I love noodles. I love them in soup, in stir-fry, in salad, you name it. But for all this time, I have had a hard time finding the (affordable) right noodles for the job. Dried noodles - at least the ones readily available close to me - just don't seem to cut it.

Then, this past week, I found vacuum packed "fresh" udon noodles at amazon. Yes, they are a major mass market brand. And no, they are not gourmet. But dangit, if I didn't want to immediately give them a shot.

Enter: this new-to-me recipe from Epicurious.

Planning!

Most important note of all: I am not breaking my "no reheating seafood in a common space" rule. I won't be reheating this at work. This is much more of a noodle salad than a stir-fry and the recipe is explicit that it can be enjoyed at room temperature. Just reading it, it's clear that it won't want reheating: the vinegar content is high (woot!), and the cilantro wants to stay fresh. This will be just fine out of the fridge and straight into my face.

Meanwhile, when I got to the store today, the snow peas looked incredibly sad. I stood in the produce aisle for a while, making other people insane, staring them down, trying to convince myself that it would be fine. And then I admitted to myself that it wouldn't be okay, and moved on to sugar snap peas... not the same, but a nice solid substitute for the moment.

Here's the nutritional breakdown from Fitbit...

Groceries I had on hand...

• kosher salt
• cilantro (from last week!)
• garlic
• rice vinegar
• soy sauce
• vegetable oil
• sesame oil
• peanut butter
• ginger
• peanuts

Groceries I had to buy...

• udon (bought in bulk from amazon @ $22.72 for 6 = $3.79)
• chile (.05lb @ $4.99/lb = $.25)
• sugar snap peas (.36lb @ $4.99/lb = $1.80)
• shrimp ($11.99)

Total monies spent for the entire recipe: $17.83

Total monies spent for each of these 4 meals....

$4.46 per meal

Cooking!

This came together in a heartbeat, just as I had hoped. I started defrosting the shrimp as soon as I got home from the grocery store, then prepped my snacks and pulled my other meals out of the fridge. Then I cleaned and sliced the sugar snap peas. I like a char on them, and thought it wouldn't hurt, so I dropped them into my cast iron skillet while I boiled water and peeled the shrimp. Then the shrimp went into the water, and I prepped the dressing. Three minutes later, the shrimp came out and I drained it and dropped it in a big bowl with the sugar snap peas. I popped the noodles into the microwave while I blended the dressing, then mixed everything together, portioned it out, and topped it with cilantro and peanuts! Seriously! What a dream!

I really think I've made all of my noodle dreams come true at last!