Healthy Hacks: Instant Noodles

Intro: Healthy Hacks: Instant Noodles

Do you like Instant Noodles?  Do you find yourself craving them at any hour during the day?  Do you love how simplistic and fast they are, and how simulated the flavours taste?  Well, so do I.  But have you ever read the Nutrition Facts that are printed on the back?  Well, you would be very suprised at what you would find.  On my favorite brand of Instant Noodles, Mr. Noodles, I found that one packet contained 81% of my daily dose of sodium.  81%!  That is completely and utterly ridiculous.  So I decided to make some changes to my favourite snack food.

STEP 1: Ingredients:

For this Recipie, you will need:
-A Packet of Instant Noodles
-Random Ingredients that you think taste good
-Hot water
-a Bowl
-Chopsticks (Yes, eating with chopsticks makes me feel special.  it should make you feel special too.)
-Creativity

STEP 2: Starting:

Okay, you have your ingredients, and are ready to start cooking.
Here are some of the first things that you need to do:

1:Boil Water - Fill your kettle or other boiling apparatus and start to boil water
2:Break Noodles- I find that the Noodles often don't fit in a bowl properly.  And if you break them after you open the packet they shoot off all around your kitchen.  The simple solution: Break First, Open Later.

STEP 3: The Healthy Part...

This is the part that actually makes this healthy.  Take the packet of flavour that comes with the noodles and open it.  Then dump Half of it on the noodles.  Only Half.  This should leave more than enough flavour and you will cut the sodium and other bad stuff in half.

STEP 4: Add Your Ingredients:

Now, feel free to add anything that you desire to make this the most tasty experience that you will ever experience.  I personally love to use honey mustard and sweet and spicy hot thai sauce.  Lemon is also really good, along with a dutch seasoning sauce called Maghi.  But don't take my word for it, try it yourself!

STEP 5: Steam Those Noodles!

Pour the boiling water over the Noodles, specifically aiming at ingredients that are harder to disolve.  This way everything will be mixed more evenly.  Then, take your utensil and give everything a good stir!  Make sure everything gets mixed in.

STEP 6: Finish.

Congratulations!  You just managed to cut your sodium intake and make your favorite snack even tastier!  You may have even made your flavour go from regular to AWESOME!  Now you will eat your Instant Noodles, and you will like them!(say last sentence in strong accent)  Now, use this useful tip to remove un-needed and un-nesassary items from your daily diet!  Leave your favourite flavour combinations in the comments!  Thanks for Reading!

Comments

[kelseymh]

My wife and I use low-sodium chicken stock to make our noodles. The, um, "flavor packets" (what a disturbing name) are where nearly all of the sodium originates, so get rid of those.

Once you've done that, instant ramen noodles can be quite filling and reasonably healthy. When I was in college, I would chop cold cuts into little squares, chop a carrot and zucchini into ~1 cm cubes, and throw those into the pot with the noodles. If you do a stove-top boil, the veggies will cook for about ten minutes, long enough to both release their flavor into the broth, and get a bit more al dente than raw.

If you're really impatient, then steam the vegetables in the microwave first (two or three minutes is enough) to soften them, then add them to the ramen-and-broth for cooking.

[NathanaelScheffler]

I have not yet tried adding meat or vegetables to my instant noodles. It sounds like it would taste great! I just use them as a quick snack, so I don't think I would ever be able to wait long enough to take that many steps in preparing instant noodles. Thanks for your recipie!

[saver2]

oh my.. you can add almost anything ....

oil, sesame, chili, pork, chicken, beef, duck or butter

a squeeze of citrus juice, lemon or lime

any veg that will wilt easily, spinach baby, lettuce, cabbage
thing, green onions, bok choy, sou choy

citrus juices a quick squeeze of lemon or lime right before
serving

egg hard boiled cut in half and dropped into soup before
serving

egg beat raw then while stirring soup pour in raw egg, it
will cook immediately and look stringy

fish sauce, soy sauce

cooked thin sliced beef, chicken, pork

almost any thin sliced deli meat

shrimp, crab, oysters

frozen vegs peas, corn

canned peas and carrots

chopped tomatoes, mushrooms

cayenne pepper

i havent used this one but sriracha hot sauce

[saver2]

dont throw away the flavor packets, keep them to use in a large stock pot. They make a nice beginning for soup, can flavor boiled vegs or potatoes, pretty much anything you would use beef or chicken stock for. The best part is you save money, you are not throwing anything away, and one little packet in a stock pot you consume far less sodium per serving.

[tenny]

awesome!

[d1ndian]

any idea how to add chicken/turkey/fish or eggs in this recipe

[NathanaelScheffler]

i think that you would just have to cook the meat first to make sure that it is done. If you were adding eggs I would scramble them. I think that that would be an interesting addition!

[d1ndian]

oh , i actually tried adding egg for the first time yesterday, it was just delicious. I also added shrimp paste + salsa + Indian spices (m an Indian).
I firstly put noodles in a pot and boiled it for 2 minute. Meanwhile i prepared spices and adding. I put raw egg + salsa + soya sauce + Chinese chilli sauce + pepper + onions + tomato sauce and given flavor packet. Then I took the noodles out washed it and then mixed all the stuff that i prepared and added a little water and again heated in microwave for 3 minutes. After m done, the noodles soaked the flavor and the whole dish was kinda dark brown color , showing the perfect microwave noodle soup.