The 5 Minute, $1 Work Lunch

         Sure I could drive across the street to Mc Donald’s and order a number 4 with a coke and be in and out for under $7. Cost to me?! It’s 1350 Calories and over 80% of my daily fat intake. Awesome. Now when I go home and want to cook something in rendered duck fat I’ve completely gone into fat kid territory. Wait, how do I even afford to have duck fat? I don’t go across the street to Mc Donalds. I take my once weekly trip to the halls of Sam Walton hell and trudge through the knuckle dragging masses as the buy commoditized food products. Ramen. That’s right, I’m rockin’ ramen like the wage-garnished, under-paid, child-support paying, high bar-tab, & broke-down car in my friend’s garage having bachelor cook I am. 

southwestern ramen experiment

Okay, that sounds dramatic, but convenience is especially pertinent at work. Sometimes I’m lucky and we have lunch catered in and sometimes they cater in Golden Corral and other Sysco bag O’ meat serving caterers and I can’t identify what they’re giving out for free and I have to eat something. That’s ramen to.  I have a drawer devoted to Ramen and other easy prep noodles and I took over a section of the work fridge for veggies and important staple foods. I can normally concoct something but having the Ramen noodle base is a huge benefit. 

this is what my lunch area normally looks like during the summer, crowded tables full of catered foods and long anxious lines of hungry people waiting to

Things you need to have:

Ramen- anything works. I get the spicy chicken because about ¼ of the seasoning pack is plenty to punch up otherwise boring ramen.

Hot Sauce- Sriracha works wonders here ( I also rock that crazy asain market black bean hot sauce. It reminds me of Scallion cakes @ Henry’s Hunan in San Francisco.)

Veggies- I go through a lot of fresh veg in the kitchen and I thinly slice the majority of my leftovers and the ugly bits of my bell peppers for this.

I keep fresh cilantro, jalapeno, and grated carrot in the work fridge in addition to any other veg I bring.

This is what I had onhand. Less than normal but plenty for 1 good lunch

Remember- this is a noodle base and you can do whatever you want with it. It’s incredibly versatile. I did a black bean ramen with fajita style grilled peppers and onion and it was awesome. 

How I did yesterday’s 5-minute $1 Ramen in the Microwave:

Start with enough hot water to cover the noodles, stir until they are separated

Nuke for 1 min then combine with:

¼ picante chicken season pack,

1 spoonful peanut butter,

1-teaspoon sriracha then stir until combined 

the ramen w/ peanut butter sriracha broth

once your broth is developed toss in your veg.

I had:

scallion

carrot

jalapeno

bean sprouts

nuke again for 1 ½ minutes.

Garnish w/ Fresh Cilantro and a bit more Sriracha  and you’re done.

Tasty!

Total elapsed time shouldn’t even be 5 minutes. Your co-worker is probably just know holding onto her 60-ounce diet coke and waiting for their Big & Tasty and Large fries while you’re hiding out in your office to enjoy some peace, quite, and browse your fav food-related websites while you slurp down noodles and splash broth on your keyboard.