just accumulated veggies in a bag and one day after I'd made chicken and had leftover bones and grease, I used that to create a simple soup.

Ingredients:
Chicken bones, skin, fat from 4 drumsticks
1 tomato, diced
1 potato, diced
3 whole carrots, sliced
1/2 white onion, diced
2 tbsp chicken flavoring
Dash garlic salt and Italian seasonings

That bag can be tossed in the freezer to be pulled out whenever you want a quick meal hot and ready for you that night.

Step 1: Put bag of 'stuff' into crock pot. Add seasonings if you want, or extra chicken meat if you want.

 Step 2: Add water until crock pot is about half full. Set on low all day.

This is easily customizable to whatever veggies or meat you like. You can also add a grain like noodles, rice, or barley. If you're full vegan, don't use chicken leftovers as a base, you can make your own veggie stock.

Crock pot: pork chops & veggie rice casserole

I openly praise slow cookers all the time for their many qualities. Here is yet another perfect example of a recipe that took me a matter of minutes to prep, then the machine did all the work for me throughout the day so that I came home to a lovely smelling house and a hot meal.

Ingredients:
2 large pork chops (or a small roast)
1 chicken bouillon cube
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 cups water
1 cup milk
1 cup rice
1 cup frozen or fresh chopped veggies of your choice
2 tbsp garlic powder

I also made asparagus on the side. Just put 1 tbsp oil, 2tbsp lemon juice & some sea salt in a pan, and heat over medium until the asparagus starts to blacken and is soft yet firm.

 Step 1: As you can see, I like just taking out pre-frozen meat to use in the crock pot. I took out 2 pork chops I'd bought and frozen weeks earlier. Put the bouillon, corn starch and spices in the crock pot. Add the water and mix well.

 Step 2: Add the rice and veggies and mix into the watery spice mix. Place pork chops on top and cover. Cook on high 4 hours or low 6-8. Give it a good stir once if you can midday.

 The pork chops got so tender the meat literally just fell off the bone. So the small chunks of pork just got mixed into the rice for a casserole.

Since you know what ingredients you put in and can control what/how much vegetables go into this casserole, it is quite healthy. You could make it vegetarian or vegan easily too. Use tofu, add beans, etc. I might try brown rice next time too. Maybe throw in some tomato sauce too. Go crazy.

Homemade granola bars + Make your own vanilla extract

As a simple on-the-go breakfast, post-workout snack, or get-you-through-the-afternoon munchie, I love granola bars! Endlessly varied in terms of type of nuts, berries, chocolate, flavors in them, they are always in my pantry in multitudes. Usually I buy whatever is on sale, say $1-2 for a box. I have a rotation and favorites, but am not brand loyal by any means. But even at $1 for a box of 6, it can get expensive. So I figured, I already have lots of diferent types of nuts and dried fruits, and oats. It can't be hard to make my own.

After googling a bit, I found this recipe for home made granola bars, which is close to what I had on hand. But I didn't want the chocolate part (shocking, I know!) because I'd be storing them in my book bag and gym bag and don't want to deal with melty chocolate all over my workout shoes or laptop. So as usual, I took the framework of the recipe and made it my own with what was on hand and the pan size I was working with. The results were splendid!

Ingredients:
3 cups oats
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup craisins (dried cranberries)
1/4 cup smashed pistachios (I shelled them, put them in a ziplock baggie and smashed them up with a spoon. For reals.)
1/2 cup smashed up candied peanut halves (also ziplock pulverized)
1/4 cup chia seeds (bought a few months ago and had no idea what to do with them... perfect.)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup honey
4 tbsp butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Step 1: Mash up the nuts, then mix together oats, dried fruit, nuts, seeds and olive oil. Stir to coat well, then bake in a flat oven safe pan at 350 for about 10 minutes, to make everything brown and toasty.

Step 2: In a pan over medium heat, stir together butter, brown sugar, honey and vanilla. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat. Pour over the granola mixture, and stir well to coat everything. Bake at 300 for 25-30 minutes, until warm and brown. Remove from the oven and let cool or stick in the refrigerator for a little while. Cut into bars the size you like.

I used a 9x13 pan, and as such I got 16 bars. They are very soft, so I put them in the fridge for about an hour before I cut them up.

I individually wrapped each bar in a plastic baggie, and am storing them in my pantry. They are delicious! The honey makes it so sweet, I don't think you'd need chocolate anyway. Probably could even have done without the extra brown sugar.

