Crunchy Thai Cold Noodle Salad

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Years ago I used to make a slightly different version of this salad while working in a kitchen. We’d make a huge batch and individually package them up for sale. This is the version I jotted down in my recipe book after I left that job. I have made this during the hot summer months every summer since. I crave it because it’s so refreshing.

(I made a scaled down version for my work lunch today, so that’s why it doesn’t look like a lot in the pictures. And I used one Ramen noodle nest.)

Crunchy Thai Cold Noodle Salad:
16 oz Vermicelli Noodles or Ramen Noodles, boiled and cooled down completely
Sesame Seeds (as much as you like)
3″ Cucumber section, julienne cut
1/4 Red Pepper section, julienne cut
3″ Carrot section, julienne cut or grated
2 Green Onions, thin sliced on the diagonal
1 bunch Cilantro, fine chopped
1 C Thai Dressing*

Boil, drain, and rapid cool the noodles across a large dinner plate. Shake sesame seeds over the noodles at this point. Set aside. Turn toward prepping the vegetables.

In a large bowl, toss the cold noodles with the vegetable mix with the dressing. Cover and chill at least an hour before eating.

* When I first started making this salad, there was a Spicy Thai dressing available in stores and through our food vendors. I haven’t seen it anywhere since the pandemic started. I’m not sure if it was stopped because of the supply shortage, or because by then the Thai fast food craze was wanning. It could be a bit of both that caused it to disappear.

No matter, many stores have come out with other Thai or basic Asian dressing mixes that come really close, or even take the flavours in a different direction that also works well with the ingredients in this salad.

I picked up this one yesterday. I’m not sure how long it’s been selling in my grocery store, but it sells for less than $5.00 so I gave it a go. I do not regret this choice. In fact, quite the opposite! I’m in love with this dressing.

Breakfast Rounds Prep

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I prepped some meatballs into mini breakfast rounds for future McGriddle sandwiches. I used my cute hamburger/egg pan to form the patty by laying down a parchment paper round, topping it with a meatball that I pushed down on a bit before covering it with more parchment and using my slider patty hammer (I don’t know what it’s called) to press it out to a thin round of meat.

Each meat then got air fried until they were fully cooked. After cooling them on a rack, I bagged them up to store them in the freezer for our weekend breakfasts together.

I wasn’t sure if this was going to work or not, so I bought a tray of meatballs that were reduced to clear, hence the different colours in the meat where the air oxidized the meat versus the red-pink of the meat underneath. Ultimately that oxidation didn’t matter since I cooked the meat to one uniform brown colour the same day I bought the meatballs.

Here is the final version of my knock-off McGriddle. I use a few tiny slices of cheese to hold the egg and meat together as a stack before placing them between two pancake ‘buns’ that may or may not have been drizzled with maple syrup right before serving.

Each egg layer was cooked in my hamburger pan. I cracked one egg inside each well, broke up the yolks, seasoned with S&P, and then flipped when the top edges were no longer wet looking with a small spatula and a fork. This process took less than three mins. The pancakes took a bit longer per side in the same pan.

Cucumber Lime Water

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This is what the Spicy People south of the USA border call, Agua de Pepino. It’s a blended cucumber, lime juice, sugar, and water drink poured over ice. It’s very refreshing, very easy to make, and very tasty.

Cucumber Lime Water:
1 Cucumber, washed and ends cut off
1/2 Lime, juiced
2 Tbsp Sugar
Tiny pinch of Salt
1 C Cold Water

Peel the cucumbers lengthwise so it ends up looking like a series of strips, leaving have the green on, half off. Chop the cuke up into 1″ section cuts. Dump them into a high speed blender to blitz. Add the ice and stir. Pour over more ice in tall glasses. This makes about two tall glasses in yield, and keeps in the fridge for 2-3 days.

This is a perfect drink for the HOT summer months. Adjust the sugar either way if you find the taste of cucumbers overwhelming.

Quinoa Chopped Salad

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When I want a salad for lunch, this is my go-to. Every time. I can’t help but love it because it’s fast to assemble. And since I try to keep cooked quinoa in the fridge weekly, so this is even snappier to make.

I also use this salad to clean out my fridge. I make pickled veg all summer long, so an easy way to use the pickled item all up since it doesn’t last long (about three weeks) is to throw some of each type into my salads. I love colourful, tasty, vibrant pickled items like red onion and carrots. They just set the creamy salad dressings off so nicely. They also break up normal meals so they don’t get monogamous over time.

Mix it up!

Here is how I made enough for an baby entree sized serving. Add protein if desired.

Quinoa Chopped Salad:
1/2 C Cooked Quinoa
1/2 C Shredded Lettuce
1 Persian Cucumber, quartered and sliced
1/4 Roma Tomato, diced
2 Forkfuls of Pickled Red Onion Slices
2 Forkfuls of Pickled Carrot Strands
Creamy Dressing of choice, enough to coat everything in the bowl at the very least

Baked Onion Rings

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I did this viral Onion Ring thingy a few weeks back.

