Soup de jour

Well, more like "soup de century" since these two boxes of Lipton Chicken Noodle Cup-a-Soup have been sitting around on a shelf for quite some time. With their pre-1994-style nutrition fact labels, the little packets of sodium-filled joy were cying out to be rehydrated. How could I deny them?

As I held the quivering spoon full of hot liquid up to my nose, I have to say, it smelled like soup. And, more surprisingly, it *tasted* like soup! Well, as close to soup as those things can get, anyway. Luckily, although it's been several hours since I slurped down the Cup-a-Soup, I haven't had to make a mad dash for the bathroom. Good thing, since I went to work not too long after ingesting it. Probably not the smartest decision in my life, but luckily it turned out ok.

After passing the taste test, the rest of the packets now belong in my Emergency Food stash at work--in case I end up not bringing dinner with me. It happens pretty regularly, so they shouldn't last too much longer (thankfully). Maybe I'll follow the tested recipe from The Lipton Kitchens I found listed on the box. Apparently, it's restricted to cheese lovers only. I am definitely a cheese lover, so that authorizes me to add in some shredded American cheese. Do they really need more than one kitchen to test adding shredded cheese? If that sort of "recipe" comes from the Lipton Kitchens, I'd hate to see what they have lined up for Thanksgiving dinner.

The only thing that worries me is that, although they seemed fine, should I really be eating 15-year-old shelf-stable chicken? Especially since the box boasts "No Preservatives." I'm just going to reassure myself that those tiny hard nuggets of chicken have been well protected by all the added salt and MSG, and leave it at that.