I love these because I can use whatever dried fruits or nuts/seeds I have available. The next batch will include dried apricots and plums. You better believe sometime into the fall I will be making some bars with pumpkin seeds in them! I think I'm going to try experimenting with peanut butter in the honey instead of just butter too.These are vegetarian, and could easily be made vegan as well. If you go easy on the oil/honey they are quite healthy and filling. And very inexpensive! Buy whatever fruits/nuts/seeds you like on sale, oats are cheap in bulk. This batch probably cost me $1 total?


Speaking of  inexpensive baking, did you know you can make your own vanilla extract from just vanilla beans and vodka? Seriously, that's it.

A bottle of vodka on sale was about $7, the beans were a bit pricey at $4 for 2. But that's $11 for about a gallon of vanilla that I can use pretty much forever. If I invested a bit more I could even jar it myself and give it as gifts or sell some. When you get low you just add more vodka and maybe after a year another bean or something. Jackpot.

Easiest steak stir-fry

Anyone who doesn't have a personal chef is a fan of meals that are fast and easy to make. Bonus if it happens to NOT be grease-laden, deep-fried, double-wrapped hatred of yourself. Aka some semblance of nutritional value. At least to me that's a priority. This is one of my standby all-time favorite recipes, used from the lowly days of undergrad's first apartment until the present, it has never failed me yet. Once the individual ingredients are made, they are very versatile, and remain so even after mixing. 

Ingredients:

1 cup rice (I used easy brown)

1-2 cups frozen veggie, any you like

1 can red kidney beans, rinsed

*You can stop here for a filling vegan/vegetarian snack or meal, or continue to carnivorize it

2 tbsp sriracha, if you like it hot

4 tbsp soy sauce

1 cube frozen veggie stock or ice cube

1 small steak (or pork or chicken...)

Step 1: Mix 1 cup water and 1 cup rice, microwave on high 10 minutes. Let sit for 5, then fluff with a fork.

 Step 2: Put frozen veggies and beans in a bowl, microwave 5-10 minutes while waiting for rice to absorb the water.

 Step 3: Mix rice, beans and veggies. Sprinkle on some garlic salt and enjoy from here, or....

 Step 4: Pour on the sriracha and soy sauce

 Step 5: Put the steak in a frying pan on medium heat, add extra soy sauce if you like, and the cube of liquid. Cover and cook on medium for about 5 minutes, until nice and brown. Flip and cook on the other side 5 minutes.

 Step 6: Remove steak and cut into bite-size pieces. Return to the pan along with the rice, veggies and beans and mix well. Heat through, and enjoy! This is quite customizable based on what type of vegetables and meat you like, you can use white or brown rice, and mix up the type of beans too. Try Italian seasoning, or garlic salt, or Worchestershire. The sky's the limit!

Make your own pizza, male and female style

You may think I'm weird for saying this, but I don't like pizza that much. I know, how un-American of me. I will eat it if it's around, and I get an occasional craving for a weird one like chicken bacon ranch, but in general if asked what I want for dinner, the answer will not be Little Caesars. My current boyfriend could literally live off pizza and burritos. So we found a compromise, making our own pizza. That way I can have the things I want on it (veggies) and control the sauce, and he can have what he wants (as much meat as possible) at the same time. This is our version of men are from Mars, women are from Venus, in the kitchen.

Ingredients:

1 tube pizza dough (about $2 at grocery store)

1 jar pizza sauce (~$2)

Toppings of choice: Female half

Spinach & mixed greens

Onions & peppers julienned

Zucchini

Mozzarella cheese

Pineapple

Toppings of choice: Male half

Deli ham

Ground beef (pre-cooked, left over from burritos actually)

Bacon

Mozzarella cheese

Pineapple 

Step 1: Cook the meat if needed, spray a 9x13 oven safe pan. Roll the pizza dough out flat and press to the sides of the pan.

Step 2: Spread on as much sauce as you like. I don't like most pizzas because I end up scraping a cup of sauce off my slices, so I put it on thin.

Step 3: Layer the toppings.

 

 Step 4: Cover in as much cheese as you can handle. Because cheese is sent from heaven to make all foods taste better. Some calories are just worth it.
Step 5: Bake at 425 for ~20 minutes or until crust is brown and crispy and cheese is bubbling.

