Chicken and Peanut Sauce Noodles with Broccoli

I bought some rice noodles from TJ's and wanted to make a peanut base for them. It is loosely based on this recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/thai-noodles-with-spicy-peanut-sauce-99918

12 oz fresh rice noodles (Trader Joes)
1 head broccoli, stem + florets, chopped
green onion, chopped
1/2 can or whole (small) can water chestnuts, sliced
1/2 lb raw chicken, chopped
sesame oil for sauteing

Sauce:
1/4 cup peanut butter
3 T rice vinegar
1 T honey
3 T water
3 T soy sauce
1 clove garlic, minced

The noodles take only 2 minutes to cook so I did them last. The chicken and broccoli I started at the same time as the sauce, steaming until soft so that Ila can eat it easily. Without toddler, I would leave them a little bit crisp if possible.

Start water boiling for noodles in a pot. Put a little oil in a skillet and saute chicken. Mix all the sauce ingredients in a separate pot and heat up around medium. When broccoli is done, add to sauce. When the chicken has browned, add to sauce. Use chicken saute pan to saute the green onion after chicken has been added to sauce. Put noodles into boiling water when water is ready and other items are either done or nearly done. Cook for 2 minutes, then drain and rinse with cold water. Then add noodles to sauce and toss.

Anyway, all three of us liked it a lot. There was a small serving left over.

Notes: David prefers this over pasta. I've made it over rice pasta and it was good.

Next time try over ramen noodles.

Green Thai Curry with Chicken

The instructions on the green curry paste bottle that "Thai Kitchen" makes say to put in 1 or 2 tbsp of paste for 1 can of coconut milk. I made the recipe that way (2 tbsp) and it was so mild I could barely taste any flavor. It really needs 2 or 3 times that amount. It wasn't hot at all either.

I added diced onion, carrots, and potatoes and let simmer until cooked. Also added cooked chicken somewhere in the simmer time. It would have been nice to add some fresh basil but I didn't have any.

We ate it on brown rice. David and I liked it, but it was very lacking in flavor. Also I did not add sugar as the bottle suggested and was glad. It is plenty sweet from the coconut milk.

Asian Lettuce Wraps

http://chinesefood.about.com/od/fusionrecipes/r/lettucewraps.htm

This would have been better if I'd used fresh chicken breast instead of canned. Also, we used romaine lettuce which was difficult to roll because of the thick spine. Next time we'll try butter or iceberg lettuce or something without much of a spine.