Cheap Eats for the Trail: Ramen Plus

Here’s my go-to for quick trips when I want something cheap and easy:

Mi Goreng is an Indonesian variety of Ramen. The noodles are the same, but instead of the standard little “flavor” packs, it comes with packets of fried onions, seasoned oil, hot sauce, and a thick soy-like sauce.

It’s even good enough to eat a home sometimes, and there’s absolutely no prep at home, it all comes in a single package. Sometimes I’ll add some meat (pre-cooked bacon is particularly good) but that’s purely optional.

I like to do this with Miso Soup packets from Trader Joe's, with some dried carrots, mushrooms or whatever other things come to mind (premixed at home). Started taking a packet as part of a light emergency meals for a day, if I wanted to stay another day out. Yet, they've become my favorite thing and probably responsible for me figuring out I didn't actually need to take expensive packaged backpacking food, just because I'm backpacking. Although I supplement the loss in calories with snickers bars and I think I'm much happier for it. =)

Thai Kitchen Instant Rice Noodle soup is a candidate for this treatment. The single serving packets are available at Walmart, usually in the Gluten Free section. They are cheap and easy to prepare, but they are a bit small for my needs. Adding the Just Veggies might be just what is needed. I've got some freeze dried peas that I tried to add, but they need to be cooked or they will be way too hard to eat. I normally throw the ramen seasoning packets away because of the MSG that they usually contain. While I don't believe that I am allergic to MSG, it does upset my stomach, usually within an hour after eating something with MSG in it. The seasonings in the rice noodle soup don't appear to bother me, but I would still like to have some seasonings that I can use with ramen that don't contain MSG.

Ooooh. That sounds good. I’m going to have to try that. I like the idea of the various packets of thing instead of the flavor packet powder (although I imagine they still have to have some kind of preservatives).

Yeah, bacon bits are a good addition to such meals although I’m still partial to Trader Joes Teriyaki Turkey Jerky.

HJ
Adventures In Stoving
Hikin’ Jim’s Blog

This reminds me of one of my favorites that I can't find any longer. Nissin makes a ramen noodle in the usual flavors (chicken, beef, cheese, etc) but they used to make a tomato/basil flavored one that was exactly like having spaghetti on the trail. I absolutely adored those but very soon after I began backpacking in 2010 they discontinued them.

Oh well, not to take up the tread with wistful memories of past meals but those things were awesome!