Paleo Shrimp Veggie "Noodles" with Asian Style Sauce

Big News!

The writing team is doubling! My delightful sister, Naomi, will be joining us from now on. She and her husband are doing the Paleo Diet (which she’ll explain in her post), so she’ll be adding some exciting, healthy meals and snacks for the rest of us to try! I hope you enjoy her as much as I do!

-Amy

Greetings Chop, Mix, Bake, Creat-ers!

I am honored to be joining you, though really I have been here all along as the annoying reader who has to comment on every single post. I am just a proud big sister :)

Before I share this very un-Amy dish, I must introduce some important terms. The first is the "food hangover". A food hangover is what happens when you eat way too much before you go to bed. The late night munchies hit, you indulge the craving, you sleep, you wake up feeling horrendous. The feeling the next morning is a combination of full, hungry and upset stomach accompanied by a slight headache and remorse. You grill your spouse as to why they didn't stop you, vow to never eat before bed again and make them vow to fight you to the death if you try. This happens about once a fortnight (haha love that word!) in our family with varying degrees of severity. Oh except Dad who never ever gets them because he has great self control and my husband who.... um.... does everything with gusto! It's a great quality at work, at the gym, around the house...but dangerous in regard to late night snacks. He gets them at least once a week. 

This dish is brought to you by the food hangover. This particular food hangover resulted from almonds (my attempt at a healthy snack) followed by Twizzlers and who knows how much LIFE cereal straight out of the box while watching the Cosby show at my parents Friday night (this Friday night gathering is known as "Clumping" which you may learn more in the future). Mom keeps Twizzlers on hand just for me, thanks mom.

So I woke up Saturday morning with a lump in my stomache, a headache and massive guilt, grilled my husband, vowed to never eat before bed again and made him vow to fight me to the death....

Enter the Paleo diet (term introduction #2). I had played around with the Paleo diet before but never gone all out. The Paleo diet is based on what ancient man ate, hunger-gatherer foods, aka the "caveman diet". They don't eat any grains, dairy or legumes which I don't personally think are evil but it certainly limits the options to healthy ones (mainly meat, fruits, vegetables and nuts). I am not an expert and may not have gotten everything right so google it if you want more info. The food hangover was the perfect opportunity to turn over a new leaf and give this diet a try (by "diet" I mean "way of eating" not "restrictive, temporary change in eating habits for the purpose of losing weight that you are going to regain as soon as you go off the diet").

The first dinner I made while on the Paleo diet is this: Paleo Shrimp Veggie "Noodles" with Peanut Sauce. PS. peanuts are not really paleo because they are legumes so the hard core paleo folks would use some other nut butter (cashew or sesame tahini would work well). I had always wanted to try some kind of vegetable "noodle" dish where you cut the veggies up into long thin strips and cover them in a delicious sauce which is perfect when you're not eating grains.
Sorry no pictures of the process and a less than stellar picture of the final product because this is my first ever food blog post. I'm setting myself up to win "most improved"!

• Cut up your red peppers into long thin strips
• Cut your cucumber in half lengthwise and scoop out of the seeds, then cut into long thin strips
• Peel carrots and use a thick peeler to make ribbons
• Cook your shrimp (my shrimp were the cooked frozen kind since that was all I had, but I later used the Zippy Summer Shrimp recipe from allrecipes.com and highly recommend going that way) Chicken would also work if you're not a shrimp person. 
• In a saucepan combine nut butter, sesame oil, honey, soy sauce, and a little rice wine vinegar (I don't measure because it takes half the fun away but I promise I  will make a serious effort to measure for future recipes because I know some people need measurements.)
• Wisk until the nut butter has melted and all ingredients are well mixed.
• Pour sauce over "noodles" and shrimp, top with sesame seeds and decide the Paleo diet isn't half bad.

Note I also made rice for the man of the house who was/is following a slightly less restrictive "whole foods diet". I don't know if there is an official name for this style of eating but it is all WHOLE foods, nothing processed like flour or sugar. After a brief intense week eating exclusively Paleo I expanded into a whole foods eating pattern with some flexibility. Currently about 80-85% of what I eat is Paleo, about 10% is whole but not paleo and about 5-10% is neither. My whole non-paleo foods are oats and legumes. My non-whole non-paleo favorites include homemade whole wheat pizza, blue corn chips, chocolate and ice cream.

Flour Tortillas

I'm a hard-shelled taco kind of person. Or taco fillings over tortilla chips, or even over rice. Anything but a soft flour tortilla. Until last week, that is. I made my first batch of absolutely stupendous flour tortillas! They were soft, rollable wrappings for what my husband insists were the best tacos he's had in a very long time. High praise indeed from the man who only enjoys Mexican food!

You may notice in the picture above that there are grated carrots next to the lettuce. Please forgive me. I'm not a die-hard Mexican food fan, and I happen to really enjoy grated carrots in my tacos. I also usually add black olives, but alas, my cupboard did not contain a single can!

