little words and BIG WORDS

Reading packages and information panels have become a pastime with me and there are some good things that come from it.  For example, sodium, added sugar and alcohol are little words that are pronounceable and are okay in moderation. In the points program peanut butter has 3 points per tablespoon which is considerable for a spread and high in sodium, fat and sugar.  The jams that say More Fruit and 1/2 the calories are also 1 point per tablespoon as compared to 2 for the regular jams and sweet enough without adding sugar.  As far as alcohol is concerned, a martini is 6 points whereas a glass of wine is 4 points.  The olives in the martini are not even considered but being a vegetable they are probably free but in reality they are loaded with sodium.  Those sweet little biscotti that you sometimes get with your coffee at a restaurant are 4 points for 2 mini-mini ones, 4 for a regular size one and 8 for the big mothers you can buy at the coffee store or Costco. These innocent little gems are loaded with sugar.

Then there are BIG WORDS that are unpronounceable like the double-barreled ones that have hydrolyzed, hydrogenated, artificial, sodium, autolyzed in front of them or phosphate in the last word. Don't even go near them.  Throw them in the garbage.  I recently bought Oriental Style Noodles with the Flavoured Soup Base.  You know what I mean.  They sell under the names of Sapporo or Ichiban.
After playing with a couple of packages, I realized that the block of noodles in themselves weren't bad at all.  It is the flavour package that shouldn't even be opened.  The first three ingredients are salt, Mono Sodium Glutamate (better known as MSG) and sugar.  Then they start getting into 7 lines of double-barreled, unpronounceable words like I had previously mentioned.

I think everyone has heard of making lemonade out of lemons, a quote that has come to mean to make something good out of a bad situation.  By the way, factually, nothing is wrong with lemons.  But back to the adage.  I would continue to buy these Oriental Style Noodles and use the noodle part only. 

Here is my suggestion for turning it into a healthy meal. In itself, the Oriental Noodles are about 3 to 3.5 points per serving if you consider that one package of noodles serves two people.  I am all for an assist when making a quick meal.

Gina's Japanese Soup

Serves 2.

2.5 cups of low-sodium chicken broth
Oriental Noodles from packaged mix
2 eggs
1 cup of frozen peas
(clipped chives or spring onions optional)

Heat chicken broth in saucepan until boiling.  Add Oriental Noodles and cover.  Boil for 3 minutes.
Crack in two eggs in the pot so they don't touch each other.  Add one cup of frozen peas.  Put the lid back on and cook for three minutes.

You will have a tasty, healthier version of an Oriental style soup.  In the case of food as well as writing, little words are better than big ones.  They are more understandable and in the case of food labels big words have more chemicals we don't want or need.