Stove Top Macaroni and Cheese

I found this recipe on Serious Eats and changed up according to what I had in the house.  This recipe is pure genius.  Since my kids like macaroni and cheese and I hate buying the boxed kind, this is a great replacement.  Honestly, I don't think I have bought the "boxed kind" since 2005.  Seriously.

Skillet Macaroni


1 pound macaroni
Kosher salt
One 12-ounce can evaporated milk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon Frank’s Red Hot Sauce or other hot sauce
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1 pound extra-sharp cheddar, grated (see note above)
8 ounces American cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (see note above)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
6 tablespoons butter, cut into 4 chunks

1.   Cook macaroni until al dente.  Drain. Return to pot. Add butter

2.   While macaroni is cooking, whisk together milk, salt, eggs. Franks red hot sauce, dry mustard and corn starch.  Stir in shredded cheese.

3.   Once pasta is done and you have added your butter, mix in the milk and cheese mixture.  Turn flame on low and stir until cheese is melted and most of milk is absorbed.

TOFFEE COCONUT BARS

Sure feels nice to get out and walk in the sunshine.  I think everyone was out yesterday walking, doing chores, or just sitting outside.  Warmth, glorious warmth. 

We have thought so many times about moving out of the area because of the cold.  I am okay with it but my husband is not.  He prefers tropical type climates really.  But he resigned himself to this area because of the fact that Rochester is a great place to live.  We have almost no natural disasters.  Thats not to say that we are immune to disasters but in general we don't have earthquakes all the time, or tornadoes or hurricanes or tsunamis.  Here we stay.  It's a family oriented community with a lot of culture.  A great public library system, all kinds of activities for children and families, the lake- Lake Ontario, the Finger Lakes are nearby, lots of theaters, the RPO...  

TOFFEE COCONUT BARS
Recipe from Taste of Home.  Find it here.

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup cold butter, cubed

1 egg
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts 

In a large bowl, combine flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly. Press into a 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan (no need to grease). Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown; cool slightly.

In a small bowl, beat the egg, brown sugar, vanilla and baking powder until blended. Stir in coconut and pecans. Spread over crust. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into bars. Yield: 2 dozen.

Apple Cinnamon Sauce

This morning I was helping my daughter pack her lunch to expedite the process.  She is a tweener.  That really should be all I need to say for you Mothers out there that understand the life of living with a tween. Sometimes she is my best friend and sometimes her evil twin takes over and she is anything but a friend.  She is a vegetarian and now and her BFF is allergic to peanut butter.  That makes finding healthy, satisfying food difficult to find.  So I said that to her this morning as I told her what else could we find for her lunch that would hold her over her whole day plus play practice after school or even a snack that she could have to tide her over until dinner.  So she lays this comment on me, curt and sarcastic.  I look at her with shock.  I said I was trying to help you understand what it is like for me in trying to come up with things for you to eat. Then I lost it. Not as in yelling but rather crying because no matter how hard I try to help them, sometimes it feels like it is never enough.  No it most often feels like it is never enough. I think that is one of the hardest things for me as a Mom. I left the room and calmly said, "you can finish packing your lunch then." No apologies for her curt comments and lately there have been a lot of them directed at all of us, really.  She left the house never even saying goodbye. Sigh.

I think I meant to tell you about these months ago.  They just got buried in the pool of stuff to do.  In any case you can book mark it for next apple season.  Or if apples are still around you can make some of these nice little treats for yourself now.

Maybe she could pack these in her lunch...  She, of course, not me.

CINNAMON RED HOT CANDY APPLES
Makes 7 pints

3 1/2 cups sugar
5 cups water
Cinnamon red hot candies
8 to 10 large apples, peeled and cored apples and sliced into thick wedges

Bring the sugar and water to a boil. Cover and set aside.

Fill canner with water and begin to heat.

