Noodle mania

Ramen noodles are the food of the gods; just ask any college kid who does his own cooking.

They are also the lifesaver go-to basic food group of backpacking, at least in my world. My relationship with ramen noodles has been long and varied, but I never knew until this week that each package was two servings. How could I have missed this important fact? Erg. I always eat a whole package by myself. Sometimes two packages, although I'm not bragging about that. The calories in a package are 190 per serving. Times two. That's 380 calories of hiking fuel wrapped in plastic.

This was a good moment of enlightenment, although it required my brain to shift a bit, which always pains me. It just made ramen noodles even better as trail food, because you need a lot of calories when you're hiking (which is what I tell myself as I wolf down that third Snickers bar...)

I have a standby noodle recipe we like so well that we make it at home as well as when we're camping. It involves noodles, peanut butter, and lime juice.

I found these single serving packets of peanut butter at Target. I love grocery stores for camping food, it's way cheaper and more creative than the speciality foods.

When you add two tablespoons of peanut butter, you just added another 190 calories. Now your total caloric intake from one package of noodles that you are going to inhale all by yourself is 570. Only hikers and college kids can withstand that kind of calorie load.

Cook the noodles and add the seasoning per the package instructions (I like the oriental and chicken flavors because they blend better with subtle additions like lime. Beef and pork tend to overpower other flavors).

Pour the broth into your bowl and mix in the peanut butter till smooth. Add the noodles, squeeze a few squirts of lime juice over the whole thing, stir, and viola'! -gourmet Thai for the trail.

At Homeland I found more interesting noodle dressings in the form of tomato paste and pesto- in a tube. I find this fascinating for some reason, even beyond the fact I'm easily entertained.

I cooked some noodles and divided them into small bowls (it's ok if I eat two packages in the interest of research and development).

In one bowl I squished out some tomato paste. I foresee this causing spirited marital discussions in camp about squeezing the tube from the bottom.

The paste has a fresh tomato taste. Delicious.

In the other bowl I squeezed and dribbled some pesto.  There's a lot of oil in the pesto, so keep that in mind as it shoots out and stains your shirt, dribbles down the tube and covers your hands, and spreads to every surface. This convinced me I would carry the tubes in a ziploc to prevent tomato/pesto flavored sleeping bags. I hear bears love those.

The pesto has an intense basil flavor, and is saltier than the tomato. Then, in the interest of resaerch, I mixed them together.  Yum.

I sent a desperate email plea to Amore company begging them to package these in single serve size. We'll see how that goes. I'm pleased with the new go-to recipe.  If you have ramen specialties, send 'em in! Variety is the spice of life.