Top Ramen Recipes

Ramen Reduction

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 19:40:38 -0400

Hey,

Now that I have a job, I’m going to cut this back to once a week because a) I can afford something other than Ramen b) I won’t have as much time.

Did anyone see that the Curves founders were forced to eat Top Ramen on “The Secret Millionaire” last night? Too bad they didn’t have my budget stretching tips to doll up their soup.

Snack Ramen

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 20:55:01 -0400

Here’s a salty snack:

1 pkg ramen

Smash up your ramen noodles. Smash ‘em!

Per package, lightly oil a pan, preferably a cast iron pan. You can also dry roast them.

Heat up the pan and throw your sad, broken noodles into the pan stirring while they brown. When they’re about golden, add the seasoning or be creative. If you want to make something more diverse like chex mix, you can add nuts and seeds when you’re browning, before you add the spice.

Don’t get them stuck in your gums. Personally, I like a little hot paprika.

Hops Ramen

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 22:55:08 -0400

Thinking of my wine infused Ramen, I decided to experiment with beer.

1 Pkg of Ramen

1/2 c beer

1/2 c frozen cauliflower, chopped or broken to smaller bits

1/8 c frozen or freshly diced white onion

I had an IPA on hand, but I highly recommend you use a “balanced” American style beer or something maltier rather than this heavily hops driven concoction.

Use the beer in your boiling water, depending on how brothy you like your soup, but stay with 1/2 c. beer and while waiting for it to boil, add the onion and cauliflower so you at least soak it in a bit. When it boils, add the noodles til done, stir in 3/4 of the seasoning packet and Wha Lah!

Old Ramen?

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 22:20:34 -0400

Apparently, I had a package of OLD Top Ramen. How is that possible? It was gross. I added spinach, I added lemon, but it was still the taste of dust on a cardboard shelf. Anybody have a recipe for stale Ramen?

High Society Ramen

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:26:49 -0400

I can’t believe this worked, honestly. I had some crappy white wine in the fridge. Pinot Grigio. My throat felt a tad sore and, while at the supermarket, had noticed Ramen was a buck for six packages. I can’t resist branded crack so cheap so I bought it.

1 pkg Ramen, no seasoning

1 lemon wedge

1/4 c white wine

1 tbs butter or margarine

1 tsp dill

Salt to taste

Cook the Ramen and drain out 2/3 of the water. Add the butter, wine, dill. Stir, then eat. - A delicate noodle in a white wine broth with hints of dill.

British Ramen

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 20:03:34 -0400

1 pkg Ramen

2 tsp of chopped watercress

1 tbs of sour cream

I saw Dr. Oz talk about watercress recently. I really don’t remember what he said were it’s benefits, but it was a show on anti-aging and weight so there’s that. Yeah, I could do the research for you, but you’re reading about Top Ramen so I assume you have the time. I remember eating nothing but water cress during the two or three days I tried the elimination diet to figure out allergies. I gave up. I’d rather be stuff with skin rashes then eat like that for a month. I also know that the Britts eat watercress finger sandwiches for tea quite often. I’m not really a cream person, but in the event of making our ramen a food of the English, this seemed like quite a delicious idea and it works!

Cook Ramen to direction and at the end add the seasoning packet, the cress, and the cream. God Save the Queen.

Still About A Buck

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 19:38:48 -0400

I have failed you in clarifying how much these things cost, so I will try harder… tomorrow. C’mon. I’m giving you meals in under three minutes. I certainly can’t make time for that, too.

1 pkg Ramen
1 small handful of sprouts
3/4 tsp of sesame oil*

Here’s a little kick you can try. I suggest you buy sesame oil, but it’s not cheap if you aren’t near an Asian market. You’ll need 3/4 of a teaspoon and a small handful of mung bean sprouts. They aren’t real cheap, but they’re light so if you take a very small handful you’ll spend about .35. If you don’t have sesame oil (which could run a nickle to fifty cents depending on the cost of the bottle) take a dash of terayaki sauce and stir it into vegetable oil to make a teaspoon or less of flavored oil which costs about $.20 to do.* Just after you throw the Ramen into the water, add the sprouts. When the Ramen is done, drain and add the oil or oil mixture. You can eat these noodles hot or cold. Save the seasoning for later.

