Cooking: A New Spin on Ramen Bricks

Ah yes.  The poor college student's "favorite" food: ramen brick.  And after a while of eating the salty things, they get pretty darned boring, right?  Well, not mine.

To be honest, it was ramen that got me started on the whole "kitchen alchemy" thing.  Because I soon discovered that if I add a bit of this or that, it made the ramen taste good.

What you'll need:
Broth or extra bouillon (depending on the flavor of ramen brick; this one is beef)
1 can mixed vegetables
1 brick firm tofu, cubed
1/4 cup green bell pepper, chopped
1 stalk of celery, sliced
Crushed Red Pepper Flakes, to taste
Onion flakes, to taste
Garlic powder, to taste
1 ramen brick, with bouillon packet

If you use broth, you don't need water.  If you use water instead, just use the required amount.

Cut open and drain the tofu brick.  Cut it into small cubes.

Prepare your vegetbles.  Put those, the tofu, and the seasonings into the liquid.

Turn the mixture on medium.

While you wait, if you like your ramen spoon-sized, then crush it and remove the seasoning packet.  Go ahead and add the seasoning packet to the broth mixture.

When the liquid cooks down a little, add your ramen.  Cook it for 3 minutes, and serve.

You know how the package for the ramen says it makes two servings?  When you get done with making this version of ramen, you should have at least four servings.  And the tofu gives you some protein.

I've tried all kinds of spices, soy sauce, and teriyaki sauce in different versions of this (but without the tofu), and I've had lots of tasty success.

The only failure I had involved not realizing that the shaker wasn't in place when I was adding crushed red pepper flakes to the ramen.  I wound up dumping half the container into it.  The former roommate and I managed to sort of eat it--after dumping a lot of Ranch dressing into it.