peanut noodles with chicken

i haven't been much of a cook this summer. some burgers here or there, but its mostly been about quick, easy and light meals that i can throw together in a few minutes and get back to my to-do list. lots of turkey sandwiches, salads and chicken on the grill. not that i'm complaining. it made my grocery list quite simple.

but today's chill in the air gave me the itch to whip up something a little more hearty. i've been eating a lot of peanut butter lately so it wasn't shocking that the first thing that came to mind was trying my hands at a peanut noodle sauce on ummmm something. chicken? pasta? how about both?

being that i never attempted anything like this before i hopped around online (remembering rebecca's post and always looking to cooking light) and realized that i was missing several of the standard ingredients people seemed to use in this recipe. sesame oil, rice vinegar, ginger, hot sauce etc, etc. so i surveyed what i did have and decided to give it a whirl.

for the sauce i combined:
1/2 cup reduced fat peanut butter (jif, always jif)
3 tbsp of low sodium soy sauce
a few shakes of red pepper flakes
2 tbsp of sugar (i'm sure brown would have been better but i didn't have it)
2 cloves minced garlic

in a pot i boiled a whole package of wheat linguine. a few minutes before it was finished i added a cup of shoestring carrots and half of a diced onion - then drained the noodles when they were el dente. i put the noodle mixture in a larger pan and added the peanut sauce with about a 1/2 cup of vegetable stock. threw in some grilled chicken (2 breasts), cucumber sticks (1/2 a cuc pealed) and mixed till it had an even consistency.

it was hearty, filling and surprisingly tasty! success.
(good thing - i hate to let down guests - also, i promise it tastes better than it looks in that photo.)

i can't wait for leftovers. i have a feeling its going to be even better cold.
nom nom nom. happy noodle-eating.