Hooray for Mac Monday: Egg Drop Ramen... A College Classic

          Currently, I am in my junior year of college at the University of Maryland (Go Terps!).  I don't always have the time to make a full meal as delicious as I would like.  A friend who lives on the same floor of my apartment complex shared this easy and delicious recipe.  It is a quick and easy way to make Ramen Noodles a little tastier and possibly even a little classier (Yes, I know it's hard to make Ramen Noodles classy, but this recipe narrows that margin.)  Obviously, Ramen Noodles are not the healthiest food in the world, but their college-boy-friendly price makes up for it.

          The scallions in this recipe add a nice freshness to the soup and a much-needed crisp texture to off-set the noddles.  The added egg helps to thicken the broth and enhances the overall flavor of the broth; it makes college apartment food cheap, filling, and packed with a delicious rich flavor.
          If you want to at least make them a little better for you (emphasize a little), you can try using only half of the pack of powdered flavoring.  The sodium in Ramen is astronomical, but I actually compared it to some Progresso Lite and Campbells soups and they're not that far behind.  You can also choose to drain some of the broth once the soup has cooked to reduce the amount of sodium.  (My sister likes to do that and enjoy it more like "noodles with soup," as opposed to "soup with noodles."

Ingredients:
1 pack of Ramen Noodles (I prefer the orange wrapper, Chicken)
1 large egg
1 bunch of scallions
Preparation:
Bring 2 cups of water to a strong boil in a small pot; add the Ramen noodles (hold off on the flavor packet).
Cut the scallions and add them to the pot (you really can use as much or as little as you want).
Cook for about 3 minutes until noodles are soft and separate; remove pot from heat.
Stir in the flavor packet as the soup begins to cool.
Crack 1 egg and drop it directly into the soup; stir immediately, making sure to break the yolk.
You can drain some of the broth for a spaghetti-like soup, or leave all of the broth for a winter-worthy soup.


          This meal is a quick and easy lunch or dinner for any time of the year.  It's especially delicious on those cold winter days, when it will warm you right up!  It is my go-to meal when I only have a few minutes in-between classes or if i have a long night of studying ahead of me.
Remember, cook what you love and love what you eat.

How adorable is this?!

Note from K: The noodles by themselves can get pretty boring, which is why Mac added an egg and scallion to his.  But you don't have to stop there.  You can add cooked shrimp or sausage or tofu or any other protein you might like (I like to add tofu in it sometimes, but I want to try it with shrimp).  You can also spruce it up with extra vegetables: maybe stir-fry vegetables, broccoli, spinach or kale, edamame, etc.  Ramen Noodles are a great base for an easy meal, but they don't have to be boring.  They're easy to experiment with and pretty hard to mess up, all-in-all a good college basic (plus it's cheap!).