Tuesday's Fried Ramen

(for the suddenly broke)

My children eat Alot.   In fact I once joked with my husband telling him that pretty soon he was going to need to get a second job just to feed them.  He answered back that 'yeah, at the grocery store' to which Ryan who was about five or six at the time chirped in happily that 'we'd see dad all the time then', much laughter ensued and I reiterate the fact that my children eat Alot.

For us, grocery shopping occurs on Wednesday, thus the appropriate name of Tuesday's Fried Ramen.  After all, by Tuesday the most you'll  find in the house to eat  is a package of Ramen soup and some frozen vegetables (ok so maybe there's some cheese and macaroni and some eggs and various canned vegetables and enough cereal and milk for one bowl --but we are talking no man's land here). 

Now, on to the recipe.

Ingredients:

• Chicken flavor Ramen Noodle Soup
  • 1 to 2 packages
  • the brand I normally use is Maruchan
  • sometimes they go on sale for approximately ten for a dollar
• Vegetable Oil
  • couple table spoons of it
• Frozen Vegetables
  • Whatever trips your trigger (I use peas)
• Optional Chicken

So Easy it Isn't Funny

So you spent your whopping dollar or less and are now ready to fry noodles. First comes the fun part, you get to smash the noodles.  That's right...Smash.  Take the Unopened package of Ramen and pound it on the counter until the noodles are all broken up.  Hopefully, you were gentle enough that the package didn't break open in your exuberance. Now, set the noodles aside.  Put some vegetable oil in your frying pan, turn on the stove to medium high heat.  Open the package of noodles & take out flavor packet.  Mix the flavor packet with about a cup of water (maybe a cup and a half) in separate container.  Viola, chicken broth.   Then toss noodles in pan and stir and fry for a minute or two.  

Whatever you do, Don't burn the noodles, that's just Gross.  

Then add a quarter or a half  of the chicken broth  and as many frozen vegetables as you like.  Stir, pause, stir, pause, and stir until most the broth has evaporated.  Pour in a little more broth, stir again until broth is all basically evaporated.  Maybe repeat.  Then, when noodles look about the consistency that you like, it's done.

Are we all clear on this?  You're going to have to use your own judgment and taste to decide when the noodles are done.

Oh, and if you suddenly want to splurge you can fry up some cut up chicken and add it to your mixture. And if you like crunchy, you can sprinkle some uncooked noodles over your meal.