Easy Asian Noodle Salads

Have I mentioned that I am currently infatuated with Asian noodle salads?  I make one for lunch at least once a week.  And I'll send one along with J for lunch sometimes too!  They are good hot or cold, a good use of "leftover" veggies in your fridge, and are just so satisfying.  They often look something like this:

Rice noodles with tofu, red pepper and cucumber

Rice noodles with zucchini, red pepper, egg, and green onion

Bean noodles with tofu, red pepper, cucumber, and green onion

I had been using rice noodles, but while at Costco a couple weeks ago we spotted a HUGE bag of bean noodles (we actually thought they were rice noodles).  Both are good, I don't prefer one over the other. I usually make a soy/peanut/ginger dressing and use it coat the noodles, then drizzle a bit more over the veggies (because it's a bit difficult for me to actually incorporate the raw veggies into the noodles, they're kind of stuck together).  My dressing recipe usually goes something like this:

2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp toasted sesame oil (I just discovered that toasted is sooooo different from plain sesame oil and has so much flavor!)
1 tbsp fresh grated ginger (we buy it in a tube!)
1 tbsp peanut butter
juice of half a lime
sesame seeds
chili flakes

Recently, I tried "low-fat" extra firm tofu which I'm happy to report is totally edible.  I really didn't notice a difference between it and the regular-fat version (4g vs 1.5g fat), but I'm not the world's biggest tofu connoisseur!  I usually put about a tsp of regular sesame oil in a sauté pan and fry the tofu for a few minutes on each side (add lots of pepper and some salt, also chili flakes before frying).  Again, the fried tofu is delicious hot or cold!