My brother recently was up in Milwaukee and found a gluten free store near his hotel. He went and looked at the selection of products, and found items he'd never seen before, to bring back for me to try. One of them was Chow Mein Noodles, so I had to make Chinese food for dinner! My boyfriend always tells me how he loves peanut sauce, so I thought I'd try and make a dish with rice noodles, some veggies and peanut sauce.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup of your favorite smooth peanut butter (I used Trader Joe's)
- 2-3 teaspoons lime, juiced
- 1 garlic clove
- 2 tablespoon gluten-free soy sauce, and some extra for cooking the veggies
- 2 teaspoon honey or agave
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 3 chicken breasts cooked and chopped up
- 2 cups of each/any of your favorite Stir-fry veggies.
I took all the ingredients at the top and mixed them all together with my electric mixer. I played with the water amount to determine how thick I wanted the sauce, for thinner sauces add more water and soy sauce. I threw in about half a cup of the chopped peanuts.
I started the chicken cooking, while I sautéed the veggies in a frying pan, with some oil and the gluten free soy sauce. Once the chicken was done, I chopped it into small pieces and added to the veggies.
I put the pasta on to cook while finishing the veggies, and chicken. Once they were done I threw them into a big bowl and mixed the pasta in. I poured about half the sauce in, and mixed everything up. I left the rest of the sauce, the chopped peanuts, and chow mein noodles on the table for everyone to add more as they would like.
The meal turned out amazing! It was so tasty. My boyfriend said it turned out to be more of Thai meal, and that it passed his peanut sauce taste test. Yay! my family said they wouldn't mind if I added this into our meal rotation, and even came up with some more veggies options they'd like to add. I love when meals come together and everyone likes them! While doing all of this, I was also whipping up a batch of King Arthur brownies, which made the kitchen smell amazing, peanut butter, and chocolate, can't go wrong!
I forgot to take a picture the day we made this the first time, so here is a photo when we made lettuce wraps, using the peanut sauce, as well as having it for a side dish with the rice noodles.
I'll admit I have some unusual summer hobbies for living in Chicagoland. 1st I love NASCAR! We take 2-3 NASCAR related trips in the summer time. My first year going was the year before I got diagnosed. I say we have the oddest/healthiest tailgate of anyone around us. 2nd I love the Renaissance Faire. Just over the Wisconsin border is the Bristol Renaissance Faire. We go multiple times in the summer, and dress up in Renaissance outfits. It's a ton of fun, but most of the food is deep fried. There are some non-fried veggie options that are good, but they really only hold me over until dinner time. So we always end up going out to eat before we head back Chicago way.
Using the Find Me Gluten Free App we found Charcoal Grill and Rotisserie in Kenosha last year. They seem to be a fancy sports bar, which has NASCAR decor in the hallway to the washroom. They are a local small, South Eastern Wisconsin chain, with their first location in East Racine, 20 years ago.
They have a separate menu for gluten free options. I do like that have written right on the menu that fries and tortillas are gluten free, BUT are fried in shared friers, causing a cross contamination.
I tried their chili for a starter, it's very thick, it comes with cheese, onions, and tortilla's on top. I got it with just cheese, since the tortilla's are fried with other breaded items, and I just don't like onions!
I ordered a the Buffalo Burger, without a bun, and a side of vegetables. They have a Toppings Bar that allows you to help yourself to your desired toppings for your burger.
On a previous trip I had tried their ribs, and found them pretty tasty. The Door County BB Sauce they used was good, and accented the dish well. I don't know what it is, but their veggies are always so tasty.
I will go back here when we are up at the Renaissance Faire in the summer time. It's nothing fancy, but gets a decent meal and polite services, they get 3 dragonflies in my rating scale.
