I also refer to this recipe as The Recipe That Time Forgot. This recipe is one I grew up with, as I was eating leftovers yesterday I told my husband it tastes like home. The funny thing about this is that although I distinctly remember eating it, other than my mother, who made it, NO ONE REMEMBERS EATING THIS! I have been talking about it a lot, and my sister, brother and father have no idea what I am talking about. I do not think of this recipe as forgettable, because it has stuck with me for years, I had not eaten this since I was around age 10, so quite a while ago. One thing I love about this recipe is that because I always grew up eating it with whole wheat pasta, I do not even mind. To start you will need to cook 2 chicken breasts, I sprinkled them with salt and pepper and baked them in the oven at 350 degrees until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees, for me this took quite a while, but my oven is chronically cold so I imagine in a properly heated oven it would take much less time. When your chicken is cooked, chop it into about 1 inch cubes. When my husband ate this he thought we were eating tofu because my cubes were chopped in a nice looking way, and was pleasantly surprised to find we were eating chicken instead. While the chicken is cooking bring water to a boil and cook 16 ounces of whole wheat pasta, preferably penne or ziti, according to package directions, be careful not to overcook your pasta because you do not want it to fall apart as you mix it together. In the meantime, peel the end of a stalk of broccoli and chop the stem and the florets. Then bring a sauté pan with an inch of water to a boil, add the broccoli and cook for 5-7 minutes until bright green and the stems are tender. Then drain and rinse the broccoli in cold water to preserve the color. While all your other ingredients are cooking you can chop and seed 3 red bell peppers, peel and chop 5 carrots, chop 3 stalks of celery and chop 4 scallions. The bell peppers, carrots and celery should be in bite size pieces. In a small bowl mix together 3 tablespoons of grape-seed oil, 3 teaspoons of toasted sesame oil, 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar and 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons of white sugar. In a large bowl mix together the vegetables, reserving some scallions for garnishing, pasta, chicken, 2/3 of a cup of raw cashews, reserving a few for a garnish, and the dressing. Be sure to mix thoroughly, you want all your ingredients to be coated. Top with your remaining scallions, cashews and a tablespoon of sesame seeds and enjoy. This meal makes delicious lunches and keeps quite well in the fridge. Asian Pasta Salad
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I think one of the amazing things about being human is how all of our experiences combine to make us who we are. We are not static, we are capable of change and when we choose to change we can alter ourselves in dramatic ways. I find it fascinating how we can change both externally and internally.
I went to visit my mom in Connecticut for a week this year and the amount I have changed rapidly became apparent. Sometimes I think in familiar settings it is easier to see how we are different. I have grown to live a more nomadic existence, my husband and I have made large moves to three different parts of the United States. For me to see the change in myself is hard because my setting and life have dramatically changed. I have always had a growth mindset even before I knew that term. The basic idea behind a growth mindset is a belief that we are not limited by our starting point, but can dramatically change based on our willingness to work and perseverance. I think we all grow up with narratives in our family and mine was that I was not the smart one, both my brother and sister were considered the smart ones, and I just was not. This is not to say I was incompetent, but the adjective more associated with me were hardworking. Things supposedly came easy to my brother and sister, that was not the case for me. I had to work hard on everything, from a young age and I realized that with hard work I could do anything I wanted to do. My stubbornness pushed me to thinking that I will show them, and in ways I did. I graduated from college in three years and attended and earned my masters degree shortly after. I think I struggle with the idea that genius is static or fixed, I honestly think that our abilities are dramatically changeable, and if they would have predicted our futures, mine probably would not have been predicted for how it came out. Recently I have been strongly considering how our underlying assumptions influence how we live our lives. I have started to recognize that the values that I had growing up have changed. When I was much younger I was worried about blending in and status, and to some degree I still wish I could blend in, but as my husband often says I try to blend in and it just comes out in my unique weird way. I cared about the physical