Yeah, but can someone explain that water-boiling thing to me again?

Leo and I are enamored with the Udon Noodle dish they offer at the local Pei Wei, but I cannot STAND the amount of calories and fat they serve along with it there. I decided there must be a way for me to make something similar that would be almost as tasty, but not nearly so bad for us. So I bought two different types of udon noodles (the fat kind and the skinny kind...they unfortunately do not sell the round kind that Pei Wei uses, which brings things down a couple of notches for me already. But I decided to press on anyway), and have started looking for recipes that will help me bring the tasty flavor of udon into our house ASAP.

In doing so, I came across a recipe for preparing udon noodles. I didn't realize people needed help like this...here's what it said, word for word:

1. Prepare somen/udon noodles (I suppose that means we should take them out of the packaging? Um, duh?)
2. Boil water (it was bolded like that in the write-up...)
3. Boil noodles
4. Drain and cool the noodles
5. Serve boiled noodles

I'm so glad they cleared that up for me, there. When I saw the link to it, I thought it would have some info on the proper way to prepare the noodles so they don't get too mushy or gummy or something during prep. But apparently I was wrong...it was much more simple than that. It kinda made me sad that they had to put it out on the 'net for people to refer to.

Just an FYI, if you have to be TOLD to boil the water and then to boil the noodles in the preparation of any kind of noodle dish, you probably should let someone else do your cooking for ya. Unless you're like 7 and it's your first time cooking something, in which case don't touch the surface of the stove/the flame-thingies - they'll burn you! And make sure your mommy is nearby when you're attempting to cook with any kind of heat, ok? Ok.

Anyone have any good udon recipes that don't involve dumping them into soup? I'm thinking more stir fried than noodle-soupy kind of things. Send 'em my way if you have them. (And if you haven't ever had the udon noodles from Pei Wei, give them a try...they're delicious! The chicken, tofu, and veggie versions are way better for you than the steak one, of course. So keep that in mind when you order them...)