Whilst the rest of the country outside Auckland are finding a bit of newfound freedom unfortunately we are still in lockdown mode.
And for the Van de Elzen family, that involves cooking at home each night, trying to keep things including our food as interesting as possible.
I’ve noticed that the subject of Food waste has been in the headlines a couple of times this week. Feeling this is largely due to the fact that we have been forced to shop each week at the supermarket to provide breakfast, lunch and dinner to our family. But we also have to cook it!
I have always been a huge advocate for teaching our kids the basic principles of cooking, as I believe it’s one of the biggest lessons we can give our kids. It is the one to cook from scratch.
This lesson must also include the understanding of food wastage as we simply can’t afford to throw away food.
Food wastage can come in many different forms.
Buying too much food, then allowing it to die in the back of the fridge or pantry
Simply not knowing what to do with left-overs
Poor food storage and rotation
Lack of a food plan
Basic lacking of recipe or ingredient understanding (becoming more and more common as we rely on meal delivery kits or takeaways
So this week we have a tasty little recipe using leftover chicken meat, but can easily be replaced with any or meat or even just load it up with more vegetables.
Left Over Pad Thai
Left-over chicken, shredded
Sauce
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar
- 2 Tbsp Sweet chilli sauce
- 2 tbsp Soya sauce
- 1 tbsp peanut butter
- Chilli powder or Sriracha
- 1 egg
- 1 onion, finely sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 tbsp cooking oil
- 300g Flat noodles, soaked for 30 minutes
- 1 cup bean sprouts
- 1 Spring onion, diced
- 1/4 cup roasted peanuts
1 lime, optional
Firstly make up the sauce by heating in a small pot the brown sugar, sweet chilli, soya and peanut butter. Add in the chilli if you want it a bit hotter! Cook slightly until the brown sugar is dissolved.
Heat a large pan or wok, over medium heat. Add in the cooking oil followed by the egg, using a fork scramble and move to the side.
Add the onions and garlic to the pan and saute until tender.
Add the rice noodles with a couple of Tbsp of the water and mix until well combined.
Stir in the cooked chicken, sauce, egg, spring onion and finally the beansprouts.
Serve on a plate with some sprinkled peanuts, extra spring onions and a slice of lime
Enjoy