possessions as a sign of status, I wanted to be put together and "have it all". I am slowly but surely realizing that for me work is not everything and I am not sure I will have a traditional career path, and that is okay. I am letting go of my previous expectations for myself, I am guiding myself to a place of greater acceptance and peace. Many days I still struggle with the external, that I am not particularly stylish or as thin as I believe I should be. I am realizing more and more though that those external factors have a much smaller influence upon my life than the internal factors. I need to live a life I agree with and to be myself as scary as it may be. I cannot live for others or for safety's sake. I can find a way to be sustainable that might not follow any traditional path and my way of being might be untraditional but there is nothing wrong with that. I think that we as a society put so much emphasis on intelligence and status and it is just plain wrong. We are striving for things we think we want that will not make us happy when we get them. I do not want to strive and find that at the end of the day I am still back where I started. I strive to grow and change, and right now my focus is internal, what are the things I can change that will dramatically alter my way of life. I have been watching some of the series Chef's Table lately. These chefs many would consider culinary geniuses, but what I see for the most part are people who are striving and unhappy. They are quite well known and their success is highly renowned but they do not see it. They do not think of themselves as finished or done, they continually strive. I would say most of them seem to be passionate about their work, but occasionally they seem so stressed and they live their lives in toxic environments. What is the value of life if you lose your soul in the process? I do not want a life where I lose my soul. I want to grow in my culinary prowess and cooking things I love, but I am letting go of the status. I do not need or want to turn my life into something I hate or that hurts me on a daily basis. I am willing to take steps back from the external trappings, I am willing to give up fancy new things, I want something deeper and richer. I want a life that is filled with intention and purpose, even though I am not sure what my purpose is yet, that is what I yearn for. Genius is all fine and good, but not if you lose yourself and your soul in the process. At the end of the day I still want to be able to look at my life and be proud of my decisions and how I have handled what I see in the day to day. One thing I love about food is the way it can anchor us in moments of time in our lives. I remember the first time I ate this or smelled that and be instantly transported back to another time and place. This salad is that way for me. I can tell you the first time I ate a salad like this, and honestly the only time I ate a salad like this. Many years ago I worked as a recess monitor. What does that mean you are wondering? Well being a recess monitor meant I watched kids on the playground in an elementary school and helped enforce rules. I worked with students to resolve conflicts and helped keep the playground safe. This job may sound odd, but I was taking a job in a school to see if I wanted to be a teacher, which at the time I decided yes I did. I was not alone in this endeavor, there were three other women who worked with me as recess monitors. All of these women were moms and two of them had kids who were currently attending the school we worked at. This job was ideal for them because they worked while their children were in school and were free when their children were done. I remember one woman always brought food to share, homemade chicken soup and Irish soda bread I remember quite vividly. I worked at this job for most of the year, and loved the people I worked with and the students, but in the spring I was offered a full time position at another school and so I left my job. My final day working at this school the women made me a delicious lunch and one of them made a salad something like this. I remember the crunch of the crispy ramen and the sweet sesame dressing. As I was combing my mind for Asian recipes I wanted to recreate this instantly came to mind. This salad is by no means a meal in and of itself although if you added a protein it probably would qualify. To get started you will need to thinly slice 2 cups of Napa cabbage, and 1 cup of purple cabbage. Next add the sliced cabbage to the bowl along with a coleslaw mix, meaning the pre-shredded lettuces you buy at the grocery store, this should NOT have any dressing on it. Add to your bowl 1/3 of a cup of toasted almond slices. I typically buy mine at Trader Joe's because the toasted slices are the same price as regular and they have a richer taste. Meanwhile in a small bowl mix together 2 tablespoons of honey, 1 1/2 tablespoons of sesame oil, 2 tablespoons of reduced sodium soy sauce and 4 teaspoons of rice vinegar. Mix