Sesame Noodle Salad

I love re-purposed leftovers. I had some leftover Sesame Noodles from dinner the other night, but wanted to do something else with them for lunch. I had some nice fresh veggies and decided to make noodle salad with them. There is a really great Vietnamese restaurant in Winooski, Vermont that has an awesome, very flavorful noodle salad. My favorite is the one with beef in the salad too. I didn't have any leftover beef or chicken so I just went with veggies and my noodles. I will definitely be making this again when I have some leftover teriyaki steak. The amounts I used were enough for 2 servings of salad.

So you'll need about 5 romaine lettuce leaves, 1/2 a bell pepper, 1 stalk of celery, 1 large or 2 small green onions, 1/2 carrot, 1 small tomato, 1/3 of an English cucumber, 1 T soy sauce, 1 T sesame oil, some black pepper and leftover sesame noodles. 

 Chop the lettuce, shred the carrot and slice the other veggies and put them in the bowl with the lettuce. Drizzle with the soy sauce and sesame oil and sprinkle with black pepper to taste.

 Toss together to coat the veggies with the oil and soy sauce.

 Add the cold noodles and toss to combine.

 Plate your salad and enjoy it.

Sesame Noodle Salad

cold leftover sesame noodles

5 large romaine lettuce leaves, chopped

1 stalk celery, thinly sliced

1/2 large carrot, shredded

1/2 bell pepper, thinly sliced (color of choice)

1 large or 2 small green onions, chopped

1/3 English cucumber, sliced and slices halved

1 small tomato, chopped

1 T soy sauce

1 T sesame oil

black pepper to taste

Place lettuce and other veggies in a large bowl. Drizzle soy sauce and sesame oil over veggies and sprinkle with some black pepper to taste. Toss to coat veggies with oil and soy sauce. Add noodles and toss to combine. Serve and enjoy.

I have actually made this without lettuce, with red pepper instead of yellow and added pineapple chunks too. The pineapple gave it a nice little sweetness and I enjoyed it very much. I will try this salad again with some snow peas or sugar snap peas and maybe some avocado too. You could change the veggies, add more or less of something or add meat for a heartier meal. The possibilities are endless. 

Enjoy!                                            

Sandi 

Sesame Noodles

I love, love, LOVE these Sesame Noodles! I probably could have eaten much more than 1 serving....I had to stop myself from eating more of it...it was that good. To begin with, I love sesame oil. And I LOVE Oriental-type foods. These noodles are great as a side dish paired with grilled chicken, steak or shrimp. Or if you're looking for a quick, simple Meatless Monday kinda thing it would be great for that too. 

The original recipe, Simple Sesame Noodles, came from one of my favorite blogs, Pioneer Woman. Ree Drummond is absolutely fabulous and I have loved every dish I have made from her collection. I slightly adapted the recipe because I lacked an ingredient in her recipe. I don't have any hot chili oil so I substituted sriracha. I also had some cilantro I needed to use up and I think it gave the noodles a nice little touch. 

Sesame Noodles

1 lb thin noodles (I used spaghetti noodles), cooked and drained

1/4 C soy sauce

2 T sugar

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 T rice vinegar

3 T sesame oil

1 t sriracha

4 T veg oil

4 green onions, sliced thinly

1/3 C chopped cilantro (optional)

Prepare noodles without any oil in the water and drain-do not put any oil on the noodles. While the noodles are cooking, In a med bowl, whisk together soy sauce, sugar, garlic, rice vinegar, sesame oil, sriracha and vegetable oil. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired. Pour sauce over hot cooked noodles and toss to coat all the noodles with sauce. Sprinkle green onions and cilantro over the noodles and toss together to combine. Feel free to leave the cilantro out if you don't like it.
(Slightly adapted from recipe by Pioneer Woman-Ree Drummond)

Enjoy!                                            

Sandi 

Chocolate Covered Blueberries

My first taste of chocolate covered blueberries was at a wonderful little shop in Bar Harbor called Ben & Bill's Chocolate Emporium. I can't believe how many years ago that was now.... and my then future husband immediately declared them his favorite 'candy.' Now that allergies limit the treats my husband can enjoy without distress to those that are homemade, I decided it would be nice for him to enjoy this treat again. And really, they couldn't be easier to make.

First, wash your blueberries and allow them to dry so the chocolate won't slide right off.

When you are ready to begin, pour your chocolate of choice (I use Enjoy Life chocolate chips because they are allergen free, and I honestly prefer the taste of these chips to any other brand I used in the past!) into a microwave-safe bowl and add maybe a teaspoon of olive oil (or, again, your preferred oil or even butter). That's right - no need for a double boiler.

