Tag Archives: pre-packaged food

Ways to Spice Up Your Mr. Noodles

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Important: This is the 3rd last article of 2024. I’ll be taking the last half of December and first half of January off from posting. I’ll be back January 20th, 2025 with the first article of the new year!


It’s time to address the elephant in the room.

You lived on them in college, you’ve seen the studies about how high in sodium their seasoning packets are, and are in a better financial situation now. But you can’t help yourself. Mr. Noodles just hit the spot for some reason.

It’s okay, you’re not in trouble! I eat Mr. Noodles, too! I love them and am sick of all the Mr. Noodle hate I’ve been seeing. I put it in the same category of stupid as when people argue that cake isn’t healthy.

That’s the whole point!

If I wanted to eat something healthy, I’d eat an apple. Carrot and fruit cakes are an abomination and can be left out under a snowbank. (Sorry, Mom)

So, you like Mr. Noodles. Congrats on finally admitting it! But now you find yourself in a bit of a rut. You boil the noodles, add the seasoning and eat… what more could you possibly do?

Well, as it turns out, there’s actually a lot of different ways you can add a little pizzazz to your Mr. Noodles.

Some people add a soft-boiled egg and chives, to make it that classic anime ramen, you can add frozen veggies (my personal favourite is adding peas), cheese shreds and garlic to make a delectable food abomination that scratches a garlic bread itch, but with noodles, or make what I’ve cleverly named Mr. Noodle Stir Fry.

AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Product Reviews - Beyond Meat Hot Italian Sausages Review - Beyond Meat Sausages In Mr. Noodles - food reviews, product reviews, food reviewer, sausages, vegan, vegan food, vegan meat, meat alternativesMr. Noodle stir fry with peas and Beyond Meat Italian Sausage

Mr. Noodle Stir Fry is a mix of different veggies (usually peas, broccoli, carrots and mushrooms) and some sort of faux meat (if you’re into the super meaty taste, the Beyond Meat sausages work really well, or Gardein Mandarin Orange Crispy Chick’N [sans the sauce] if you want a more mild flavour) stirred together with the flavour packets and sometimes a splash of soy sauce. Broth or water would work, too.

Mr. Noodles are a great base for many dinners because unlike actual pasta noodles, they cook super fast and are way more versatile! They’re also usually something crazy like 60 cents (yes, that’s including inflation. They used to be 25 cents!) and come in a range of flavours and are shelf-stable and stackable, which make stocking up on them for winter a breeze!

Keep in mind that the only vegan options are the Vegetable and Mushroom flavours. Though if you just plan on using the noodles as a base for something and not the flavour packet, you can buy whatever flavours are available, regardless.

Next time you go to indulge, try adding something new to them. Even if it’s not as elaborate as Mr. Noodle Stir Fry, you can change the monotony of your Mr. Noodle routine with a dash of creative thinking.


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Gardein 7 Grain Crispy Tenders Review

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These are some of the very first things from Gardein I ever tried.

I’m not gonna lie, like most of the other chick’n Gardein products, you probably already know what these taste like, so if you like those, you’ll like these.

AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Product Reviews - Gardein 7 Grain Crispy Tenders - vegan food, food reviewer, food review, veganism, vegan chick'n, faux meat, food blogger

One thing I actually don’t like about these, is the fact they only come 10 to a bag. I know from personal experience you can fit 20 into the bag. And, while 20 did slightly overfill the bag, you could definitely put more than 10. Even 15 would be better. I really don’t understand the obsession with vegan companies not making foods in family sizes.

I don’t know about other people, but I don’t want to go shopping every week, and like to buy the biggest quantity of something I can, so I’m not constantly running out to the store for supplies. (And, in light of COVID happening, I think it’s more important than ever to buy things in bulk to limit your amount of outings)

Aside from the lack of food, these are as I said above, not very spectacular. But that’s okay! I actually really enjoy these, they’re pretty fast to make in a pan, and can be eaten by themselves as nuggets, or you can add them to other dishes, like pastas or rice.

The 7 grain breading on them is pretty good, too. While I can’t really describe it – I don’t actually taste 7 different grains, for example – but I can say it’s definitely different than the breading on the Mandarin Orange Nuggets. One thing I can tell you though, is that this breading is way more crumby than the other. It’s not really a big deal, but even after washing my hands I still feel like the crumbs are on me, so be wary of that.

As for the innerds – as I said, it tastes the same as their other faux chicken products. The texture is a bit tougher than the nuggets, though. It’s closer to the texture of the faux chick’n burgers.

Another thing I’d like to mention, I recently noticed that the Gardein bags have changed texture, they don’t feel quite so ‘plastic-y’ anymore. So I did some recon, and discovered they changed their bags to be made out of ____ which is awesome, because this means that while they still come in packaging, they’re more recyclable, and – as someone who recently started getting into the zero waste lifestyle – this is awesome! So while I try to move away from pre-packaged foods, I will still continue to support Gardein.

I feel like the Beyond Burger (and Impossible Burger and the like) are more of the flashy/Instagram-y side of veganism, trying to seem interesting and enticing – while Gardein is more like an old friend who’s always there.

If you haven’t tried their products yet, please go out and support them!


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