until thoroughly combined. Also take one 3 oz package of ramen noodles and crush them. I usually do not open the plastic package and crush them inside so they do not end up flying all over my kitchen and create a larger mess for me to clean up. When ready to serve, add the dressing to your salad and mix to combine. Then top with the crispy noodles and almonds for garnish. If you are taking this for a lunch I would bring the dressing and ramen on the side, so as to not allow the noodles and salad to get soggy. Ramen SaladI was reading a recent blog post by A Farmgirl's Dabbles and I started thinking about how traveling influences our cooking. I have not shared it here, but you may be able to guess based on my Instagram photos that I love to travel. I will fly or ride in a car. I will take trains, and boats, really any means necessary I will use to get to a far off location. When travel plans get ruined, I rethink and make it work. For example a few years ago, my husband and I had planned to go on a cruise, this was while we lived in Florida and therefore cruising seemed natural and easy. We scheduled it around my break from teaching and were thrilled at the prospect. The following week, my husband's company closed down their local plant and we were transferred to Iowa. Oh what are we going to do? We realized that this would be an easy way to bring up our second car, fly to a cruise and drive back. Our cruise was scheduled for right before Thanksgiving. We worked the whole day before our flight, and as night and our plane approached it started snowing. We figured, this is Iowa they must be used to it. We boarded our plane and waited. We waited for a bit while they defrosted the plane. We were about to pull away from the gate when the pilot announced that the crew had worked too many hours to be allowed to let this flight take off. I understand that, and if we were taking an ordinary vacation a rescheduled flight would be fine, but our boat was leaving the next day before we would arrive. What should we do? I did some quick scrambling and found a flight in St. Louis, Missouri at a small airport. They rescheduled us out of there and we thought about if we should take our car. Our car is a small silver Toyota Camry, a car I absolutely adore, but a car without four wheel drive and we are in the middle of a snow storm. We decided to rent a car, that way we would not have to drive our car back from St. Louis. We drove through the night, completely exhausted. All we saw on the road were snowplows and cars facing the wrong direction, no one else seemed to be driving except us. We drove to the morning, dropping off our rental car and getting a taxi to the airport, and we just made it. We were lucky and our friends in Florida picked us up from the airport and drove us to our cruise which we made just in time. We were relaxed and had fun, but the trials of getting to our vacation are something I will never forget. A few weeks ago my husband and I went on a road trip, we drove from Iowa up to Washington, down to California and straight back. We drove something close to 5,000 miles on that same Toyota Camry. We stopped on our return in Salt Lake City, a place I had not been before but have grown to love in a short while. I adore how it is surrounded by beautiful nature and I felt at home there after only a few hours. We were trying to decide where to eat and I went to our usual TV Food Maps App. I love it because it shows you restaurants from cooking shows and where they are, you can search by current location, city or in road trip mode, I am not sponsored, I just love this app. I am not saying all the restaurants are great, but I love its utility. Anyhoo, I looked on the map and noticed Shahrazad Market and Restaurant. I immediately thought yes, I want to eat here. My husband has been obsessed with Chicken Shawarma for years, starting from a local place in Connecticut called Layla's Falafel. We have not eaten Shawarma since we live in Connecticut more than four years ago. We were pumped. We sat down and had a wonderful meal, we started with some bread with hummus and tzatziki , which seems to be a staple. Then we had falafel with a delicious tahini sauce and finally, my husband had the Shawarma and I had the Shahrazad Special. Needless to say we went pretty light for dinner. As we were eating, I started thinking about food. I was thinking particularly about Middle Eastern Food and how they took ingredients that many people had, chickpeas for example and thought to grind them up and fry them into falafel. The other ingredient I thought about was sesame seeds, most people see them and think bagel or asian food, but in Middle Eastern cuisine they take them and grind them into tahini. They take the tahini and mix it with chickpeas to make hummus. Sesame seeds can be mixed with a sweetened syrup to form a sesame candy. I love how food everywhere works differently and by eating and trying new things I get to see how others think of flavors and wonder what I can do next.
