Thai Shrimp Pasta Salad
You know what’s ironic? Mondays are usually the day that I encounter the least amount of traffic on my commute home and also the day when I seem to arrive home without enough time to make a real dinner.
Strange, no?
Tonight, after a weekend of bottomless mimosas, enchiladas, wings and fries, I’ve decided that it’s completely essential that I drag my butt of the couch and make myself something healthy.
And fast. Seeing as I have a charity bingo night to attend tonight.
At 9 pm. I may fall asleep before it’s over.
Luckily, I picked up some frozen shrimp (you should know that I pronounced “shrimp” like this in my head: “scriiimp” as I typed that) last week, which helps minimize prep and cook time.
You know what else cooks up quickly? These:
These rice sticks have a cooking time of 3 minutes. Can’t really beat that on a Monday.
Thai Shrimp Pasta Salad
serves 2
6 0z frozen, deveined, defrosted shrimp
1 cup shredded cabbage (I used green, but any variety will work)
2 small-medium carrots, shredded
1 large scallion, sliced on the bias
1/4 cup shelled edamame
1 t canola oil (or other high smoke point oil)
1 1/2 t fish sauce
1 t sugar (or other sweetener)
2 T soy sauce
1 t Sriracha (or to taste)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup cooked rice noodles
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1. In a small bowl, combine fish sauce, sugar, soy sauce, Sriracha and garlic. Set aside.
2. In a skillet or wok, heat oil over medium-high or high heat. Add cabbage, carrots and scallions and stir fry until they begin to develop a bit of color.
3. Add noodles, edamame and reserved sauce to the skillet and stir fry until everything is combined and fragrant.
4. Add shrimp and cook until warm (I used pre-cooked shrimp, so if you have raw shrimp cook for about 3-4 minutes until pink).
This was done in 22 minutes, start to finish. Take that, Rachael Ray.
Plus, a serving of this clocks in at just over 300 calories so it’s healthier than getting Thai take out (or really most kinds of take out).
If Monday night equals bingo night, I think I’m going to need some healthy fuel to get through it.
Thank you, scriiimp.
A Breakfast For Dinner Occurrence
You know, I’m not normally a breakfast for dinner kind of gal.
I don’t usually refer to myself as a “gal” either, but that’s neither here nor there.
I do like eggs, but they’re not usually the first thing that I go for. Even for breakfast.
So the fact that this happened the other night is slightly unusual.
Seeing as I spent, oh, a tad on my Superbowl spread, and given that I was about to chew my arm off when I got home from work the other night, breakfast for dinner seemed wise.
And I had eggs that weren’t weeks past their expiration date in the fridge, which is actually somewhat rare.
I decided that a runny egg would be just the ticket on top of a potato. Because I’m weird, and runny eggs are pretty much always a good idea.
And then I lost my mind and overcooked the yolk. It’s cool, though, it was still pretty tasty. And fast.
Oh, and for the record, I’m not one of those cool people who actually bakes my baked potatoes. I nuke them in the microwave. 6 minutes vs. 45 minutes? Time is money.
Breakfast Baked Potato
serves 1
1 small-medium potato
1-2 t Frank’s Red Hot sauce
2 T Trader Joe’s caramelized onion dip (optional)
1 cup baby spinach
1 egg
cooking spray
salt+pepper
1. Wash potato well, and pierce with a fork several times. Microwave for about 6 minutes, depending on the size of the potato, until fork tender. Or be cool and bake your potato in the oven. That’ll work, too.
2. Once potato is cool enough to handle, scoop the flesh out of the skin and place in a small mixing bowl.
3. Add hot sauce, onion dip and spinach to bowl, season with salt and pepper to taste and mash everything together.
4. Spray a small skillet with cooking spray, heat over low heat and cook egg as desired (I like mine over easy…but that didn’t exactly work out this time.)
5. Spoon potato mixture back into skin and top with egg.
I ate this with a side of kale chips (sprayed with olive oil, red pepper flakes, garlic powder and a pinch of salt and baked at 350° for 10-12 minutes), which were the part of the meal that required the longest cooking time.
Dinner in less than 15 minutes and all for 300-350 calories?
Maybe I should reconsider my aversion to breakfast for dinner after all.
Baked Mac ‘n Cheese Balls
Per Shelby’s request, I’m giving you a little recipe today.
Whilst perusing the interwebs for Superbowl menu ideas, I decided that most of my offerings needed to be small and finger-food friendly.
What? I don’t like to wash silverware.
Plus, I’m a girl. Girls love things that are mini. #fact
Enter, the mac ‘n cheese ball. I used this recipe from Bread+Butter as inspiration, and then tweaked away.
Baked Mac ‘n Cheese Balls
makes about 25-30 balls.
8 oz dry elbow macaroni
4 oz sharp white cheddar cheese, shredded
2 T butter
2 T flour
1/2-3/4 cup milk (I used skim, but any unflavored variety will work)
salt+pepper
1 egg
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
1. Cook pasta according to box directions until al dente. Drain and rinse under cold water.
2. Melt butter in a pan over medium heat. Sprinkle in flour and whisk until a roux forms, allowing flour to cook for about 2 minutes.
3. Whisk in milk 1/4 cup at a time. Stop adding the milk when the mixture is loose but coats the back of a spoon. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Stir in cheese and remove from heat.
5. Mix together pasta and cheese sauce until all noodles are coated. I transferred my mixture to a baking dish and then chilled it overnight. You only really need to chill it for a few hours, until it sets (it will keep the pasta from falling apart).
6. Place bread crumbs in one dish and beat the egg in another with a few splashes of water.
7. Break off about 1-2 tablespoons of pasta from the cooled hunk o’ mac ‘n cheese and carefully dredge in egg and then panko.
8. Place “balls” on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper or a Silpat and bake for about 20 minutes at 400°, or until golden brown.
I really shouldn’t call these “balls” so much as “chunks”. But the word chunk is only appetizing when referring to chocolate, right?
When I was first attempting to make these, I actually tried to roll them into balls and it failed miserably- maybe if I used a TON more cheese they’d stick together better, but I found that just cutting off squares and carefully dunking them in the egg/bread crumb kept them together much better and made the process a lot quicker. So do that.
Regardless, you’re eating breaded mac ‘n cheese, so however you get it into your mouth is a win.
