Chicken & Vegetables in Thai Peanut Sauce

Peanut sauce is one of the easiest sauces you can make. It's a raw sauce - no cooking required. And it's literally just a combination of peanut butter, water, soy sauce, and a few other goodies. I like to add this to some noodles with stir-fry vegetables and some chicken. I used carrots, celery, and onions because that's what I happened to have on hand. You could also use pea pods, mushrooms, asparagus, water chestnuts, or even a bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables! You can also leave out the chicken for Meatless Mondays. This also makes a great make-ahead lunch for the week!

Chicken & Vegetables in Thai Peanut Sauce
Makes: 4 servings

1/2 lb spaghetti, lo mein noodles, or ramen noodles
1 boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 1/2" cubes
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 medium onion, cut into 1/2" dice
8 scallions
2 tbsp canola oil or vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, very finely minced (or 1/2 tsp garlic powder)
1 tsp fresh grated ginger (or 1/2 tsp dried, ground ginger)
3/4 cup hot water
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup soy sauce

• Cook the spaghetti until al dente, about 9 - 10 minutes. Make sure to salt the water well.
• Strain the pasta.
• While the pasta is cooking, cut the chicken into 1/2" cubes.
• Chop the carrots, celery, and onions. Set aside.
• Slice the scallions, add the white part to the carrots, celery, and onions; set aside the green tops for garnish.
•  Heat the oil in a skillet over medium high. Add the carrots, celery, and onion mixture. Cook for about 3 minutes until the vegetables just start to soften.
• Add the chicken to the skillet and continue cooking for 5 - 6 minutes until the vegetables are cooked and the chicken is cooked through and no longer pink. Remove from the heat.
• Make the sauce by combining the garlic, ginger, water, peanut butter, and soy sauce. It's true that you can use powdered garlic and ginger, but I highly recommend using fresh. There's just nothing like fresh ginger. Whisk the ingredients together - the sauce will have a lumpy texture at first, just keep whisking and it will smooth out.
• Add the sauce to the hot chicken and vegetables. Add the pasta then toss it all together.
• Garnish with the green scallion tops.

If you want to make the sauce a little spicy, you could add some Sriracha sauce.

Peanut Butter Munchies

Matt got a little box set for Lola a while back that contained Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond's If You Give a Moose a Muffin, If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, If You Take a Mouse to School, and a couple of activity books. The books are really cute and they're some of Lola's favorites. I haven't really paid much attention to the activity books though because Lola is a little too young for them still. But, tonight I decided to try the recipe for Pop's Peanut Butter Munchies. They were so good!

When I first looked at the recipe I thought, "uhhh something is missing here! Where is the flour?" But they actually turned out perfect! They are super sweet though. Just one is more than plenty to cure your sweet tooth!

Here is the recipe, exactly as it appears in the book:
Pop's Peanut Butter Munchies
1 cup peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)
1 cup sugar
1 egg

• Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Mix well.
• Using your hands, roll the dough into one-inch balls and drop onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.
• Bake at 350° F for 10 - 12 minutes until golden brown. Press the tines of a fork into each cookie while still soft.

Some of my own notes: I used parchment paper which works a lot better than greasing the cookie sheet. Also, the cookies stay together better if you allow them to cool for about 2 minutes before you transfer them to a cooling rack.

PB&J Crepes

I actually have to give credit to my husband for this one.  I always make some variation of pancakes, waffles, or crepes on Saturday mornings.  Yesterday, he had the great idea of trying PB&J crepes.  They turned out great!  Some other toppings I like to use on crepes: nutella and bananas, some lemon juice and a sprinkle of sugar, strawberries and whipped cream, the possibilities are endless!

PB&J Crepes

1 1/2 Cups flour
1/2 Tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Cups milk
2 eggs
3 Tbsp melted butter

Creamy peanut butter
Your favorite jelly - I used raspberry because that's what we had on hand

• Combine the flour, salt, and sugar.  Then add the milk, eggs, and melted butter.  (Don't worry about mixing the wet ingredients in a separate bowl; I've found it works just fine to add them straight to the dry ingredients in this recipe).
• Whisk the ingredients together until there are no lumps.  It will be extremely runny - that's what you want.
• Set the batter aside in the refrigerator for 1 hour.  This will allow the gluten from all that mixing to loosen up so you have tender crepes, not chewy!
• Heat a large fry pan over medium to medium-low heat.  Once the pan is hot, you can spray it with a little cooking spray to prevent sticking.
• Ladle the batter into the center of the pan.  Then quickly pick up the pan and swirl it around so that the batter spreads to all edges of the pan.
• Allow to cook completely on one side, about 1 - 2 minutes.  You will know the crepe is finished when there are no more wet, pale spots on top.
• Remove the crepe from the pan.  You only need to cook it on one side.
• Spread peanut butter on one side of the crepe, then jelly on the other.  You can use as much or as little as you like.  Personally, I prefer toppings to be sparse on crepes.
  
  
  
  
  

• Fold the crepe in half, then in half again.  Then serve!
  
  
  
  
  

Cook's note:  If you are trying to be health conscious, you can substitute the melted butter with canola oil or even Smart Balance.  You can also use this recipe to make savory crepes, just leave out the tablespoon of sugar.