But enough about my strange food choices, I want to show off my pretty little tortillas!

Pizza

Do people really need pizza recipes? Probably not. However, I eat it a lot and sometimes think that I should publicly declare my love for it. Plus you might get inspired by the pictures and decide to go create your own slices of happiness! 

I have long ago stopped accurately measuring ingredients for pizza dough. What you're about to see is roughly 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, 1/2 tsp instant yeast, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, and 2 tsp sugar. Oh and a good splash of oil, because my husband likes it that way. Possibly. I can't be sure those are the ratios I used on this particular day. So be flexible, ok? There's no reason to be afraid of yeast.

Pizza Sauce

I make pizza quite a bit around here. I have a picky husband who happens to approve of it (as long as it meets certain criteria) and I'll eat anything covered in tomato sauce and heaps of cheese. I have zero qualms about opening a jar of Prego and dumping it on some pizza dough, but I've been getting into this whole Homemade EVERYTHING concept, so I thought I'd share the easiest tomato sauce recipe that I've ever found. It's cheap, it's quick, and it got my husband's approval! 

Chinese Food?

I have no idea what to even call this. When I discovered the recipe for this amazing sauce, it belonged to a recipe for something like General Tso Chicken. I've since used this sauce in so many different meals that there's no way I could refer to it as the General Tso Chicken Sauce. All I know is that it reminds me of American-Chinese food. So that's what I'm calling it. The question mark in the title is not a question, but a legitimate part of the title itself.

Whatever it is, it's one of my favorite things to eat.

Fettuccine Alfredo

Confession: I usually like alfredo sauce made from a packet better than I like it made from scratch. This might be because I refuse to buy high-quality parmesan and I'm setting myself up for disappointment by using the grated stuff from the jar.

Whatever the reason, I've been craving alfredo lately.  Unfortunately, many years ago I was suddenly unable to locate my favorite mix and I've been trying to doctor up this plain version ever since.

Meatloaf and Potatoes

Ok, I know that this picture probably isn't that appetizing, but here's the thing: after a couple of weeks worth of recipes that didn't quite float my boat, I was ready for something to finally go right! I was also determined to win over my picky-eater husband even though he's not a huge fan of meatloaf or of potatoes (although he will eat mashed potatoes!). Thankfully, I even accomplished this lofty goal! This means that this is definitely a dinner to be passed on for others to enjoy!

Fat Pizza

Some days, when nothing I make is turning out right, I just need to make a pizza.

Ricotta Gnocchi: Another Learning Experience

Confession: I've never tried Gnocchi. The first time I saw it I was 21 years old and it was in my sister's freezer. I went and looked it up online later. I've since heard of it and seen it too many times to count, but until a couple of weeks ago, had yet to try it. I should probably say that I still haven't really tried it, since I've only had my own.

When King Arthur Flour Co posed this recipe for potato gnocchi, I bookmarked it and told myself I'd get to it soon. When I found myself in the possession of a cup of ricotta cheese that was soon to go bad, and came across this recipe from Three Many Cooks for ricotta gnocchi, I made my decision. I printed the recipe and left it on the kitchen counter to stare me in the face when dinner time came around. 

Lasagna

Ever since my first and second attempts at making my own pasta, I've been wanting to try tomato sauce. I admit that I was pretty convinced nothing was better than Prego (and so far, I haven't been proven wrong) but it's something I had to at least try. My goal was to make my own lasagna noodles and tomato sauce and make a little mini lasagna. Mini for two reasons. First, because something could go terribly wrong and I hate to throw food away. Second, because I'm the only one eating my creations, and as much as I love lasagna, I would be really depressed if I didn't get another chance to cook dinner for the entire week.

In any case, the precaution was helpful in the latter respect, but in the former I need not have worried! It was GOOD. I only wish I'd had sausage to add to the ground beef.

The noodles came out great! I've decided I really enjoy making my own pasta. This time I got it rolled out reeeeally thin, and ended up getting about twice as much out of it! The small rectangles on the cooling (drying) rack are all I needed for the lasagna, and that big piece underneath I had leftover to make some fettuccine!

The sauce was highly successful as well. The recipe for Tomato-Basil sauce came from Williams Sonoma The Weeknight Cook .

Assembly was quick and easy. Meat browned, added to sauce, and layered with the noodles and ricotta cheese.

I can't say I think lasagna is particularly photogenic, but I suppose I can get over it. I so very much enjoyed eating this!

The Pasta:
Yield: Enough for a shallow 9x9 inch lasagna
Time: 15 minutes prep // 15 minutes resting // 15 minutes rolling and cutting

3/4 cup All-Purpose Flour
1 Egg
salt

1. Dump the flour on a clean counter top and make a little well in the center for the egg. Add in a few dashes of salt.
2. Use a fork to beat the egg, gradually working in more and more of the flour mixture until you can easily knead it with your hands
3. Knead it for a few minutes, making sure that all of the flour is worked in. If you need to add a tiny bit of water to accomplish this, that's ok. 
4. Let it rest, covered with a damp towel, for about 15 minutes
5. Roll it out as thin as you possibly can and cut it into the size and shape that you want.