I didn’t like it. It was too greasy even after it cooled down to almost room temp (so how is that appetizing??), and I didn’t like the seasoning blend every one seem to suggest was the best for basic onion rings you’d normally order in a diner.

I’m only into the way the parm cheese baked up. That part was tasty and I ended up eating that and throwing the onion rings away. The cheese also produced a really pleasing colour on the bottom of the whole thing.

Anyway, blech. To each their own. I did it, so now I can ignore it. If you want to make this, search the term ‘oven baked onion rings’.

Taco Bell in Canada

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I hate to admit this, but sometimes I eat like a trash panda. My poison of choice will always be the trashy Taco Bell fare. Sadly, the only location this tiny town had closed about seven years ago, so I crave Taco Bell hard when I know we are going to other towns or I truck into the big city. It’s all I seek out. LOL I know, I know. It’s a gross habit!!

It was a good thing that I couldn’t get a fix anytime I wanted, but that’s all changed since a few weeks back I noticed the store I work at was now selling a full line of Taco Bell products. You know I HAD to try some of these to report back, right? (snort) I brought home their double taco kit (a great value based on the costing out of each product in the kit, even on sale, it’s cheaper in the kit, fyi).

The assembly was simply warming up the soft and hard tacos, along with the included nacho cheese sauce. The cheese holds the hard taco inside the soft taco as you fill it up and then eat it.

The materials were straightforward to use, and they tasted great. And I was full after two tacos. The husband ate three and used other tortillas we had on hand to eat a burrito using a lot of the leftover materials. I liked this kit. I’d recommend it for a weeknight meal when kids are impatient and just want to fill their pie holes fast.

I mentioned the kits (three in total), but there is also three of their sauces for sale, two kinds of seasoning packets for the meat you also can buy if you happen to have taco shells and ground beef sitting at home, and you only need sauce or the seasonings to complete your meal.

Overall, this is a great product line. Taco Bell did it up correctly. I hope we have many years of their products on our shelves for families to enjoy as they would like.

Deconstructed Lasagna

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I made this a few months back and I keep thinking about it. I need to make this deconstructed lasagna again. It’s calls for all of the standard ingredients for the body that gets combined into one messy mixture, but it’s topped with blobs of creamy spinach dip instead of a ricotta filling or a bechamel layer between the pasta and meat sauce.

Pros of making this dish: I found I used about 1/4 of the normal cheese blend I would have used for a traditional lasagna, and there was a speedier assembly of ingredients since I wasn’t stopping to do any layering. And I didn’t have to wait for a bechamel sauce to be made. I bought and used a spinach dip from the grocery store. I also didn’t have to wait as long for the layers to set up when it came out of the oven.

Cons of making this dish: I couldn’t find one because I didn’t have any Italians eating this with me. 😀 I didn’t like the tang of the spinach dip as much as I thought I would. I will have to source a different brand, or buy a different type of dip next time.

I can’t remember how long I baked this or at what temp, but I’ll use my best guess here. I’d say about I cooked it 30 mins at 350-375 with the casserole lid on.

Colcannon

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This traditional Irish dish doesn’t last long in our house. I’ve been making it for a few years now (TY to an old friend for giving me her mother’s version that I tweaked a bit). It’s so good. And if you’re lucky enough to have leftovers, this makes fabulous pan fried fritters the next morning.

Colcannon:
2 lbs Yellow Potatoes, peeled and cubed 2″
1 tbsp Salt

1 pack Bacon Strips, 1″ cuts, pan fried, drained

Half a head of Cabbage, shredded up
S&P

1 1/2 C Milk
1 bunch Green Onions, chopped up
2 tbsp Unsalted Butter

Prep all of the veg and bacon. At this point, if you know how to make mashed potatoes, jump to heating the dairy and frying the bacon and cabbage.

Rinse the potatoes under water twice and then fill the pot with them in it along with a heaping tablespoon of salt to start cooking over med-high heat. It should take between 12-15 mins to cook the potatoes.

In a small sauce pot, heat the milk/onion/butter mixture on low on a back burner. Don’t let the dairy mixture get scalded on the bottom of the pot. Keep it moving every minute or two. Heat it up until tiny bubbles along the outer edge start to form. Kill the heat and rest the sauce pot on the cold burner for a few minutes.

Get your biggest frying pan hot and drop the bacon cuts in to fry. When the bacon crisps up to your liking, remove the bacon to drain on paper towels. Drop the cabbage in over that bacon fat and hit it with pepper. Stir and move the cabbage around often. It it starts to burn, drop the heat a bit an move the pan off half the heat source to control the cooking. When it’s softened, remove the pan from the heat to cool it down. Add the bacon back in to keep warm until needed.

At the ten minute mark, spoon lift a few of the potatoes and look at their edges. It they look sharp, the need more time in the bath. If the edges are fuzzy, they are probably done. At this point, push down on a few of them with a fork. It there is resistance, they need another two or so mins. If they mash down immediately, kill the heat and drain the water out.

