Spicy Thai Peanut Salad with Chicken

I love this salad.

That's an understatement. I gobble this salad up. I can't believe I haven't shared this recipe yet, because I've been making it for a couple of years. I make it every couple of months or so, because I start to think about it and crave it. It's a combination of the pasta and the spicy, creamy dressing that's the draw for me.

As I mentioned, I've been making this for years. The first time I made it was so long ago that I don't even remember when it was. All I remember is that I made it for the first time in my apartment in Beaverton, OR. I believe the hubby and I (pre-marriage) had been living together for about a year. Maybe a little longer. Side note- I'm going to add that the hubby and I moved in together after dating for all of 2 months. Yeah, we were those crazy kids. My point is, even though we'd been living together for awhile, we still didn't know each other that well. It's taken 8 years for us to know each other like we do, you can imagine at Year 1 there was still a lot to learn. So, I make my salad for dinner and I'm all excited to share it with my (at the time) live-in boyfriend. He comes home, presumably from a long day, and was incensed by green onion, raw carrot, and a cold pasta salad with peanut butter dressing. I was horrified. How was I to know I'd combined all the things he hates most in one salad? LOL. I laugh now, because it's a pretty funny memory. Needless to say, he calmed down, tried some salad, realized it was pretty good, and fell in love. The rest is history.

This is a great salad to keep in the fridge for quick meals. The recipe makes a lot, which means I have lunches made for the week. It keeps well, so you really can eat on it for a week. Unless you have a big family, which in that case you better increase the recipe :)

It's Monday! Did everyone have a great weekend? We sure did! It was beautiful and sunny, and I soaked up every second of it. The hubby borrowed a tractor from a friend, and tilled up our entire backyard. I'm still not sure how I feel about this, because the backyard is mud again. We're heading into 2 days of rain, so we probably won't be laying grass seed till after this system passes. Stupid mud.

Oh, we did have some excitement around here yesterday. Our neighbor about a half mile to a mile down the road set his whole hillside on fire. Yep, the hillside. We knew something was up when smoke started to envelop the yard and the fire department went screaming by. I'm left shaking my head, as we've been on a Red Flag warning for days. A Red Flag warning not to burn between the hours of 6 am and 6 pm. Honestly, if people aren't going to follow simple rules, I believe they should be required to either make a donation to the fire department or pay the fireman to come out and deal with their ignorance. I'm very irritated with this incident, if you couldn't tell.

Hey, I had to close all my windows because of the smoke! That's a lot of fresh air I missed out on. It'd be enough to make you cranky too. Ok, I kid, I kid :)

Have a great day folks!

Ingredients (serves 6):

10 ounces spaghetti, cooked to package directions (you could sub any long noodle, such as soba or rice)

1 lb cooked chicken, shredded (I used leftover rotisserie chicken)

1 cup carrot, shredded

1/2 cup green onion, sliced

1/2 cup peanuts, roughly chopped

1/3 cup low-sodium chicken broth

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

2 tbsp honey

1 tbsp ground ginger

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 garlic clove, minced

1 heaping tsp crushed red pepper

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine cooked pasta with chicken, carrot, onion, and peanuts.

2. In a small bowl, combine chicken broth through crush red pepper. Whisk to combine.

3. Drizzle dressing over salad. Toss to combine. Serve at room temp, or cold from the fridge. 

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light.

Linked to: Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday