So I guess this is half frugal and half just wanting a guilty pleasure with as little effort as possible, but I used to eat some box noodles that I had to cut out because the price went way up on them. It’s so ridiculous, used to be like $2 a box before the pandemic, now it is hard to find for less than $5. Anyway the product is taste of thai peanut noodles. I can link to it if needed. But here’s why I liked it.
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I’m on a limited diet, so no wheat, dairy, and a few other minorish things due to food allergies. This eliminates most box noodles and a lot of good options for portable meal things.
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good # of calories. 600ish calories in a box. Not too much sodium, less than most box noodles. Not that I need to watch sodium but ya know. The amount most things like canned food and instant noodles have is just downright suffocating.
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tasty and filling. What can I say? it’s peanut noodles, way better than most box noodles. imo anyway.
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very portable. I just need water and a microwave and I’m good to go. Presto! I have a cheap meal I can take with me when I’m on a small trip. Also no need to keep it cold or in the freezer.
So what I want is to basically mimic this in a “build it yourself” sort of way. I mean it doesn’t have to be exact, and really I’m also open to other suggestions. And yeah I know I could just cook it on the stove but that is not so easy to just take with me.
Before folks suggest sandwiches: Yeah, but I don’t regularly buy GF bread because it is pricey. So that means I have to specifically go out and buy a loaf just to prepare to take a meal somewhere. Then I have to eat the rest later or it will go bad. Whereas the box noodles… I can buy a dozen of them and they can sit in the cupboard all year long.
Something delicious and quick is super firm tofu, the pre-drained one cut into cubes then sautéed and put over microwave rice. I like to mix in a little hoison sauce and sweet chili Thai then throw in a few peanut crumbles and add a little lime juice. I use the mini peanut packets you get from the baking aisle. It’s similar to pad Thai but with rice instead of noodles.
I have microwaved the cubed tofu as well and it’s still good. I like to add black Indian salt, if I’m microwaving the tofu because it will taste like eggs. The tofu is a bit softer when microwaved so it makes sense that it has an egg flavor.
Another thing that’s very quick and good is microwave ready sweet potatoes. They are usually 1.00 each and cook perfectly.
Do you have an asian market in your city? You may be able to find something similar and more authentic.
What area are you in as that could impact availability but you could look up instant rice noodles and there is a brand called Mama Thai for $1.25/pack.
There is a build your own Thai instant noodle recipe as well I’ve got book marked for an upcoming camping trip
That’s a great recipe! I’ve never seen powdered peanut butter in shops here, but I would assume you could just bring a jar of the stuff and use a scoop instead? Or just grind unsalted peanuts? It probably wouldn’t be as shelf stable (assume the powdered stuff is treated in some way) but still easy to bring to work.
Also if using fresh peanut butter, a spoon of tahini would probably be great in there as well. If you have small leakproof boxes you can mix up all kinds of flavoring to add to the readymade dry mix!
Oh the tahini sounds like a great addition!
Actually if you wanted to make your own peanut butter powder most of the ones in the market that are available near me are literally just roasted peanuts (ground/blended down to dust), sugar and salt. I don’t know if you could exactly replicate the powder at home since technically the roasted peanuts have been pressed to remove most (but not quite all) of the oils, then ground into a fine powder. Ratio is 2Tbps powder to 1Tbps water, but you can play around with it.