A crazy experiment

Yesterday was a lovely day. After I got off work I had lunch with a friend and we had a great time. I made sandwiches and served it with organic blue corn and flax seed tortilla chips. The chips were a recent find at Target and I am in love. The bag has been open for two days and I have eaten at least half the bag. What can I say, I sometimes go crazy when I get the munchies. I definitely prefer salty and crunchy to sweet. Unless it is something salty and crunchy covered in chocolate. That is what I call the best of both worlds.

After lunch we went to a thrift store she told me about. I forget the name of it, but every Wednesday all their clothes are $1.09. How crazy is that!? They had some really cute stuff too. I spend $7.00 and got 2 dresses, 1 skirt, 1 pair shorts, 2 blouses. Thrift stores are the best.

However, none of that has anything to do with my crazy experiment. When I got home at six I felt quite adventurous so I did something I have never done before. I cooked without a recipe. Now I hardly ever follow recipes entirely. I get a general guideline and then modify it to what I have on hand or to make it healthier or just because I feel like it. But yesterday I decided it was time for me to start creating my own recipes.

I knew I wanted to make something with rice noodles and an asian peanut sauce. I decided to make the sauce first and pulled out a bunch of stuff. I wanted to be able to post my first recipe and started writing it down. But then I kept adding so much stuff that I didn't keep track of, and I don't think I could begin to tell you the amounts of what I put in. I know it had peanut butter, coconut aminos (a substitute for soy sauce that is gluten and soy free made out of coconut tree sap), sesame oil, oyster sauce, sriracha sauce, chili paste, rice vinegar, and since I ran out of olive oil I put in a little bit of smart balance. I cooked the brown rice noodles, sauteed some bok choy, heated the beans, and chopped up some peanuts for texture.

Then I mixed it all together and voila. We had dinner :).

Looking back on the experience I definitely want to make it again before I post the recipe. It tasted good but there was too much peanut butter and you got tired of eating it with nothing to break up the heaviness of the sauce. Next time I will put some broccoli and bean sprouts in for more texture, and I will put less peanut butter and add in coconut milk to lighten up the sauce. Then I will do my best to write everything down and post it on here. I am also going to work on measuring things out instead of dumping and dashing and sprinkling. That will also help in trying to document my creations.

All in all it was a wonderful day and I am thankful for the ability to be creative and have fun doing something that I love. Life is good.