Another Idea

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 01:39:06 -0400

Try this:

1 pkg Top Ramen

1/8 c of fresh cilantro

1/2 regular lime

Boil the Ramen until done. Cut only half of the seasoning package into it then add the cilantro and lime. You can chop the cilantro or just pick off the leaves then write me and let me know if it worked. I’m out of Ramen.

Reverse Ramen

Sat, 12 Mar 2011 20:10:05 -0500

The other day my husband had an audition in LA with P Diddy, or Puff Daddy, or Diddy Combs. I’m not really sure which one of them met him, but until he gets the gig with one of them, we’re broke so I had to make him a lunch that he could eat cold on his three hour drive.

This was a last minute thing. I had no bread, no peanut butter, no hummus. Quickly, I boiled up some Ramen noodles, drained them, and dumped some pre-packaged peanut sauce on them. After putting them in a to-go container, I put a couple of little lime wedges on the top so he could squeeze that on when he was ready. He said it was “yummy.” I guess I’ve eaten some cold, peanut noodle salads in my day so it made sense to me as a travel food.

1 pkg Top Ramen Noodles, no seasoning

2 lime wedges

Peanut Sauce to taste

Seriously

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 00:14:29 -0500

How much Top Ramen can you eat?

Seriously.

Take a break.

Lazy Nutrition

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 20:36:19 -0500

Need to feed the kids some good ol’ fashioned veggies quick? Using frozen veggies will do it, but don’t follow the package instructions.

1 pkg Top Ramen

1 C of California Veggies, Frozen (Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Carrots)

Put the cup of Veggies right in the pan, then fill with your ramen water. Let the veggies grow to the boil and then boil an extra minute before adding the ramen. When the ramen’s done, the veggies will be, too! Oh, Lord, how easy was that?

Don't Try This At Home Ramen

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 01:38:46 -0500

I watched my husband eat this. He wanted veggie soup.

1 pkg Top Ramen

1 - Can of French Cut Green Beans

3 - TBS of Homemade salsa

1 - lemon wedge

He cooked the ramen and then dropped in the oriental seasoning, mexican salsa, and green beans spritzed with lemon. Meh.

Even Easier Hangover Cure

Sat, 05 Mar 2011 02:35:00 -0500

1 Pkg of Top Ramen

Several Dashes of Hot Sauce

A lemon squeeze

You Can Do This!!!!!

Hangover Rush 1

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 23:14:53 -0500

In Yin and Yang Chinese medicine philosophy, sodium is what you need to cure the excess sugar in your binge drinking. That said, there is little food more sodium packed than pre-packaged Top Ramen. If you’re really aching, just add one thing. Here’s my first “one thing” to offer.

1 pkg Top Ramen

1 handful of frozen onions

If you don’t have a non-stick pot, use a bit of olive oil to start your pot on high wiht onions. Add water to boil, add your top ramen, and watch your most favorite crappy movie that seems to come on TV at the same strange point you always start on.

My Favorite Fast Food

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 01:04:36 -0500

My favorite fast food is zucchini. I love zucchini. You can eat it raw like a cucumber, you can boil it to something unrecognizable, or you can do what I pretty much always do with zucchini and that’s saute it. I like to roast it, too. Anyway, zucchini is a very simple way to class up your top ramen.

1 pkg of Top Ramen

1 small zucchini

1 Flick of minced garlic

1 tsp of olive oil

Cop the zucchini small pieces and drop into a pan and stir the oil in. Turn the burner on high and continue to stir for a minute. Stir in the garlic and when it’s mixed, add the water to bring to a boil. Drop in your noodles, stir, eat. Yum, yum, yum!

Easy Nutrition

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 01:12:27 -0500

I’m really friggin’ cheap. Necessity is the mother of invention. Honestly, I generally would saute spinach with some tofu, but how easy is it to buy pre-washed baby spinach and throw it right into your top ramen? Soooooo easy!

Three days into being sick, we went to the store, and though I was cranky and sick and didn’t want to spend money on anything not on sale, my husband and I bought a bag of baby spinach for $3.49. I could’ve bought a bag of grownup spinach for $1.99, but it’s so much nicer to have bite-sized spinach. Also, there seems to be less grit to baby spinach. This is SO easy. I, of course, added onion and garlic because I just like to chop up the onion that I have as “left-over” bits from onion for another purpose AND I keep garlic in a jar which is way too easy and cheap.

1 pkg Top Ramen - again, valuable only for sodium and liquid. OH, and dubious flavor.

