food cheats, home made cup noodle

I love noodles. I especially love noodles for lunch during cold winter days. The options would usually be either buying a bowl somewhere around work or bring a msg and salt laden instant pot noodle.

Happily, I’ve recently stumbled onto a brilliant idea. Do it yourself home made instant noodles!

All you need is: noodles of your choice (cooked al dente), some veggie, some protein (meat or eggs or tofu), some flavouring (stock powder or miso or both) and a little bit of oil (sesame is my favourite).

Here I have some udon, eggs, celery + the leaves and soy stock mixture at the bottom. Pop it into the fridge and bring it to work the next day. All you need is to leave it at room temperature for a little bit or heat it up slightly with a microwave, and add hot water.

Slurp away al-desko.

lunch munches from MealPal

A friend at work sent me this blog post last Weds, and I managed to snag myself a spot in this deal.

MealPal is a lunch program that gives you better deals for lunches around your area. For its recent launch in London, they were giving away 5 free consecutive lunches when you sign up.

Normally, MealPal offers two subscriptions:
Lunch a Lot: Up to 20 meals per 30-day cycle, £4.39 per meal, including VAT and fees.
Lunch a Bunch: Up to 12 meals per 30-day cycle, £4.79 per meal, including VAT and fees.

You get to order the day before lunch at 17:00 and closes the day of lunch at 09:30. A map of your area shows the options and dishes when this starts, so you choose one and reserve the time for pick-up that sounds the best for you.

I’ve had my 4 lunches now, with my final one reserved and waiting for me soon.

Overall, I think it is a good deal if you tend to buy lunches a lot. The meals I’ve found are usually around the £6 range. This means it saves you £1 ish each time.

I must admit, some places did it better than others. The first lunch I had at To a Tea was very disappointing but I thoroughly enjoyed the last 3 days lunches (good service, and food is the same as if you bought it straight out from the restaurants).

I go to To a Tea from time to time in the past. This time, the lasagna I got from To a Tea is half the usual portion. Plus it was slightly burnt, dry, and cold after being left behind the counter for what tasted like quite a long while. (Reserve times are in 15 minute slots, and I arrived probably within the first minute or two. I was hungry!) The 2 salads were pretty much just boiled peas and carrots with a bit of flavouring tossed in. All in all, not very pleasant.

The subsequent 3 lunches were pretty much exactly as they’ve advertised it. They were lovely, hot, and very very filling. I enjoyed Beboz’s pasta so much that I reserved another one for my last lunch today (sausage and pasta with olives).

Will I actually sign up for the subscription? Probably not. The smallest batch they have is for 12 meals in a 30 day cycle. This makes it 3 meals a week. The meals would get very repetitive and seem to be rather pasta/burrito oriented at the moment.

If they had a smaller meal batch, I might reconsider. But until then, I’m sticking to my usual veggie and rice based bentos.

boozy blueberry agar agar

We had a blue themed foodie thing at work this week. With that thought in mind, I experimented on agar agar and came up with this.

Blue curacao, gin and blueberry agar agar (kanten).

Ended up doing a 2 tiered jelly of blueberry juice at the bottom and this on top.

So here’s a quick rundown on how I did the boozy part…

1 cup – booze of choice. Mine was a mix of Blue curacao and gin
2 cups – water (or juice, if preferred)
3 teaspoons of agar agar powder (kanten) – rough rule of thumb, a teaspoon for a cup of liquid
1/3 cups of brown sugar (or to taste)
a few drops of vanilla essence
a handful of blueberries

Bring base liquid (water/juice) to a boil, add sugar and stir until melted.
Stir in agar agar powder and let it boil for about 3-5 minutes, stirring all the while. This part is very important because agar agar needs to be brought to a boil for it to work.
Take it off the flame and add the booze and vanilla.
Pour into mould, and add blueberries.
Leave to set.

Agar agar sets in room temperature, but is much nicer cold. So stick it into the fridge for at least an hour. To serve, tip out jelly, cut to desired size and add whatever it is you want with it. Or have it as is.