Pop the bowl of chocolate into the microwave for 1 minute, take it out and stir. You can see that some of the chips have started to get a bit sticky, but are still intact.

Microwave another 30 seconds and stir again. Now the chips are really soft on the edges but still solid.

Another 30 seconds and stir. Now we're getting somewhere, but still solid bits.

One more 30-second nuking and stir again. This time just keep stirring until you have a bowl of smooth melted chocolate. The important thing about this super easy method of melting chocolate is not to let it get too hot, that is why we stir every 30 seconds.

From here, the possibilities are endless, but today we are dipping fresh blueberries! Just add a bunch right on top of the chocolate. Stir them around (gently so you don't smush them of course) and see how much loose chocolate is left in the bowl. Add more berries and stir again until you are happy with how coated they are and don't have a bunch of chocolate pooled in the bottom of the bowl.

Use your spatula to scoop up a gob of berries, and drop them into small clusters onto your waiting parchment paper or foil, etc.

If you are feeling compulsive about your clusters, go ahead and use your fingers to transfer exactly the number and arrangement you want. This will get you messy, but then you get to lick the chocolate off when you're done, so all in all not a big deal. But if you are in the mood to embrace randomness, just allow them to drop into whatever conformation the universe deems appropriate - they will taste just as good.

Allow them to cool and set completely, then transfer the clusters to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator. Unless your husband gets home from work early, then you can skip this step because there won't be any left to store...

Enjoy! 
Sue

Smothered Chicken with Rice Pilaf

I always, always have chicken in the freezer and rice in my pantry just in case I haven't had time to go to the store or just need a quick go-to dinner. This was just such a night. I had not been to the store. I had 2 bell peppers and 2 onions left. I had been wanting to try this recipe for a while and decided this was the night to try it. 'The 99 Restaurant' has a dish called Smothered Tips and we both liked that, so Smothered Chicken just seemed like a natural to try at home. 

The original recipe for both the Smothered Chicken and Rice Pilaf is from the Betty Crocker Cookbook, one of my favorite most used cookbooks. I adapted the recipes slightly to add my little touch to them. I LOVE mushrooms, Da Husband does not....so I didn't add them this time. But I will try it with mushrooms at some point, even if it's just sauteed mushrooms on the side. 

Smothered Chicken

(slightly adapted from Betty Crocker Cookbook)

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (could use chicken thighs if you like) about 1 1/4 lbs

1 t dried oregano

1 t dried parsley

1 1/2 t garlic powder

1/4 t pepper

1/8 t cayenne pepper

1/2 t salt

2 T olive oil

1 med green bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 med red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 med onion, thinly sliced

1 C sliced mushrooms, optional

Heat a large nonstick skillet with 1 T of the olive oil over med heat. Combine oregano, parsley, garlic powder, black pepper, cayenne pepper and salt in a small bowl. Sprinkle both sides of chicken with spice mixture. Cook in skillet 8-10 min, turning once until chicken is done. Remove chicken from skillet. Add the other 1 T olive oil to skillet and cook bell peppers and onions (and mushrooms if using) about 5-10 min until veggies are crisp- tender. Return chicken to skillet and spoon vegetable over/around chicken. Remove from heat and serve.

Somehow in the midst of photographing the chicken in the pan I missed photographing the rice....you can see a little bit of it in the photo at the top. 

Rice Pilaf

(slightly adapted from Betty Crocker)

2 T butter

1/2 C chopped onion

1 C uncooked long grain rice

2 C chicken stock

1/2 t poultry seasoning

1 t garlic powder

pinch pepper and salt to taste

In a 3 qt saucepan, melt butter over med heat. Cook onion with a pinch of salt and pepper about 3 min, stirring occasionally, until tender. Stir in rice. Cook and stir about 5 min. Stir in stock, poultry seasoning and garlic powder. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally; reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 16 min (do not lift cover or stir); remove from heat. Let stand covered about 5 min. Fluff and serve.

Enjoy! 
Sandi 

Welcome!

Hi there! Welcome to our new blog 'Saucy Sisters Family Kitchen'!

We're just two sisters who love cooking and baking and food in general really. We each have one son and husbands who LOVE the food we cook. You may hear about them from time to time. And even though this is a food blog, you may see a craft project pop in here occasionally. Our boys keep us pretty busy, so most of the dishes we prepare are relatively quick and easy.  We're glad you stopped by. Take a look around and come back soon!

Sandi and Sue