Monthly Archives: February 2012

Ramen Noodle Recipes

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Here’s another blog post all about how to spice up a plain and sometimes boring student staple – The Ramen Noodle (also known as Mr. Noodles, Ichiban etc.) Below you can find a variety of ramen noodle recipes.

Some of my own cooking tips;

Although not flashy, in the past I have simply boiled the noodles and added things like spinach, frozen peas, oriental style frozen veggies and topped it off with soya sauce. I rarely use the flavouring package any more because its crazy salty and I also don’t have a broth and will just use the boiled noodles.

The easiest thing to do, and this is often the case with pasta as well; add an extra vegetable that can easily be boiled towards the end of the noodle cooking, its super easy, you strain and you haven’t used more than 1 pot/pan to make veggies and noodles. 
Another way I used to cook these noodles was by boiling kettle water, putting the dry noodles in a cereal bowl (large enough to fit the noodles), adding the flavouring packet and then pouring the boiled water on top so the noodles are covered. Place a plate on top to prevent the steam from escaping, wait about 5 minutes, and your noodles should be cooked.

Some other awesome ideas;


While checking out stumbleupon I managed to find a few articles about other ways to customize Ramen noodles. Check them out and see what you like. You can apparently make shepherd’s pie out of Ramen noodles?!?

Ramen Hacks: 30+ Easy Ways to Upgrade Instant Noodles 

(click the image to see the recipes);
 
Here are some recipes pulled from Crazy Ramen Recipes
Note* I didin’t write these…
 
For Spaghetti-O’s Fans
Ingredients:
2 pkgs Ramen noodles (I like the spicy flavor)
1 can tomato soup
Hot sauce (I like Tabasco)
Shredded cheese
 
Break noodles into quarters, place in pot. Add enough water to almost cover the noodles. Boil until almost all the water is gone, stirring the noodles often. (Or just cook the noodles and strain; it just makes more dirty dishes.) Add one seasoning packet and can of soup, stir, then add hot sauce and/or cheese to taste.
 

Divorced and Homeless Ramen (mostly posted this because of the title)
Ingredients:
Maruchan Chili-flavor (Spicy) Ramen (2 packets, because you’re hungry, very very hungry)
Creamy Peanut Butter (two big tablespoons worth)
Boil noodles until cooked.

At this moment, bust open the two hot chili-flavor packets onto the ramen. Then, using the fork, dig out a big wad of peanut butter (about two tablespoons but why measure) and use fork to stir peanut butter, chili-flavored-salt, remaining hot water, and ramen all together. Very soon the water/seasoning/peanut butter will have merged into a tasty, nutritious sauce, that’s darn good with those ramen noodles. Guaranteed to cheer you up for 10 minutes.

 
And some really weird ones…
 
Sweet and Spicy Coke Ramen
Ingredients:
1 pack Texas Beef Ramen (or regular beef, or asian – but Texas Beef is best)
1/2 to 3/4 can Coke (not diet)
1 pack salted peanuts
1 Beef stick (aka Slim Jim) –Optional–
 
Cook noodles. Crush the peanuts inside the bag. Add about 2/3 of the peanuts and eat the rest while you’re “cooking”. Drain water from noodles, then add seasoning packet and coke. Add peanuts and optional sliced beef stick or summer sausage. Add more coke to achieve the right amount of sauce and balanced flavor.
 

Cheesy Ranch Ramen
Ingredients:
2 packages of any flavor ramen (your not gonna use the packet anyway)
1 cup ranch dressing
1 cup shredded cheese ( I prefer cheddar, to each his own)
a pinch of parsley (optional)
a pinch of basil (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Take out the ramen packets and while the noodles are still in the packages crush the ramen up, don’t turn it into dust, but in many, many pieces. Now put the ramen in a pot and fill the pot with water to cover the noodles. Cook them like the package says. Drain the noodles with a fork, I wouldnt suggest a strainer, seeing how the noodles would fall out.
Put the drained ramen back on the stove and under low heat add the cheese and ranch dressing and stir until the cheese is melted and add any seasonigs you please.

Hyperactive Candied Choco-Ramen
Ingredients:
1 block of Ramen (a package? lol)
¼ cup Brown Sugar
¼ cup Chocolate Sauce (Hershey’s… or whatever)
Powdered Sugar
Optional: ½ teaspoon Vanilla
Optional: Whipped Cream


This Ramen recipe is quite a sugar overload. Your mouth will be pleased and it will keep you up all night. Great for dessert (and for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!). Highly recommended: A tall glass of milk to wash down the intense ‘Hyperactive Candied Choco-Ramen’.
Preparation:
1. Fill pot with 2-3 cups of water, and mix in ¼ cup of Brown Sugar. Also, if available, a ½ teaspoon of Vanilla (too much vanilla would make it tastes crazy… like Godzilla… be careful).
2. Cook Ramen block when sugar-water boils. Cook until soft and quite ‘noodley’.
3. Strain Ramen until most water has left the pot and gone down the drain.
4. Pour in a few dashes of Brown Sugar, and ¼ cup of Chocolate Sauce. Make sure to mix it well, until the noodles are a nice golden-brown color.
5. Dump Choco-Ramen onto a plate, preferably NOT a paper plate. Then sprinkle as much powdered sugar as you desire upon the Choco-Ramen. This makes it look cool, and taste more awesome.
6. If you’re super-fancy, try adding a large mountain of Whipped Cream upon your Choco-Ramen creation.

