homemade ramen noodles - an oxymoron

i have a new addiction, courtesy of hubby.  stupid teriyaki ramen noodle bowls that you can get for a buck.  they taste so freaking good, but the sodium count and additives/preservatives will surely kill us both.  so i decided to get pick the bowls apart and figure out what the yum factor was.

there's the noodles part, then teriyaki sauce and sesame oil.  the freeze dried bits of onion, carrot and beef or chicken can surely be improved on.  

so when hubby ran to the store on saturday, i asked him to pick up a few packs of ramen noodles, a piece of lean steak, a bunch of green onions and a bag of shredded carrots.  i had some teriyaki sauce, sesame oil, corn starch and ginger root already on hand:

i sliced the beef as thinly as possible, coated in corn starch, and fried up in batches with some canola oil. i then added a handful of shredded carrot and the white portions of the onions, along with some grated ginger root.  i added several glugs of teriyaki sauce and about a tablespoon of sesame oil and let the sauce thicken up:

i boiled the noodles, drained and added them to the sauce, along with sprinkling the green parts of the onion on top:

while i could have cut the beef smaller, this tasted pretty darn good!  it's also easy to switch up ingredients - use chicken, tofu, shrimp instead of beef, or add broccoli, pea pods - any vegetable would work here, i think.

i admit it took a lot longer to cook this meal than a noodle bowl (about 30 minutes, from chopping ingredients to plating), plus it cost a gazillion times more than a buck noodle bowl (the ramen noodles were $4 a pack, but i think you could buy a pack of flavored ramen noodles and just throw away the seasoning packet), i think it's a lot healthier than a noodle bowl, and tastier too.  fresh food always tastes best.

enjoy!