Quick, Easy and Satisfying Dinner

Growing up my mom would make these amazing sesame noodles.  Once I moved into my own apartment and started cooking a little, I asked her for the recipe.  It was super easy and you could eat it hot or cold.  It was also really cheap, so it was the perfect thing for a college student to make for dinner (and have plenty of leftovers!)

However, the recipe is not very healthy.  It has a lot of sesame oil and peanut butter, which is why it tastes so good.  Recently I've been experimenting with the proportions of ingredients in attempts to make it healthier.  I've also added some ingredients to make it more of a well rounded meal. 

Josh and I love this dish and it has become a regular in our dinner rotation.  It's also great because I always have the ingredients in the house, so it's perfect for those nights at the end of the week when I've run out of groceries but still want to make a good dinner.

Sesame Noodles with Chicken and Edamame:

• 1 lb pasta (I use whole wheat for this recipe to make it more hearty)

• 1 teaspoon ginger (I don't like having pieces of ginger in my food so I use ginger juice, but you could also use powdered ginger)
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 3 tablespoons sesame oil
• 5 tablespoons soy sauce (reduced sodium)
• 4 tablespoons white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter (I use Trader Joes Better'n Peanut Butter which is all natural and has 85% less fat than regular peanut butter)

•  1/2 pound chicken cut into bite size pieces and marinated in a combination of soy sauce, ginger and garlic (I didn't measure these, just kinda threw it all into a zip lock bag and stuck it in the fridge for 30 minutes until I was ready for it)

• 1/2 cup shelled edamame (I buy the frozen kind from Trader Joes)
• Sesame seeds for garnish 

This is a really fast dinner and comes together in less than 30 minutes.  

First, get the chicken cut up and marinating.  While it's marinating, get your water boiling for the pasta.  While you're waiting for the water to boil, mix the ginger, garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce, white vinegar and peanut butter together.  I mix it all together in a mixing cup to make it easy for myself. 

 Once the water has boiled, drop the pasta and take the chicken out of the refrigerator.  Put a pan on medium heat and cook the chicken.  Once the chicken is almost cooked through add the edamame.

Once completely cooked, turn off heat and put in a colander to get rid of any excess liquid.  Put back in pan and drain pasta in same colander.  Once drained, combine pasta, chicken & edamame and sauce in the pot you cooked the pasta in (I hate making extra dishes) and stir to combine.  Then just serve up in bowls and sprinkle some sesame seeds on for garnish and crunch!

Josh and I each ate a bowl of this for dinner and were very full.  We still have at least 3 servings left and since this dish can be eaten warm or cold, it makes an easy snack, lunch or quick dinner.  When I put the recipe into the weight watchers calculator it comes to 65 points.  I think we'll get 5 servings out of it which makes it 13 points each serving - not bad for dinner!  You could serve it with steamed broccoli on the side and get 6 servings out of the recipe, making it only 11 points each serving.

Then for dessert I made some homemade chocolate chip & walnut cookies.  I won't even begin to figure out the points in these... but they sure were yummy!