HOT NOODLES

i’m dragging this week. it happens. there’s nothing wrong and Sloane has been sleeping so much better (double celebratory fist pump to the heavens), but i feel somewhat muted, and have been feeling a little bit like i sobbed for hours the night before (i haven’t) – u know that drained feeling where you also feel like your face is puffy...? mayhaps it’s fluctuating hormones, maybe it’s wanting to spend the day with S. instead of being at work, maybe it’s want of sleep, but most likely it's the colder weather. or a combination of all the above. i'm not complaining, i'm just telling it like it is. and i'm also serving up some context for this super easy noodle recipe that i want to share.

a shout out to my mother-in-law who taught me how to put this little number together. it's perfect for cold days, especially after a long day of work, when the last thing you want to do is slave over the stove. it's quick, hot, and fills you up in all the right places. we already had this for dinner twice this week. it was just that kind of week. 

hot noodles with pork and spinach, serves 2

i eyeball/taste-test everything as i go, so this is an approximation. also, it's super flexible... this recipe is not really a recipe, it's more like a suggestion. as long as you have some sort of broth + noodles + meat + vegetable combination, it works. 

ingredients: 2.5 cups of chicken broth, 2 cups of baby spinach (watercress also works really well), 1/2 cup of pickled vegetables (i found some at the asian market - if you can't find them, just use some onions), 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of sesame oil, 1 tablespoon of cornstarch, 2 tablespoons of minced garlic, olive oil, 1/3 lb of pork (chicken or beef could work too), noodles (i use asian noodles, but you could also use any kind of flat noodles, maybe linguine)

directions: 

1) boil water for noodles and cook them al dente

2) cut up pork into small pieces. combine soy sauce, sesame oil, corn starch and garlic together in a bowl. put the pieces of pork in the soy sauce mixture and set aside.

3) cook the pickled vegetables in some hot olive oil for one minute. set aside

4) heat up another tablespoon of sesame oil, and saute the pork in that until pork is cooked all the way through. combine pork and pickled vegetables together.

5) bring chicken broth to a boil. add spinach to the broth and let cook for one minute. 

6) put noodles in bowl, pour broth with spinach over the noodles, and top with vegetables and pork. 

enjoy and then go to bed early.