Spicy Peanut Noodles

It was rainy all day but finally above 40 degrees. I'll take it. It's not snow. (I need some sunshine and warm weather in my life like I never thought I would.) Warm or not, this rainy spring-ish day did not inspire much creativity when it came to figuring out dinner tonight. We had chicken and not much else on hand. When we don't know what to do we usually take turns staring in our pantry. Mandi went first. We tried to default to one of our tasty, quick favorites of chicken, black beans and rice with adobo pepper sauce. Nope, no black beans. How does that happen? Black beans are one of those items you always have to have in your pantry, like grits! Time to start a grocery list. My turn to look in the pantry. In further scrutiny I saw the peanut butter jar. Why not try our hands at making a spicy peanut sauce? Toss in some chicken and noodles and voila, dinner! Here is our first attempt at a spicy peanut sauce documented for you.

I didn't really measure any of the ingredients, rather tasted along the way and added according to our taste testing. I'll give you rough estimates of what we used.

Basic ingredient list:

coconut milk (about a can)
peanut butter ( about 1/3 cup)
water (maybe 6 ounces)
red pepper flakes (to taste)
curry powder (to taste)
cayenne pepper (to taste)
a mild type of bean drained and mashed (half a can)
soy sauce (3-4 Tablespoons)
honey (1-2 Tablespoon)

Heat and whisk, taste and adjust according to your liking.

Peanut butter and coconut milk

About to be mashed white kidney beans

Boil 'em, smash 'em, put 'em in a stew.

Simmering sauce.

Ready for its close up. 

It's always fun to put something together with just what you have on hand. What are some of your favorite meals you've managed to scrounge up out of your pantry?

Stay tuned for the cookies I made with this meal. Orange drop cookies with bittersweet chocolate drizzle. Let's just say Pepperidge Farm has nothing on me...