My Ridiculously Easy Slightly Nutritious Go-To Meal -- Gluten Free Comfort Food


It is kind of ridiculous that I'm posting this, but I'm trying to be honest about where I am in life... But I've been having a hard time in so many different areas, either in physical pain or emotional or just thoroughly exhausted, so productivity and energy levels are pretty slim.

But even so, I still need to eat, and I still need to feed my family. My family is easy enough to feed though, toast and eggs go a long way (and lets pretend they eat enough vegetables on those days, but at least they eat lots of fruit), but since I don't eat gluten or eggs I don't have that go-to.

However, I "chanced upon" this meal I have been making regularly when I went away for a week and ended up with corona... I had purchased some gluten free instant "ramen" which was actually just rice noodles with chicken soup mix, and to make it a little healthier, so it at least had protein, I added cheese. Then add green beans and voila.

Yea, that's basically this. "Chicken" noodle soup with cheese and green beans. But with rice noodles. 

Hits the spot. Nice comfort food, soothing with a sore throat or upset stomach or cold day, or just an "I can't be bothered to do more complicated cooking." It has carbs, it has protein, it has a vegetable. It has fat. Voila, well rounded meal. And other than dairy it is allergy friendly. Yes you can make this without cheese to make it more allergy friendly, but then you don't have protein. And it isn't expensive to make, unlike most super easy meals to make.

But let's make this written as an official recipe, so I can pretend I'm being a professional recipe blogger.

Ridiculously Easy Cheesy Noodle Soup -- Gluten Free Comfort Food

Ingredients:
Rice noodles, preferably the wider ones since they hold together better, but thin ones also work 
Chicken flavored soup mix, ideally MSG free and all-natural ingredient ones if you're trying to make this "healthier" but I'm not gonna judge you
Water
Salt
Cheese (I use what they call locally "yellow cheese" but any not too strongly flavored meltable cheese works like mozzarella or munsteur)
Frozen green beans

Instructions:
1. Boil water in a kettle (or in a pot, but my kettle works faster).

2. Take some of the rice noodles out of the package and put in a pot. I usually use 1/3 of the package when I make mine but it depends on how much you're making and how big your packages are.

3. Cover with boiling water. You might need to fill the kettle twice. Rice noodles expand when you cook them so you might need more water than you originally thought.

4. Flavor with soup mix to taste. I find after I use the soup mix I also need some salt, but it's up to you.

5. Cook until the noodles are fully soft.

6. Add frozen green beans and cook some more until they're all melted and warmed.

7. Melt a bunch of cheese into yours. When I do the amount of noodles mentioned above I add about 5 slices of cheese and then add more to taste. You can mix the cheese into it to try to dissolve as much as you can or you can have it in stringly clumps.

8. Eat hot. I eat mine with both a spoon and a fork. You'll understand once you try.

Enjoy!

What is your go-to I have no energy but I need to somehow feed myself and let's pretend it is healthy meal?

Penniless Parenting

Mommy, wife, writer, baker, chef, crafter, sewer, teacher, babysitter, cleaning lady, penny pincher, frugal gal

2 Comments

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  1. Awesome meal! My Korean friend once introduced me to the idea of melting a slice of American cheese into ramen noodles. It makes it wonderfully rich. Sounds like you did something similar with your local cheese. I usually make ramen with a little milk and some hot pepper flakes, for the flavor of spicy creamy chicken. My kids call it "yellow noodles".

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  2. That's so funny. When I was a child it was my go to comfort food to put cheese on instant noodles! Which I thought was the most delicious thing in the world but others made fun of me. This post brings back some feelings of nostalgia to my childhood and the food I ate growing up.

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