#64, #51

I'm one of those people who will eat ramen noodles just for the hell of it--they're cheap, they're easy to make, and they're good. Recently my interests in cooking and frugality have combined with the knowledge that at some point in the near future I'm going to be working for an entry-level salary while paying off student loans, so I decided to poke around on the internet and answer that age-old question: what else can you do with ramen noodles?

The answer: you can make kick-ass fried rice. And so another entry for #64 (make a new recipe every month) was born.



My first thought was that it looked like it had already been eaten, and that the presentation needed work. Then I remembered that this is what fried rice always looks like. I also thought it was going to taste dreadful, but it was excellent. And not only was it excellent, it was cheap. Sorry. It wasn't cheap, it was frugal.

For posterity, because I definitely want to make this again:

Stir-Fried Ramen Noodles

Ingredients:
1 package of beef-flavored ramen noodles
1 spoonful of shredded carrots
2 spoonfuls diced onions
3-4 broccoli florets, chopped
enough oil to saute the vegetables
1 egg

Bring a potful of water to boil and then cook the broken-up noodles for 3 minutes. While the noodles are cooking, saute the carrots, onions, and broccoli. When the noodles are done, drain, rinse, and throw them on top of the vegetables. Stir-fry them until they're mixed up, then add in the packet of beef seasoning and continue stir-frying them until everything's evenly coated with the seasoning. Crack the egg into the pan and scramble it into the stir-fry. Put in a bowl and eat.

I used too much oil this time around and will try to use less next time. And I threw in some tomatoes, because I had some mixed in a bag with some onions that were already diced, but I'll leave those out because all they do is shrivel up; they don't add anything to the flavor.

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Today marked two weeks straight of eating breakfast every day (#51 is to do this for a month). I thought when I started I'd be lame and eat cookies or something, but I've actually made myself breakfast pretty much every day. I've made fried potatoes and onions, donuts, apple turnovers (okay, those were from a box), pancakes (also from a box, and I've burned as many as I've eaten). The first few days I skipped lunch because my sleeping schedule was out of whack and I took a long nap in the afternoon, but after that I've eaten breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus snacks here and there, and it's done a lot toward making me not feel like I'm starving constantly. And I just generally feel better for having gotten up in the morning and made breakfast. This is a good habit to be getting into, and I'm proud of myself for having gotten two weeks into it. Long may it continue.