Nate Lenahan- Entrepreneur, author, inventor, residential designer, cabinet designer, cabinet maker, fishkeeper, gardener, coder (for web design and Half-Life scripts), filmmaker, photographer, drone pilot, musician, DJ, prepper, gamer, movie lover, book lover, meme lover, caffeine lover, autistic, introvert, insomniac, dysgraphic, philanthropist, and UC Davis grad.
My Recipes
Chili Mac from Food Bank Materials Recipe

Ingredients:

1 regular-size can of chili.
1/3 box of macaroni elbows.
Water.

Kitchen stuff you will need (in the order they are first used):

1 larger-than-average-size microwave safe bowl.
A microwave.
1 fork.
1 can opener.
1 average-size microwave safe bowl.
1 spoon.

Method:

1. Place the 1/3 box of macaroni elbows in a larger-than-average-size microwave safe bowl (there needs to be plenty of space of them to expand so that’s why this size bowl is needed). Add water as close to the top as you can get it without spilling when moving it into the microwave. Place in microwave. Cook for 11 minutes and see if macaroni elbows are tender enough (some brands 11 minutes is just enough, others take more like 12-13 minutes so keep checking if they are tender enough). The easiest way to tell if they are tender enough are if they look expanded enough. But you don’t want to make the mistake of over cooking them as then they are “over expanded” and while still edible now have a gross slimy texture.

2. When the macaroni elbows are tender enough drain them in the sink being very careful as the water is boiling temperature (and to a lesser extent be careful of the steam) and you can drain with a fork if you tilt the bowl very carefully with the fork at the bottom so that the macaroni elbows don’t fall out as they will be somewhat stuck together in one piece and that is the method I use when draining them.

3. Open the regular-size can of chili and empty into an average-size microwave safe bowl. Place in microwave. Cook for 2 minutes 30 seconds.

4. With a spoon dump spoonfuls of the macaroni elbows into the bowl of chili mixing them around eating as you go with that same spoon and loading them in when there’s new space from eating it up and then when the macaroni elbows will all fit dump them all in and mix them around.

The ratio of chili to macaroni elbows in this recipe is 1/3 chili to 2/3 macaroni elbows.

Sometimes from food banks the macaroni elbows come in bags but they are usually in boxes and sometimes from food banks they give Market Street chili and that always comes in pouches and is more than a regular-size can of it and sometimes larger than regular-size cans of chili but it almost always is regular-size cans. Chili and macaroni elbows are both very common at food banks and both have a long shelf life and when not made yet don’t require refrigeration. For larger than regular-size cans worth of chili I just eat it alone without macaroni elbows as adding 1/3 box of them would be too much food and I get more chili than macaroni elbows from food banks anyway.

While chili always has a lot of sodium in it macaroni elbows always have zero so this helps to balance out to having less sodium per spoonful than eating the chili alone making for a healthier meal. Chili and macaroni elbows are both always high in protein and chili sometimes has vitamin A in it.

I can only eat this full meal if very hungry and I’m a big guy so for someone else they might want to make it then eat half and then put the other half in the refrigerator and then microwave it later as leftovers. Another option is lessening the amount of macaroni elbows to be at 50% chili and 50% macaroni elbows and this would also have the advantage of more flavor as the macaroni elbows themselves are very bland and this means an average-size microwave safe bowl can now be used for cooking the macaroni elbows.
Chow Mein with Eggs from Food Bank Materials Recipe

Ingredients:

1 Chow Mein or 1 Yakisoba.
4 eggs.
Water.

Kitchen stuff you will need (in the order they are first used):

A microwave.
1 fork.

Method:

1. Take off the plastic wrapper and pull back the paper lid to the mark (it’s then about 40% open for Chow Mein and 50% open for Yakisoba). Take out the seasoning packet for Chow Mein and the seasoning packet and vegetables packet for Yakisoba (for Chow Mein the vegetables are already there not in a packet). For just Yakisoba open the vegetables packet and sprinkle them around the block of noodles but NOT on top (so that way they get enough water to reconstitute). Leave the seasoning packet aside for now. Put some water in but not to the fill line making sure to wet the edges of the plastic tray (this has a “cooking oil” effect of helping the eggs not to stick so much to the plastic tray). Crack open and place in 4 eggs roughly one in each corner (for 2 of them this means you have to tilt it to get them there since the lid is not all of the way off). Poke each egg with a finger with clean hands so the eggs won’t explode in the microwave then wash your hands. Add more water to be about a 1/4 to 3/8 inch above the fill line (as more water is needed now to make the noodles soft enough as space that ordinarily has water has been taken up by the 4 eggs).

2. Place in microwave and cook for 7 and a half minutes (the instructions say for 5 minutes but with eggs it needs the extra 2 and a half minutes to cook).