Return the pot to the same burner to start mashing them as they dry off for 1-2 mins from the residual heat.

At this point, you can start the assembly off the burner with a big knob of butter, cracked black pepper and half of of the dairy mixture. Give the mash a good stir before adding the rest of the dairy and stirring that in. And finally, fold the cabbage and bacon in to combine everything.

Give the mash a taste and adjust the S&P if needed. Remember, potatoes can really drink up salt (so can cabbage), so add a bit more than you are comfortable with.

Plate the Colcannon with a butter pat over top. Let it melt before you dig in.

Taco Hamburger Helper

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While I’m in front of the computer, let me give you the Taco Hamburger Helper recipe I got from the Instagram reel that kicked off my whole trip down memory lane.

Healthier Taco Hamburger Helper:
1/2 Lbs Ground Beef
1/2 Onion, diced or thin strips
Oil

Pan fry onions. set aside in a bowl to sear meat. Add onions back in. Add a small pinch of salt and start adding:

1/2 Red Pepper, diced or thin strips
2 Handfuls Spinach, washed/drained
10 oz Tomato Sauce
1 C Milk + 1/2 Water
1 C Egg Noodle Pasta
2 Tbsp Taco Seasoning Blend

Stir everything together, making sure the pasta gets submerged. Once the liquids start to boil, cover the pot and drop heat to low. Let that simmer for about ten mins before adding a can of rinsed off beans (black or pinto). Add a generous amount of Mexican blended cheese (reserve a bit for plating) and lid the pot again to melt it. After two mins, kill the heat and let it rest off burner to cool down.

Uncover and give everything one final good stir to combine the cheese into the mixture.

Plate with lettuce, sour cream, and pickled jalapeno or banana peppers, and a bit more cheese shred if desired. <– These are all the things I will add to make it a taco bowl meal when I make this next week.

DIY Hamburger Helper

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A few weeks ago I commented on an Instagram reel about DIY Hamburger Helper. I commented that I’d never eaten the box stuff before and asked what it tasted like. I never got a reply so I forgot all it until someone at work the other day was telling a co-worker she’s never eaten it before. She asked if I’ve ever eaten Hamburger Helper and then asked what it tasted like. Out of us three, not one of us had, and we come from three different age groups. And we all now work at a grocery store. I thought that was odd. What are the chances?

So, the three of us then had this back and forth about making it at home, and why it exists at all. The answer is, women started working outside the home in the 1970s. This product was marketed to every woman who was looking for faster, simpler meal ideas to feed their hungry family each night from the late 1970s onward.

The basic idea of Hamburger Helper has always been a box of small noodles with a cheese powder + curated spices packet, and all the consumer has to cook it with ground meat, veggies, and liquids to make it a complete meal. Easy peasy.

My mom made a version of HH which she could scale up (the box didn’t stretch far enough) to feed her army. So in that spirit, here is the basic idea of what Mum made us based on my memories, with spices I like, smashed together with what I saw in that Instagram reel. The husband and I loved it. I made enough for six big people meals on Monday at lunch, and by dinner tonight (Tuesday), it was all gone (save for one more portion for his lunch tomorrow.)

Aunt Stacey’s Hamburger Helper:
4 C Small Pasta Noodles, half cooked and strained (I only had penne on hand)

2-3 Tbsp Oil
1 Onion, diced
Salt Pinch
1 Lbs (454g) Ground Meat (of choice)

Fry the onion until it starts to soften; place into a small bowl. Lay the meat down in the oil to cook the first side, When the bottom edge is browned, carefully flip the meat over from you to sear the second side. Leave it go a full minute before breaking it up with a potato masher, twisting the tool as you push down on the meat to separate the strands into crumble.

Add to the meat:

1 Garlic Clove, minced (I used jar stuff)
1 Sweet Pepper, diced
1 Tbsp: Italian Seasoning, Ground Onion Powder (or more), Beef Gravy Powder (opt)
1 Tea Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 Tea: Ground Sage, Red Hot Chili Peppers grinds, Black Pepper
10 oz Canned Tomato Sauce (or canned diced tomatoes blitzed)
1+ Cup Whole Milk
1/2 Cup Water

Taste test the liquid. Adjust the flavours here if you want or need to. Add another small pinch of salt.

Bring the pot to barely a boil and drop in the half cooked pasta. Stir the pasta so 90% of it is submerged in the liquid. Lid the pot and drop the heat so it can simmer 10 mins to finish cooking everything and give the flavours time to marry.

Final additions:

1+ C Parmesan Cheese, grated or shredded
4 Marble Cheese Slices or 1 C Marble Cheese Shred

Kill the heat and lid the pot one last time to let the cheeses melt. Uncover and stir to combine everything evenly.

I’m not really sure how long this took to make, but I’d say it was between 20-30 mins. It was just as fast from scratch. The longest part was the time it took the meat to sear so I could start filling up the pan with the other ingredients.