I was in the mood for some good Chinese food when I was on my way home from work today, but I wanted to make my own rather than go to the restaurant. In the frozen food aisle at the supermarket, I saw a brand of “dinner in a bag” sweat & sour shrimp which was on sale, which also contained frozen veggies, a bag of sauce and a bag of frozen rice. I looked at the directions, and read far enough to see that it should be prepared on the stove, since I don’t have a microwave. However I didn’t read far enough to step 4, which was to put the rice bag in the microwave. The bag itself is marked MICROWAVE ONLY - do not cook with boiling water. Well, I disobeyed the bag, opened it, and heated it with some water on a skillet. Seems to have come out fine (a bit soggy and brown for white rice, but edible). Am I gonna die? Why don’t they want me to cook it on the stove?
If it was microwave only and it came out a bit soggy on the stove, I’m guessing it already had water in it. You can buy these microwave rice things at the Asian grocery store (햇반 is the Korean one that I get sometimes when I feel lazy) or you can kind of make your own. Just make a lot of rice, stick some of it plastic baggies and freeze them. Then when you want it later, microwave it up and it’s good to go!
I think what they didn’t want you doing was to boil the rice IN THE BAG in water on the stove, which…was going to be my suggestion until I read your whole thread. 
By the way, how was the taste of the*** sweat*** and sour food? 
Presumably, the bag is not strong enough to withstand contact with 212F water. If you dropped it in boiling water, the bag would melt. Probably you could put it in a steamer tray over water (not touching the water) and steam it.
Oh, I took the warning label to mean that it was not safe to cook the frozen block of RICE in anything but a microwave. Do they really think there are people dumb enough out there to start cooking a bag on a skillet? Well, since you ARE supposed to heat the sealed bag in the microwave, I guess it isn’t that obvious. I just wanted to make sure that there wasn’t something about frozen rice that was dangerous to eat if not prepared in a microwave.
I had to eat around the red peppers, since I have no tolerance for spicy food. I accidentially downed one, and it did make me SWEAT a bit. Otherwise, dinner was pretty good. It was a dinner for 2 meal, so I have enough left over to reheat on a skillet tomorrow for a second meal. The bag was on sale for $7.99 (down from $9.99 I think?) which actually puts it about on par with what a similar meal would cost at a Chinese restaurant. Next time, it’ll probably be cheaper, healthier and tastier if I just buy everything separate and fresh (shrimp, veggies - just baby corn and carrots and maybe add some squash, no red peppers!, rice, and flavor sauce)
Aren’t the red peppers in this dish traditionally red bell peppers? They’re not spicy at all. I think you psyched yourself into that sweat.
Wait, so you wanted GOOD chinese food, and you wanted to MAKE YOUR OWN, so you got something from the frozen food section…? I see a disconnect here somewhere.
Which would be a great idea if she only had a microwave.
Good is relative. My neighborhood has two Chinese food places. One is a take out place where you have to order by a number (and is good only if you enjoy the taste of fried skin and duck sauce), the other is an actual restaurant which has good food, but is gonna cost you at least $8 per item. I was shopping around at the grocery store intending to make something fresh, and that caught my eye, so I decided to see how it would turn out.