In 7 wide mouth pint jars, add cinnamon red hot candies – use according to your liking. A couple tablespoons- more or less. Then pack apple wedges into jars, as many as you can fit in a jar.  Leave 1/2 inch at top of jars empty. Fill jars with simple syrup up to within a quarter inch of top of jar. Place lids and rings on.

Place jars in a hot water bath. Bring to a boil. Start timing for 20 minutes once the boil begins. Turn off heat and let sit for 10 minutes uncovered. Remove jars and place on towel on top of counter. Make sure each jar has sealed. This can take up to two hours.  If there is no seal, keep unsealed jars in fridge for up to two weeks before using.

Speculoos Cookie Butter

Traders Joe's. I love you.  I really do.  Fell in love with you in the 90's when I lived in Arizona.  When it comes to cookie butter, though, I had to go my own way.  Not that I don't love your freaking amazing cookie butter and so do my children.  I just could not part with that much money for a small jar of cookie butter.  Maybe cashew butter or something like that, but not for sugar products.  I have to draw the line somewhere.

I bought a package of Speculoos cookies from Aldi's and whirled it in my food processor, then I added enough oil to bring it together.  I also spooned in a couple round tablespoons of confectioners sugar.  Yes, very good.  Yes, very flavorful.  The one drawback, however, was that it was a bit grainy.  But no one complained - that is for sure. Gone!

School Lunch Idea

School lunch idea!

I am always looking for ideas for school lunches.  Don't my kids get sick of the same old thing all the time!

This one is easy.  In a bowl blend some cream cheese with green onions or chives.  Spread thinly on a piece of Krakow ham or Wegman's fat free ham, sliced a little thicker than their standard cut.  Roll it up, then slice into rounds.  Delicious!

Old Fashioned Graham Crackers

I found this old recipe for Graham Crackers.  I have made graham crackers on a few occasions.  This one, in my opinion, is the best one yet.


Graham Crackers

1 cup shortening (you could use half butter and half shortening)
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 cups white flour
4 cups graham flour (or wheat)
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream shortening and sugar together until fluffy.  Add in vanilla extract.

In a bowl combine flour, salt,baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Add the dry infredients to the sugar mixture alternately with the milk  Chill dough over night in the refrigerator.

Roll out dough and cut into desired shapes or just squares like store bought graham crackers.  Poke with a fork all over cookie to prevent puffing.  Place on cookie sheet about an inch apart.  Bake in a preheated oven, 350F until golden brown for a crispier cookie. About 12 minutes give or take. If you like them a little soft and chewy take out a bit early.

Ice Cream Cake

At the end of school I usually make the kids some special treat to mark the day that school ends and summer begins.  (Yes, I am way behind posting this.) This was the quick and easy ticket! They agreed.

Grab your 9 x 13, lay your ice cream down, smoothing it out the best you can.  Chop up some chocolate cookies or use chocolate rice cereal or do like I did and chop up some granola bars into little pieces and sprinkle over top.I found after a while that a icing knife is a great way to smooth it out.

Lay down your next layer- I used vanilla.  Make it smooth. Then for a final layer, use whipped cream (like I did) or use non dairy whip creamer. Decorate with sprinkles or cherries. Or whatever your little heart desires.  Pop it in the freezer.

 

My husband bought my one daughter roses to celebrate her winning an award at her "Moving Up" ceremony. We are so very proud.  She went from struggling to read and write to being an avid reader and a darn good story writer.

Iced Fudgey Brownies

I am always looking for simple ingredients to make simple desserts that taste really fantastic.  I dont know how many brownie recipes are on my blog, four maybe five.  The one called Best Brownies I really love but it only makes an 8 x 8 pan.  Ooops, sorry I just realized I have not posted that yet because they disappear before I get a chance to photograph them. Sometimes you want something bigger.  This is the big size brownies.  Perfect for taking somewhere.  That is exactly what I did with these I took them to my quilters meeting with fresh strawberries punctuating them on the tray.

If you are a cakey brownie lover these are not the brownies for you.  If you like fudgey, well, these are the ones!

