Ramen noodles

These ramen noodles are simple to make, I use a Philips Pasta Maker. I just dump the ingredients in and press some buttons. You can make this by hand also, but I don't have a pasta roller or cutter so I don't.

Serve these noodles with your favorite broth or as a cold noodle dish.

Pasta al Limone (With Shrimp)

This pasta dish is creamy and flavorful. The ingredients are simple and easy to find many times I already have them on hand. It's not a difficult dish to make but it is so good. perfect quick weeknight meal.

Khao Piek Sen (Bánh Canh Noodles)

I am so happy with this recipe. I saw it shared on a Facebook page for noodle making. I changed the weights and ratios a bit to our liking. The original recipe calls for a total of 5 kneading cycles. and two longer rest preiods, and often I just don't have time for that. It doesn't matter I'm thankful she posted the recipe. Traditionally these noodles don't have potato starch or Xanthan Gum. I find that both give this noodle great texture.  The noodles are chewy and hold their shape well. I used weights for everything in this recipe, even the water is by weight/grams. I find it is more accurate.

Chicken Spinach Lasagna

It's been a long time since I've blogged! We've relocated to Texas and have been here since July. Still trying to get into the swing of things around here. The kids have started school and seem to be thriving. I'm so thankful! They had a very short summer due to getting out of school later than Texas schools do. We took our time getting down here and lived in a hotel for a bit until we found a house. We sold our house in the DC area and other than the kitchen with it's ample counter space and my range I don't actually miss cleaning that huge house too much. I do miss having ovens that don't heat up the house, high BTU's and water that doesn't take 10 minutes to come to a boil a WHOLE lot.

Khao Piek Sen- Lao Noodles (Philips Pasta Maker)

Khao Piek Sen is one of my favorite noodle soups. It's a Lao soup that has noodles made with rice and tapioca flour. Khao Piek Sen, literally "wet rice strands" in Lao are a gluten free noodle. I usually make these and cut them by hand. You can find that method here. The hand made and hand cut method is easy and uses less ingredients than this Philips Pasta Machine one. But it's nice to dump the ingredients into the machine and have it do the work sometimes.

Chinese Egg Noodles (Philips Pasta Maker)

Chinese Egg Noodle Soup, noodles made in the Philips Pasta Maker

Not too long ago my husband purchased a Philips Pasta Maker for me. I wasn't sure how I would like the machine, originally I just wanted something to roll and cut noodles for Khao Piek Sen. Nothing fancy. I have been using this machine for all sorts of noodles, curry flavored, black pepper, Italian basil, etc. It's really easy to use and it's pretty fast. Ten to fifteen minutes a cycle. For regular pasta I use one cycle and my water is ready and boiling on the stove by the time it's done. I have made the Khao Piek Sen in this machine also, I'm pleased with the results. I did have to tweak my original recipe and got help from other pasta machine owners. That's a whole other post though.

Garlicky Pasta with Shrimp

This is a quick pasta that comes together easily. It's a great starter meal for older kids (age 8 depending on how much experience they have) to make on their own with little to no help from adults, other than draining a pasta pot! The ingredients for this is simple, but they all pack a punch. Other than the fresh herbs you may already have most of the ingredients in your pantry or freezer. Pasta, or at least the flour and water to make them. We've been using a Phillips Pasta Maker for our pasta. It's such an easy machine to use, and I've just use flour that I already have in my pantry. I haven't bought any specialty flour yet. I'll put the recipe that I use for spaghetti or angle hair pasta below. Here is a video that I took making angel hair pasta, from my Facebook page/Instagram:

There no real sauce to this pasta, but it isn't dry. The pasta water, butter, and tomatoes coat the pasta with flavor. The shrimp should be plump with a good bite, not rubbery and over cooked. I hope you'll try this easy dish, it'll become one of your go to quick dinners!

Blue Box Mac and Cheese (Instant Pot)

 So, I grew up eating boxed Mac and Cheese. It was an "American" food, so my mom didn't make it from scratch. It's still a comfort food for me. My youngest however, LOVES THIS STUFF. She really does. We have it about once every other month at most, but it's still a treat. We all like it really. It's so easy to follow the instructions on the box and do this on the stove top, but if you have an Instant Pot. I'm going to save you the trouble of washing a colander also. Because you won't need to drain this at all. I have done up to two boxes in my Instant Pot using a method that someone posted on the Instant Pot Community page. It's just so simple.

Creamy Lemon Pasta

Creamy Lemon Pasta with bacon.

 This pasta is the perfect easy weeknight dish. It's so simple and so quick to make. The lemon and parsley brightens and brings freshness. There were no leftovers here!
You can use pancetta for this dish or bacon. Whatever you have on hand.
This is a dish your children can help prep, but it's so easy children 8 and up can prepare it with little supervision. Just draining the pasta really.

Quick Caprese Pasta

I love quick and easy meals. This is so simple but we all love it. What's not to love? Pasta, fresh tomatoes, fragrant basil, soft mozzarella. The perfect quick meat free weeknight meal. Easy enough for the kids to make also!
What are some of your favorite weeknight meals? I'm always looking for ideas, especially now that school has started and soccer season also! I also love finding meatless meals that we all enjoy. That's not always easy. Share your favorites in the comments below, I'll make sure to pin them for later.