Buying Ramen Noodles;
 
Mr. Noodles are often priced at about $0.25 a package so make sure to work out the pricing if you are purchasing in a multi-pack.

Grocery Shopping Basics

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Since tomorrow’s the day that grocery flyers come out, I figured this would be the perfect time to talk about grocery shopping and where to find the best deals.
Friday, for most grocery retailers is the day where their new sales start.
Some tips when going grocery shopping;
  • Know your prices
  • Write a list, you will be less likely to buy things you don’t need (blog post later about this)
  • Don’t go hungry, it’s the worst, you will want to buy everything!
Especially for students, the best store to frequent are often No Frills, Food Basics and other discount grocery stores including Walmart. These stores often have better prices everyday on non-sale items, and often have really good sales including the dollar sale that No Frills often has.
When it comes to the more expensive grocery stores like Metro, Valuemart, Sobeys , Zehrs, Loblaws etc . The benefits are that they tend to have fresher produce and greater selection as well as loyalty programs. Plus you don’t have to pay for a cart…
When checking out Metro, I also recommend liking them on Facebook, they often will post coupons and other savings that are exclusive to fans.
For Zehr’s stores, student discounts are offered on Tuesdays. Often their everyday prices aren’t as cheap as stores like food basics or no frills, but adding a 10% on top of sale prices could definitely be worth it.
Some other stores may offer this promotion as well, but it is often occurs in specific cities (often University towns) double check out your stores to find out if they offer student discounts.
 
Some help when it comes to prices:
It’s super helpful to go into a grocery store knowing average prices for certain items, that way you know if you are actually getting a good deal or not.
Check out the No Frills price guide by clicking on the image below. It allows you to check certain products and compare pricing at other grocery stores. 
Some price guides that I follow when it comes to certain items;
 
Brick Cheese (500g) $4.50-$6 is often a good price
Baby Carrots (small bag) $1 (often regular price at No Frills)
Broccoli $1 or less
Apples less than a dollar is always better
Cream Cheese spreadable (Philadelphia) $3-$4
Staples like Milk and Eggs are rarely on sale, so if you can find coupons for these things it’s a bonus, Shoppers Drug Mart is often a good place for staples like these and you can collect shoppers optimum points
Non-whole wheat (not national brand) you can often find for $1 sometimes on sale at No Frills
Whole Wheat Bread (Country Harvest/Dempsters) $2-$3
Whole Grain Bagels (Country Harvest/Dempsters) $2-$3
Dempster’s Wonderbread is often around $1.50-$2.50 at a good price, you can often find coupons for these
Yogurt (Source 16 packs of individual yogurts) $3.99-5.50- Recently saw these on sale for about $4.50 at No Frills, and the same week for about $7 at Metro..it was the same yogurt
Tubs of Yogurt (name brand) often $2-$3 is pretty good
Boneless Chicken $3-$4 Often pretty good per pound, it’s often the most expensive chicken you can buy. It’s often cheaper to buy bone in and you can remove it.
Kraft Dinner (regular) $1 or less if often a really good price for a box
Kraft Dinner (specialty) $1.50 is often a decent price for a box
Pasta $1-$1.50 if you aren’t picky about the brands you buy a regular box is often around this price, you can also often find coupon for Catelli brand pasta’s when you buy more than 1 box. I have actually managed to combine coupons and a sale at metro which was a 2for $5 dollar deal for their whole wheat pasta
A Guide to reading produce labels;
What products have labels-all produce; fruits, vegetables, dried fruit, herbs and nuts
Conventionally-grown fruit: 4 digit numbers. Example-Banana-4011. You can use this website to search PLU codes as well
Organically-grown fruit: This produce has five digit labels that start with the number 9. An organically-grown banana would be 94011.
Genetically modified food: These 5 digit labels start with 8. Example-genetically engineered tomato 84805.
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Images: 
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/42/No_Frills_Logo.svg/420px-No_Frills_Logo.svg.png
http://www.foodbasics.ca/images/fb-logo.gif
http://www.canadian-opportunities.ca/images/news/large/news-685.jpg
http://www.jenselk.com/uploads/3/7/9/8/3798920/4101245.gif
http://www.bloor-yorkville.com/img/stores/images/cache/valumart.jpg
http://blog.virtuallogistics.ca/Portals/36315/images/Sobeys-Logo.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oU-gYXUH23Q/SoGtagd3vvI/AAAAAAAAALs/JmgUsRocfco/s320/loblaws.png