Lunchroom Lady Iced Fudgey Brownies

1 cup butter

1/2 cup cocoa

2 cup flour

2 cup sugar

4 eggs

4 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350F.  Beat the butter and sugar until lemony. Add in eggs one at a time, beating until completely blended.  Add in vanilla and salt and finally flour and cocoa powder.

Pour into a greased 9×13 pan.  Bake 20-25 mins.

Frost and serve.  Frosting recipe below.

Icing

1/2 cup softened butter

2 tablespoons half and half but milk is fine

1/3 cup cocoa

3 cups powdered or confectioners sugar

dash salt

Beat all of the ingredients together until light and creamy. Frost as desired.

M and M Cookies

Since I am not eating gluten these cookies were unavailable to me- that was a good thing.   Yes, I had a bite to taste and yes, they are good.  The kids loved them.  I would much rather they have these than any store bought cookies.

I know this may sound silly but I like to bake when the weather is still a little cool- just before summer and stash away the cookies in the freezer for summer.  I also stash away some quick breads.  When it is time to go on a picnic its all done and no baking in hot weather.

M and M Cookies

2½ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup salted butter, softened just to room temp
1 cup brown sugar, loosely packed
1 (3.4 oz) package instant vanilla pudding
2 extra large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups M&M candies

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray baking sheets with cooking spray. In a large bowl combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Whisk together and set aside.

In bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the softened butter and brown sugar on medium high, until light and fluffy. This should take about five minutes.  Add package of pudding mix, and beat until incorporated. Add eggs and vanilla, blending well. Sop mixer and add in the flour mixture. Turn on low so that your flour doesnt go flying all over.

Add in chocolate chips and M&M’s, mixing into the dough. At this point you can chill it or bake right away.  If you chill it your cookies will have more height.  If you dont they wont be flat but they wont be tall either.  Mine were baked without chilling.

Form 1 inch balls of dough and place on parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake about 8 minutes or just until edges look golden brown. Cookies may seem slightly underdone, but they will firm up upon cooling. Don’t over bake. Let site a minute on cookie sheet.  Move to wire rack to finish cooling.

Snickerdoodle No Bake Bars

Love these!  And apparently other people in my home did as well.  Gone in no time.  Need I say more?

SNICKERDOODLE NO BAKE BARS

3 1/2 cups quick oats
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Prepare an 8 x 8 pan by lining it with a sheet of waxed or parchment paper.  Let paper hang over the sides.

In a bowl combine oats, flour, salt, cream of tartar and cinnamon together.  Set aside. In a saucepan combine butter, brown sugar and corn syrup together.  Heat ove medium high flame until it boils.  Remove from heat and add vanilla.  Yes, it will bubble up but it wont come over the sides.  Pour liquid mixture into dry mixture and stir to combine completely. 

Pour into prepared pan and flatten with the back of a rubber spatula. Let cool.  Remove from pan by lifting up the sides of the paper.  Place on cutting board and cut to desired size.  I do small squares. 

This is fabulous to pack into your child's lunch!  You know whats in it- you can't beat that!

Toaster Oven S'mores

Lazy days of summer.  I love not being on a schedule (well, at least for the most part).  No forced wake up in the morning is completely wonderful. I feel very fortunate. 

Dinners are easier.  Everything is fresh and just eating it plain is amazing.  A tossed salad, grilled vegetables... Delicious. 

And desserts can be easy too.  Like Ice Box Cake.  Made that about five times so far.  In small and big quantities.  I have been thinking about s'mores a lot lately.  I decided to do a toaster oven variety of smores.  How easy is that?  The kids loved them!  This is what I had on hand.  It would be a whole lot easier to smack a piece of a bar of chocolate on there rather than morsels.  And one big marshmallow would be easier as well.  Nevertheless, the kids ate them up just fine.

Chocolate Pumpkins

Fun!

