Recipe: Noodles and Peanut Sauce - THM S

Hello!

The other day, my mom and I were talking about food (as we often do) and we both suddenly remembered a favorite dish at a restaurant that no longer is open. It was a Chinese food restaurant and we went there all the time.  Specifically, we loved the cold noodles with peanut sauce. They were so good! 

Now that I'm on my Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle, I was determined to make this one day again using on-plan ingredients. 

Well, that "one day" was this past weekend.  I found this recipe and pinned it on Pinterest and used that as my guidance and just adapted it to my current dietary needs for THM.

So, really quick a little note about the use of Dream fields pasta - you can only retain the low glycemic impact of the carbs if you cook it according to the box AND you can never reheat it. Otherwise, it turns into regular pasta and the whole point of using it is gone. To be safe I always under cook mine to be extra safe :)  And, the great news about this recipe is you can eat these again the next day as cold noodles!  So go ahead and make a double recipe and have lunch for the next day!

Onto the recipe!  Again, this is not my recipe but I've adapted it for Trim Healthy Mama.  

This recipe would be an S - Satisfying dish.

Ingredients:

Dreamfields pasta - make as many servings of this as you need for your meal

1/2 Cup natural creamy peanut butter 

1-3 TBSP Braggs Liquid Aminos (you can also use soy sauce if you'd like)

1-2 packets of Truvia or on-plan sweetener of choice

2-3 cloves of garlic 

1-2 TSP of lime juice

1/2 TSP of red pepper flakes or more to your taste plus extra for topping

1/2 cup water 

1-2 TBSP of chopped peanuts to garnish 
Veggies - Note:  Add any veggies you have laying around. Tonight I only had carrots and green pepper in the house since this recipe was a last minute choice to make it - but green scallions, mushrooms or broccoli would be wonderful additions for next time! 

Directions:

1. Cook pasta per directions.

2. In blender or food processor combine all ingredients except water and the peanuts for topping and extra red pepper flakes. As you blend, slowly add water as it mixes or else it clumps a bit.

3. Steam or lightly sautée the veggie you'd like to use - I just sliced the carrots and pepper thin and left them raw for this recipe.

4. Drain pasta and scoop in mixed sauce and add veggies back into the pasta pot and mix and re-heat if desired.

5. Serve and garnish with peanuts, red pepper flakes and enjoy.

My THM-approved ingredients I chose to use for this recipe.

The only veggies I had - limit carrots for S meals!

Mixing it all up in the pot.

All the ingredients into the food processor.

Voila!  Dinner is served.  

It was sweet, crunchy, spicy and just delicious peanut-buttery goodness.  Yum! Oh yes,
I'm sooo making this again.

I'm also linked up at Gwen's Nest for THM Tuesday's!

~Carly

Back on the wagon

I hope this post is finding you well - and unharmed by my inability to stick to a choice of diet or exercise :)

I'm back on the South Beach/Low Carb lifestyle. I've had a lot of success in the past with it and I feel ready to do it again...again.

So, my breakfast today was eggs. Snacks were veggies and low fat ranch dip, a cheddar cheese stick and a lot of water! Dinner is baked salmon with sautéed spinach and garlic.

More updates on what I've been up to and some other changes I've been making!

New Favorite Bread

Hello!  I hope you're having a great week so far - and it's a short one if you had Monday off.  Or it's a long week if the kids are home from school (heh-heh).

Either way, I've got a new favorite food.  And it's a carbohydrate.  And...it's bread! One of my all-time favorite things in this world :)

I had seen it before when grocery shopping and someone has recommended I had tried it awhile back. Like with most things, I quickly forget since I'm easily distracted by the kids - so most of my "conversation information retention" is somewhat low these days.

However, I happily remembered the other day while I was doing the grocery shopping - and boy, am I glad I did!  It's by a company called Food For Life and it's their Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Bread:

Image from Food For Life web site

 

Here's the product description straight from their web site:

Made from freshly sprouted organically grown grains, naturally flavorful and bursting with nutrients. Rich in protein, vitamins, minerals and natural fiber with no added fat.

100% FLOURLESS • COMPLETE PROTEIN • WHOLE GRAIN BREAD GLYCEMIC INDEX: 36 Ezekiel 4:9® Sprouted Grain Bread is inspired by the Holy Scripture verse: "Take also unto thee Wheat, and Barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and Spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make bread of it..."Ez 4:9 We discovered when these six grains and legumes are sprouted and combined, an amazing thing happens. A complete protein is created that closely parallels the protein found in milk and eggs. In fact, the protein quality is so high, that it is 84.3% as efficient as the highest recognized source of protein, containing all 9 essential amino acids. There are 18 amino acids present in this unique bread - from all vegetable sources - naturally balanced in nature. Ezekiel 4:9® Bread is made from freshly sprouted organically grown grains, is naturally flavorful and bursting with nutrients. Rich in protein, vitamins, minerals and natural fiber with no added fat. 

INGREDIENTS: Organic Sprouted Whole Wheat, Filtered Water, Organic Malted Barley, Organic Sprouted Whole Millet, Organic Sprouted Whole Barley, Organic Sprouted Whole Lentils, Organic Sprouted Whole Soybeans, Organic Sprouted Whole Spelt, Fresh Yeast, Sea Salt. 

And I must admit - they are correct in the taste is quite flavorful.  Even though it comes frozen, it tastes wonderfully fresh and is delicious toasted as well.  

The best part is that it is SO healthy and good for you with proteins, real "whole grains", amino acids and it's flourless which is great for those looking for long-burning carbs and low on the glycemic index. 

And, you'll notice you can pronounce everything in the ingredient list - no preservatives or weird chemical sounding names.  This is crucial and important on eating clean or clean diets - which I plan to post more on soon!

So, check out their web site and as you'll find they have a wide range of breads, muffins, gluten-free products and more.  

Do you already use this brand of bread?  Do you think you'll try it?

Either way, let me know!