Thursday: Healthy Ramen

Making a pack of ramen into a healthy meal is easy. I remember the first time I did it in grad school. I was feeling depressed that all I had for lunch was ramen. But I had some carrots, which I thought I could throw in. Then I found some celery. And some ginger root I had in the freezer and grated into the broth. Then I thought I could add some miso paste. And some seaweed. In the end, it was my own private stone soup! Delicious, fresh, fast, and healthy! Now I buy the natural ramen when it's on sale (otherwise it's too expensive), and make it for dinner. These are the baked ramen noodles (not fried), and they don't have MSG or anything unnatural. They are still high in salt, but otherwise pretty good for ya.

2 packs ramen noodles & spices (one was ginger-lemon grass, the other miso-seaweed)
2 carrots
1-2 leaves collards
some diced onions (I used a spoonful of the ones in the bag - I hate chopping onions)
2 small mini-bell peppers (or any type of pepper)
3 small pinches of 3 types of seaweed
Broth from soaking seaweed

Cook the carrots, collards, and onions for 3-5 minutes first, using the soaking broth. Then add the peppers and seaweed and spice packs. Cook another 2-3 minutes. Then add the ramen noodles for 1-2 minutes. Voila!



Marshall says: It's like Ramen, but ... healthy!
Alegra says: Good, but probably would have been better with more ginger!

Wednesday: Easy Dinner of Soup and Side

Mid-week, and I am feeling tired. But yet I want something fresh for dinner, and don't want to go out. Soup is always easy, and you'd be amazed at how many vegetables can fit into a bowl of soup! Another trick is to combine something homemade with something store bought or already prepared. Tonight I used that trick twice! I had some Aisan-style dumplings, and they only needed 2-3 minutes to boil. That sounded good to me. I also had some pre-cut sweet potatoes.

Asian Dumpling Soup

1-2 carrots
2-4 mini bell peppers (1/2-1 regular bell pepper would work, too)
1 small handful broccolini (broccoli flowering stalks, but 1/4 head of broccoli would work, too)
1 small handful already shelled edamame beans
4-6 cups water (6 if you are using larger volume of vegetables)

6-12 small Asian-style dumplings (mine were stuffed with mung-bean noodles, cucumbers, cabbage, carrots, and a lot of flavoring, but mostly soy sauce)

1 large spoonful miso paste (or 2-3 packets instant miso)
1 large spoonful tahini (sesame seed paste)

Chop the vegetables to your preferred size. Larger chunks are easier to cut, but slower to cook (and vice versa). Add to boiling water. Cook for a few minutes, until carrots are just turning soft. Add the dumplings, cook a couple more minutes. Remove from heat.



After you remove from heat, add the tahini and miso. If using paste, you may want to mix well in small bowl with 1/2 water before adding, to make sure it gets dissolved. Miso is "living" (it is fermented), so it is best to add it after the soup has stopped boiling, so it stays "alive."

Curried Sweet Potatoes and Apples

Curry used on anything besides curry in an instant way to fancify. I prove it here with curried sweet potatoes.

1 package pre-cut sweet potatoes (or 1 large sweet potato, cut into strips)
1 apple, sliced thinly
1-2 tablespoons curry powder



I used an apple slicer to slice the apples, and they were too thick. If you use an apple slicer, cut them in half after you use it, so they are closer in size to the sweet potatoes. Place sweet potatoes and apples on a cooking sheet, spray with oil, spread around, and spray again. You could also put them in a bowl and pour oil over them and mix them up; more oil would make them crispier. Once arranged on try, sprinkle with curry powder. Bake at 350-375 for 15-30 minutes (longer for crispier product).



Marshall says: "The soup needs more salt." "Woah! Are these apples?? I just dipped them in my ketchup!" I recommend warning guests that apples are mixed in with sweet potatoes so they don't make the same mistake. I thought the soup would have actually been better as a stir fry - all the same ingredients, but without the water and in a pan instead of a pot. With a little more oil of course.
Total Time: 45 minutes or so
Leftovers: Ate all the potatoes and apples; had 1 bowl of soup for lunch the next day.

Monday Night: Super Quick Asian

We were doing our taxes last night, and I had a lot of work to do (a report due the following day). So I just wanted something really quick and easy. As usual, I chose a them. I wanted to use up this asian ginger salad dressing that was pretty mediocre.



Soba Noodles with Peppers & Tofu


1 package soba nodles
1 bowl leftover tofu & peppers
teriyaki sauce & asian ginger salad dressing

Boil the soba noodles - they cook really fast, about 5 minutes. Drain in the colander. In the meantime, heat up the leftover veges & tofu in the pot for a couple of minutes. Then add the noodles back in. I topped the first serving with the asian ginger dressing, but this dressing just tasted like mayonnaise (why I never really liked it that much to start). The second serving we each had we put teriyaki sauce on top and it was SO MUCH more delicious!



Edamame

1/2 cup ready to eat edamame soy beans
sea salt

I put these in two cute little dishes and heated them up for 30 seconds in the microwave, then sprinkled some fancy sea salt on top.




Cucumber Seaweed Salad

1 large english cucumber
1/2 - 1 cup seasoned rice vinegar
2-3 tablespoons japanese rice seasoning

Slice up the cucumber as thin as possible. It doesn't really matter how thin or if they are consistent (see picture). If you can get them paper thin the whole time, that's great; if not, it still tastes good! Any kind of cucumber will do, but the persian and english varieties have thinner skins so are nice for making salad. Pour a bunch of seasoned vinegar (this literally just means sugar is added to it; you can buy at any asian market and even trader joe's carries it). Sprinkle the rice seasoning on top (this is mostly seaweed). Stir or shake. This salad is actually better the next day.



Marshall Says: "I like these noodles, but they aren't good enough to blog about. The cucumber salad is, though."
Serves: 2-3 large servings
Time: 15-20 minutes - fast!
Leftovers: Used leftover veges, but also have a full serving of noodles for lunch (that's the third serving), and couple side cucumber salads. And I only used a little bit of the edamame package.