with a Thai twist. So, I’ve been sitting here being lazy today and decided I’d make dinner. I was going to make Pad Thai but by the time I got to the kitchen I’d changed my mind and decided to make my Spicy Thai Peanut Stirfry (besides, I didn’t feel like looking for a Pad Thai sauce recipe and didn’t want to use jarred). I love, love, love this dish but was distracted cooking it and overcooked the noodles (timer DORK) and I made too many noodles which I added to the dish because I dumped without really paying attention to what I was doing (again DORK). But, it’s still yummy and hopefully you won’t goof it up like I did tonight.

Spicy Thai Peanut Stir-fry

Cook noodles according to package directions. I used Rice noodles,  but have also used angel hair pasta) Go very VERY easy on the amount of noodles you use. You’re not eating spaghetti…you’re eating the stir-fry. Often I skip the noodles all together.
Sauce:
1/3 Cup Natural Peanut Butter (I prefer Maranatha Organic Peanut Butter just DON’T use the processed stuff)
1/4 Cup Low-Sodium Soy Sauce
1/4 Cup Water
Chili Sauce (I like Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce)

Mix the Peanut Butter, Soy Sauce, and water until blended well.  Add the Chili Sauce a little bit at a time tasting after you add each time to determine how hot you want it.  Trust me, add a LITTLE at a time, a little goes a LONG way.  (Also, you can make this and keep it in the refrigerator for a short time — it makes it even easier if you want to make a quick lunch, not that this is hard.)

Stir-Fry
This is really up to you.  I use what I have.  So, use what you have or add what you want.  I like:

Chicken cut into bite size pieces
Broccoli Florets
Carrots (julienned or cut thing — I’m lazy, I usually cut thin rounds)

Other ideas that I’d add if I had them (maybe sometime I’ll plan for this and actually have the ingredients that I want to add):  onion, scallions, cabbage, celery, mushrooms, mung bean sprouts, shrimp.  Whatever, use your imagination

Stir-fry in minced garlic.  After you stir-fry add the sauce and heat thoroughly.  If  you are adding noodles then just add about half the sauce here then add the noodles, mix and add the rest of the sauce.

You could garnish with some crushed peanuts if you wanted.  Lime juice also tastes GREAT squeezed on top (although I rarely have limes so I never get to add it).

The big thing here is SKIMP on the noodles unless you just want a plate of noodles which I don’t like, personally.

I was watching the news tonight, don’t usually do that, and realized how bad the flooding around here really is. I haven’t been near any of the local lakes or rivers to see for myself but I guess it’s really bad. You know, all that snow we got has to go somewhere…well, it’s hitting the rivers which hit the lakes and none are prepared for the huge amounts coming.

But, onto something more exciting…my dinner. Yes, I know that might not be exciting to you but it was to me. I like to cook. And, I really like when I cook something that tastes delicious. Lately I haven’t been in a cooking mood so I’ve been eating frozen stuff…nothing exciting there. Tonight I decided to cook and it was pure YUMMYNESS.

I had:

Grilled Honey Mustard Chicken
Parmesan Broccoli
Salad

I’ll share my recipes because all of these I came up with on my own. From the bottom up…

Salad LOL Nothing super exciting…some lettuce (Italian Mix) with some sunflower seeds and Red Wine and Olive Oil dressing.

Parmesan Broccoli. I steamed it in the microwave, drained the water then tossed with some fresh grated parmesan cheese.

Not, the real yummy part.

Grilled Honey Mustard Chicken.

Chicken Tenderloins (use the Tyson’s Natural — less sodium
Prepared Honey Mustard (I had some in a bottle, you can make your own)
Almond Meal (prepared or grind your own almonds — today I used my own coarse ground almonds)

Make sure the Honey Mustard is warmed…you might even warm it in the microwave otherwise it’s really thick and hard to coat on the chicken. First coat the chicken in the Honey Mustard then in the Almond Meal. I grilled mine on my George Foreman Grill.

Now, here’s the cool part…the whole thing START to FINISH took me 15 minutes (and I had to defrost the chicken). Here’s the time schedule:

Put the chicken in the microwave to defrost (it was late…I hate defrosting in the microwave unless I have to but…)
While the chicken is defrosting preheat the grill (you can put the honey mustard in the microwave with the chicken now)
While the grill is preheating prepare your bowls with the honey mustard and the almond meal.
After the chicken is defrosted coat in the honey mustard then roll in the almond meal and put on grill
Prepare the broccoli to heat
Prepare your salad
Prepare your plates
When the chicken has about 4 minutes left put the broccoli in (I do mine for 2 minutes)
Take the broccoli out, drain and toss in the cheese add to plate
Toss your salad
Chicken’s done, plate it.
Of course, throughout this process all my dirty dishes are put directly in the dishwasher (yes, we all know I’m neurotic) so all I have to do at this point is leave the grill open to cool and when I’m done eating I rinse the grill plates and put in the dishwasher with my dinner plates and dinner’s done but oh so YUMMY!

Oh, and for dessert (this didn’t get done in the 15 minutes but could have if I’d planned right) will be Strawberry Shortcake (I say will be because I’m not ready to eat it yet LOL). It would have been fresh strawberries but Tween-He and Tween-She ate them all when they were here but it’s OK, I had frozen in my freezer. I’ll have it in a bit when my DVR is far enough along in American Idol that I’ll watch it. (Although, I’m not sure why I’ll have watched exactly TWO episodes this season…last nights and tonights….but there’s nothing else on….or I might watch a movie…either way, I’m eating STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE!)