January 22, 2012: Thai Style Green Beans Recipe

At my house we eat a lot of Asian food and I’m always looking for new and creative side dishes. Thai food, in particular, is a favorite of mine so when I across a recipe for a “Wing Bean Salad”, I took the items I had on hand to turn it into this side dish perfect to go with any type of Asian food main dish.

Thai Style Green Beans served with pork stir fry and brown rice cooked in chicken broth.

Thai Style Green Beans

1 cup fresh green beans

1 shallot, minced

½ cup coconut milk

1 T. lime juice

1 T. peanut butter

2 t. fish sauce

2 t. Asian chili sauce

Pinch of brown sugar

1 can water chestnuts, drained

Clean green beans and snap into 2 – 3 pieces each. Place the coconut milk in a saucepan and add green beans and shallots. Cook over medium low until beans are softened, about 15 – 20 minutes (or less time for crisper beans).

Meanwhile, combine lime juice, peanut butter, fish sacue, chile sauce and brown sugar. When beans are done to your preference, add the sauce and the water chestnuts. Heat through.

Serves 3 – 4

August 7, 2011: Thai Pasta Salad Recipe

Wondering what to do with leftovers from my peanut sauce recipe? This side dish is a great way to use them up and pairs perfectly with the beef and mushroom kebabs recipe I shared yesterday.

The ingredients are low volume but that’s because it’s just my husband and I eating at home now that our niece is back in New Mexico. Feel free to double this recipe or even triple it for a larger amount of diners.

BTW, I bought a container of Thai pasta salad from the Safeway deli recently (the night before my new kitchen counter tops were scheduled to arrive and my kitchen was torn apart) and it was barely edible. This version is way tastier and really simple to prepare.

Tip: For a main dish salad, just add shredded chicken.

Thai Pasta Salad

4 ounces fettuccine noodles
2 T. shredded carrots
1 green onion
1 can water chestnuts or bean sprouts, drained
1/3 cup Thai peanut sauce (find my peanut sauce recipe here)
1 T. soy sauce

Cook fettuccine according to directions on the box; drain and rinse with cold water. Slice the green onion on the diagonal. In a medium-sized serving bowl, combine the shredded carrots, onion slices, water chestnuts or bean sprouts, peanut sauce and soy sauce. Mix together then toss in fettuccine noodles. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Serves two.

April 28, 2011: Chicken Casserole Recipe

This is an easy, simple, tasty casserole for those nights when you aren’t feel particularly creative about dinner (which I’ve been experiencing a lot lately); just add a fresh green salad and maybe some crusty bread and voila! You can easily double this recipe and have enough to feed a family of four or five (use a 13 x 9 inch pan). And because it still tastes good even when it’s not hot, it makes a great dish to contribute to a potluck meal.

I first found this recipe in an issue of American Profile and the recipe is attributed to Elaine Arnold. As usual, I’ve done just a wee bit of tweaking and here’s my version.

Chicken Casserole

2 large chicken breasts, boiled and shredded
2 small stalks celery, finely chopped (optional)
1 8-ounce can water chestnuts, drained
1/3 cup sliced almonds
1 2-ounce jar pimientos
2 T. minced onion (can use dehydrated)
½ to ¾ cup light mayonnaise (depends on how much chicken you have)
2 T. lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
French fried onions (the kind in a can)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a medium-sized casserole dish or 8 x 8 inch square pan.

Combine all ingredients (through salt and pepper) and mix well. Start with half a cup of mayonnaise and add more if necessary (too much mayo makes this casserole taste very greasy). Place the mixture into the prepared pan; top with French fried onions and shredded cheese. Cover the dish and bake for 30 minutes.

Tip: Feel free to add/substitute other vegetables. For instance, I’ve used diced red bell pepper in place of the pimientos before and mushrooms instead of celery. You could also add mandarin orange slices and bean sprouts to make it more “Chinese”. My husband doesn’t like nuts so I omit the almonds; it would also taste good if you substituted pecans or cashews for the almonds. Experiment with the ingredients your family likes best.