3. After the microwave is done open the microwave door to ventilate but let it sit in the microwave for 20 minutes as it is too hot to safely handle and needs that extra time to cool enough to handle it and eat it because of the longer cook time.

4. Take out of the microwave and then if feeling like eating pretty healthy just use about 20% of the flavor packet (and this tastes a lot better than none so what is I usually do) and if feeling like eating even healthier use none of it (as most of the salt from this meal is in the flavor packet even though it’s a lot smaller than the rest of the meal).

The 4 eggs are enough to make it go from “not a filling meal” to “a filling meal,” and from “not a high protein meal,” to “a high protein meal,” and from “a meal with not a lot of health benefits,” to “a meal with a lot of health benefits.” The vegetables have such minimal nutritional value (as they really just have trace amounts of vitamins) I pretend like I didn’t even have them then eat the normal 2.5 cups or 9 servings for that day.

While eggs are common in food boxes, Chow Mein and Yakisoba are more rare, so as to the cost at WinCo it is $1.46 regular price $.98 cents on sale and since it has a long shelf life it makes sense to just “stock up enough when on sale to last until the next sale.” While Top Ramen or Ramen Noodle Soup is just $.30 cents (so less than 1/3 of the sale price) you have to have something to cook it in and clean it (with paper towels being the best way) and both of those things cost money and it takes up time to clean the thing you cooked the Top Ramen in so is not convenient and in this case paying over 3 times as much doesn’t matter so much as it still is just $.98 which is inexpensive for that amount of food even by fast food restaurant standards.

It says in the instructions if you don’t fill it with water to the fill line it could ignite and burn –– that’s scary –– but as to the consequences of it overflowing it is just a mess to clean up in a microwave due for cleaning anyway –– that’s not so bad –– because it’s not like it lit the house on fire. Because with having to fill it slightly above the fill line, while this increases the odds of it “boiling over” and making a mess it otherwise won’t have quite enough water for the noodles to become soft enough and it makes for a good time to do an ordinarily-somewhat-needed cleaning of the microwave because while it just spills on the plate those times it does “steam up” the microwave making it much easier to clean the sides and roof of it.

Right after you finish it put some water in the plastic tray to try and get the little bits of egg and other tiny bits of it to “save 5 or 10 cents worth of food and not waste a tiny bit of the Earth’s resources.”

As for what pattern to remove the eggs debate it makes the most sense to me and makes it easiest to process to remove the 4 from the farthest left because my system for organizing food in cabinets is “use up what is on the left first” and clothes in my closet “the clean clothes on the left went the longest since they were washed so wear them first.” How it got started to use up stuff left-to-right and not right-to-left is left-to-right is the direction you read in the English language and I do a lot of reading. Some people like removing the eggs all in a row or a non-random pattern or in a random pattern but in addition to my system of “using what is on the left first” if you look at what a 6 pack looks like (and stores always have those) and a rare type of camping plastic egg holder that holds 6 eggs (that is the same formation as the 6 pack) it helps make sense to for a 12 pack to use 4 all on the left or 4 all on the right and for my system it becomes always 4 on the left. And as for the fact that in food boxes it isn’t always 12 eggs (so 3 Chow Meins or Yakisobas with 4 each) and sometimes is 6 then it works out as a given I use 6 eggs not 4 with one and then cook them for a little bit longer because if I used 4 I would have 2 extra eggs that I don’t use for anything but when I have 12 eggs I prefer having Chow Mein or Yakisoba and eggs 3 times with 4 eggs each not twice 6 eggs each as it tastes better as “6 eggs is a little too much eggs even though I like eggs” and also “6 eggs is a little too much of a filling meal even though I like filling meals.”

Eggs go great with noodles as well as with salt and even with just using 20% of the flavor packet it still is salty enough to make for a “tasty meal.” This is the only way I ever cook eggs anymore and I don’t even own pure salt or use a salt shaker anymore.

Nissin and Maruchan are both very similar companies. So, for example, Nissin and Maruchan each make instant noodles in a Styrofoam cup (Nissin has Cup Noodles (before 1993 called “Cup O’ Noodles”) and Maruchan has Instant Lunch), blocks of instant noodles that you need something to cook them in and so are the least expensive of all their products (Nissin has Top Ramen and Maruchan has Ramen Noodle Soup), and instant noodles that come in a plastic tray to cook them in (Nissin has Chow Mein and Maruchan has Yakisoba). But the problem with Yakisoba for this recipe is that it comes with the flavor packet in the form of a powder and while not a problem if not eating it with eggs as you just mix it in with eggs the powder doesn’t dissolve right making for a not-good texture and making it so you have to be careful to not accidentally inhale the powder when eating it while the Chow Mein has a soy-sauce-like flavor packet (they call it “Savory Sauce”), so it is a liquid so doesn’t have those problems and also has a little bit better taste to it especially if you are used to the flavored powder of Cup Noodles, Instant Lunch, Top Ramen, and Ramen Noodle Soup causing you to be a both a little bit sick of it and causing the soy-sauce-like flavor packet to also be a bit novel and with Chow Mein and Yakisoba being the same exact cost right down to the cent and they otherwise taste the same and have the same sort of nutritional content and are both just as easy to make that then makes Chow Mein the clear winner. And since Chow Mein already has the vegetables not in a packet unlike Yakisoba it is very slightly more convenient to make too a little bit further making it the winner. And this is why the recipe title just says “Chow Mein” and not “Chow Mein or Yakisoba.”