What creative ingredient uses surprise you? I think it is funny that I have set out on this Asian food kick and each time I think this is all I like in Asian food, or would want to make on my own another idea comes to me. Sometimes we think of categories as limiting, but in this case I keep finding it inspiring me to cook and test out new things. This recipe idea came from my younger sister. She is currently going to college and she mentioned one of her roommates cooked rice noodles with vegetables and a peanut sauce. I decided to try my hand at it, because why not? Easy recipes are a great jumping-off point and do not require too many ingredients. You could easily add some shredded chicken to this, but I did not feel the need. To start, you will need to prepare your mise en place, this is a fancy french word meaning you get all your ingredients ready to go, ensuring you are ready to proceed through your recipe. I have found this useful as I cook because if I do this ahead of time I can ensure I do not need to run out to the grocery store in the middle of cooking for an ingredient I forgot or sending someone else to get it for me. Also, it is just kind of fun to look like a cooking show with all your ingredients ready to go, and it makes it easy for you to cook quickly, not chopping as you go. For this recipe you will need to chop and seed 2 red bell peppers. You also need to peel and chop 4 carrots into 1 inch pieces. I typically cut them lengthwise once first so they are easier to stick with your fork because they have an extra flat edge. You will need to peel the stem of the broccoli and chop the stem and florets into bite sized pieces. Next set a large sauté pan over medium high heat with 1 inch of water in it. When the water boils you will add the broccoli and cook for about five minutes or until the broccoli is bright green and the stems are easily pierced with a fork, then drain and rinse under cold water so it does not over cook and it retains a green color. Meanwhile heat water over the stove and once hot, pour over your 16 oz. or 1 pound of rice noodles. Allow the noodles to sit for about 5-8 minutes or until softened, I waited about 8 minutes for mine. Then make your sauce, this sauce is quite easy. You will need 8 tablespoons of water, 4 tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter, 4 tablespoons of reduced sodium soy sauce and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar. I am sure you could use creamy instead of crunchy and it would turn out fine, I just liked the extra texture. When you mix the sauce together it may start out separating a bit, but if you keep stirring you will get a thin peanut sauce texture. I liked my sauce thinner because it seems to be able to coat all the noodles more easily. Finally in a large bowl, mix your pre-cut vegetables, broccoli, noodles and sauce. When finished, top with 1/4 cup of chopped peanuts. Peanut Rice NoodlesI love food. I have been passionate about food for quite a while, always appreciating good food and the tradition and love that goes into cooking. I love that you can always learn more, there are things that are new to be tried, flavors to give a shot. I think the magic of food is that every time you eat it is new and amazing.
I never realized when I started cooking that I would change, my tastes alter as time goes on, things I would never eat based on misconception or not liking the taste change. I realize that food is a journey, from the first time to the last. For example, when I was younger I hated pears. I thought they were grainy the one time I ate them and avoided them ever since, then I went to a farmers market in Portland, where I went to college and a vendor gave me a slice of pear for a taste and my entire world was changed. I found pears could be juicy and flavorful and delicious and bought some right then. On the contrary, a few weeks ago I went to a farmers market in Des Moines and I bought Thai eggplants and discovered they are too bitter for my palette and I did not enjoy them. You live, you learn. I spend most of my time thinking about food, whether I have to or not. I love to think about new recipes and try new strategies, sometimes with disastrous results and sometimes with wonderful creations. I think the magic about cooking is realizing that recipes are not good or bad, they are just something you enjoy now or they are something that you are not ready for yet. I used to get very disheartened when food did not meet my "high" expectations, but I realized recently that it is not that my expectations are "high"; it is that my tastes are distinct, as are everyones, what I love someone else may not and that is perfectly okay. I just love to learn more and pass on my knowledge in the hopes that it can help someone else. Tips or tricks that I have learned from one recipe and apply to others. I think sometimes we view foodies through these rose-colored glasses and feel like food becomes inaccessible, but I want food to be fun. I want food to excite you like the first time you started cooking. It is pure magic that you can go from nothing to something. That by putting things together you get something new and exciting and wonderful. I also realize that as individuals we develop preferences for types of food we want to eat. I know for myself I am more likely to try cooking a salad or a soup rather than a large piece of meat, it just feels easier and less risky. I love though that the kitchen is where I take risks and get creative and where even a drizzle of sauce can make food