Disability Kitchen Food Hacks: ramen that’s almost nutritious

So sometimes I can get up and cook. Some days the things I’m capable of making are more basic than others. And somedays I’m so tired and my joints are so badly behaved I can barely drag myself into the kitchen and stand long enough to boil a kettle. But that’s OK(ish), because a kettle is all you need to make this cheap but jazzed up ramen that, while far from healthy, isn’t entirely bereft of nutritional value.

Equipment

A kettle, a spoon and a, preferably large, soup bowl.

Ingredients

1 package of ramen (I prefer one of the spicy ones)

Peanut butter

Spring onion/scallions

Spinach, fresh or frozen

Frozen peas

If you have fresh spinach then lay a handful of the leaves into the bottom of the bowl. Lay the dry noodles on top of them and, if you’re adding peas as well, fit them into the spaces between the square sides of the noodles and the curve of the bowl. If you’re using frozen spinach either place it on top of the noodles or push it into the gap between noodles and bowl as well. Put the seasoning packets on top and get a good heaping spoonful of peanut butter ready to go while the kettle boils. Pour the boiling water into the bowl and use the peanut butter spoon to press the noodles and frozen spinach down into the water so that it dissolves as the vegetables and noodles soften. Tear some scallion greens and sprinkle them on top, add whatever seasonings you like and you have a cheap, hot meal that contains protein as well as two whole vegetables. Retreat back to wherever you’re nesting for the day and congratulate yourself on nourishing yourself despite your body’s best efforts to sabotage it.