Step One – Put a kettle of water on to boil.
Step Two – Open a bag of Ramen* (which I bought recently for 13 cents a package – my favorite kind is Chile which is also good for Fridays during Lent!)
Step Three – Put one quarter of the dry noodles in a little mug and the remaining 3/4s in a bowl. In the bowl, put the majority of the seasoning packet (none in the mug)
Step Four – Pour boiling hot water to cover noodles in both bowl and mug
Step Five – Do something else for five minutes.
Step Six – Take the noodles out of the mug and put on a cold, clean salad plate. Discard water. Put bowl and plate on the table.
Step Seven – Wrangle up baby and coerce him into high chair. Grab a pinch of cooler noodles on plate (they will cool in about a minute on a cold plate – since you are grabbing them with your fingers, you will be able to tell if they are still too hot for the baby) and put in front of baby.
Step Eight – Eat your lunch. Baby will entertain himself quietly for up to a half an hour with cold noodles. Add new noodles to his tray ever few minutes as he either eats, discards on the floor (my little Newton!) or smashes noodles into paste upon said tray.
Step Nine – Take a few pictures of baby because it is really cute.
Step Ten – Take a warm washcloth, wash off baby’s hands and face, take him out of chair and put him down surrounded by toys. Wipe off table, tray and floor and discard any noodles found therein. Enjoy having a full belly of tasty, noodley deliciousness (and make sure that he eats something healthy that day, like kale!)
*Please keep in mind that I do not recommend eating, nor feeding to your child, Ramen Noodles on a regular basis. But sometimes you just need the hot, salty, probably MSG-laden, belly-full of deliciousness that only a 13 cent package of Ramen can provide. For that reason and that reason alone, I keep a few packages on hand in my pantry!
Now, here’s some fun pictures of the noodle melee in my house!
