Greetings my long lost friends!!  It’s been a while.  I’m not gonna lie, I have missed blogging…mega big time.  It’s been a busy month and a half as there seems to be lots changing in my life.  Our little family will be leaving lovely Vancouver soon to head back to Calgary!!  As you can imagine, it’s been a month of organizing, cleaning, showing our place and selling it!  Lots of stress because as I always like to say, cleaning your house with a toddler in it is kinda like brushing your teeth while eating oreos.  It friggen sucks!!

In other news, we just spend a little over a week with my brother and his family who were visiting from the Tundra that is Toronto.  We had a great time together but i’m going to be honest…it was filled with craft beer and eating our faces off at amazing food establishments across Vancouver.  We had delicious ramen, sushi, street tacos, visited multiple craft breweries, filled up some growlers, and enjoyed some pretty epic french toast at Yolks.  So now my friends…it’s time to stop eating out and get back in to action.  I need to be focused this week at work and that means packing my own damn lunch!!!

I decided to make up some lunch time travel noodles because lets face it…noodles are awesome and the perfect lunch time dish.  Okay…I take that back, noodles are the perfect ANYTIME snack.  This little dish is meant to be prepped in advance so that you can take these bad boys with you anywhere you want.  I don’t know about you but I get sick of  typical lunch time food from time to time so I like to change it up.  I mean how much friggen hummus and veggies can a gal eat?  Ammma Right?

This recipe will give you enough to pack a few containers in advance and you can have travel noodles for most of the week at work.

Okay so first thing, you want to cook up some noodles.  I am using those instant asian noodles that you basically boil for one to two minutes and they are done!! Drain and get ready to assemble.

Line up your clean glass containers.  Place a good handful in the bottom of the glass container. ***DISCLAIMER*** Don’t get all literal on me okay, when I say a handful…I don’t mean that you should use your hands to pick up boiling hot noodles.  Use some tongs or something and a little bit o common sense.  Once they are in the container, let the noodles cool completely with the lid open.

While your noodles are chillin’ out, its a great time to make your flavour booster which will become the soup portion of your travel noodles.  I am using a combination of flavour packed items which will add some life to the noodles.  In a bowl, mix together bouillion (I use the Vegetable, it’s better than bouillion paste…you could totally use powder here if you want), tom yum paste, soy sauce, ginger and sriracha.  Mix it up in to a paste.  Okay, I gotta say…tom yum paste packs a good punch.  I love lemon grass sooooo much and tom yum soup is amazing.  I will be honest, real lemongrass doesn’t always make it in to my grocery cart but having this paste on hand can go a long way to boosting the heck out of soups for a quick fix.

 

Once noodles are cool, spoon the flavour booster paste over the noodles.

Next you will want to add meat (optional), like chicken, beef, left over shrimp…whatever you have on hand.

Pile in some veggies, at least a big handful or 1 cup.  I seriously pack veggies in to every nook and cranny of the jar.  The possibilities are endless for what kinds of combinations you can invent so get creative and use whatever you have on hand.  For these particular bowls, I used mushrooms, bok choy, carrots, green onions and bean sprouts.  Load it up!!  Add chopped herbs if you want to like cilantro or thai basil.

Seal the glass jars up and place it in your fridge.

Next day at work, fill up your glass jar with boiling hot water and let it rest for 2 minutes so the flavours mix together.  I’m not gonna lie, I sometimes bring a tea towel to work so I don’t burn myself carrying it back to my desk.  Safety first friends…Safety First!!

Get out your chop sticks, line up your spoon and get ready to make your coworkers jealous at your amazing ability to knock the lunch game outta da park!!  Slurp away Lunch Boss…you earned this one.

Lunch Time Travel Noodles

Ingredients

• 1 handful of dried noodles (per portion that you are making)
• 1 cup or healthy handful of mixed vegetables such as mushroom, cabbage, carrots, bok choy, green onion and bean sprouts (per portion)
• 1 Tbsp chopped cilantro or thai basil (optional)
• FLAVOUR BOOSTER (is enough for 4 portions)
• 1 Tbsp bouillion or bouillion paste
• 1 Tbsp tom yum paste
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp of ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp sriracha (optional)

Directions

1. First you want to cook your noodles according to the package directions.  Drain and set aside.
2. Add a handful of noodles to the bottom of clean glass jars with a lid.  Let the noodles cool down
3. Make your flavour booster paste by mixing the following ingredients together in a bowl:  Bouillion, tom yum paste, soy sauce, ginger and sriracha.
4. Once the noodles are cooled, spoon the flavour paste over top.
5. Add your veggies and pack them in there.  *I love to add extra bean sprouts
6. Seal the lid and place in the fridge until you are ready to use
7. When ready to eat, fill the far with boiling water and let it sit for 2-3 minutes to let the flavours mix together.

I hope this little recipe jazzes up your lunch game.  It’s definitely a great one to pack on the go, as long as you have access to a kettle or boiling water.  The great thing about this recipe is it’s relatively cheap to make, it’s super simple to prepare and I love that you can prep it in advance so you feel like you are on top of things and don’t have to fret over what the heck you are going to take to work for lunch.  Show those vending machines who’s boss this week and pack your favourite noodle bowl!!