Chubby Bunny

Junky Food Spree

As a rather last minute decision, I bummed a ride home with Susan yesterday and will be home for another 24 hours or so. Life at home after a week at school is pretty sweet. It definite felt different from coming home to this place every night, but it’s a good feeling nonetheless.

Tragically, since my brother was away in Japan last week, my parents were the only one home.

And there’s nothing to eat at home. :o) Not even fruit, except for the Asian pears that my parents grow in the backyard. How many times did I open the fridge, hoping to find something rich in carbohydrates last night?

In recent days, I’ve had salt cravings– resulting in a bowl of instant ramen noodles the other night.

Maybe you’re cringing right now at the thought that I chose to pop open a packet of potentially unhealthy (it’s all about moderation, folks!) instant noodles rather than cooking from scratch. Eh. The method of preparation that I use for ramen lately is a little more complicated than boiling water.

1. Fill a pot with enough water to cook the noodles and add a bay leaf to the cold water. Add some dried thyme and rosemary to taste. Let the water boil.
2. Find the seasoning packet and add about 1/3 of it– enough to salt and somewhat flavor the water. Flavor will come from other add-ins. Toss the rest of the packet away.
3. When water comes to a boil, add the dried noodles. Then add some sort of “protein” (really, I used imitation crab meat, which doesn’t really count as a full protein) and a vegetable of some sort (here, I used Japanese pumpkin that I’ve been eating all week…)
4. Let the noodles cook. Season more if needed (sometimes I add a little red wine vinegar for kick) and serve.

I’ve been doing this for a while. I need some frozen vegetables to make the adding veggies part even easier. To be honest, I’m not even sure what ramen noodles taste like anymore if we just followed the directions on the packet.

Rather than have oatmeal or cereal– a standard for my breakfast at school– I made myself an open-face sandwich.

Since Mom gave me the toaster to take to school (no one else uses it) the alternative ways of heating the bread and melting the cheese were to use the cast-iron pan or the toaster oven. I was too lazy to have to clean anything, so I went with the latter; there’s also a broiler feature to our toaster oven, so that was a bonus.

There was the temptation to finish off the sandwich with some dried parsley or a blend of Italian seasonings (eg. oregano, rosemary, thyme, etc) but that wasn’t in the kitchen, which means I probably have it at school (so prepared…!) So to finish off the sandwich, I ground some black peppercorns on top after pulling out the toast from the toaster oven.

Yes, that’s white bread. I miss my wholesome WW bread already.

After picking up my brother from the airport, we came home and I eventually made something for lunch. All the ramen noodles are missing, but we had something else that ended up surprisingly spicy. No photos– it didn’t occur to me to take them.

So my weekend so far has been spent eating sodium-filled, calorie-dense (er…denser than usual) foods. Or at least trying to. So far, so good.