You see? You get the flavoring without anything unhealthy in return. I add no salt of any kind. I only use natural ingredients. In essence, I make my own broth. You might say that I make my own “seasoning packet.” Use 1/8 cup of your chosen popcorn seasoning as the broth base and then the appropriate amounts of the herbs. I usually prepare two packets of Ramen at a time. However, this is once a day after an aerobic workout an hour each day. Around 900 or so calories.

I drain the broth and then add salad shrimp that I prepared in a wok with the same blend of spices and Parkay’s butter spray (in a bottle). No calories, and all the flavor of butter, but in a liquid form (for the shrimp). I combine it all in a ceramic bold with only 1 c of the broth. I use only 1/2 teaspoon of all the herbs when I create the herbal seasoning for the noodles. Add one serving of grated parmesan cheese and one serving of Hidden Valley’s fat-free Ranch dressing. The final step is to add on tablespoon of Mrs. Dash’s “Extra Spicy” seasoning to the top of the noodles as culinary decoration.

I recommend enjoying this dish in a black ceramic bowl w/ a pair of chopsticks. Have a food strainer handy as well as a measuring cup to collect the correct amount of broth to place in the noodles when you add the Ranch dressing and grated parmesan cheese. If it wasn’t for sodium, my favorite way to prepare Ramen Noodles would have been with the “Cream of Chicken” flavor and Ranch dressing to add to its creaminess. Those days are over for me. Try it out; if you have questions let me know. I’ve made this numerous times. Forget the salt taste. Make your own herbal blend and find a good flavoring that won’t harm you.

Still, I love the stuff!

I cook my noodles w frozen veggies, then drain out almost all of the water (I leave a couple tablespoons of water so the noodles don’t stick to each other).

Then I cut a TINY corner off of the bottom of the seasoning packet and use it like a salt shaker to flavor my noodles. (I think I use less than 10% of the packet…. I know its less than a 5th.)

*I also usually add either a can of tuna, some hard boiled eggs, or leftover meat to my ramen to make a more balanced meal.

*Sometimes I use Mrs. Dash, salsa, cheese, or something else instead of the ramen seasoning.

Or, if you’re more adventurous try creating your own spice blend or even making your own stock. (it’s quite easy – you can make gallons at a time and freeze in individual portions.)

Glad to know others out there are looking for ways to reduce ramen’s overly-salty goodness too!

A.) Try never to add the flavoring packs. as the MSG, high sodium and chemicals are unhealthy and cause your body to crave the junk food even more. Just like with those golden arches french fries! Always ask for unsalted and a pack of salt and only sprinkle a tiny bit on (if any) to control future cravings. You will lose so much weight by reasonably reducing your sodium intake.

B.) Ramen noodles are too high in fat and too low in nutrition too be spending your time and money on. You will eat 1960 mg of sodium in one package, so this leaves you with 40 mgs to spare to meet your max sodium intake for the day, to be healthy. (2000 mg/day)

C.) Never microwave food in styrofoam or plastic. Bad for you, your friends in the air around you, the environment, the economy.

The FDA defers to the Consumer Product Safety Commission who defers to the Food and Drug Administration to make a definitive statement on the carcinogenic and other dangers caused by the the gasses from heating styrofoam and by the decomposition of the foam it combining with your food when it interacts with certain foods.

My eighth grade students made one cup of hot water and three cups of typical black tea using hot water: one with just the tea bag – no effect; one with a tea bag and sugar – no effect; one with a tea bag, sugar and added the juice of one slice of a fresh lemon – after a few minutes the cup was leaking tea through 5 pin holes. After the hot water cooled, the poured out the water and looked inside each of the four cups.

All of the beverage cups, even without the lemon, had craters where the hot liquid had begun to interact with the foam. There was no evidence of the missing foam. It could only have combined with the liquid in some way to be part of the beverages!!!

The students saw this, were shocked, and wrote to the FDA and the CPSD and in each response letter they were politely referred to the other department for an answer to their questions about the safety of using styrofoam when eating or making heated foods and beverages.

They also buried paper hot cups and the styrofoam cups in dirt to see what might happen to each after several weeks. The paper hot cups began to decompose. The styrofoam did not change. This made an impression on them and they asked the school to stop using styrofoam.

Finally, a 2-minute alternative to Ramen cooking:

Try this instead for a quick pasta snack:

Break up pre-cooked lasagne noodles and add a small amount of hot water to it in a corningware bowl.

Cover it with a paper towel and microwave for one minute or until the noodles are hot and the texture you like.

Drain.

Sprinkle the top with shredded cheddar cheese and sprinkle with toast crumbs and black pepper.

Cover and heat for 15 more seconds. Enjoy your own personal mac-n-cheese.

1 box of precooked lasagne noodles – will make 12 indiv. meals
1 package of shredded cheddar cheese – will make 12 indiv. meals
save your toast crumbs from this morning’s breakfast – free
save some condiment packets of ground pepper – free

(Make a similar dish using shredded mozzarella and spaghetti sauce, with chopped spinach or broccoli, instead. Steam the broccoli when you heat the pasta.)

1.) Boil noodles until done.
2.) Drain all water from noodles.
3.) Add flavoring to noodles, and now add fresh hot water back in.
4.) Let sit for a couple of minutes so noodles can soak up some of the flavor.
5.) Drain.

After this you have drained all of the original water, which gets rid of a lot of the bad stuff, and you’ve soaked up a lot of flavor from the packet, but have drained most of the salt and bad stuff from that too, leaving you with slightly healthier noodles with flavor.