Weeknight scratch cooking is tough.

I forgot to take a nice pic.  Here are the leftovers.
Lunch!

My schedule is such, that I work all day and have the evenings loaded up with activities. There's something almost every night- music lessons, Kung Fu, volunteer work... It goes on and on. So, making a nice dinner is really hard. I'm working on it.

So far this week, we had:

Monday - ordered pizza (boo...)

Tuesday - my guy made chili (thank the Lord)

Wednesday - guess what? Leftover chili.

Thursday - Somen noodles with veggies, chicken, and a ponzu sauce (of sorts).




















Here's Thursday's recipe- in one pot!


Somen Noodles with Carrots and Chicken in a Quick Ponzu Sauce

Take a large skillet and boil water, add somen noodles to the skillet and cook for 3 minutes (they cook really fast - you don't want to overcook these). I found Somen noodles at a big chain grocery store. They only had three ingredients: wheat flour, water, and salt. Drain the noodles and set aside (they'll stick together a bit, but don't worry about it.  As long as you didn't overcook them, they'll be fine.).

Heat 2Tbs of oil on the stove (I had olive, so that's what I used. Peanut would be good.) - add 2 cloves of garlic (minced) and cook until soft but not browned. Add veggies- we used 3 carrots, thinly sliced, and a red onion that I sliced into paper-thin rings. Add cubes of chicken. You could use breasts, but I bought thighs because they looked good at the store. I just trimmed off some of the extra fat so the dish didn't get too oily.

While the chicken is cooking, you can make the ponzu. Ponzu is a citrus-infused soy sauce and you can get fancy with it. Typically you are supposed to mix the ingredients and let them sit to develop flavor, but in a pinch this way gives you nice flavor and only takes a minute. Add 1Tbs of orange zest to a bowl, add the juice of an orange, and the juice of a small lemon (it's citrus season!), add about 1/3 of a cup of soy sauce (I used Tamari because it is 100% soy) and mix together. Easy-peasy. Not traditional, but it tastes good.

Add the ponzu sauce to the pan. Return the somen noodles to the pan, and add bean sprouts. Stir to break up the noodles and coat with sauce.

It's really, really fast to prepare and it tastes really good. Boy approved. They ate all of it, even the bean sprouts.