I made my own Asian Noodle bowl for lunch today.

I put one package of ramen noodles into boiling water along with a handful of broccoli florets, carrots and snow peas from a bag of California stir-fry mix. I like my veggies reasonably soft, so I cooked the veggies with the noodles for the full three minutes. At the last minute, I put in two handfuls of Rainbow Slaw that is a bag of julienne-cut cauliflower, broccoli and red cabbage.

After three minutes, I drained the noodles and vegetables and ran them under cool water to stop the cooking and cool them off a little.

Any Asian salad dressing would do, but I used some I'd made myself:

3 cloves of garlic, grated
1 inch fresh ginger, grated
2 tablespoons softened chunky peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon of chili garlic sauce
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1 cup canola oil

Use a hand blender and stream oil in slowly to emulsify.

If I'd thought about it, I would've garnished with toasted almonds and/or toasted crispy chow mein noodles or wonton strips.

For dinner tonight, I made another quick and easy, very flavorful, cool and refreshing dish. I'll call it Lemon Orzo with Sauteed Shrimp, Tomatoes and Asparagus.

First, I marinated my peeled shrimp in some lemon zest, red pepper flakes and canola oil.

Then, I cooked one cup of tri-colored orzo (supposedly spinach and sun-dried tomato flavoring in with the red and green ones) for all but two minutes, then I added in about 1 1/2 cups of asparagus cut into 1/2 inch pieces and let it all cook together for the final 3 minutes.

When the pasta and asparagus were finished cooking, I drained it and ran it under cool water to cool everything down then put it into a bowl with the zest of one lemon and the juice of one and a half lemons. I stirred it all to make sure all the pasta got soaked in the lemon juice then added in some quartered cherry tomatoes. I also put in some fresh parsley and oregano from my herb pot, salted and peppered the whole deal and sprinkled in some shredded Parmesan cheese.

Meanwhile, I sauteed the shrimp for just a couple of minutes on each side until they were pink, then turned them out onto a paper towel and salted and peppered them.

I mixed the cooled shrimp into the pasta salad and served up a big bowl of it:



Yum!