Experimental Peanut Sauce

So, I like Pad Thai, but I know restaurants usually use fish sauce - which, a) yuck, and b) not vegetarian. Also, there's often a weird flavor kind of lurking in the background of Pad Thai that I can't identify but don't really like.

So, I said, hey, I can make a thing that's kind of like Pad Thai only without the stuff I don't really like, and well, it probably won't be all that much like Pad Thai, but I'll like it.



Here's the ingredient list:
Crunchy peanut butter
Coconut milk
2 limes
half-and-half or milk
1 small red pepper, diced
fresh spinach
2 eggs
sugar
cayenne pepper

So, for the sauce, I mixed up some crunchy peanut butter, coconut milk (I used reduced-fat for both of those), and the juice of 2 limes in a small saucepan, & started heating it. I wanted to make it creamier without more coconut flavor, so I added some fat-free half & half. Then I thought it should be sweeter, so I added a bit of sugar, & finished it off with some cayenne pepper (spice of the gods!).

I'm not so great at telling you exactly what the proportions were, since I just put stuff in the pan and adjust as seems necessary. But what I ended up with was probably about a cup of sauce, and it was a rather thick, creamy texture.

At the same time I was boiling water for the noodles, I started sauteing a diced red pepper in a small skillet. When the pepper was almost cooked, I scrambled in 2 eggs with it.

I used rice noodles, which don't take long to cook (3 or 4 minutes) and when they were almost cooked, I added some fresh spinach I had left over.

Drained the noodles, and mixed it all up. It was good! Not all that much like Pad Thai, but hey, I wasn't trying to make Pad Thai, I just wanted some peanut sauce. I really like the nutty-sweet-tangy combo. And it was great warmed up for breakfast this morning!

The Pasta Mom Likes

My parents were here this weekend and Mom specifically requested this pasta dish, which I served to her once a while back. Hey, if Mom likes it, it must be good!

This one isn't anything too groundbreaking, but it's good stuff. It's kind of a combo of AAA Pasta and my most recent Rice Dish - it's got the veggies from Rice Dish & the sauce from AAA Pasta, plus smoked mozzarella.



So here's what's in it:

1 box of pasta (I used the wheat blend stuff, which is pretty good)
2 big tomatoes, peeled, cored & chopped up
1 can artichoke hearts, chopped
1 10-oz. bag fresh spinach
1 braid smoked mozzarella, cubed
mayo
garlic
cayenne pepper
salt

Here's a tip for using fresh spinach in a pasta dish - one minute before the pasta is going to be done, just toss the spinach in with it & stir it around. The brief time in the boiling water will soften it up, but not cook the life out of it. Then you can drain it in the colander with the pasta. Easy & saves a pan!

Also, in case you don't know the easy way to peel tomatoes: put them in a bowl & pour boiling water over them. Let them sit for a minute, then the skins will slip right off.

So anyway, it's another "mix them all up together" dish, with the mayo, garlic, cayenne, & salt to taste. Enjoy, it's awesome! Mom thinks so too!

Sweet Beans & Rice Soup

My mom makes rice soup sometimes, which is just rice & milk, lightly sweetened. It's awesome, a good breakfast (or dinner), and cheap.

I was at the Oriental Market in Davenport (my new favorite store, they have canned bubble tea!!!) and picked up a few cans of tiny sweetened red beans. Red beans figure heavily in some Asian desserts, and if you've never had sweet red beans, you are missing out! I thought they'd be good in rice soup, and I was right.



This is 3-1/2 cups (cooked) brown rice, a can of mashed sweet red beans (they come already mashed, roughly the consistency of refried beans), and some milk (enough to make it soupy but not too milky). The beans are already sweetened in the can, so there was no need to add any additional sweetener.

I made it last night & put it in the fridge, and it'll last me most of the week for breakfast. This morning I warmed up a bowl in the microwave and cut up a banana on top. It was so delicious & kept me going for a long time!

Here's what the cans of tiny sweet red beans look like. I used the one on the left, the mashed beans - the one on the right contains unmashed beans. Probably either would work well for this.

Experimental Ricotta Pasta Sauce

I had a pasta dish at a restaurant that had Alfredo sauce with tomatoes on top, and the tomatoes were really basily and garlicky, and it was super good, and I wanted to try something like it at home. Except I know Alfredo is the delicious sauce of the devil and I pretty much never eat it except on special occasions. Alfredo has like 800 grams of fat a serving, I just can't justify it even though I love it.

So I thought, hey, I can make something that kind of approximates Alfredo with ricotta, parmesan, and milk, right? And then put some basily-garlicky tomatoes on top?



Well, it wasn't all that much like Alfredo sauce, but it was still really good. The end result tasted more like mushed-up lasagna. Hey, lasagna is good stuff though. I liked it.

Here's what I did.

First, I drained one can of petite-diced tomatoes & added a bunch of garlic (the kind from the jar) and basil (I used fresh because it looked nice at the store, but you can use the kind from the jar if you want) and a little salt & pepper. I did this a couple hours ahead of time & stuck it in the fridge, but that wouldn't be absolutely necessary.

Then at dinner time, I started the pasta water heating & dumped a container of low-fat ricotta in a pot & turned the fire on pretty low. I stirred in a hefty handful of grated parmesan cheese & a dash of 2% milk, then I decided it wasn't saucy enough & put in some more milk - it was maybe 1/2 cup all told. I threw in a smidge of garlic & a little salt & pepper. This mixture needed to be stirred a lot so it didn't bubble or burn. I just kept it over low heat the whole time the pasta was cooking.

Right when I put the pasta in the water, I put the tomato mixture in a small pot over a pretty high fire, to warm it up & cook off a little liquid. Stir occasionally.

I served it as above, with the tomatoes on top of the ricotta sauce, but I just ended up mixing it all together. It was delicious! If I do it again, I will add more parmesan - maybe a handful and a half. :) It tasted really parmesany in the pot, but when all the stuff was mixed together, I think the other flavors overwhelmed the parmesan a little & you couldn't really taste it.

Using 3 pots to make one dish is more complex than I usually bother with! But it was worth it, and I had yummy leftovers for lunch today.