Souped-Up Ramen

Recession-schmecession, it's always worth while to save a buck and have better food than usual while you're doing it, right? So here's a tip: Take a container of ramen, and slice a half a carrot into the water before you turn it on. (Slice them diagonally for attractive ovals.) Slice up a garlic clove into it too, while you're at it. Some slivers of onion would work, as would a shallot if you wanted to get fancy. Tofu? Sure, why not? Some leftover meat, if you want. A small hunk of broccoli. Sprinkle some cayenne in while it's cooking. (Go easy, it's potent stuff.) Maybe even—I'm going to try this in about a minute—grate in a dash of ginger. Catching on yet? Use your imagination. The bag of ramen costs somewhere from a quarter on down. The other stuff is in your pantry or refrigerator, or should be. If you're eating only processed, packaged food, for God's sake stop! Stop this minute!

Last step: Eat the soup. It's cheap, delicious, and you've put your own stamp on it. It's not nutritious? Well, first of all compared to what? A meatball hoagie? And second of all, you could go on a kind of grail quest for food that's cheap, tasty, and good for you, but you'd descend into madness and get hungry too. I'd love to have food that was cheap, tasty, and good for you, but usually you can have two of those three. Believe me, I've worked on this.

Now I've made myself hungry. Bye!