When deciding on what to choose to do for my free inquiry project I kept coming up with options that would take time away from my life or add to the already massive to-do list. I decided I did not want to add another thing that would cause me to burn out. I instead thought of ways I could use this project to create a positive impact on my life during the busy times of the school year. When you are a student with five courses, two jobs, and Wednesday school visits there isn’t much time in your life for anything other than eating and sleeping, so I decided to base my project around food.
I do not have an exact inquiry question but throughout this project I will be asking myself, what ways can I add more nutrients to this meal? What food can I substitute for a healthier option? How can I make this food better for myself?
I didn’t just want to make this seem like a health food blog though, so it is not. During the school year, I often find myself resorting to the university/college classics when it comes to food. I often don’t have much time to put aside for cooking meals full of nutrients therefore I am often left feeling full but not energized. My other issue is that I didn’t want to give up eating things like burgers, tacos, tater tots, and ramen. So I decided to do my best to create healthy (or just healthier) versions of all my favourite classics. Lastly, I decided there was no better place to start with than ramen!
We first must start with the humble ramen package. Although she was no more than $1.50 at the store we are going to turn her into a delicious veggie-packed meal perfect for one very hungry person or two moderately hungry people.
I started by boiling some water to cook my noodles the traditional package ramen way (in a bowl with hot water).
Next, I cut up a small head of broccoli and one large carrot and began cooking these at a low temperature in a pan. 
While my broccoli and carrots cooked I began cutting up one-third of a large zucchini and four mushrooms. Once my broccoli and carrots were about halfway through cooking I added my zucchini and mushrooms and gave them some time to cook to my desired consistency.
Once my noodles had finished cooking, which was after about ten minutes, I ended everything into the pan together. At this point, I added the seasoning and sauces from the package and mixed everything together. Before plating everything I quickly fried up an egg to add some protein to the meal.
After plating, I added some green onions, sriracha, and sesame seeds to complete the meal. This meal only took me an extra ten minutes longer than it usually would take me to make ramen but it was ten times more delicious and was now packed full of protein, Vitamin C, Vitamin B-6, Vitamin A, and potassium.
My experience with this particular recipe was that it is well worth the extra ten minutes and some chopping. Eating the dish felt like I was actually sitting down to a proper meal rather than just chowing down on the easiest, quickest food I could find in my house. I thoroughly enjoyed my revamped ramen dish and was happily surprised by what I could make out of so little.
That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading!
