Is there a rice/pasta (just add hot water) equivalent of ramen noodles?

[rmitchell]

The last time I tried making pasta in a pot was a total cleanup disaster.Next morning's coffee had a taste of last
night's dinner.

Knorr Pasta Sides are one of my go to meals. They are pretty common at dollar stores along with tuna packets.

Clean up can be a challenge, but I usually take a two or three step approach. Cook and then eat the pasta from the pot then follow with a pack of instant soup or bouillon cube in the same pot.

Usually that will take care of the residual noodles or cheese. A third run of hot water for tea will typically leave the pot clean enough that little or no washing is needed. And I'm using a first generation MSR Titan kettle.

[itentity]

Pasta dishes can be made with "freezer bag cooking" you just need to pick the right noodles. You want very thin/small noodles and an insulating pouch to store the ziploc in while it's hydrating to help retain heat. The smaller and thinner the noodle the better it is for freezer bag cooking. I like the tiny shell noodles for mac and cheese and the extra small noodles for spaghetti dishes. They will hydrate in 6-7 minutes just fine IMPE. If anyone is curious, my mac and cheese recipe is:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup small shell noodles
2 heaping tablespoons cheddar cheese powder
1 heaping tablespoon Nido
1 teaspoon cornstarch (helps thicken the sauce)
hunk of Velveeta cheese (to taste, I usually have Velveeta on my crackers for lunch and just use whatever's left over, maybe 2 tablespoons if you like it really cheesy like me)

optional: a little bit of meat can be nice: SPAM or chicken pouch, or little bacon jerky is really good too

Cooking Directions:

I separate the powders in a small ziploc inside the quart bag when I prep my meals it - pull the bag of powders out and save that for later.

Boil 1 3/4 cup water
Poor into 1 qt ziplock freezer bag with noodles, let hot steam out for a couple of seconds and then seal the ziploc bag
Put ziploc into the insulated pouch
Mix every minute or so by gently shaking and pushing on sides of bag to mix (don't bust the bag open by squeezing too hard!)
Wait 5-8 minutes until noodles are cooked.
If the noodles have soaked up all of the water and still are not soft I'll add a splash of water (not too much)
If the noodles are done and there's still a lot of water in the bag then just pour some of it our (but you need a little fluid in there to mix the powders: you don't want it dry)
Mix in powders and then the Velveeta
Stir to mix (if the powder is clumping and it's not making a sauce, add just a bit of water and mix some more)
Optional: add your meat
Enjoy!

This sounds like a really good looking recipie. Going to try it probably a bit later today to see how it goes.

[Five Tango]

I like a break from the regular Ramen and Knorrs pasta sometimes.Thai Kitchen makes an "instant rice noodle soup" in varying flavors.It works fine in a freezer bag and only takes a few minutes after adding a roiling boil to the bag.One you drink down the soup you have the noodles left.It's only 190 calories so you might consider it an appetizer.Lightweight too.

[South Walker]

Don't know if Lipton Sides are still available or not but I used them almost exclusively on my 1999 sobo. I used Esbit fuel instead of a stove. All I had to do was dump the pasta into the water and light the Esbit. By the time the water boiled, about 6 or 7 minutes, the pasta was ready. The instructions said to boil the water and then add the package pasta but I found that unnecessary. The sides came in different flavors and there was 5 ore 6 choices.

Best of luck to you.

South Walker mega99

[Puddlefish]

Knorrs noodles never got to the right texture from the just add boiling water, even with a insulated cozy to let them sit in and soak. I stuck with the Knorr's rice dishes, which were good enough. They have a lot of flavor varieties, but after a few months all kind of tasted flavorless. There were a lot of odd combinations of food, sauces, flavors I ended up adding to them to make them tolerable. It's well worth packing some strong dried spices like curry powder/chili powder, etc. I also tried to add vaguely nutritious things, like Nido powder, dried veggies, so I'd be eating more than empty carbs.