Erica & Wes' adventures in ramen noodles.

Home creation: beef flavored instant noodles with dried seaweed, topped with a fried egg and crispy onions.

When Wes & I went to Sydney, my cousin, Kent, suggested that we go to a local ramen house. "Ramen," I asked, "those cheap noodles you get at the Asian grocery store for 0.79 dollars a bag?" (I obviously knew nothing about ramen noodles.) One night during our stay, Wes & I walked to Ippudo. (http://www.ippudo.com.au/) It was a small restaurant inside of the mall and extremely packed with hungry customers. The entire staff (dressed in traditional attire) shouted greetings and thank you's in Japanese as each guest entered and left. The menu was both foreign and adventurous, two of my favorite things when trying new foods. Our dinner was good but I wasn't instantly hooked.

Our meal from Ippudo.

Fast forward two years and there are now two ramen houses -that I know of- in Oklahoma City. I've eaten at them both and enjoyed thoroughly the food (Sydney planted the seeds and it just took me a while to come around). I decided to make some of our own ramen concoctions at home. Wes has made "fancy ramen" before and was on board with the idea. Here are some of the bowls we've come up with. (To all you foodies out there...pretty pretty please don't get offended... this isn't claiming to be as good as the traditional ramen served in the noodle houses. It's definitely an easy DIY imitation using instant noodles and creative pairing of ingredients.)

Instant imitation ramen noodle recipe-

       Ingredients needed: instant ramen and whatever you want to mix into it. Simple enough, yeah?

1. If you're using meat, make sure it is pre-cooked. We used leftover protein from the previous night's dinner.

2. Prepare ramen noodles according to instructions on package.

3. When the water is boiling, add in meat & vegetables along with the noodles & spice packet.

4. Add toppings and serve.

Here are some delicious ideas:

Chicken with edamame and eggplant, topped with cilantro.

Duck and zucchini, topped with cilantro and crispy fried onions (not pictured). I put the zucchini in last so it didn't get too soggy.

Shrimp with mushrooms and edamame, topped with sesame seeds. This was my least favorite combination. I don't think the shrimp worked very well.

The possibilities are endless (as long as you're willing to break tradition)! It's a quick and cheap meal. It's also relatively healthy, the only bad part is the sodium content in the spice packet. And it's fun getting to be creative with what you want to add in. We bought a twelve pack of instant ramen for $7 and had cheap, healthy and fun dinners for a month!