Thai Peanut Sauce (and meal ideas with sauce)

This is a super easy sauce that I like to make because I can pair it with so many fresh veggies...

1 small piece of lemon grass, chopped**
Freshly grated ginger-to taste
1 cup water
½ cup hoisin sauce
3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
1½ tablespoons sugar

DIRECTIONS:

To make the peanut sauce:

In a small sauce pan, simmer lemon grass in the water for 5 minutes, strain out the lemongrass and add the remaining ingredients to the water. Whisk well and simmer an additional 5 minutes. If the sauce doesn’t thicken, whisk for one minute over medium heat. (**Sometimes I am lazy and just use a very healthy squirt of the fresh lemongrass paste you can buy in the grocery store).

https://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/whole-wheat-noodles-with-peanut-sauce-and-vegetables-recipe/

I use the wheat linguine pasta.

Often, I will slice narrowly slice chicken cook it with some lime olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Afterwards I will often pan sear small pieces of broccoli and shredded carrots until they are almost to the texture I like and then throw in some red, orange, yellow peppers, and zucchini. Be sure to flavor with a bit of salt and pepper.

When everything is ready, mix together amounts desired and garnish with ground peanuts, limes, and cilantro.

Garden Lasagna

Well, my garden may not have produced much this summer, but thankfully we have a lot of good gardeners in my neighborhood who love to share! I think everyone has a lasagna recipe that they use, but this is just one I threw together and I really liked how it turned out.

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

5-6 tomatoes diced

1 zucchini, grated

8 oz mushrooms, chopped

2 carrots, grated

1 lb ground beef (optional)

1 tbs oregano

2 tsp basil

Pinch of thyme

Pinch of rosemary

Salt, Pepper & Sugar to taste

12 Lasagna Noodles

2 cups spinach

16 oz ricotta or cottage cheese 

2 cups shredded mozzarella

1 egg

If using, cook ground beef in frying pan until done. Drain grease and set aside.

Place onion, carrots, and garlic in a large frying pan. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Let cook until water boils out and onions are transparent. Add tomatoes, zucchini, and spices. Let cook until tomatoes are broken down. Add a little water if necessary. Add mushrooms and beef. Cook until mushrooms have softened. Set aside until assembling lasagna.
Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and let cool. 
In a medium bowl, combine egg, ricotta, and 1 1/2 cups mozzarella. 
To assemble lasagna, spread a layer of sauce (use 1/3 of the sauce) in the bottom of a 13x9 pan. Place a layer of lasagna noodles over the sauce. Spread half of ricotta mixture over the top of noodles. Spread a layer of spinach on top. Repeat process once more, beginning with sauce. Spread remaining sauce over ricotta and spinach and place remaining noodles on top. Sprinkle remaining mozzarella on top. 
Bake at 350 F for 35-45 minutes, until browned and sauce is bubbling. Serve and enjoy!

Basic Macaroni & Cheese

I don't really like macaroni and cheese all that much. That is, except when I get sick or when I am really tired. When I get sick I start to crave processed foods more. Which is why it's weird that I wanted macaroni and cheese earlier this week. I wasn't sick. Well, I decided to make some from scratch and it turned out pretty well. Obviously there are tweaks that you can make to this recipe, but for a starting point, I think this makes a  pretty good recipe.





1/3 cup flour
3 tbs butter
2 cups milk (I used almond)
2-3 cups cheese 
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 lb. macaroni or other type of pasta (cooked)
1/2 cup bread crumbs

Whisk together flour and butter over medium heat to form a roux. Slowly whisk in the milk. (If lumps form, whisk until smooth.) Add cheese, salt, chili powder, pepper and nutmeg. Once cheese has melted, add cooked macaroni. Pour into a baking dish and top with bread crumbs. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Mom’s Variation on Shrimp Carbonara Fettuccine

Last Friday night we splurged and went out to dinner at McGrath’s. We both decided on the same thing which was a Shrimp Carbonara. By the time Sunday came, it was just a memory. We had eaten at the branch’s Linger Longer which was sparse. So when evening came, we both wanted something, but nothing too heavy. With the memory of our Friday night dinner, Mom went looking on line for something similar. The following is a combination of that meal and a quick fix for dinner.

Ingredients:

• · 1 medium onion, diced
• · ½ C. sliced mushrooms
• · 8 oz. Fettuccine or other pasta of choice
• · 4 slices cooked bacon, finely diced
• · 1 C. frozen peas
• · ½ to 1 lb. frozen raw shrimp, peeled
• · ½ C. parmesan cheese
• · ½ C. half and half cream
• · Garlic salt to taste
• · Black pepper to taste

Directions:

Prepare pasta according to directions; add frozen peas the last five minutes of cooking. In separate frying pan add 2 tbs. oil, cook onions until tender adding mushrooms and bacon midway through cooking time. Add shrimp to frying pan with onions and mushrooms cooking shrimp until they turn pink. When pasta and peas are done, drain reserving one cup of hot liquid. Stir in half and half and parmesan cheese into hot pasta. If sauce appears to be too thick, gradually add reserved liquid until desired consistency. Stir in cooked onion, mushroom and shrimp and season as desired. (We think McGrath’s had sun-dried tomato in their sauce since it was pink, but we added the mushrooms and onions.)

Shrimp and Spinach Rose Pasta

We made this for dinner this evening, it was quick and tasty. And perhaps I was excited to try posting to this blog, but either way I would and will eat it again.

Ingredients:
1 cup shrimp (give or take) we used frozen pre-cooked shrimp
Pasta for 4
1/2 Jar Alfredo Sauce
1/2 Jar Marinara Sauce
6-7 Fresh mushrooms, sliced.
1 sliced yellow crookneck summer squash (or zucchini can be substituted)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon (give or take) garlic salt
1 teaspoon basil or 4 leaves fresh basil shredded
ground pepper to taste.

Directions:
Heat oil in frying pan (we used non stick, but would have been equally as easy in the cast iron)
Add squash and mushrooms to warm pan, let cook for 8-10 minutes stirring occasionally. Meanwhile begin cooking pasta until tender. Once mushrooms begin to brown, add shrimp, garlic salt and basil. Cook until shrimp is thawed (or cooked if using fresh shrimpies). Add Marinara and Alfredo sauces, stirring until a nice "rosey" color is reached, add pepper to taste.
Pour over pasta and serve!