Carrot-Noodle Vegetarian Ramen

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Carrot-Noodle Vegetarian Ramen

Start out your new year right with this super healthy Carrot-Noodle Vegetarian Ramen. It's packed full of flavor and good for you ingredients!

Course Main Course, Stuff in a Bowl

Cuisine Asian

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 37 minutes

Total Time 47 minutes

Servings 4 servings

Author Brewing Happiness

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
• 1/2 yellow onion, sliced
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• 3 carrots, washed and julienned (or spiralized)
• 1 heaping cup shiitake mushrooms, diced
• 8 broccolini florets, trimmed
• 1/4 cup liquid aminos (sub soy sauce)
• 1 tablespoon miso paste
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon garlic chili sauce (sub sriracha)
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 3 bok choy bulbs, trimmed
• 1 block super firm tofu
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Top with:

• Soft boiled eggs (optional)
• Cashews, roasted and salted
• Chives, diced

Instructions

1. In a large soup pot or dutch oven over medium-low heat with 1 tablespoon olive oil, minced garlic, grated ginger and yellow onion. Sauté for 5-7 minutes, or until the onions are translucent and slightly browned.
2. Add in vegetable broth, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, broccolini florets, liquid aminos, miso paste, sesame oil, maple syrup, garlic chili sauce, and apple cider vinegar. Bring heat up to medium-high until simmering. Once simmering, reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 30 minutes.
3. While your soup is cooking, remove your tofu from its package and using a dry cloth or a stack of paper towels, press down on the tofu, draining some of the water inside. Cut your tofu into 1" cubes and press the tofu again, to drain more water.
4. Heat a skillet over medium heat with 1 tablespoon olive oil and toss in your tofu. Continually toss your tofu for 7-10 minutes, or until each side is golden brown. Take off heat and set aside.
5. When your soup pot has 3-5 minutes left to cook, add in your bok choy leaves and tofu. Stir the pot, and allow to finish cooking.
6. When the 30 minutes is up, spoon your soup into bowls and top with soft boiled eggs (optional), cashews, and chives.
7. EAT UP!

It’s about to be New Years Day, and that is when resolutions start poppin’ off and gyms get crowded and people try going vegan for the first time or whatever else. Maybe you even have some of those things on your list. Maybe you’ve been feeling guilty for skipping the gym this winter, and you wanna get back on track. Or maybe you’re interested in eating heath-ier. 

Either way, I think those goals are great. I really do. I’m a big believer in the health and happiness connection. And I really believe that you can add happiness to your life by making healthy changes. So go ahead: make a big ole bowl of this Carrot-Noodle Vegetarian Ramen and feel good about what you are putting in your body. Celebrate your veggie-filled success! This could be the first step towards a health-ier life.

HOWEVER, I refuse to be another health blog that knowingly or unknowingly promotes that a smaller waistline will make you happy. It will not. If you are unhappy with your body, losing weight won’t make you like it any more. Believe me, I’ve tried. You know what makes you love your body? Kindness. A whole heaping bunch of self kindness. 

I don’t think that health and weight loss are directly related. If weight loss is a side effect of getting health-ier for you, then cool! But I definitely don’t think that being skinny should be the ultimate goal of being healthy. And I DEFINITELY don’t think it should be your number one resolution. There are so many more worthwhile things to resolve to do! In fact I made a list of 20 better things to resolve to than to “lose weight.” Here you go, feel free to take the ones that speak to you…

1. Eat health-ier. (Which doesn’t mean be a perfect human. It means you make health-ier choices, and forgive yourself for the “failures.”)
2. Stand in front of your mirror and say 3 nice things. Do this everyday until you believe them. 
3. Tell other people nice things about them when you notice. 
4. Give money to an organization that matters to you. 
5. Do community service work. 
6. Try a workout class you’ve never tried (maybe even one that scares you… trampoline bounce class, anyone???)
7. Drink less alcohol, drink more water.
8. Apologize more. To an old friend, your mom, your boss, your body – don’t let shame hold you back.
9. Develop a hobby that surprises you – knitting, coloring, building birdhouses, whatever.
10. Read a non fiction book written by someone of a different ethnic background than you – you’ll learn something.
11. Seriously, drink more water.
12. Have more dance parties in your kitchen, or on your bed. Bad dancing is encouraged. 
13. If you don’t already, try going meatless 1-2 nights a week. (I know this great blog with vegetarian recipes… )
14. Eat when you’re hungry, quit when you’re full. Learn to listen to your body. *Admittedly, this is a very hard one. But oh soooo worth it.*
15. Throw away your scale. Burn it. Learn to gauge health by other factors than weight.
16. Stop complimenting people’s physical appearance. Try instead to compliment the intangible things that make them beautiful. (ie. their laugh, smile, the way they hug, the fact that they listen, their kindness, their acceptance, etc.)
17. Eat more plants. 
18. Destroy the patriarchy. (Jk. Kinda…)
19. Allow yourself to be cared for. Maybe that means getting a *good* therapist, or calling a friend and asking for the kind of support you need, or having a spa day, or whatever. You are not an island onto yourself. You deserve to be cared for. Let it happen.
20. Make a list of everything you like about yourself, excluding physical traits. Then work really hard to develop those things. Because those are the things that truly matter.

So there you have it. Take as many of those resolutions as you please and add them to your list. I hope that this year health and happiness come to mean so much more to you than a number on a scale. You deserve a 2017 that is much more meaningful than that. xoxo.