Faking Real Ramen

Hello! 

Through college, high school, and even today Ramen has been a staple in my pantry. It's quick, yummy, perfect when you're sick or when you're feeling lazy. It's also full of sodium and preservatives that make it not so good for you. So when I can hack ramen or make it better after years of eating it I do. I've never had real Japanese ramen even though I've always wanted to try it. Especially after watching the 2009 film Ramen Girl with Brittany Murphy. (Look it up on Netflix. *It's alright* like it or not you'll want ramen)

So keep in mind I'm a *real* ramen virgin and I'm totally faking it here, but this is how I make real/fake ramen. 

To fake real ramen you'll need the 3 staples: 

• Some kind of vegetables especially leafy green ones

• Some kind of meat 

• Egg

What I used (for two): 

2 packs of Ramen I used chicken flavor

1 packet of the Ramen flavoring ( to cut back on all the bad stuff in those things)

Cooked chicken ( I just baked mine with salt and pepper then sliced) 

Soy sauce 

Sesame seed oil 

Cooked Corn

Spinach 

Green onion chopped 

One soft boiled egg 

One hard boiled egg (boyfriend doesn't like soft boiled)

Seaweed 

If you are going to try to follow my recipe remember 1) I'm faking it 2) you have to eat it so make it your own all the ingredients I used are optional. 

First boil your noodles as usual. 

Next if you are cooking two ramen packages use only one seasoning packet, if you are only cooking one then only use half.

Add spinach 

Next add your soy sauce and sesame oil. I'm not going to tell you how much because this is completely preference. I suggest adding a little at a time until you get a taste you are happy with. 

Then put your creation into a bowl. Then simply put your ingredients on top of the noodles. I arranged my vegetables and I cut the eggs on top for a pretty presentation. 

Yum!! Very filling and delicious (and boyfriend approved)! 

There's my real/fake ramen. I have a few ramen hack recipes up my sleeve. I mean it's been years of eating ramen. But if you want to impress someone with your ramen making abilities this one looks the most impressive. Try your own real/fake ramen let me know how it goes! 

Chicken Lime and Jalapeño soup

A few weeks ago Joseph wasn't feeling well so I decided to make him some soup. My favorite soup is sinagong it's a Filipino soup and I like is extra sour. So when I found this recipe I was really interested. When he was sick I didn't have all the ingredients the recipe called for so some things were left. Which ended up fantastic.  

Here is the original recipe I found on Pinterest: http://www.budgetbytes.com/2012/10/chicken-lime-soup/

I'm going to try to tell you what I used accurately but there definitely wasn't a science or exact measuring so here we go. 

Ingredients: 

1 chicken beast (not too large?) 

1 can of rotel or any tomatoes with green chilies 

1 jalapeno 

1 onion 

1 3 cloves of garlic  

1 4 oz of chicken broth 

1 tsp of Oregano 

1/2 tsp of cumin 

1 lime 

2 tsp of olive oil 

First I sliced the onion. I sliced instead of diced because I love onion in soup and I just prefer it sliced. And I minced the garlic I put the onion and garlic in the pot with the olive oil on medium heat. Soften the onion while you continue with the next step. 

Next I cut up the jalapeño you'll need to scoop out the insides and seeds. To do this first I cut the top of then slice down the middle long ways. The use the knife to cut the middle loose and dice.

Add the diced jalapeños to the pot and let that soften as well. Then add the whole chicken breast.

And then add the can of rotel including the juices, the chicken broth, and the cumin and oregano.

Let that boil on high for a few minutes and then bring it down and let it simmer with the lid. 

The actual recipe said to let it simmer for an hour. I most definitely did not let it simmer for an hour. I needed to eat sooner than later and my sick boyfriend needed food and honestly my shows came on at 8 so dinner needed to be done. So I let it simmer for about 20 minutes. Then I took the chicken out and shredded it with two forks. If you've never done this it's super easy. Just take one fork and hold you would hold a fork when you are trying to cut a piece of chicken and hold the other fork in the other hand in the same way and pull apart.

And now you have shredded chicken!

Then mix in the shredded chicken in your soup. Before you put the top back on take your lime and squeeze it into the soup. I cut my lime into quarters so it was easier to squeeze, but whatever works for you. You might want to take a spoon to push into the lime to get as much juice from it as possible. The lime juice makes it perfect trust me the more the tastier. 

After you add the shredded chicken and lime juice, cover and simmer for 10 more minutes. After that your soup should be done and delicious. A little spicy a tiny bit sour and full of onions. Yum! 

Perfect for a cold day! Or just in the mood for different chicken soup. If you try this I hope it turns out delicious, and if you do try it let me know how it turns out!


 

 

Easy Mini Pies

At work we had a Christmas lunch pot luck type thing before Christmas. I wanted to make something easy but fun so I made mini pies! They are cute and not difficult at all to make! I made half apple and half cherry. I love pie and I love making guilt free pies but for the holidays it's ok to splurge. I definetly did! 

Here's what you'll need: 

Muffin tin (I actually have a cupcake maker that I use for everything) 

A mixing bowl medium or large

For the filling: 

2 Granny Smith apples, cored peeled and cut into small pieces that will fit in a muffin tin

1 tablespoon of all purpose flour 

1/2 cup of sugar 

1 teaspoon of cinnamon 

I didn't make my own cherry filling for time purposes. I just used can filling.

For the crust I bought 2 packages of pre made pie crust, it made things a lot easier.

First mix all the ingredience for the apple filling together, simple enough right? Then I cut the circles in the pie crust and pieces for the lattice. I washed the bottom of cans for a template. 

Then place the circles you cut out into your muffin pan and fill with the apples or cherries. I did a lattice pattern with small cut strips of the crust. I also took a smaller can and cut smaller circles with an X in the middle to place on top of the pies (The rotel can I used was the perfect size for a pie top) And I also tried to cut an apple shape but I only did that twice because it didn't really turn out how I wanted it to. 

The apple filling was quick and easy to bake, the cherry however expands and made a bit of a mess it took some trial and error to figure out the best amout to fill. I found that just three or four cherries in the middle worked best.

These pictures aren't all that great I kinda decided half way that I should take pictures so I can blog it. And though I used a cupcake maker, a muffin tin will work just fine but keep an eye on those cherry pies. 

There you have it, my first food post yay! I'll get better at doing this and taking better pictures and get better at remembering I have somewhere to share my recipes. I hope you liked it and maybe you'll make some mini pies yourself! 

Love, 

Mickey