Pasta with Peas, Asparagus, and Pancetta

Jonathan and I have been making this dish since it was featured on the cover of a Bon Appetit magazine in the Spring of 2010.  It is such a light, refreshing dish (not exactly light in terms of calories!  just light in terms of spring veggies vs. heavy meat sauce!).  We picked up fresh English peas at the farmer's market last weekend so we couldn't NOT make this.  Oh, by the way, we did try to cut back on the fat ever so slightly by subbing half and half for the heavy cream.  But now I'm realizing we could have tried greek yogurt instead.....next time!

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!

Asian Mango Slaw & Grilled Skirt Steak

We like to cook on Sundays....we either prep something for Nicholas for the week or make a dinner for us that will last a couple nights.  Last night we recreated this Asian Mango Cabbage Slaw and topped it with Alton Brown's Grilled Skirt Steak.  I did add ginger and crushed red chile flakes to the dressing and next time might add thinly sliced red peppers and/or jalepeno to the slaw.  For protein, I would also top with shrimp or toss in thinly sliced or shredded chicken.  Yum!  I'm on an Asian kick and it did not disappoint! 

Oh, and here are a couple pics of our little SoccerTot :)