Quick Fix Rice Noodle Soup

Are you a fan of Top Ramen? I am. I LOVE IT! Unfortunately, it is not a Gluten Free product. There are many alternatives though. What I like about Ramen is it that it's quick, easy and tasty (I am a fan of the saltyness).

I am working tonight. Around 2am I became hungry, as I do every night I work. My body is awake, burning more calories than if I was sleeping. My body and brain need fuel to keep pluging along. Unfortunately, I usually go grab something quick which results in toast or some kind of crunchy-munchy like crackers. Both not very good snacks, I admit...so I have changed that habit lately with deciding to be Gluten-Free / Wheat-Free.


I almost broke down and ate something with gluten/wheat in it! Bad. Because I couldn't find something quick and quiet to prepare. I didn't want to wake everyone with cooking, which is also time-consuming. Fortunately for me I found a treasure in the back of my pantry. Over a year ago I had bought these instant rice noodle bowls from Trader Joes on a visit to Eugene (OR). Sadly, the noodle bowls although flavorful, really only consist of just that, flavor and skinny rice noodles - which are not super filling.

To spruce up my noodle bowl and make it look more like the enticing photo on the packaging, I added some brown mushrooms (Crimini) and some Lacinato Kale. I decided to use a real, bigger bowl so that I didn't overflow the plastic bowl that came with the package.

It's a little high on the sodim (700mg) but the ingredients are clean.

Noodles: Rice Noodles
Season Mix: Sugar, Salt, Mushroom Powder, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Garlic Powder, Spring Onion Flake, Pepper, Fried Garlic Flavor.
Dried Vegetable Packet: Mushroom Flake, Cabbage Flake.
Oil Sachet: Rice Bran Oil, Garlic

note: Reading about the Autolyzed Yeast Extract seems to bring up some interesting information deriving from Monosodium glutamate (which is unhealthy by many standards). And seeminly to make this a non-gluten free meal, but I'm not sure how a big a deal it is for me as I am just looking to get away from the "bready" gluten/wheat at this point. Those with Celiac Disease would want to use caution.

I didn't say this was a super healthy alternative, just a super quick grab meal. It was pretty delicious..