Hot & Cold, Sweet & Spicy

I was craving Chinese food sans the MSG and I have had a cold the past few days so I really wanted something to clear up my sinus congestion, so I knew I needed something spicy.

For the Hot & Spicy

1 Chicken breast
1 onion
4 carrots
2 cups green beans (ends cut off)
3 cups broccoli (I thawed frozen broccoli)
1/2 bag shelled edamame (frozen veggie section)
Stir fry or Teryiaki sauce
Sriracha sauce (hot sauce)

For the Sweet & Cold

Sobu buckwheat noodles (used them in this post)

Dressing ingredients:
Rice vinegar
1/4 tsp Ground or fresh ginger
2 tsp Sugar
Soy Sauce
Vegetable oil
1 clove garlic-crushed

First you want to get together your 'cold' part of the meal. Boil your buckwheat noodles according to the directions, typically 5-7 minutes, Strain in a colander  and pour cold water over the pasta in the colander to cool it down, set aside while you make the dressing.  One of my first pampered chef products was a gift from our close family friend Carrie. I would always tell her how much I loved her dressings and apparently this contraption held all her dressing secrets in one place :)  I was in love. As a housewarming present she got this for me. There is an Asian dressing on there that is better than any Asian dressing I've bought/tried etc.  Anyway..... Per the directions on the container I made the dressing...

There are very few actual measurements written on the container so I have a hard time translating the liquids in the recipe if you don't have one of these bad boys. I highly recommend one, the Caesar dressing is the bomb.com which I'll be making Friday night!

Measure

Mix



Pour

 Add the noodles to your serving dish, then Pour the dressing over the noodles, Mix well. And place in the fridge.




Once this is in the fridge I was onto the stir-fry.







Chop up you veggies however you like.

I really wanted crinkle carrots so I brought out the mandolin.

Shelled Edamame:

Once all the veggies are in the pan, Top with your Stir fry and sriracha sauce and cook and medium high for about 7mins.

Once the veggies are semi-cooked add in your diced chicken breast

Cook the chicken till it is fully cooked, about 12 mins on medium high heat.  Once the stir fry is done your noodles should be chillin out in the fridge. Serve noodles with stir fry on top. I also added some dressing to lettuce for a side asian salad as well.

Lefties

So the lettuce wraps were such a hit that lefties turned out to be one cabbage wrap leaf and two handfuls of meat mixture which would be enough for Alex but leave me starving, no thanks. It was a late dinner and the last thing I wanted to do was think/cook. So I looked at the cup and a half of meat mixture and one lonely cabbage wrap leaf and decided I would turn this into Lo-mien.

Recently I picked up some SOBA Japanese Buckwheat noodles from the Asian Market (they have them at Harris teeter but in the asian market for about 1/4 of the price) and have been hooked on them(more recipes to come.) Buckwheat is much better for you and don't leave that heavy feeling in your stomach.

A little health blurb about Buckwheat noodles compliments of Google: Buckwheat is a gluten-free grain that contains no wheat, Soba noodles because of their buckwheat content are a slow-releasing carb. aka skinny girl. full boyfriend.

Just like any other noodle, go ahead and boil them in water for about 7-10 mins the drain the pasta water. Back in the same noodle boiling pot add in your meat mixture leftovers and tear up any left over cabbage wrap leaves add the noodles back in, stir around for about 3-5 mins adding soy sauce/hot sauce anything to liven up the noodles/meat. Then......... you EAT!

PS. You could also make a 'fried-rice' with the leftovers, make some minute brown rice (my Persian mother is probably appalled at my reference to microwaved minute rice) and stir that up with the leftover meat content and soy sauce , etc.