Off-topic ~ If you’re on a budget and need a cheap and easy lunch buy a big bag of oatmeal, the kind without the added sodium and sugars, a bag of raisins and some brown sugar, optional but adding super seeds like flax an nuts is nice touch. Your gut health will thank you.

Get some dashi, Kewpie, egg, and the seasoning packet.

Mix vigorously with some hot water to get a nice paste. Then add your cooked noodles and water to taste.

Dash some roasted sesame oil and maybe some chilli oil for a topping.

Always tried and true for me and works with any ramen.

Throw the packet away. Reserve a little water you boil in. Drain pasta. Add pepper, parm cheese and some of that water you reserved

#2. Cook a breaded chicken patty. Boil ramen noodles. Toss the packet. Plate the noodles. Top with chicken patty. Top that with red sauce. Finally add a sprinkle of mozzarella

I toss copious amount of green onions in

mushrooms are great, even raw

peppers do ok

these are things I often have around so I don’t get fancy I just toss 'em in

Ramen eggs if I remember to make them. Otherwise I like adding some dried mushrooms when it’s boiling away. Even if it already has some, more mushrooms!

Chili Garlic Sauce. Hoisin. Soy Sauce. Sesame Oil.

My favorite is frying mushrooms and an egg in oil while the ramen microwaves then combining them

Mix some tuna into that bad boy

I cook 2 packs of noodle blocks in 2 cups of water and one seasoning pack in a skillet for that chow mein feel. I sometimes add cabbage or bok choy or similar to the the pan as the noodles cook. Throw a fried egg on top, maybe add a lil seaweed salad, kimchi if you’re feeling spicy. Delicious.

My go to additions:

• frozen peas/corn
• TINY AMOUNT of sesame oil
• a big glob of chili oil
• an egg or two
• american cheese

Spices (pepper, paprika, curry, etc), sauces (hot sauce, soy sauce, stir fry sauce, etc), veg add like carrots onion, lentils or beans, peanuts, egg

Frozen eggrolls aren’t necessarily budget friendly, but I think they go great with Ramen. I get the Ramen boxes that have 12 packets of the square blocks of noodles, not the cup kind. The eggrolls come in boxes of 8 and come in chicken, pork and veggie. If I get 3 boxes of eggrolls and 2 boxes of Ramen, it comes to 24 of each so I have a 1:1 ratio. The cost comes to just under $40 where I live, in the U.S. great lakes area.

To make the meal I start by putting the eggroll in the microwave. Then I put the noodles and packet and water in a bowl. The time it takes me to do that is enough to thaw the frozen eggroll a good amount. Then I move the eggroll from the microwave to my toaster oven and put the ramen in the microwave. The time it takes to cook the ramen in the microwave is about the same time it takes the eggroll in the toaster oven to finish cooking to a nice crispy state. I usually cook the ramen a little longer than the package suggest, about a minute more.

Because the eggroll is hot, I stab it with a fork to pick it up. Then I hold it over the ramen bowl and pour a small amount of soy sauce into the fork holes, letting it runoff into the ramen bowl. I start to eat the eggroll while holding it over the ramen bowl. It falls apart, with the bits falling into the ramen. By the time I’m done with that, the ramen has softened and cooled off enough to eat normally.

Chicken eggrolls go with chicken ramen. Pork eggrolls do too, as well as with pork and been ramen. Veggie eggrolls go with any flavor ramen.

The other thing I do is basically the same thing but instead of eggrolls, it is frozen meatballs. They tend to be better with beef ramen, which I am not a fan of but if the food pantry has it I wont turn it down. I still use them in chicken ramen too, some meatballs aren’t even beef even thought they may look like it.

• use broth instead of water
• cook in a pot instead of with a water boiler
• add baby bok choy
• get better brands of instant noodles (according to your preference). Some brands are quite good already on their own

Cook noodles, but drain most of the water, add some peanut butter with the seasoning, some veg, and some chili crisp. Now you have pad thai ish.

Cheese is a thing some people do as well.