1 slice of an onion, chopped

1/8 tsp of garlic

2 c baby spinach (a few handfuls)

Olive Oil (optional), garlic infused is even yummier

Chop the onion and throw it into a non-stick pan or start your pot with some olive oil. If you use olive oil, put the onion in first because the health benefits of the oil will cook away, but if you start it with the oil uncooked, it will soak into the onion. I learned that from Dr. Oz, but not on his show. Must’ve been on Oprah. If you do it on high, like me, it shouldn’t be a minute before they brown enough for you to add water. When the water boils, start your ramen and add the garlic. As soon as it’s done, add the spinach and YAY!

Stuffy Nose Soup

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 22:19:26 -0500

Not being able to breathe makes us pretty sleepy and that I was! We happened to have a jalapeno in the house, a fresh one. Here’s what I did.

1 pkg of Top Ramen

1 Orange Wedge

1/8 of a dark green jalapeno, finely chopped

I started the water and cut up the jalapeno. Without rinsing off the knife, I cut the orange and wondered if that was going to effect the orange taste later. I added the jalapeno to the water before it even started boiling, then made the Ramen as usual. When it was done, I squeezed the orange on it and holy crap, an eighth of a fresh jalapeno might be too much depending on it’s size. This one was long. Though I didn’t cry. I did touch my blown-raw nose, though, and that really sucked.

Recipe 1: Too Sick To Cook

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 02:01:55 -0500

Being a Vegetarian, I only use a few brands and, because of the limitations of the locale, right now that’s Nissin Oriental. Now then, I was so sick that I wanted a one pot meal for clean up, full of broth, and packed with nutrients. Not even wanting to stand up, here’s what I did -

1 Package of Nissin $.17 - for the sodium and the liquids

1 Slice of onion $.04 - an anti-inflammatory, bacteriostatic , antioxidant

1/4 tsp of Garlic $.05 - antibiotic, antiviral

1/8 tsp of Ginger $.01 - antiviral, antiseptic, antioxidant

1 Lemon wedge $.09 - Vitamin C, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial

2 cups of Arugula $.42 - Vitamins A and C

So here’s the truth: I took a few thin cuts of onion that I didn’t use from some other day and threw them on the bottom of a non-stick pan and turned the burner on. When they started to brown, I threw in the garlic, picked up the pot, and added water to almost the top. I didn’t measure because I knew I wanted a lot of broth. When the water started boiling, I threw in the noodles. When it started to boil again, I flipped the noodle brick over and grated some ginger I had and then I turned the soup off and added the seasoning. When that was stirred in, I took two handfuls of prepackaged arugula and tossed that in, too. I squeezed lemon on it and ate right from the pot. There it is. That’s how I do it. This was the most elaborate of my sick week. It cost me $.78 for a nutrient packed meal. I didn’t even mention that arugula is good for the liver and is an aphrodisiac.

Why Top Ramen?

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 14:37:42 -0500

I became a vegetarian before I learned to drive and I haven’t looked back, Well, there was that one time. Unfortunately, the way food is today, it’s really difficult to buy anything that doesn’t have some secret ingredient that has made me a meat-eater inadvertently, but I sure do try.

As a vegetarian, I don’t eat chicken noodle soup anymore. I switched to miso and LOVED it, but now I live in “God’s Country” and apparently God only allowed two Asians in. One Vietnemese guy who owns an Americanized greasy spoon and a man with some Chinese ancestry who owns a tea shop. We do have a health food store with the bossiest, crankiest, rudest naturalist I’ve EVER met, but she doesn’t carry miso, either. I wouldn’t ask her to because if I never have to go in there again, which I had to, again, yesterday, I would reflect back at how my days have been happier not having to deal with her.

Now then, you’ve probably already figured out that the people of God’s country are big burger eaters because “Thou Shalt Not Kill” unless it’s for food or oil and, actually, it’s just better if you get someone else to do it. It’s cleaner that way and you’ll have more bargaining power at the pearly gates. What we do have in this blessed land is a pretty decent mix of poor and uneducated folk watered down with some nature lovers and intellectual rebels and campers who bring with them an abundance of Top Ramen.

I’m sick. Until today, I was really sick. I do not want to go into the kitchen and make myself ANYTHING. But I want to get well without the sodium-packed and nutrient-rich chicken noodle soup. So now, I bring you my Top Ramen recipes for the poor, the lazy, the college bound, or the downright sick.