Take pretzels and smother it with peanut butter.  Lay it out on wax paper an stick it in the freezer. After about a half of an hour, dip into melted white chocolate (or Melt type chocolates that you get at the craft store).  Freeze again.  Melt the next batch of white chocolate and add the stems by placing some on a knife and touching the top of the pumpkin where the stem would go.  Hey, it's not fancy but I think they came out cute.  Little hands in our house loved this project and most certainly ate up the results.

Pepperoni and Cheese Pizza Bread

Recently during a shopping outing, I spotted a magazine that I wanted to buy. I rarely buy magazines anymore, especially food magazines but this one seem to have a lot of recipes that I wanted to try. I bought and am so glad I did. Tsis recipe is amazing. We loved it. Served along with salad- it was a nice light meal.

It baked up so nice and beautiful and the kids loved it.

Pepperoni and Cheese Pizza Bread
Original recipe can be found here at Recipe.com
No kneading required.

2 3/4 cup flour
2 1/4 teaspoon yeast
pepperoni
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 cup provolone, chopped small
1/2 cup pepperoni, chopped small

Stir together sugar and water.  Sprinkle yeast over top and let sit until foamy about five minutes.  Meanwhile start chopping the pepperoni and cheese.  Set aside.  Add flour, salt and oregano to the water yeast mixture and blend using an electric mixer.  Add melted butter.  This a fairly wet dough.

Grease a 2 quart casserole dish with butter or vegetable shortening.  Pour dough into the casserole dish and let rise in a warm ,draft free place for about an hour. 

Preheat oven to 375F.  Bake bread for about 35 to 40 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Vanilla Pudding with a Side of Random Thoughts

Some cool vanilla pudding goes down real easy in the summer time.  Creamy and delicious and very refreshing.  Simple.  Sprinkle some blueberries or any other fresh fruit that you love and voila- yumminess.

Had to share a few random things with you.

This first photo is my daughter's discovery.  She urged me to share it with all of you.  A pretzel with hummus and a pickle.  I know this kind of thing isnt really new but it was new to her.  I use to get shawarma pitas at a local Lebanese restaurant and there would always be a pickle in there.  A nice sourness filling every bite.  It was superb.

The fact that my daughter was excitedly dippin' in for more beany goodness was certainly very exciting for her Mamma. I had mine with Pita Chips.  Yumminess- I made another batch of those sour pickles just so we could eat the hummus with the pickles.  My other daughter dipped her pickle into the hummus. She was not as impressed as we were. She thought she was pretty funny though dipping her pickle in the dip instead of her pretzel.  This is after all, five year old humor at it's finest.

Then this next photo was a surprise visito that was about 2 inches long.  I was working with some dill I had bought at the Farmers Market and there sitting on the branch was this creature.  Love the colors- so vibrant. 

 

As pretty as he or she was, I took it outside and snipped off that limb.  No offense Mr. Capatiller (my daughters favorite name for him).


Vanilla Pudding


Recipe adapted from this recipe at Allrecipes

2 1/2 cups milk, divided
Pinch salt
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 egg yolks
1/2 vanilla pod scraped
1 tablespoon butter

Place 2 cups milk and salt in a saucepan. Sprinkle sugar on milk and do no stir; heat over medium-high. Combine cornstarch with remaining milk; add egg yolks and mix well, set aside. When milk comes to a full boil, remove saucepan from the heat.  Slowly add about 1/2 cup of hot mixture to the cornstarch and milk mixture. Then stir back into saucepan, whisking as you go.   Return to the heat and cook for 1 minute. Pudding will begin to thicken.  Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla seeds and butter. Pour into individual dishes.  Eat warm or chill.

Graham Cracker Frozen Treats

This is a crazy easy one.  Of course you can get all kind of creative with this one- 1000's of options and combinations.  No recipe really.  Easy Peasy 1-2-3.  Mix a 1/2 bag of mini marshmallows with a 1/2 of a container of cool whip- or even better whipped cream (with some kind of stabilizer in it). I say half because you will end up with a ton of these sandwiches if you do the whole bag and container. Next you fold in some mini chocolate chips.  Sandwich the mixture between two layers of graham crackers.  Freeze and eat!  Ungodly sweet to eat before freezing I must say.  Something about the freezing action makes it a bit less sweet. 

