#swoodles

"Mexican" swoodle bowl. Basically, some sauteed veggies - onion, tomato, bell pepper with some spices (cumin, chili, cayenne) and black beans, plus sweet potato noodles. Add cilantro, avocado, and cheese for extra deliciousness and sqeeze lime over everything. It's quick and delicious, but be aware that the caloric value is relatively low. That was good for me the night of, because I followed up with two pieces of wedding cake. Later in the week, I ended up eating my leftovers with Chipotle Mac & Cheese (bought at the deli) .

As you've already seen, I'm a little bit obsessed with sweet potato noodles. But, I must confess - I'm definitely a novice when it comes to spiralizing sweet potatoes. Because they are not quite uniform in shape and size, it's much harder to spiralize sweet potatoes than zucchini or cucumbers, which tend to be a lot straighter and narrow (at least commercially produced ones). Because their shape can mess up the spiralizing process some, I end up with a lot of leftover bits and pieces of sweet potato and not that many ideas for what to do with them. Right now, I'm settled on freezing them. I'll steam them later for corn muffins or hummus, add them to chili, or make sweet potato soup when the weather turns more fall like. Any advice from more experienced spiralizers on sweet potato noodles with fewer leftover bits?

Swoodle Pad Thai

PART I: Would you believe that I’ve only eaten Pad Thai twice in my life? The first time was out in Los Angeles in 2012 and the second time was this past December in Cebu City. This seems shocking, I know. And I didn’t even like the Pad Thai that much. Both times they were chicken dishes and I wasn’t all that impressed - the dishes reminded me of lo mein, I remember noodles, onion, cabbage, chicken, and brown sauce and all the flavors were really mild (maybe on account of my sister being anti-peppers of all kinds). 

But, I’m very recently obsessed with spiralized vegetables, so I couldn’t help but want Pad Thai with Sweet Potato Noodles when I saw it on my Pinterest feed. Verdict: Can I eat swoodle pad Thai forever and for always?! Beyond the swoodle base, I knew this recipe would interest me when I saw 2 1/2 tablespoons chili garlic sauce on the ingredient list. I followed the instructions to the letter, adding only salt & pepper roasted mushrooms to the mix at the end. I did skip the peanut garnish, however, which is perfectly fine in my book. 

PART II: So I woke from my Saturday afternoon nap at 4:30ish, exhausted from a morning and early afternoon of laundry and shopping and sun. I had plans with le Tony for 7 pm, but we had agreed to eat dinner beforehand. I decided to put a final load of laundry in, then proceeded to cut the mushrooms, onion, red pepper, and clean/trip the bunch of cilantro. Then I put the mushrooms in to broil. I finished all this around 5:40 and put my clothes in the dryer. I still needed to shower. After my shower, I was dressed by 6:30 and this is when I started cooking, figuring I would be done in 15 minutes, could photograph and eat my dish, and be ready at 7pm. WRONG. A crucial step I missed while prepping the veggies: I didn’t make the sauce! So by the time I measured out fish sauce, soy sauce, chili garlic, and cut & squeezed a lime I was way behind schedule. Tony rang my doorbell at 6:57. 

I hurriedly finished the dish, plated it, and put on my shoes. Climbing into the car with my plate, I was worried because I hadn’t taken an extra minute to taste. I had no idea if it was good over all, whether it needed more salt or black pepper, more lime. Luckily, I was incredibly pleased by my first bite - the salty fish sauce base was spot on and my lips had the tingly aftertaste of chili garlic on them. The mushrooms were a perfect add on and my swoodles just soft enough. It was limey, and the cilantro and spring onion added at the very end were so fresh. I can’t wait to eat the leftovers and I can’t wait to make this dish a million times over, experimenting with meat additions as well as other veggie combinations, and share it with my friends! (Especially Joe - who said that a Pad Thai without rice noodles is not Pad Thai.)