My Sister is Hungry: shrimp pad thai

This post is from my sis - click here for the explanation of my new series "My Sister is Hungry", in a nutshell it's because (a) she is always hungry, (b) it's a fun new way for me to experiment with recipes, and (c) who else is tired of her whining about not liking to cook?

OH MY GOSH.  Has anyone heard the news?  I WON THE LOTTERY!!

Finally after all the years of whining about being hungry my sister has made me a meal!! All I have to agree to is to review it.  Easy Peasy!! Opinions?? I’ve got ‘em!!

For todays meal she made us Shrimp Pad Thai.  Now let me be clear, I have high expectations for this one.  I LOVE Pad Thai.  LOVE IT. 

First I laid it out pretty to make it look nice so my sister would approve of my presentation.  Then I presented it to husband.  No I didn’t pretend that I cooked it.  That would be dishonest even by my standards.  Plus one look at it and he wouldn’t believe me anyway. 

My sister also gave me a side of sauce, peanuts, limes and some kind of chopped green stuff.  I didn’t start with putting any of that on there. I just served it up as it was.

First impressions- I gave it a “yum”.  Husband gave it a “hmmmm”..  not a great start from him, Sister.  He asks if he tastes lime.  Yes, I do taste lime.  He says “I don’t love lime”.  LOL.

So that said, yes there is a hint of lime.  So if you don’t love lime then this one might not be for you.  It wasn’t over powering, just a hint of lime.  Husband says “if you don’t like lime in your beer, you probably wont like it in here”.  A poet.  Cute. 

I then tried it with the side of sauce, and that was great.  He liked it much better with more sauce, so did I.  That sauce was delicious- I could eat it with a spoon. I then tried it with the peanuts.  That was fine also, didn’t change the flavor much but made it crunchy.  Really wasn’t necessary, was just as good without it.

The flavor of the noodles was fantastic.  Especially with extra of the sauce.  So great.  LOVED the noodles.

Bottom line, I liked it, the Husband thought it was “ok”.  He said if it was Hello Fresh he might not order that one again.  Oh also, he said it tasted to him like Mountain Dew.  No, No it did not.  He also wanted to give it a number rating.  He gave it a 6.  If we are number rating I would give it a solid 7. The sauce though was at least a 9.

So in summary, we have established after today’s meal that he doesn’t love lime and that I LOVE my sister cooking for me.

*Jill here ~ here's the recipe I followed to make a much healthier version of shrimp pad thai then you'll get in a restaurant, apparently the original can tip the scales at 2,000 calories per serving - yikes! I found it in Rocco Dispirito's cookbook "Now eat this!". The inspiration picture doesn't look like mine, mostly because I added red bell pepper for color and didn't put limes on the plate - which is a good thing after reading the comments my B-I-L made about lime! See my notes after the recipe for a couple things I did a tiny bit differently.

inspiration photo from the cookbook

the ingredients 

I found both white and brown rice noodles at the store

4 ounces brown rice noodles
12 ounces medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 cups fresh bean sprouts
8 ounces sugar snap peas, strings removed
3/8 cup Rockin' Asian Stir-Fry Sauce (click here for the recipe that will post tomorrow) or store-bought sugar-free teriyaki sauce, such a Seal Sama
2 tablespoons reduced-fat peanut butter
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons fish sauce
4 scallions (white and green parts), sliced thin on the diagonal
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and cook the noodles according to the package directions. During the last 2 minutes of cooking, add the shrimp, 2 cups of the bean sprouts, and the sugar snap peas. Stir to distribute the ingredients evenly, and continue to cook until the vegetables are tender and the shrimp are cooked through about 2 minutes. Drain in a colander and set aside.

2. While the shrimp are cooking, heat the teriyaki sauce in a medium saucepan over high heat. When sauce comes to a boil, whisk in the peanut butter, lime juice, fish sauce, and scallions until the mixture is smooth. Pour the sauce into a large bowl.

3. Add the cooked noodle mixture and the cilantro to the sauce, and toss until everything is completely coated. Top with the remaining 1 cup bean sprouts, and serve.

Makes 4 servings. Calories per serving - 291, fat 5.5g, pro 26g, carb 35g

my notes:
1. the directions on my brown rice noodles say to boil a large pot of water, add the noodles, cover, and remove from heat. Let stand for 5 minutes or until the noodles are done. That isn't how this recipe directions read so my solution was to boil a large pot of water, add the shrimp, 2 cups bean sprouts, sugar snap peas, and 1/2 thinly sliced red pepper, cook for a couple minutes. Add the noodles, cover, remove from heat and let stand until the noodles are done - it took about 6 minutes. This made the peas not as crunchy as I wanted so after draining the noodles and veggies I added a handful of fresh chopped peas along with the remaining bean sprouts.
2. I sent this home to my sis with toppings on the side - extra sauce (the sauce really is delicious!), cut limes (obviously they didn't want them haha), peanuts because I thought it might need additional crunch, chopped cilantro for presentation.
3. I reserved a small portion for my lunch the next day and ate it cold - I especially love the noodles with extra teriyaki sauce, I could give or take the veggies. All-in-all I think this is a pretty good recipe - agree with my sister and her "7".