This recipe is as varied as your imagination, nearly any meat or vegetable can be a pizza topping, so if you like it then go crazy! You can use veggies left over from other meals. It's easy to make a vegetarian (or even vegan without the cheese) pizza. You can fold the dough in half to make a smaller deep-dish pizza. Try a bunch of variations and find what you like best.  No matter what you put on yours, its likely to still be much cheaper and healthier than a purchased one.

Loaded Tostadas

A simple, endlessly customizable meal, tostadas are one of my favorite mexican foods! There is almost no end to what you could top tostadas with, and they can be extremely budget-friendly. Depending completely on what you top them with, they can be very healthy or extremely not so!

Ingredients:

1 tostada shell (or make your own by baking a corn tortilla for 5 minutes at 350)

3 tbsp refried beans

1/4 cup taco meat (cooked ground beef + taco seasoning)

2 tbsp shredded colby or cheddar cheese

3 tbsp salsa

1/2 avocado, sliced

Step 1: Cook the beef and drain fat. Add taco seasoning and water, cook until water is gone. 

Step 2: In a pan or microwave, heat the beans.

Step 3: Assemble tostada, beans on the bottom followed by meat, cheese, salsa and avocado.

Other toppings I love: shredded lettuce, sour cream, black beans, peppers & onion. You could easily make this vegetarian or vegan too, by leaving off the meat and/or cheese.

What's your favorite mexican food topping?

 

Easy chicken, rice & veggie casserole

For a day when you want to spend minimal time cooking, but want something hot, filling and delicious. It takes only minutes to prepare, then you just stick it in the oven and forget about it for a while. It is also extremely versatile, since you can use any mixture of frozen or fresh veggies.

Ingredients:
1 boneless skinless chicken breast, diced in 1in cubes
1 cup water
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup jasmine rice (or any kind)
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables
1 cup salsa
~1/4 cup shredded cheese

Step 1: Dice chicken (and veggies if using fresh, make about 2-3 cups worth).
Step 2: In a greased 9x9 casserole dish, add all ingredients and mix well. Bake, uncovered at 375 for 90 mintues or 400 for 1 hour. Rice & chicken should be fully cooked. If crunchy or chicken is still pink, bake 20 minutes longer.

Super simple, and delicious. I used a mix that included beans, so I'm sure the protein & fiber was a bit higher, but so were the calories. But it's worth it for 2 tasty dinners plus lunch the next day!
As always, to make it vegetarian don't use chicken, and for vegan use veggie stock instead of milk and omit the cheese.

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 3
• Amount Per Serving: ~1 cup
• Calories: 280.2

• Total Fat: 5.6 g
• Cholesterol: 57.8 mg
• Sodium: 544.4 mg
• Total Carbs: 31.4 g
• Dietary Fiber: 5.3 g
• Protein: 27.1 g

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=2253930

Easy side dish: Oven-Roasted Vegetables

This is seriously one of the best side dishes ever! You can use literally any vegetable you have on hand, it takes only a few minutes, and it is super healthy AND tasty! I could eat oven-roasted veggies with every meal and not get tired of it. 

Ingredients:

1 baking potato, diced

1/2 onion, cut into strips

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

1 large carrot, diced

1/2 zucchini, diced

1/2 yellow squash, diced

3 tbsp olive oil

Nature's Seasoning

Garlic salt

 

Step 1: Dice up your veggies. This is the only work you have to do.

Step 2: Coat your veggies in olive oil, put into an oven-safe pan.

Step 3: Sprinkle with seasonings. Bake at 350 for ~20 minutes or until potatoes are fork-tender.

 

You could use any kind of potato here, add broccoli, cauliflower, turnips, parsnips, bok choi, kale, mushrooms, eggplant, the list goes on and on. Enjoy!

Crock Pot Veggie Stew

I recently moved across America to the great state of Colorado! That explains my lack of posts for a while. However, since my new place has an oven, my repertoire has quadrupled, and thus I intend to make up for it! So this was inspired by a trip to a local farmer's market. There was so much delicious produce, to be had super cheaply! Then a few days later, I needed to do something with the veggies I hadn't eaten yet. As many cooks know, fresh is best but it also spoils quickest. Another complication I will be dealing with this year is my first year of doctoral classes and research, so I will be gone the majority of the day, 6am - 6pm most days. So you will likely see a lot of make-ahead or Crock Pot meals!

