Cold Peanut Sesame Noodles

Currently, my 17 month old son's diet consists of four food groups: milk, eggs, fruit and spoonfuls of peanut butter.  Seriously.  Hoping to appeal to his love of peanut butter and wanting to avoid heating up my kitchen this evening, I whipped up these Cold Peanut Noodles (he wasn't convinced, but the rest of us liked it!).

This is one of those recipes that comes together as quickly as it takes to boil water and cook the noodles.  A quick Asian-style peanut-sesame dressing and crunchy vegetables are tossed with pasta for an easy and delicious warm weather dish.  Feel free to personalize the dish with your own favorite veggies--I think sliced snow peas or thawed frozen shelled edamame would be great!  Although substantial enough on its own, we rounded our noodles out with some grilled chicken on the side!

Cold Peanut Sesame Noodles
8 ounces thin spaghetti or angel hair (can substitute rice noodles as well)
1 small cucumber
1/2 red bell pepper
1 medium carrot
3 green onions
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup white wine or water
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 clove garlic
1-inch piece fresh ginger or 1 teaspoon ground ginger

Prepare noodles "al dente" according to package directions.  Drain in a colander and rinse with cold water until cool.  Shake the colander to remove as much water as possible and transfer to a large bowl.

(This next part can be done while waiting for the water to boil and the noodles to cook)
Cut the cucumber into matchstick sized pieces. Thinly slice the red bell pepper.  Peel the carrot and cut into thin matchsticks.  Thinly slice the green onions, white and green parts, reserving a small amount for garnish at the end.  Roughly chop the cilantro, also reserving some for garnish.  Add everything except reserved garnishes to the bowl of noodles.

In a blender or food processor, combine peanut butter, soy sauce, wine, lime juice, sesame oil, honey, garlic and ginger.  Blend on medium speed until smooth, adding a tiny bit of water, if necessary, if mixture is too thick.  Once dressing is completely smooth, pour over noodle and vegetable mixture, tossing to combine.  Transfer to a serving platter, if desired, and garnish with reserved green onion and cilantro.  Serve immediately.

Shrimp Lo Mein

"They"--whoever "they" may be--say that necessity is the Mother of Invention.  That would sum up tonight's dinner.  It's approaching the end of the month and therefore, my grocery budget for January has been used up.  Time to get creative and also to use up the odds and ends that are in the fridge and pantry.  What did I have?  Some frozen shrimp, some random veggies, soy sauce...time for stir fry.  Except, I had no rice.  Oops.  What I did have, however, was a box of spaghetti and thus, a stir fry morphed into lo mein.  And, my noodle-loving boys were happier because of it!  Feel free to use this recipe as a springboard to use up what you have on hand--you can substitute a different kind of meat and use up just about any random vegetables that you have threatening to languish in the crisper drawer.

Shrimp Lo Mein
1/2 box (about 8 oz) long shaped pasta (I used a 14.5 oz box of "Ronzoni Smart Taste" thin spaghetti)
1/2 pound medium shrimp, peeled, de-veined and de-tailed
4 tablespoons soy sauce, divided
3 tablespoons sesame oil or combination of vegetable and sesame oil, divided
4 cups desired vegetables, cut into bite-sized pieces (we used broccoli florets, thin sliced red bell    pepper, shredded cabbage and 1/2 a bag of frozen stir fry blend)
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and minced (about 1" chunk)
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced (about 1 tablespoon)
1/4 cup green onions (white and green parts), thinly sliced (about three green onions)
1/2 cup chicken broth
optional: 1/2-1 cup leftover cooked meat (i.e. chicken breast or pork--we used leftover pork tenderloin)

In a small bowl, toss shrimp with 1 tablespoon soy sauce.  Set aside until ready to stir fry.  Prepare pasta according to package directions.  Drain, toss with 1 teaspoon sesame oil and set aside.  In a large skillet or wok pan over high heat, heat 2 teaspoons oil.  Stir fry vegetables, in batches and adding chicken broth one tablespoon at a time as needed (for example, sturdier vegetables like broccoli and carrots may benefit from the extra moisture to cook more quickly) until vegetables are crisp tender.  Remove vegetables from pan, set aside and repeat with remaining vegetables until all are stir fried.  Heat one additional tablespoon of oil.  Add ginger, garlic and green onions and stirring constantly, cook until fragrant (about 30 seconds to one minute).  Add shrimp and stir fry one additional minute.  Add remaining chicken broth and soy sauce and bring to a boil.  Add pasta and vegetables back into the pan and toss to coat until heated through.  Drizzle with remaining tablespoon of sesame oil and any additional soy sauce to taste.  Serve immediately.  Chop sticks optional.