This past week was a rather uneventful seven days. No neighbors hit on me nor have I gone on any more mini adventures to mini Mexico. I simply went to school, went to work, and raced to finish my homework before the midnight deadline.  With this rather lazy week, I did not plan around the grocery store being closed on Sunday. Therefore, my Sunday dinner, Monday Breakfast and Lunch were a little on the creative side.

With it being Easter and all, I decided to splurge on myself and get some gourmet Italian food from a local pizzeria called Little Caesars. This accidentally turned out to be a spark of genius, because I then had the left over pizza for breakfast before my morning workout on Monday. So all I was left with was figuring out what I should pack for lunch. I opened my cabinet and weighed my options. I had three choices, Ramen Noodles, salt & pepper, or photosynthesize. Remembering that I am not a plant I eliminated photosynthesis, and then packed myself some ramen noodles for two reasons. First because it was chicken flavored, aka the best flavor, and secondly because the sodium content was 5 mg less than its competitor.

The next day as I began to “cook,” well more like rehydrate my delicious lunch. My coworkers kept informing me that I was rehydrating my “food” wrong, and this was when I realized that not many people know the secret to maximizing the flavor of their Ramen Noodle Soup. So I’ve decided to make a how to guide on appropriately “cooking” ramen noodle soup.

Note that this guide only works for the 20 cent blocks of ramen not the fancy and expensive 23 cent Styrofoam cup of Ramen with select dehydrated “vegetables”. And yes I called 23 cents expensive, if you’re eating Ramen 3 cents makes a huge difference.

1. Open the package and put your block of dehydrated noodle in a Tupperware container, preferably one that used to be a lunch meat or cool whip container that is now repurposed as a noodle cooker.

2. Open the “Chicken Flavor” seasoning packet and put a layer of sodium along the top of the brick

3. Fill a repurposed Dickies Barbecue Souvenir Cup with Brazos Valley tap water. Tap water is key because it is cheaper, and the algae after tastes adds an extra layer of flavor to the noodles.

4. Poor this cup of water over the layer of sodium I mean “chicken flavor” making sure to dissolve all of the powder.

5. Microwave for 2.5 minutes. (if you are using a real microwave instead of a half broken one, only do a minute or else your container will melt and no one wins.)

6. Solve 10-15 differential equations. This gives your noodles about fifteen minutes to rest and soak up the water and sodium solution.

7. Microwave for an additional 2.5 minutes (again for a normal microwave only do a minute)

8. Use caution as you enjoy your tasty noodles as they may be hot!

9. So I challenge you to flex your creative muscle and try to make even the simplest of things better. My rehydration process may be a placebo effect, but it still tastes better to me. It’s the little things that make all the difference.

10. As always; make good choices, share if you liked what I said, comment if you have something to add, and I’ll see you on Thursday.