Spicy Peanut Noodle Salad

Spicy Peanut Noodle Salad

As anyone who knows me can attest, I love the Wow Bao.  It’s a fast, health(ier) meal than your usual fast food selections.  But the price tag, even on those tiny bao with their side salads, can quickly start hurting the wallet.

So this recipe can about because of the insatiable, one-ring-like obsession I had with the spicy peanut noodle salad over the weekend.  Most of the recipes I found online called for a disturbing amount of ingredients for a dish I knew couldn’t be that hard to make.  I was about to give up on the idea when Ming Tsai came to my rescue with his version of the salad that seemed closest to what I was looking for.

Yes, I may hate the man’s packaged potato chips, but I can still taste quality when I see it.  I left out the peanut garnish simply because I didn’t have any peanuts sitting around the house.  All the other ingredients are things you should have in your pantry, except maybe the sesame oil.

Spicy Peanut Noodle Salad

• 2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon red chile flakes
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard
• 1 tablespoon coarse ground coriander
• 2 tablespoons naturally brewed soy sauce
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 pound spaghetti, cooked and drained
• 1 cucumber, halved and cut into 1/8-inch slices
• 1 red bell pepper, julienned
• 1 bunch scallions, sliced
• 1/2 cup chopped roasted (salted) peanuts for garnish (optional)

1. In a bowl, whisk together the peanut butter, sesame oil, vinegar, chile, sugar, Dijon, coriander and soy until smooth.
2. Whisk in the canola oil and check for seasoning.
3. In a large bowl, toss dressing with the pasta, cucumbers, bell pepper and scallions.
4. Adjust seasoning according to taste.

Vegan Peanut Butter Potato Chip Cookies

By all rights, Katie should be the one on here posting this story.  After all, she’s the one who decided to bake up the recipe.  I simply stood by and sifted the flour when she needed it.  Oh, and I ate the majority of them as well.  That could possibly explain my complete lack of weightloss over the last 2 weeks.

But I know Katie well enough to know she’ll never actually write on the blog.  She’s not much into sitting in front of computers for stretches at a time.  She much prefers “living life” and being “outside.”  So I’m going to write up this recipe for her, in her voice.

Take it away Katie….

Thanks baby.  Can I just say that you are one hell of a guy?  Because you are.  If not for you, my interest in food, nay, in LIFE would have waned years ago.  You have invigorated me to enjoy life to the fullest.  And by to the fullest, I mean by baking these totally delicious Peanut Butter Potato Chip Cookies.  I found them leafing through our copy (I say our because we’re engaged now, and it seems right) of Skinny Bitch in the Kitch.  I can’t wait to try their Chocolate Chip Cookies either, but really, any chocolate chip cookie is a good chocolate chip to me.

Am I right, or am I right?  Ladies?

But until I buy some chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies will have to do.  Oh darn.

Peanut Butter Potato Chip Cookies
Makes about 40

• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup peanut butter, chunky or smooth
• 1/4 cup ice water
• 1 Tbsp molasses
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups coarsely crushed potato chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.  Line baking sheets with a silpat or parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl sift together the flour, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the sugar, oil and peanut butter, mixing on medium-high speed until creamy, about 3 minutes.  Add the water, molasses and vanilla, mixing until well combined.  With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 to 4 additions, mixing each addition until almost fully incorporated.  Add the potato chips, mixing until just combined.
4. Arrange 2-Tbsp-sized balls of cookie dough 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.  Press to about 3/4-inch thick, then use the back of a fork to mark each cookie with a crosshatch pattern, if desired.  Bake for 13-15 minutes, until the edges are slightly browned and the centers are set.  Thoroughly cool on a cooling rack.

Pretty easy, and pretty tasty.  The hardest part about these cookies is trying to convince people that the inclusion of potato chips isn’t as weird as it sounds.  They mostly just add some crunch to the chip.

Thanks for sticking around.

Mike is awesome!  Katie out!

Episode 8: Gods, Peanut Butter & Bagels

The most opinionated, least researched show about Chicago, her suburbs, and her culture.

This week, can Mike & Katie convince themselves that anything involving the words peanut butter and cream cheese is healthy? Could it be true? Did out mothers like Gale Gand’s delicious Tru edibles? We announce the next film in the Two Bites In Suburbia Dinner Series. All this, and get your breakfast bagel fix in easy to swallow cracker form! This is episode 8 of Two Bites in Suburbia, and the future is now!

Links

• Two Bites in Suburbia Movie Series: God of Cookery

• Bacon, Egg & Cheese Combos

• Tru

• Mother’s Day @ Tru

• Peanut Butter Cookie Pie

E-mail us: twobitesinsuburbia@gmail.com

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(Slightly Healthier) Peanut Butter Cookie Pie

I’m pretty sure that whoever decided to mix peanut butter and chocolate together will eventually be dained a saint by some group of people.  It is without a doubt may favorite sugary sweet.  Reese’s may as well have a monthly subscription program, and just send me a monthly supply of Peanut Butter Cups in the mail.

On second thought, no they shouldn’t.  By the end of week one, the candy would be gone, and I’d be a diabetic weighing over 500 pounds.

So when I saw this recipe, I knew I needed an excuse to make it.  Luckily father’s day was the same weekend AND Katie’s family was grilling.  Karma was looking out for me!

I originally found this recipe by Shirley McNevich on Mom’s Best Recipes.  With a few alterations, I brought the fat and general unhealthiness down a notch from using regular cream cheese and whip cream.  I also replaced the peanut butter with all natural peanut butter.  The result was a slightly less sweet, but nuttier tasting dessert.  I also decorated the top of the cake with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups that I quartered.  Completely unneccessary, but it does make the pie look good.

(Slightly Healthier) Peanut Butter Cookie Pie

• 24 regular size Nutter Butter cookies
• 8 oz. Fat Free Cool Whip (thawed)
• 1 Tbsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup all natural peanut butter
• 8 oz. fat-free cream cheese (softened)
• 5 Tbsp melted butter
• 4 oz. mini chocolate chips
• 4-5 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups for decoration

Place several cookies at a time into a large Ziploc bag and crush them with a rolling pin. Pour crushed cookies into a medium sized bowl. Repeat until you have crushed all 24 cookies. Once all of the crushed cookies are in the bowl stir in the 5 Tbsp melted butter. Press the cookie mixture into a 9″ pie plate to make the crust (do NOT grease the pie plate).  Place pie plate in the freezer. Place the softened cream cheese in a mixer and beat. Continue to beat the cream cheese while adding the peanut butter. Add the white sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth. Remove bowl from the mixer. Add 1 1/2 cups of Cool Whip to the batter, stirring just until mixed. Remove pie plate from freezer and sprinkle the mini-chocolate chips just on the bottom of the crust. Pour the cream cheese batter on top of the chocolate chips and freeze the pie overnight. When you are ready to serve the pie, remove it from freezer and frost the top of the pie with Cool Whip. Quarter the peanut butter cups, if using, and place them around the edge of the pie.  If the pie is too difficult to cut right away, let it stand on the counter a few minutes.