Embracing the Inner Fat Kid

beccabites:

I absolutely love me some Thai food. However, it is a recent love discovered over the last couple of years. Growing up with Puerto Rican and Hungarian food influences didn’t exactly lend itself to making Pad Thai on Wednesday nights. That was black beans and rice night.

 

Over the last few months, I have spent some time making dishes with Thai influences. I’ve stocked up on the tamarind paste, the fish sauce, the coconut milk, etc. So in honor of how delicious Thai food can be, and my freshly stocked Thai inspired pantry, this week is Thai food week. 

Pad Thai

I have cravings for Pad Thai on an almost weekly basis, but I never realized how capable I was of creating this dish successfully (without using any pre-packaged sauces, flavor mixes, etc.) 

The recipe I used was a mix of about 5 different recipes I found to be “authentic” (hah, not like I would actually know). I’ve only made this dish twice, so I’m going to play around with it some more before I post a recipe. 

Thai Chicken Salad

I found the recipe from the Food Network, so it doesn’t exactly scream authentic, nor was it tricky to make. I ignored the specifications of the recipe, just using the ingredients as a guide. The takeaway from the dish is definitely the peanut lime dressing. So good!See full recipe. 

Coconut Tapioca Pudding 

This was delicious! I tried to track down the recipe I used, but being incredibly organized, I have lost it. It was almost identical to this, if you want to give this dessert a try. 

Thai Chicken Noodle Soup 

This was surprisingly my favorite dish of the week’s cooking events. I expected it to be a nice way to use some leftover chicken, but this blew me away! True to it’s name it is the perfect comfort food, but the blend of flavors, the coriander and coconut standing out in my mind, makes this far superior to the noodles in chicken broth I eat when I’m sick.Here’s the recipe I roughly followed. 

Thai BBQ Chicken with a Sweet and Spicy Sauce, and a side of Pan Herb Noodles. 

Another successful meal! The noodles I just threw together for an interesting side. I like to use bean sprout noodles, because they soak up flavor nicely, cook almost instantly and are better for you than a bunch of white flour. 

The BBQ Chicken is all about the marinade. I can’t believe I’m just now realizing how amazing lemon grass is.

Well, that wraps this week’s long winded cooking challenge. What types of foods or specific recipes should I try next? I definitely need some inspiration! 

- Becca Bites. 

beccabites:

Chinese food is something that I could eat any time. Much like Mexican food, it is rarely a bad idea. However, for some reason it’s one of those foods that I always turn to a restaurant for. Chinese food is not necessarily the most complex food to tackle, but it’s a stretch for me since I rarely use the flavors in my own kitchen. Therefore, this weeks challenge was a week long event, a week of cooking (not ordering) Chinese food. 

Chicken Fried Rice

Orange Beef and Fried Rice 

I have to give credit to my boyfriend on the Orange Beef adventure. We made this together and he is definitely the reason why it turned out to be so delicious. 

Orange Beef and Ramen

Without question, I will be making my own Chinese food more often now.

Enjoy! 

- Becca Bites

beccabites:

Beyond making homemade pasta, I upped the anie and decided to go for a full romantic Italian dinner. Admittedly, I did not do this challenge this week. I didn’t do much cooking this week, but this is a meal I’ve been wanting to share. Without throwing too many unwanted details out there, my…

toomanyreservations:

I spent this weekend with two of my favorite things in the world: food and my boyfriend. He made these for breakfast for my roommates and me Sunday morning. He knows how to win people over let me tell you.

I think he got the recipe from a Martha Stewart cookbook and it is easy to make and…

(via fortheloveofbacon)

beccabites:

Orange Pecan French Toast

This wasn’t a challenge to stretch my cooking skills by any means, but more one of discovery. My goal was to find a fantastic baked french toast recipe that wasn’t soggy and that didn’t taste like typical french toast. Mission accomplished! I bring you Orange Pecan…