Ingredients:

1 large carrot, diced

1 large onion, diced

3 roma tomatoes, diced

1/2 head cabbage, shredded

3-4 stalks celery, diced

2 potatoes, diced

1/3 of a red, orange & yellow bell pepper (or 1 of any color) diced

2 small heads broccoli, cut into small florets

4-5 green onions, diced

3 cups chicken stock or 3 bouillon cubes + water

Turmeric, chipotle chili pepper, paprika, black pepper, garlic, salt

I don't add amounts for the spices because it depends on how hot you like it. I found out after the fact that I added a *bit* too much chipotle pepper, because man did this soup clear the sinuses! I need to make it again mid-winter...

 Step 1: This is the only work-intensive step. Dice all the veggies and layer in the Crock Pot.

 Step 2: Add spices and broth. If you're a strict vegetarian or vegan, use vegetable broth or plain water instead of the chicken stock.

Step 3: Cook on low at least 4 hours up to 12 hours. The longer it cooks the softer the vegetables will get, but the more flavors will come out and mingle. My boyfriend is a carnivore and insisted on adding shredded chicken before he would eat it. But he did say it was delicious. =)
You can add really any vegetable you have on hand that you need to use up. If you don't want to take the time to dice everything, you can buy pre-cut from a salad bar or use frozen vegetables and just throw them in! Couldn't be easier. Plus it makes quite a bit, so you have several meals for very cheap, and likely enough to freeze for later meals.

Chicken Tacos

So yet again I'm moving soon, and need to clean out my freezer and pantry. I had some chicken quarters I had gotten cheap a while back , and was sick of ground beef tacos. So I decided to make some chicken tacos. It helps that Meijer had a great sale this week, $1 bell peppers and avocados.

Ingredients:

2 chicken leg quarters

Taco seasoning

Chili powder

1/4 red, orange and yellow bell pepper

1/4 red onion

1 tortilla

1/4 avocado

2 tbsp salsa

1 tbsp sour cream

1/4 cup black beans

 

Step 1: Put the chicken in a sprayed crock pot, sprinkle with taco seasoning and chili powder. Add 1/4 cup water to keep moist. Cook on high 4 hours or until chicken is no longer pink.
Step 2: Remove chicken meat from the bones and skin, throw it away. Add more seasoning if you like.

 Step 3: Cut the peppers and onion into thin strips. I steamed the peppers for about 10 minutes first.

 Step 4: In a tbsp of butter or oil, saute the peppers and onion until soft and translucent. Add some taco seasoning.

 Step 5: Warm the beans and tortilla. Layer the chicken, peppers & onion, beans, avocado in chunks, salsa and sour cream.

 The combination of flavors is amazing, the creamy avocado, the spiced chicken, the crunchy-soft peppers and sweet onions, tangy salsa, milky sour cream.... just amazing! And so much protein and veggie goodness! Obviously you can omit the chicken and just use veggies for vegetarian, and add as much or whatever spices you like.

Cous cous vegetarian stuffed peppers

So I'm going to a dinner party, and planned to bring my old standby, stuffed peppers . However, at least one of the guests is vegetarian, and I am also trying to eat a more vegetarian diet. So I decided to get the best of both worlds, and make both! 

Veggie:

3 bell peppers (any color)

1/2 cup cous cous

1/2 cup boiling water

1/2 cup asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces

1/2 cup broccoli

3 large baby bella mushrooms

1/2 onion

1/2 cup diced red bell peppers

Lemon juice, soy sauce (optional)

Garlic powder, cumin, sea salt, olive oil

Step 1: Add 1/2 cup boiling water to 1/2 cup cous cous and microwave 3 minutes.

 Step 2: Cut up all the veggies while its cooking.

 Step 3: To cooked cous cous, add about 1 tbsp garlic powder, 1 tsp cumin and 1 tbsp olive oil. Fluff well & set aside.

Step 4:  Add a tbsp olive oil to a frying pan, and begin sauteeing veggies, hardest one first. Broccoli and asparagus, then peppers and onions, and finally the mushrooms. I added a squirt of lemon juice and a dash of soy sauce too.

 Step 5: Add cooked veggies to cous cous and mix well.

Step 6: Stuff the peppers with the mixture. Cook in oven at 350 for 1 hour, or a Crock Pot on high for one hour. Sprinkle with cheese if you like.

 

Tonight at the party we will see how well I did! I snuck a spoonful while stuffing though, and it tastes pretty darn good. I included some shots of my meat-eater stuffed peppers too, just to make you drool a little! =)

Cooking the meat and rice

Cooked meat & onions, rice, and tomato sauce stuffing!

Scooping the filling into the peppers

Mmmmm stuffed bell peppers!