Frozen Treats: Jello Pops

Hard to snap a good picture of a waving hand. She was so wanting to eat it instead of photographing it.

These pops are like, wow, easy and fun and very lip slurping delicious.  Very versatile too.  So many diffferent flavor combinations and things you can do with them.  I love that you can control the sugar in these.  You can even make them sugar free if you like. 

I have two more frozen treats that I want to share with you over the next couple days.  Stay tuned...

Jello Pops

I used cherry flavored jello with strawberry flavored kool aid for a berry pop.  So many flavor combinations and so easy on the pocket book.

1 (3 oz.) pkg. Jello, any flavor

1 (.14 oz.) pkg. unsweetened Kool-Aid

1/2 to 3/4 c. sugar

2 c. boiling water

2 c. cold water

Dissolve Jello, Kool-Aid, and sugar in boiling water. Add cold water. Pour into ice cube trays or popsicles molds. Insert sticks. You can wait until mixture is partially frozen to insert sticks. Freeze until firm, about 2-3 hours. Makes 20-24 pops.

I stored the extra juice in the fridge until the popsicle containers were empty.  Yup that didnt take too long. It did become a little gelatinous but it still froze well.

Coconut Snowballs

Some more pink.  Hey, what can I say,  I have female children.

Such a busy time of year, the end of school.  Plays, concerts, tours, celebrations, picnics, not to mention graduations and Father's Day.  Its fun stuff but its busy.  My young daughters concert was yesterday.  A Too Te Tah, a too te tah, ah to tee tah tah (click to see what I am talking about if you are not familiar) is completely etched into the far reaches of my brain.  I simply cant stop singing that song.  Its driving me coo coo.  I will say it was utterly fantastic to see my husband and mother, who are completely serious type people being all goofy holding their tongue with their eyes closed singing 'to te tah'!  Absolutely priceless people! SO wish I had a camera.  And me, my friend, my daughter's teacher had me pouring lemonade while the whole auditorium was acting all goofy!  I love her!

Snowball in June?  Yup. catch!

Coconut Snowballs


4 egg whites (1/2 cup)
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon coconut oil
zest of one lemon
2 cups cake flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
2/3 cup milk

frosting:

2 egg whites
6 tablespoons cold water
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 2 cups sweetened shredded coconut

Whip egg whites until stiff peaks form but not dry.  Set aside in the refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a mixer or large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.  Let run five minutes.  Add vanilla, coconut oil and lemon zest.

In a medium bowl combine sifted flour and baking powder. Add a third of the flour mixture.  Then add half the milk.  Add another third of the flour mixture and then the other half of the milk.  Finally add the remainder of the flour.  Fold in egg whites to the mixture.

Spoon into greased and floured muffin pan or dome pan.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

In a stainless steel bowl combine egg whites, cold water, cream of tartar and sugar.  Beat until combined.  Place bowl over a saucepan with boiling water or in a bain marie.  COntinue beating for about ten to fifteen minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla.  Let cool.

Once cupcake sand frosting are cool, dip in frosting and then in coconut.  You can color the coconut with food coloring if you like.

Edamame and Rice Salad

Love this kind of meal in the summer.  Minimal heat, maximum flavor, low fuss.  The only problem is that my kids don't get into this kind of meal.  All those colors mixed together- how could I?   

I used some fresh tarragon in this dish.  I have to say that its really what made this dish more flavorful.  In the past if I saw this recipe I might have skipped the tarragon.  Don't skip it.  If you cant find it fresh, you could use tarragon vinegar as a substitute. If you have never tried tarragon, it has a slight anise flavor.  My husband and I really enjoyed it. I definitely want to make it again when I can really load it up with fresh basil and parsley.  No, I didn't have basil in the recipe but it would make a great addition, along with some cherry tomatoes. 

