Pasta with Thai Peanut Sauce

Yay! A worthwhile post that isn't just a bunch of random ramblings! At least its more than just ramblings... I won't deny that it isn't still filled with randomness :-D

After a weeks absence from our kitchen, we were finally able to muster up the time to prepare an actual home-cooked meal. And clean. Which was very necessary. Because our kitchen looked like this:

And this photo was taken after Darrell had already loaded up nearly half the dishwasher with dishes (you also can't see the four dirty pots on our stove...). You may think that two people who aren't home for meals and cooking would have a perfectly clean kitchen... But not us. Someone (I won't say who....) just had to do some baking before our trip (granola bars for snacks in the car!) and for an event at work. And let's face it, when the goodies don't get done until 10:45 at night--those dishes just aren't getting washed. Pair that with breakfast dishes and leftover containers, and you have quite full counters. And yes--that is my laptop on our kitchen counter. The ever-growing number of cooking blogs I read has resulted in a plethora of online recipes, so it just seems like an easy solution to read the recipe off the computer. Unfortunately, my computer is a little worse for the wear because of it (we had a major water incident a few months ago...), but we're hoping to replace this laptop sometime within the year anyway, so it wouldn't be the end of the world if it met an early demise (although not "early" early--this bad boy is seven years old!)

Anyway, onto the recipe. When we did finally have the time to get back into the kitchen, we pulled out a recipe that was a hit the first time we made it. The only modification we made the second time around was to add a little bit of shredded cooked chicken to the recipe just so that it made a more balanced main dish instead of a side. And yes--it makes a lot for two people, but I almost think the recipe is better as leftovers because the flavors have more time to come together. Without further ado, I give you:

Pasta with Thai Peanut Sauce

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup unsweetened coconut milk

1/3 cup rice wine vinegar

1/4 soy sauce

1 tbsp orange zest

splash of orange juice

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp all spice

1 tbsp cilantro leaves (we omitted these)

1 lb thin spaghetti, cooked

Shredded, cooked chicken (if desired--we used about a pound)

Whisk together all ingredients except the cilantro, spaghetti, and chicken in a medium saucepan over medium head until smooth. Cook for five minutes, or just until mixture comes to a boil, stirring frequently. Pour sauce over hot spaghetti, toss until well coated. Mix in chicken. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

Super easy, right? So easy, in fact, that I got home at eight and had dinner on the table by eight-thirty. ALL BY MYSELF. It was a very prideful moment for me. I had three different pots/pans on the stove, simultaneously cooking the pasta, chicken, and sauce. Which is why there aren't any pictures of the prep work.

Seriously, though, we've taken a real liking to this recipe. It's a great alternative to a traditional marinara or Alfredo sauce, and it doesn't leave the pasta overly saucy or too dry (which is hard to tell in the photo because we use whole-wheat pasta which actually ends up being the same color of the sauce). It's just enough to coat everything nicely and give it good flavor. You should really give it a try!