The Sauce (throw this together while you let your pasta rest!)

Yield: About 3 1/2 cups sauce

Time: 5-10 minutes to gather the ingredients and tend to the garlic // 15-20 minutes simmering

2 tbsp Olive Oil

2 cloves Garlic, minced

3-4 tbsp* Tomato Paste (about half of one of those little cans)

1 large can Whole Plum (Roma) Tomatoes

3 tsp Basil (or about 5 leaves fresh basil)

Sugar, Salt and Pepper to taste

*Most likely you don't have a lot of uses for the other half of this can. It would be highly convenient to double this recipe and simply freeze the extra sauce.

Note: If you don't plan on running the sauce through a food processor to get rid of lumps, you can brown your hamburger first and just dump the sauce to cook right on top of it. If you're lump-phobic like I am, do the two things separately

1. Saute the garlic in the olive oil for about three minutes.
2. Add in everything else and simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally
3. Go roll out your pasta and cut it into noodles
4. This would also be a good time to brown your hamburger if you didn't do it at the beginning
5. While you let your noodles dry out for a few minutes, remove the sauce from the stove and run it through a food processor to get rid of all the tomato chunks. We don't like tomato chunks around here! 
6. Stir in the browned ground beef

The Lasagna

Yield: One (possibly shallow) 9x9 inch lasagna

Time: 15 minutes pasta // 15 minutes sauce & ground beef // 15 minutes pasta // 15 minutes assembly // 30 minutes cooking. Total Time: 1 1/2 hours

Ground beef (mixing sausage in with this would be amazing)

Ricotta Cheese

Sauce

Lasagna Noodles

Mozzarella for topping

Yes, I realize I didn't give amounts. Lasagna is incredibly flexible!

1. Make pasta
2. Make sauce
3. Brown ground beef
4. Mix meat with sauce
5. Don't boil your noodles if you made them yourself. They're ready to go right into your lasagna!
6. Layer in 9x9 inch pan: sauce, noodles, ricotta, sauce, noodles, ricotta. Repeat until you're out of ingredients or you've filled the pan to the top, whichever comes first!
7. Top with mozzarella cheese
8. Cook at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until the top is brown and bubbly

Potato-Topped Chicken Pie

You know those days when you just NEED to eat some form of chicken pie for dinner? 

Yesterday was one of those days.

AND I had a bunch of precooked chicken in the fridge waiting to be used up! It was meant to be. 

This is not, however, a quick and easy dinner recipe. This was long and involved (kind of) and helped me really grab my procrastination needs by the horns and...follow willingly. 

Recipe: Potato-Topped Chicken Pie

Time: 30 minutes prep (more or less?) & 30 minutes in the oven

• Peel and chop about 4 small-medium potatoes and start them boiling. You're going to make these into mashed potatoes for the topping. Just use your favorite method when the potatoes are done. I probably don't need to hold your hand through this one.

For the pie filling:

• In a pot, cook 1/2 a medium onion (diced) in 2 tsp butter and 2 tsp vegetable oil
• When the onions are good and soft, add in 1/2 tsp minced garlic, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp ground thyme, and 1/8 tsp pepper. You'll probably want more salt than that, but my husband accuses me of making everything too salty, so I tried to tone it down. I actually only put in 1/4 tsp and just had the salt shaker next to me at the dinner table. 
• Only wait about 30 seconds or so before adding in 2 tbsp flour, and whisking it around for a good 2 minutes.
• Then slowly pour in (while whisking) 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups chicken broth or stock (I can't say I really know the difference). 
• Let it cook for about 5 minutes; it should thicken quite a bit.
• Dump in about 2 cups precooked chicken, cut into little pieces, along with about a cup of frozen veggies. I was pathetically unprepared and literally only had corn. Somehow it still tasted awesome, but I would recommend something like peas and carrots. 
• Remove from heat and stir in 2 tsp parsley.
• Dump it into a pie plate (don't be like me and overfill the thing. When I plopped the mashed potatoes on top they made filling jump up and ooze like crazy all over the counter. mmm).
• Spread the mashed potatoes on top of the filling. If the potatoes are too thick you'll have a really hard time doing this without pushing the potatoes to the bottom of the pie plate.
• Oh, and at some point you should have preheated your oven. And since I have no idea what I'm doing (and casseroles tend to be pretty forgiving) I think I cooked it at about 375 for half an hour. It worked! 

Let it sit for a few minutes to cool off before scooping it onto your plate. It will help it thicken up a little bit and rescue the inside of your mouth from being burnt and then not being able to taste the meal at all.

I'm so unbelievably helpful.