Ramen Noodle Salad Recipe by Guido Nussbaum

Ramen noodles are made from dough of wheat flour, salt, and a type of alkaline water containing potassium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate. Eggs are sometimes used instead of alkaline water. Noodles are usually flat, fat, thin, and ribbon-like. They can be straight or wrinkled and they come in yellowish hue. Ramen is a typical Japanese food though it originated in China. It is usually cooked with broth or boiling liquids flavored with meat and vegetables. Toppings are usually added like pork and onions to add flavor.

One example of ramen noodles that gained popularity is yakisoba. Yakisoba means “fried noodles.” It is prepared with vegetables, bite-sized pork, carrots, cabbage, salt and pepper. It is usually served in a plate. Another way of preparing yakisoba is by piling the noodles. The piled noodles are placed on sliced bread and showered with pickles.

Instant ramen is a popular food among Orientals. Since it production, its preparation has gave birth to wide varieties of recipes ranging from fried ramen to salads, served mostly in restaurants. It has gained popularity in western countries and is now served not only with meat-based broth but with a wide range of ingredients like vegetables, nuts, and fruits.

Salads are mixtures of foods, often served with dressings with addition of meat, fish, cheese and grains. According to history, salads originated in countries like Italy and the Netherlands. The word “salad” comes from the French word “salade” which means salt in Latin. There are types of salads. These are sometimes named based on the food items mixed with the vegetables. Some of popular ones are Antipasto salad, Chef salad, chicken salad, and ham salad. Dressings come in wide varieties like vinegar, mayonnaise, lemon, or soy sauce.

Below is a simple ramen noodle salad recipe that is easy to do. This requires no heating and is ready to eat as soon as all ingredients were mixed up.

Cabbage Ramen Noodle Salad
Ingredients for the salad:
1 package of Top Ramen Noodles, crumbled
½ head cabbage, finely chopped
4 green onions, chopped
½ can sliced almonds

Directions: Mix all ingredients together except the ramen noodles and refrigerate.

Ingredients for the dressing:
Flavor packet from the noodles
2 tbsp of sugar
3 tbsp of vinegar
½ tsp of pepper

Directions: Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Serve as a salad dressing.

If you are tired of cooking ramen the traditional way, you can try this ramen noodle salad recipe at home. You can serve this either as your main dish or side dish.

There are other simple ramen noodle salad recipes out there. Sanyo Foods Corporation of America offers different food services, products, soups, sauces, condiments and dressings to suit your innovation when it comes to making salad from ramen. Sapporo Ichiban, a product of Sanyo Foods, is one of the popular brands of ramen noodles in the market today. A wide variety of flavors ranging from soy sauce, chicken, beef, shrimp, and miso are available. These ramen noodles come with their distinct colored packaging.

More recipes for Ramen Noodle Salads can be found at the Ramen Noodle Salad recipe site.

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Vegetables Snacks Kids Like to Eat by Carrie Lauth

What would you do if your kids asked for “More veggies, please?” Well, prepare yourself, because they just might when you serve vegetables like this. These snacks are great for after school treats.

Celery and Pretzel Butterfly

2 stalks of celery
12 large pretzels (not the straight kind)
6 tablespoons natural peanut butter
Around 18 raisins
12 slivered almonds

Wash the celery with cold water. Cut the celery stalks crosswise into thirds. Fill each celery stalk with one tablespoon of the peanut butter. Gently push 1 pretzel into the peanut butter, so the pretzel is parallel to the length of the celery stick and looks like a wing. Do the same on the other side of the celery, with another pretzel. Your celery stick now has butterfly wings!

Use the raisins for the eyes, nose and mouth of the butterfly. Create the antennae by pushing the slivered almonds into the filling, on top of the butterfly’s head.

Celery and Carrot Wagons

2 stalks of celery
12 toothpicks
16 carrot slices
1/2 cup of peanut butter; cheese spread or ranch dressing
20 Raisins

Wash the celery with cold water. Cut celery stalks crosswise into pieces that are about 3 inches long. Push two toothpicks through the sides of each celery stick to create the axles for four wheels. Fill each celery wagon with the peanut butter, or another spread. Stick a round carrot slice onto the end of each toothpick to form a wheel. After the wheel is attached, cover each toothpick tip with a raisin.

You can stick a toothpick into the end of the celery for a wagon handle, and cover the tip with another raisin. You can also leave the handle off to create a celery car instead.

Tomato Army Ants

3 small cherry tomatoes for each ant
9 toothpicks or grape stems for each ant.

Rinse the cherry tomatoes in cold water. Attach the three tomatoes with two of the toothpicks or grape stems. Use six more to create the ants legs, and two for the antennae. Make as many as you can to create a whole army of ants.

Zucchini or Cucumber Centipede

Small zucchinis or cucumbers
Shredded carrots

Rinse the zucchinis or cucumbers. Cut off the ends of each, and attach strips of zucchini or cucumber for the legs. You can use shredded carrots for the antennae.

Here are some other tips to make vegetables more child-friendly

Choose Colorful Veggies - Kids loves colors. When you serve vegetables to your children, try to serve an assortment of colors

Make them Little Finger Friendly – Slice vegetables into small pieces so they will be easier to pick up with small fingers.

Do the Dip - If your child is a reluctant vegetable eater, let them experiment with different dips. Most kids like ranch dip for their vegetables. Some kids will eat anything if it has cheese or peanut butter on it.

