Ramen Noodle Soup; Fast, Easy, Tasty, Cheap

Hear me out, please. Who among us doesn’t eat an occasional fast food meal? I’ll put my soup up against your cheese burger and preservatives any day. I’ll win on the veggie content and have more money leftover for dessert!

I googled the list of ~10 Worst Foods~ my little cheap packets of yumminess were nowhere to be found on the list. Some of my added ingredients were found on the ~10 Best Foods~. It’s all about balance, people. Kudos to you if nothing too salty or too carbie has passed your lips today.

Okay, now that we’ve gotten rid of the nay-sayers. Let me tell you how to make this bowl full of yumminess.

The above photo is from our lunch yesterday, not a borrowed google image! I do so love the ease of browsing the long list of cute icons, but for this post, I thought I’d keep it real.

Fast– once the water boils, it’s ready in 3 minutes.
Easy– dump everything in, noodles and any frozen veggies first, then the crunchier ones from the fridge, then any canned oriental veggies you like last.
Tasty– I’ll put my soup up against those pricey stir-fry places that have you fill your bowl with ingredients from their salad bar style servings.
Cheap– One packet of noodles (bought by the 48 packs at Costco) came out to .15 cents. Then whatever ingredients you want to add from the freezer, fridge or pantry.

The last batch of soup I used the beef flavor, 2 packs (we like leftovers). It’s easy to do as few or as many packs as you want. So, 2 pkgs of beef noodles meant 4 cups of water. Bring water to a boil, put in noodles (hubs likes them broken up into smaller pieces). Then I added a handful of frozen broccoli, a handful of frozen sweet peas (pea pods would be extra special), some broccoli slaw that needed to be used up, a small can of bamboo shoots and a 1/2 a can of those tiny corn cobs. By the time you add all that your 3 minutes needed for boiling are about up. Sprinkle in the seasoning packet(s) that come with the noodles. We’re gluttens for more sodium and fat, so I added a dash of teriyaki and a splash of sesame oil. I had some bean sprouts that were 2 days shy of their trip to the compost pile. I put those in last.

Lance wasn’t quite ready to eat when I was, so I put the lid on it and let the pot cool. Mmm, mmm, good. That’s what Ramen soup is, mmm, mmm, good (ooops, did Campbell’s patent that little jingle?). Seems the longer it sits, the more of the yumminess seeps into the noodles and veggies (especially the broccoli).

Children of mine, give it a try. I bet you’ll like it. Or as cousin Kimmie would say, I hope ya liiiike it.