Pesto Chicken Pasta with Zoodles

Pesto Chicken Pasta with Zoodles

I have some exciting news. I have kept a basil plant alive the whole summer. I know summer isn't over but this is a big accomplishment. I have harvested basil at least three times from the same plant! Amazing!! Usually I can't keep plants alive very long at all. Especially in a pot. I'm so excited about this plant. I baby it. 

So because I have all this basil we've been enjoying caprese, in all forms and pesto! I keep making pesto to freeze, but then I keep pulling it out to make quick dinners. I don't think I'll have any by the time fall leaves, boots, and pumpkin spice make their appearance. Still, we'll keep enjoying this while we can. I use almonds in our Pesto because it's the only nut that my nut free girl can have. Pine nuts of course are beautifully buttery and yummy, so use them if you have them. Walnuts are wonderful also. 

Basil Pesto keeps best if air is kept away from it. To store in the fridge, add a layer of olive oil to the top to protect it. See freezer instructions below.

Vermicelli Noodle Bowl

An oldie but goodie. Not the picture, but Vermicelli Noodle Bowls. I put either these or Spring Rolls on our menu at least once every two weeks. They are just so easy and everyone here enjoys it! Win win here at the Give Peas A Chance household!

Find the recipe and more below-

Make them grain/noodle free by using a spiral slicer like this one that we love for vegetable noodles.

Here are links related to these great noodle bowls, recipes, and Spring Rolls also

Related posts-

Vermicelli Salad

Spring Rolls  
Spring Rolls Manic Monday

Egg rolls (1)

Egg Rolls

Nam Pla Dressing

Vermicelli Salad Bentos/Lunches

More Lunches

Khao Piek Sen- Lao Chicken Noodle Soup (Gluten Free)

I've posted Khao Piek Sen before, the original post is here. I haven't change much of anything in these noodles but they are so easily adapted and flavored. It's not traditional but I've listed some add in options at the bottom of this post. I will say this, you should make these without anything first, pure, simple, and easy. The way they were intended. Just a good flavorful broth for the noodles to swim in.

Asian Noodle Salad

It's MaNic MonDay! I try to post old favorites, sometimes I'll update pictures too on Monday's. Today I'm re posting the Asian Noodle Salad recipe. It's one of my go to dishes for potlucks and church BBQ's. My girls will eat this up also, just add extra veggies. You can even make veggie noodles with a spiraler.

You can find the first post for Asian Noodle Salad here in this post on Give Peas A Chance, or scroll down.

Manic Monday- Chicken Madaline

I'm sad to say that I don't make this often. I really like it, it's simple but good food. The girls will eat it but it's not one of those dishes they ask me to make.

 I've posted this before HERE.
You don't have to use Velveeta cheese, or canned cream soups. Sub shredded cheddar cheese for the Velveeta, and make this healthy substitute HERE for the canned soups.

Do you have any dishes you enjoy but your family is like "eh" over? 

Find more "ManIc MoNdaY" posts here.

Chicken Madaline

Curry "Noodle" Bowl

MMMM YUMMM. This is so very good, and everyone LOVES it. So very good. It's a quick meal and heats up well. A little heat from the curry and chili powders. Creamy and rich from the stock and coconut milk. It's grain free, sugar free, and dairy free also. Check your coconut milk and fish sauce ingredients to make sure they don't have any added ingredients that you don't want to be eating.
The curry can be made spicy or mild to your liking. Homemade curry powder is most flavorful if you make yours. I like to make big batches at a time.

More yumminess

GPAC Zesty Lemon Chicken

 This Zesty Lemon Chicken is so good. It's easy to make, the family loves it! Garlicky, lemony goodness. The fresh fragrant flat leaf parsley gives it color and freshness. I love the flavor of flat leaf parsley, it reminds me of lemons. The salty capers. MMM.

This can be served with pasta tossed in the garlic sauce, or a crusty bread to dip into the sauce.  I use skin on chicken and it gets nice and crisp. Even though some of this crazy family takes the skin off and tosses it anyway.  Check thighs, legs, wings or breasts can be used. If using a variety, cut the bone in breasts in half so they are done at the same time the rest of the chicken is.

Free Friday

Red Sauce

Zucchini noodles

Pasta

Meatballs- I didn't make these

Basil

SO good.

Asian Style Coleslaw

I've already posted this recipe HERE. I haven't made it in a while, so I did the other day and the older girls loved it. So I thought I would post again.

Looking for Cole Slaw?
Spicy Broccoli Slaw
Asian Style Slaw
Simple Cabbage Salad

Vegetable "noodles", Vegetable slicer.

I tagged this post primal/paleo because you can just leave out the grain noodles and use lentils as the binder in the meatballs. The plate you see up top there is Our Favorite Spaghetti Sauce, meatballs- I've used ground up lentils in place of binder NOM NOM, and a mixture of zucchini and regular wheat pasta. I did a mixture because I didn't want to change it all up on the kids at once. They all ate the zucchini, which I just blanched in the same pot as the pasta, at the end of the pasta cooking time. Then I drained it all together. They even said they LIKED it. So I'll be adding more and more zucchini and using less pasta. I have no issue with pasta I love pasta, but I like adding vegetables when I can into our diet. The thing is, I don't like whole wheat pasta. LOL. As light as the zucchini is, it still has a good bite to it- I can't wait to try it with this 3 ingredient red sauce!