Vegetable Art - Instead of arranging vegetables for your kids, let them design their own vegetable creations. Give them an assortment of vegetables, spreads, and toothpicks, and let them create their own work of vegetable art.

Get hundreds more healthy snack and lunch ideas for the whole family at Whole Foods Recipes

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Cheap Meal Ideas – 3 Alternatives to Fast Food by Jude Wright

Society today is very tired and overworked. Everyone is busy and running at a fast pace each day. It does not matter what the reason is for the hectic pace of your lifestyle, your time is precious and needs to be managed effectively. You need cheap meal ideas to help you stretch your time and money while still providing a wholesome and nutritious dinner for you and your family.

The fast food makers know how little time we have and use this very thing to make themselves successful. The idea of coming home after a long day at work and cooking for four or five people is not something we tend to look forward to on top of preparing for the next day and trying to get the homework done. This is why they offer you cheap meal ideas that require no cleaning, no cooking, and only 25 minutes to pick up.

Mothers and fathers are the first to take a run to the drive through to avoid the hassles of grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning up after dinner so they can go home and relax a bit before they need to wake up and do it all over again. The problem with this is that eating so much fast food will inevitably cause obesity and is not the healthiest choice to consider. There are some very cheap meal ideas that take almost no time to prepare and will make coming home to a good meal more bearable.

The first cheap meal idea includes meat, vegetables, and pasta or rice all in one dish. To make a quick stir fry, begin with some thin slices of meat. Beef is good and chicken will also work. Add a modest amount of soy sauce to the meat. Cook until done completely. In the same pan, add a bag of stir fry vegetables to the mix. Add a cup of water to the mix as the vegetables are heating to make a sauce of sorts. While the meat and vegetables are cooking, get out a bag or two of the boil in bag rice. Let this cook as the rest is heating. When the rice is complete, put a helping on each plate and cover with the stir fry vegetables and meat. Not only is this a cheap meal idea, it is also fast; it can be made in only 20 minutes.

You can whip up a hearty batch of pancakes and scrambled eggs for the family in about 30 minutes or less. If you think it is strange to eat breakfast food for dinner, consider how these same foods give you what you need to go through an entire day. Another one of the cheap meal ideas to try is a simple macaroni and cheese with meat dish. The ground beef or turkey only takes 20 minutes to cook through and the macaroni and cheese can be finished before the meat is. For an added flavor, add one small can of tomato sauce for a tomato macaroni dish.

When you fix one of these or other cheap meal ideas at home, you are taking time out of your busy day to treat yourself and your family special.

Want to learn more about Meal Planning? Visit http://mealplanningguide.com for meal planning ideas, meal plans and recipes.

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Making Milk Chocolate Fondue by Joe Young

Shop for Milk Chocolate Fondue

Talk about a child’s dream dessert, milk chocolate fondue is just a kid’s bliss. Minus the alcohol that might go into some recipes of course. I feel like I am in Charlie’s Chocolate Factory looking at that stream of chocolate. Milk chocolate fondue can be made with any type of chocolate really, Belgian chocolate, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate. There are inexpensive ways of making it. You can buy it from a well known vendor or make it yourself with homemade ingredients. And, what’s a chocolate fondue without some fondue dippers, like strawberries, bananas, pineapple, pound cake, and pecan, almonds, and anything else I suppose you could spear with a fondue fork.

They rank number one in the search engine and make one mean milk chocolate fondue, that is, Betty Crocker. When you think of baking and dessert making you think, Betty Crocker right? Their products are top quality and also very affordable. You can take the quick route to getting milk chocolate fondue, by purchasing from Betty Crocker. They have a great recipe for Chocolate Sour Cream Fondue as well.

Another great option for fondue is Nestle. They have such recipes as chocolate peanut butter smores fondue, a spiced chocolate fondue. Many of these brands offer advice on how to prepare such chocolate fondues, especially if you do not have a recipe book for them. Milk chocolate fondue is always delicious and a great treat to serve to guests at a special occasion.

Also keep in mind that by going with dark chocolate fondue over the milk chocolate versions, you will be receiving many health benefits. Dark chocolate is rich in antioxidants, which are able to fight off free radicals in the body. There is also the absence of milk in pure dark chocolate, which is beneficial to many lactose free individuals.

Remember, if you are making your own milk chocolate fondue, there needs to be a liquid mixed with the morsels or else they will stick to the pan and scortch. Some use half and half, others evaporated milk with other substances, spices, etc. This is key to creating a rich, creamy, chocolate fondue for all your family and guests to enjoy. Make a few weekend tryouts before serving for a special event in order to get the process right and perfected.

Many places have incredible recipes for making chocolate fondue, such as local stores, online stores, and personal websites posting some old-fashioned recipes. If you are in the market for something specific, then do some searching, if elogance is your goal. Remember, chocolate is chocolate, it is all about how it is prepared that elevates it above the norm. Presentation is also another factor. This is as important as preparation. Which you can use a good melting pot, or 2-quart household pot to prepare, add all the right ingredients. Then presentation takes it from there. But, when you are done, it is still chocolate, whatever type you chose. I worked in salad and desserts in an Italian restaurant some years ago, and I remember how big presentation was.

I will prove to you that is a big part of making chocolate fondue. How do you feel everytime you look at a website displaying it? It catches the eye, it has appeal, I want to make that, you say, right? Focus on preparation first, then presentation last. If it is made right, it will taste right, then it can be made to look right.

This text is a link to a page on the World Wide Web.

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