Beef Ramen

There's a bit of cheating going on tonight. We went out for dinner last night for our anniversary and I got steak. Said steak didn't get finished at the restaurant and followed me home. Daren ate his leftovers for lunch and I figured steak was too good for a midday meal. I was a little torn on what to do with the 7oz of pure bliss I couldn't finish last night and kicked around a couple ideas before settling on a bulky Ramen dish. That's right, Ramen. Cheapo, sodium-filled Ramen.

As a note, the fried pieces sprinkled on top were a crapshoot and do not deserve a nod in this post. Deep fried steak, no matter how tasty the homemade breadcrumbs are, should not exist.

• 7oz top sirloin (optional)
• 2 packs Beef Ramen
• 1 celery stalk, thinly sliced
• 1/8 onion, thinly sliced
• small chunk of fresh ginger
• 5 cups water
• 1/8 cup ginger teriyaki sauce (optional)
• pepper
• garlic
• squirt of sriracha (optional - used purely for spiciness)

• soup pot

Dice up celery, onion, and ginger. If there are other vegetables available like carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, etc., feel free to add them. I just used what we had in the fridge. Put into soup pot with thin slices of steak and the 5 cups of water. Use only one and a quarter of the beef flavor packets provided in the two bags of Ramen. Any flavorful sauce would work if available; we bought a bottle of Jake's Ginger Teriyaki Sauce from a bakery outlet last week and I figured beef + ginger = winning combination. However, the minimal amount I put in did not lend much in the way of flavor so the broth will not be entirely lacking without it. At this point, add the sriracha. One small squirt is more than enough to flavor the whole pot.

Let come to a full boil on high heat. Add dry Ramen noodles and break apart. If you've never cooked Ramen before, it really does only take about 3 minutes like advertised on the packaging. Once the noodles are to desired state, pull from the heat and serve.

A side note: this recipe can be doctored to any specific taste with any meat or vegetable.

The grand total of this meal which fed two, with no leftovers, was $0.68. This obviously does not include the price of the steak, but even without the meat, this is something we have when nothing else sounds good. It's hearty without meat and it's filling.

• Ramen 31¢
• celery 11¢
• onion 4¢
• ginger 2¢
• sauces 20¢