ramen recipes

RAMEN RECIPES
Top Ramen has a lot going for it. Low cost ( still, even after a fifty percent hike ). Should store forever. Filling and easy. Perfect for a bug out bag and can even be eaten uncooked on the run. Alas, I hated the stuff. I over did it during one poor spell and couldn't look at the crap for ten years. As I keep saying, take it from my sad experiences- don't eat just one item meal after meal or you'll find yourself not touching that food for years. I mean that literally. I didn't add bread to every meal or rice to every meal. That one item alone was the entire meal. You can eat one item constantly but not if it isn't added to something different each time. That's why everyone recommends spices and condiments. You fool your body into thinking it is a different food. You will find yourself eating less and less if it is the same food. It isn't just kids that will refuse to eat unfamiliar food and starve themselves. Anyway, I ate nothing but Top Ramen for two weeks or so, until the first paycheck came in. I didn't touch the stuff for seven or eight years later, and then only once or twice a year.
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I've reported similar results before. I ate nothing for rice for a week, nothing but potatoes for a month. Then I wouldn't touch those foods for years after. I finally got over my Ramen block. The last month or so I've started eating it about once a week. It is about the only noodle I eat, being so much easier. Except the Cup O Noodle cheese. That is good stuff, cheaper than mac and cheese. So, since I was off my Ramen block, I was more receptive to reading the book "101 Ways To Make Ramen Noodles" by Toni Patrick. Most of it is the standard advice. Add thirty different spices you don't normally have in your kitchen. But quite a few were easy and simple and needed few additives.
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The standard three Ramen methods are 1)soup. Leave the water in and add spice. 2)noodle. Drain the water and add the spice after. 3)oil and spice. Add butter and then the spice. To that she added quite a bit more. Parmesan Ramen. Drain, then add Parmesan cheese instead of the spice. Spaghetti Ramen- add spaghetti sauce instead of spice after draining. Veggie Ramen- drain, add spice, add veggies. Chinese Ramen- drain, add spice, add soy sauce. Tomato Ramen- don't drain, add a can of concentrated tomato soup and simmer for five minutes. Cheese Ramen- drain, add a packet of powdered cheese you stole from mac and cheese. Beef Ramen- drain, add spice, add Worcestershire sauce to taste. Chicken Ramen- drain, add spice, add a can of cream of chicken soup. Wiener Ramen- drain, add spice, add cut up hot dogs. Hamburger Ramen- drain, spice, add cooked hamburger.
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There are dozens more ( 101 total, remember ). Cream of asparagus and chicken, cream of celery and pork, cream of shrimp, cream of mushroom, cream of mushroom and tuna, cheese and bacon, bratwursts, chicken and soy sauce, cheese and veggies, Alfredo sauce, some really god awful sounding deserts such as custard and chocolate/marshmallow. Plus, a lot that the added ingredients will really shoot up the price. Especially with today's produce prices. It is incredible the number of ways Ramen was used. Here I was thinking, I'll store a few cases of Ramen for hard times ( and before the price of flour goes up again ). But with this guide I could eat the slop more often for dinner. I won't try most of these ideas, but a few surely sound promising. One note. You might want to match up the flavor to the recipe. Beef flavor for hamburger, pork flavor with pork meat, oriental with soy sauce. I don't care only because to me they mostly taste the same. But if following the above recipes, assume a specific flavor Ramen was called for.
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Before I forget- both days this weekend are guest articles.