How to jazz up plain ramen

Too lazy to go to the market? Want something that you can do without much effort? This is a nice way to make your instant ramen/noodles more interesting.

Ingredients:
Ramen noodles cooked as per instructions on the packet
Veggies (bok choy was used in this recipe)
Egg (soft boiled)
Chicken strips (chicken breast cut thinly against the grain)
Olive oil (for pan frying)
Seasoning for the chicken: salt, pepper, garlic powder

Method:
First boil the veggies until you can poke a fork into it with very little effort (or to the tenderness you like). Once its ready, put them in an ice bath (5mins) to preserve its color and also to prevent over cooking and avoiding the mushiness

Then drain it and let the water trickles downn like rain.. jk :)

Next soft boil the egg and season it with pepper only. Packaged ramen is usually very salty as it is, so there is no need to add more salt.

Then season the chicken strips with the mix and pan fry it. I cook it until I can see brown edges.

Here is what my ramen would look like just by it self (booooring...)

Here is what it looks like when it is put together with the fix-ins. You can make the ramen even more healthy by adding more veggies (adding volume) to the ramen aaannnndd ...... if you are ambitious you can also reduce the amount of ramen noodles and seasoning in one serving.

Here is another shot :)

Tea time - Genmaicha

So I had the pleasure of getting a sample of Genmaicha from an asian store. This tea is very good for the summer. It is not a pure tea in the sense that its contents include more than just grean tea leaves. The additional content is roasted rice. [source 1]

When I looked into it (btw...im a pretend tea aficionado ;) ) it seems to have two really cool stories of origin.

One being that looooong time ago it was the tea consumed the common man. The reason being that adding roasted rice to the tea would increase the overall 'volume' of the tea and hence make it less expensive to have over a period of time. This is the most frequent story i have come across. [source 1, source 2 ]. That was the story then, but now according to sources, it is coming into trend among Japanese elite. [source 1].

Before I mention about the other story look at the packaging I got. It was almost too pretty to open :)

For the second story of its origin (most interesting...btw) is based on a legend from the 15th century. At that time a servant named Genmai was serving tea to his master. As Genmai was serving the tea, a few rice kernels from his pocket fell into the tea. At that time tea was expensive and a commodity, so naturally as the rice fell into the tea, the master got angry. Since those times people didn't have human rights, poor Genmai was beheaded for his 'crime'. 

Afterwards, the master tasted the 'tainted' tea, and found it delicious! Not to bad for the anger he felt! For this reason this formulation of tea came to be known as Genmaicha (the 'cha' in Genmaicha means tea). [source 3] 

Simple Summer Salad

This salad was totally inspired by what was there at home. Its an easy way to get away from having an all carb lunch (rice, pasta etc). Its refreshing to replace heavy meals with light and fresh salads once in a while. I love adding fruits & nuts to salads.

Here is my simple recipe:

Ingredients:
Lettuce
Cucumber
Baby tomatoes
Pear
Strawberry
Any salad dressing of your choice
Chicken Breast cut into strips
Olive oil
Seasoning mix: salt, pepper, garlic powder, lemon/lime juice, mint (or any fresh/dry herb at hand. Mint goes really .. realllly ...well and I recommend using it when possible...no pressure! :P), chili powder (optional)

Note: The amount of ingredients (ex. lettuce vs. fruit vs protein etc) you decide to add to the salad is entirely up to you. That's the best part about making salads.

Method:
First marinate chicken with the seasoning mix.

After 10 mins or so.... fry the strips in the pan with a little olive oil. If the strips are cut thin, the chicken will cook very fast. For beginners, you can check the 'doneness' by splitting a strip in half and checking if the meat looks white. Stay away from pink. Here is what mine looked like after cooking:

While the chicken is cooking, cut the other veggies to your liking.

Here is what it looked like when put together. So pretty!