Noodles and Company

Dear Blogosphere,

Please excuse Lauren's absence for the past two weeks. She has been incredibly busy seeing her best friends all over the place. I owe you a recipe. Have some noodles.

Step one:
Make a big ass mess in the kitchen.

Step two:
Let the kitchen get back at you for said mess by dumping ginger all over your chicken marinade. Punk'd!

But seriously...

Garlic Peanut Noodles
Makes a crap ton
Makes ten 7 WW point 1 cup servings


Ingredients

• For pasta
• Half package of whole wheat pasta, cooked, drained, shocked in ice water, drained again
• 3 cups shredded cabbage
• 1/2 c. shredded carrots
• 1 cup snap peas
• 1/4 c. diced green onion
• 1/4 c. lightly salted peanuts
• For chicken
• 2 large chicken breasts, diced into 1" pieces
• 2 tsp dried ginger
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• cooking spray
• For sauce
• 1/4 c. soy sauce
• 1 tbsp crushed garlic
• 1/4 c. fresh squeezed lime juice
• 2 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar (or rice vinegar with a bit of sugar.... same thing)
• 1/4 c. sweet chili sauce 
• 1/4 c. creamy natural peanut butter

Directions

• Sauce
• In a microwave safe dish, combine all ingredients for sauce and nuke for about 30 seconds, or until peanut butter loosens up
• Stir well until well mixed
• You could also use a blender for this, but why make an even bigger mess at this point?

• Chicken
• Toss the chicken in the soy sauce and powdered ginger
• Stir fry in a lightly sprayed pan until brown and crispy
• Set aside and let cool

• All together now!
• In a giant bowl, dump cooled chicken, all veggies, cold noodles, and sauce
• Toss carefully as to not continue making a bigger mess
• Serve with a sprinkle of peanuts, a wedge of lime, and a dusting of sesame seeds!

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I've been really into snow peas and snap peas recently. I think its because they are starchy and that tastes super carby, but they're veggies. I used to hate them but I can't get enough now!

This recipe reminds me of the noodles that you can get in the pre-made salad section at trader joe's, but more garlic-y. You can always reduce the amount of garlic, but where would the fun be in that?

Also, did you notice how I snuck in the whole wheat pasta there? Tricky, huh? And really, the vegetable to noodle ratio is pretty large here, so there's not too much to feel bad about. I'm sure someone more clever than myself could find a way to make a lower calorie version of the sauce, but I wanted the real deal here. Peanut buttterrrrrr......

Today was cold (and by cold I mean 63 hahaha... Sorry Colorado peeps), which means I am going to start thinking about soups... It was so cold I had to wear flats instead of sandals when I took the dog for a walk. hahah. Enough with my Spoiled Californian Problems.... Soup. Think about soup...