The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of working nonstop and attempting to lose the freshman 15, while also having full access to my mother’s kitchen. Sound familiar?
Picture this – you’ve just finished a brutal workout and you’re hungry af. It’s hot outside, you’re downtown, and a year of residence food has got you either a) eager to make your own damn food, or b) reminiscing over some glorious, greasy Chinese takeout that you had at midnight on repeat with friends during finals.
I was fairly certain pad Thai was a very good option at this point in time.
Luckily, my fave coffeehouse downtown back home (that’s Kelowna, B.C.) is Bean Scene, and they also happen to have unreal (and healthy, thank god) lunches along with their to-die-for coffee and pastries.
After realizing my go-to was out, I looked around for an alternative. “Raw Pad Thai”, a little recycled to-go bowl read. That. I was going to eat that. After practically inhaling it (don’t worry -I still savored the first few bites), I wrote down all the vegetables that I noticed were in it, then set about making my own peanut sauce recipe.
While attempting to re-create this pad Thai, I wasn’t able to find edamame beans at the grocery store. If you can find them, they add a super awesome complexity to this dish, so by all means toss ’em in. I also only had black sesame seeds at home (not really sure why, tbh), but normal ones will work just fine.
This is my answer to trying to reverse bad habits formed by a year of stress and fatigue, and it doesn’t involve sitting alone in a room crying while nibbling on a head of lettuce.