chik'n flavored ramen with veggies in the crockpot

Today we went to yamato in Orem and cakewalk vegan bakery in salt lake city. At cakewalk, we tons of stuff that I really enjoyed. We basically bought one of everything and went to a beautiful park in downtown SL to munch on our goodies. I had my carrot cake and a couple of bites of my boys' key lime pie, boston cream pie, and chocolate peanut butter. All were fantastic, but the peanut butter was a tad too much for me. still great though. The park was glorious and it was so fun to be somewhere other than utah county.

At yamato, I got their vegetable tempura (it's so good, I always want more!). They serve you with their miso soup (to die for!) and a house salad with a very uniquely sweet, yet slightly sour, dressing that is surprisingly addicting before you get your meal. As delicious and inspiring as my meal was, the true inspiration for me today was my son's meal of ramen noodles with cabbage and carrots in chicken broth. Because of this, I felt I had to make a quick trip to the store and make myself some too! Seriously, I only needed to buy cabbage, a carrot, and some green onions for my idea. This is beyond simple.
I love the crockpot...and I love soup!

This is honestly just about everything you need.

Just add water, sea salt n' pepper, and some shoyu (soy sauce) and you've got yourself one.way.easy.meal, my friend!

Throw it all in the slow cooker and wait to enjoy! You've got meals for two weeks!

chik'n flavored ramen with veggies
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2 ramen noodles packages, sauce packets discarded (I might use one less ramen noodle next time because I like the Japanese style on this one - more broth, less stuff)
4 T no-chicken base bouillon
1 carrot, shredded
3 green onions, chopped (mine were HUGE, I've never seen such a thing! You might want to do 4 if your green onions are average in size)
1 head of cabbage (nothing unusual about this one, just an ordinary sized cabbage head will do)
12 cups of water
32 oz veggie broth
sea salt n' pepper, to taste
shoyu, to taste (I used maybe 1 T, if not a smidgen more. I think it added something special to this dish)

1. Add everything to the crockpot except the shoyu and salt n' pepper. When adding the noodles, break them up once or twice (use your preference). Set the crockpot on High for 2 1/2 hours. Check and stir throughout and add more water if you want as the noodles will really start to absorb the moisture to soften.
2. Once the crockpot is finished, add shoyu, sea salt n' pepper, stir together and continue to cook on High for another 30 minutes. Stir fairly often just to incorporate and taste check to see if you want to add more shoyu, salt, or pepper.

I love you yamato. I might try to make Tempura some other time! I have never fried on my own before. I have seen it done and the oil popping everywhere makes me scared. We'll see.

For the three of us to eat (and you get a ton of food!) was only $26 so it would not be a big deal for me to run over there (in walking distance from where we live) to just go buy some tempura to support yamato :) We love this place and I hope you everyone else does too! Every time we go there, they maybe have 2-3 tables seated before us. I like it because I feel like it is very relaxed and appealing, but it also makes me sad because I want to see them do well too. Go and visit yamato people!

flank "steak" seitan - crockpot

J-man and I made up some flank seitan in the slow cooker. I love crockpot meals - smelling it cook all day, the ease, the creativity, the way the flavors play off of each other. It's a work of art, really. I hope anyone who tries this, thoroughly enjoys it, like me and the Jabe did :)

flank "steak" seitan
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what you need:
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 1/2 green bell pepper, sliced
2 packages seitan
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried minced garlic (or garlic powder, but I like the minced version)
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
add pepper to taste
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp lime juice
1 cup of beef flavored broth: add 1 cup water with 1 tsp beef flavored broth, heated over stove to dissolve
1 - 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed

1. Spray your crockpot with cooking spray, then add your sliced peppers and top with the seitan, then add all spices and flavors (chili powder, oregano, garlic, sea salt, pepper, onion powder, and lime juice). Let sit on Low for about 6 hours.
2. During the last 2 hours, prepare the beef broth. Once the beef flavoring is dissolved, add the broth to the crockpot. Cook for another hour and a half, then add your beans for the remaining 30 minutes.

All done! Serve over whole grain rice.


My boy made the beef broth pretty much all on his own :) He is in love with cooking.

He enjoyed this fully. Kept going back for more! This is a pretty mild dish, so if you like it a bit more spicy, you could probably add more chili powder maybe even some El Pato canned salsa...