look better in an amazing way. The past year I have really adapted the visual of how my food looks and I realize that garnishes change everything, whether a bit of cilantro adds some pop of green and its sharp flavor or a few sesame seeds add a creamy taste and a crunch. The most important part of cooking is having fun, so on this food journey make sure you are having fun, if it seems daunting or scary you can just say not yet and move on, do not let food scare you it should be fun, and doing what is fun makes us happier, at least I know it does for me. As we learn together, are there any things you are looking for recipes for? Things you would like to try? If so leave them in the comments and we can go on our food journey together, learning, trying, tasting, and doing it all over again. I was inspired to make this salad by looking at a similar one in Chrissy Teigen's cookbook Cravings. I made her salad, shown below, and although I liked the idea, my tastes differ from hers. I also wanted this salad to be easy, something I could throw together and have lunch ready for a week. I love the way when you make a salad with cabbage you do not have to worry about the dressing ruining it the next day. As you will see below I did not use the crispy wontons in my salad, they are just not realistic for me on a day to day, but they are delicious. I just prefer them on their own rather than in a salad. I am planning on sharing more about recipes from that book that are wonderful as is, so if you own the cookbook or take it out from your local library you can give them a try. This salad also reminds me of a salad I used to eat back east at a restaurant called Wild Rice. The salad is labeled as a Vietnamese Grilled Chicken Salad and it inspired me to alter Chrissy Teigen's to be more like this. It may sound silly to say, but I have wonderful memories associated with Wild Rice's salad. I used to split it with my mom when we went out to eat, just the two of us, so even making this salad at home makes me think of my mom and all the time she spent to hang out with me alone. I have to say sometimes being away from family is challenging, but I love the ability for food to transport you back to times and places you were previously and remind you of things you loved. So on to the food. To start, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Start by chopping all your vegetables and placing them in a large bowl. This salad makes quite a lot, you may need two bowls, I know I did. For the veggies, finely shred a Napa cabbage and a red or purple cabbage and add to your bowl. Next take four carrots, peel them and slice off the ends, then thinly slice them into strips, cut those strips lengthwise until you have smaller than chopstick looking long strips of carrot, then chop them again until they are about 4 inches in length. Chop 1 cup of cilantro, chop 4 scallions and chop 1 cup of peanuts. Once chopped reserve a small amount of each for a garnish, add the rest to your salad bowl. Heat an oven safe pan over medium heat and season 2 chicken breasts (mine totaled 1 pound 3 ounces, but you can add more or less depending on preference) with salt, fresh ground pepper and garlic powder. Add the chicken breasts to the hot pan and sear on both sides 3-7 minutes. Once both sides are seared, place the entire pan in the preheated oven and cook for 15-20 minutes, until you have an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Allow your chicken to cool while you make the dressing. To make your dressing you will need a blender or food processor, if yours is not high-powered you may want to mince the garlic before adding it to the blender or food processor so you do not end up with large chunks of garlic in your dressing. To your blender add 3 peeled cloves of garlic, 1/3 of a cup of peanut oil, 1/3 of a cup of rice vinegar, 1 teaspoon of Chinese hot mustard , 3 tablespoons of reduced sodium soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 teaspoon Sriracha, and 3 tablespoons of honey. If you know based on these ingredients this will not work for you here are some suggestions. If you do not want to use peanut oil, you can use another oil of your choice, I would chose something without much flavor vegetable or olive oil would be fine. Chinese hot mustard was not challenging for me to find at my local HyVee in the Asian section, but if you cannot find it at your regular grocery store, you should be able to find it at your local Asian market. If you dislike you could replace the Sriracha with Chinese hot mustard. Blend your dressing until smooth and creamy. Now that your chicken has cooled, it is time to shred it. What I have found based on experience, is that if you cut your chicken breast into smaller pieces about 2-3 pieces and then attempt to shred it, you will have smaller shreds of chicken and it will be easier to shred with two forks. I would suggest that you chop it and then shred your chicken with two forks, if you have not done this before you hold the forks with the backs facing each other each digging into the chicken and then pull it apart. You can do this with your hands, it is just messier for your hands. Add the chicken to your salad and the dressing and toss to combine. Then garnish with leftover cilantro, peanuts, scallions and 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds. Eat and enjoy for today and probably the next few. Asian Chicken Salad |
About MeI'm Sarah; a wife, traveler, foodie, and adventurer. Archives
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