So I have to share what happened the other day.  First I must warn you: Never put your kids in the dryer!
I'll explain why she is in the dryer.  Really, I had a perfectly good reason.  You see my daughter decided to leave a green crayon in her shorts pocket.  It was a washable crayon.  Let me tell you, washable does not mean that it comes off easy from dryer walls after it has melted.  Green - all over my dryer... and my clothes. We cleaned what we could reach.  She helped a lot so she could maybe remember not to stick crayons in her pocket.  I couldn't see the upper wall on the inside.  I had her climb in and wipe there.  I told her that under no uncertain circumstances was she, or her sister, to ever climb in the dryer again. For that time she had a blast, feeling all mischievous for being in there at all. And for your information, Magic Erasers worked perfectly- as soap and water did not.

Edamame and Rice Salad

1 1/2 cups frozen edamame, thawed
2 cups long-grain rice, cooked
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons canola oil
1/4 cup chives, minced
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
1 teaspoon tarragon, finely chopped
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup roasted red peppers, finely diced

Combine all.  Its delicious as soon as it comes together and equally delicious the next day.

Aldo Applesauce Cookies

Upon request from my daughter, I had to make these.  Her librarian made a big batch for the kids and sent them all home with the recipe.  I guess she knew they would probably all be wanting it.  Indeed.  Lucky for her it was so easy peasy.  The kids actually did most of the work.  They are so yummy we made them twice! I added the link just in case you wanted to check out the book.

Aldo Applesauce Cookies
Of course she had to link these cookies to a book because she is a librarian.  What better way to get kids to read than to link it with cookies.

1 pkg spiced cake mix
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup applesauce
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350F.  Mix all the ingredients together. Drop by teaspoon full onto cookie sheet.  Bake for about 9 to 11 minutes.  They wont necessarily look like they are done.  When you touch them but they should have a bit of spring.

A nugget of success!

I buy chicken nuggets, dinosaurs, rounds, whatever you want to call them once in a while for my children.  It is a special treat for them and me because its easy to prepare but I dont really like to buy them.  If you know anything about me from reading my blog, you probably already know that I buy a minimal amount of precooked food.  I like to know what is in my food.  I like to control the amount of sugar or salt, make choices about them as I go along.  Now, nuggets are one thing that have bothered me for a long time.  I have attempted to replicate them many times and have been unsuccessful by way of taste and/or texture.  Until now.  Yes!  Happy dance.  These not only have a great taste and texture they are even better than the nuggets you buy but hauntingly close nonetheless.  Try them.  Let me know what you think.


Lipsmacking Goodness Chicken Nuggets

12 ounces chicken breast
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon onion powder
a packet of Ramen Noodle seasoning*
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/4 teaspoon pepper
****************************

1 egg + 1 tabelspoon water
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs

Using a pair of kitchen shears, cut chicken into pieces about the size of peas.  Do not use a processor- it will change the texture dramatically. Mix the chicken, cornstarch and seasonings together and form little patties.  Place on a tray or cookie sheet and refrigerate for an hour.  Remove from the sheet and dip in egg wash and then into bread crumbs.  Place back on tray until you have them all ready.  Heat a large skillet and add a tablespoon of canola oil.  Place as many nuggets on the skillet as you can without over crowding.  They won't cook too well if they are smooshed in together.

If you are not a vegetarian, I suspect you want to bite this!

* I know you saw Ramen Noodle seasoning packet and you said to yourself,  "hey that completely flies in the face of what she just said about prepackaged foods."  Here is the deal, first of all I love Ramen-  they are so bad but oh, so good.  Secondly, whenever I make Ramen, I use half of a packet to season the noodles.  That is where I control the salt.  The other half of the packet I use the next time I make them.  I end up with packets laying around which I usually use in soups.