Dan and I had one of those weekends that starts out with the best intentions of being social people with big plans and lots to do, but quickly devolves into spending the better part of two days and three nights zoning out on the living room couch thanks to a combination of poor sleeping, bad timing and the dog we were watching coming down with a very unfortunate case of diarrhea. We should have been out bowling with friends or taking care of some much-needed errands, but instead we just lazed around and took two-hour long afternoon naps. Sometimes it is nice to have a weekend where you just stay home and do absolutely nothing, but there’s something surprisingly exhausting about having lots of plans and failing to execute any of them. By Sunday evening, I felt ready to give up on life and just curl up into a fetal position in the middle of the kitchen floor. But I had to make dinner, an incredibly daunting task after a long weekend of nothingness.
It is weird that despite feeling lazy in pretty much every other way, Dan and I have both been geared up lately to make good meals. We don’t really ever have a tendency to eat unhealthy, but the urge to eat food that is fresh and nicely prepared has been very strong as of late. So I made a nice salad of mixed greens with sliced orange, avocado and dried cranberries, dressed with a raspberry walnut vinaigrette. It looked so beautiful–colorful and crisp and wonderfully healthy–and was meant to be our main dish, but it wasn’t quite enough to constitute a full meal. Since my desire to eat something simple but tasty was strong and my desire to go through the trouble of cooking was basically nonexistent, I decided to round out our dinner with a very easy sesame noodles recipe courtesy of The Pioneer Woman. It was an absolutely wonderful pairing and required so little effort. It was pretty much perfect! Hooray!
The full recipe follows, but be sure to check out the original post (at the link above) for some great photos and a step-by-step breakdown. I didn’t have any green onions on hand, so I left those out and I don’t even know what Hot Chili Oil is, so I just substituted some Chinese Chili Sauce to add a bit of spice and I used angel hair pasta. It was really very tasty and I cannot stress enough how easy it was to make. The next time you have a weekend that doesn’t turn out the way you wanted or had planned and you just need something quick and easy to make for dinner, go with The Pioneer Woman’s Simple Sesame Noodles. It’s more than worth the minimal effort.
Ingredients
- 12 ounces, fluid Thin Noodles, Cooked And Drained
- 1/4 cup Soy Sauce
- 2 Tablespoons Sugar
- 4 cloves Garlic, Minced
- 2 Tablespoons Rice Vinegar
- 3 Tablespoons Pure Sesame Oil
- 1/2 teaspoon Hot Chili Oil
- 4 Tablespoons Canola Oil
- 4 whole Green Onions, Sliced Thin
Preparation Instructions
Whisk all ingredients (except noodles and green onions) together in a bowl. Taste and adjust ingredients as needed.
Pour sauce over warm noodles and toss to coat.
Sprinkle with green onions and toss.
Serve in a bowl with chopsticks.
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