What Nissin and Maruchan are to each other are what Pepsi and Coke (Coca-Cola) are to each other with having very similar product lines. So, for example, Pepsi and Coke each have a cola drink most associated with their name, a sports drink (Pepsi has Gatorade and Coke has Powerade), a carbonated lemon-lime caffeine-free carbonated drink (Pepsi has 7 Up (at least they are who internationally distributes it) and Coke has Sprite), and a carbonated orange drink (Pepsi has Crush and Coke has Fanta) with none of those products having much difference neither taste-wise nor health-wise. Like with the companies of Pepsi and Coke they are unable to sue each other right into the ground for coming out with a too-similar-product so they both still exist, endlessly at war with each other as archenemies, vying for the same exact costumers with paying lots of money in advertising campaigns to try and win those costumers over to their side and not to the side of “the other guy.”

Chow Mein is advertised as being “Restaurant Style Noodles” and they really are more tasty and of a little higher quality than their Cup Noodles or Top Ramen and Yakisoba is advertised as being “Japanese Home Style Noodles” and they also really are more tasty and of a little higher quality than their Instant Lunch or Ramen Noodle Soup.

For Chow Mein for the remaining 80% of the soy-sauce-like seasoning if you are using a garbage bag that isn’t watertight like a paper bag temporarily rest it on the inside of the garbage so it isn’t leaking then after you are done eating when you put the tray in put it right side then place the partially-used packet in it as it could make a hard to clean up mess. And the correct way to open the packet for any instant noodles with a powdered flavor packet is shake it deliberately trying to use gravity to make the powder congregate inside the bag away from the corner you want to cut or tear, then cut or tear that corner off, because if you don’t do this some powder will spill out wasting it and making a mess, and, sure, if you are not using all of the powder who cares about wasting some of it but it still stands that it makes a mess so this technique should still be used.

As to cooking Top Ramen or Ramen Noodle Soup with 4 eggs the main problem is it’s hard to clean the thing you cooked them in as the eggs get stuck on even when wetting the sides of the vessel first with water while with Chow Mein or Yakisoba the plastic tray is designed to “just use once then throw away” so it doesn’t matter that they still get stuck on even when wetting the sides of it first and to a lesser extent Top Ramen or Ramen Noodle Soup don’t taste as good and are not as high quality as Chow Mein or Yakisoba.

Speaking of instant noodles, you never microwave a Cup Noodles or an Instant Lunch in the Styrofoam because the Styrofoam (also known as polystyrene) can leach harmful chemicals into the food (the one of main concern being styrene which might impact the nervous system and is a possible carcinogen) and it can melt the Styrofoam weakening it causing it break when removing it from the microwave potentially burning your hand and making a mess. The instructions not to do that are on the side of the package but with no explanation as to why you don’t want to do this. Many people microwave them in the Styrofoam anyway from not knowing or laziness. The instructions say to add hot water instead and for that I find microwaving the water in a microwave safe coffee cup is easier than a microwave safe bowl to dump the water in without burning myself or spilling the water because of the handle and shape and it holds just enough water for the regular-size coffee cups I use to reach the fill line. And it is not as inconvenient as it sounds to cook the water separate as the coffee cup or bowl is still 100% clean, it just had water in it, so just needs to be dried then put away not cleaned, then dried, then put away. And the instructions say to fold the paper lid halfway back, add water to the fill line, then fold the paper lid back closed flat for at least a few minutes to cool and allow the noodles to soften up but the problem is it doesn’t fold back closed flat very well at all so the best system is set the fork you are going to use on top of the paper lid as a weight. And since some people don’t stay on top of washing dishes like I do and so often “every fork they have is dirty in the sink” and further “they didn’t plan ahead and wash one of them yet for this meal and now rock-hard food is stuck to the forks like concrete so one can’t be washed enough that fast” so then since a weight is needed right away for the lid to make the noodles the best they can just fold up the cardboard (that came wrapped around it) and set it on top while they then find a dirty fork in the sink and start washing it. And neither Cup Noodles or an Instant Lunch can be cooked with eggs in a way that is convenient (as you would have to cook the eggs in a separate thing then add them a little at a time as you ate through the noodles dirtying something and making for a separate step to cooking your meal) and they all have the very salty flavoring built-in so you can’t cook them in a lower-sodium way either.