Bored of plain old chicken breasts for dinner? Do what we did and turn it into a spicy asian-inspired pasta dish! We’re eating pasta tossed with a home made spicy cashew sauce filled with sauteed carrots, red bell peppers, crispy green beans, cilantro, jalapenos, and yes…slices of seared chicken breast meat. The dish was savory and spicy with just a hint of sweet.

A: this was seriously easy to make! the sauce requires zero cooking… just a bit o’ whisking. i love these types of meals!
T: I know, I was amazed at how quickly you made the sauce. You walked into the kitchen, I was zoned out at the computer, and like 5 seconds later you were done! That’s quick.
A: hehe yeah that part was particularly quick. although i sat on the floor meditating in front of the cabinets before launching into sauce making action. forming the game plan was totally key.
T: Now I’ve never seen you sitting on the kitchen floor meditating in front of the open cabinet doors before… was this a new approach to cooking creativity?
A: yup, i’ve never done it before. the cabinets are a mystical wonderland full of forgotten goodies. some times it’s good to get a refresh on what the hell’s in there! (and i “reorganized” while meditating)
T: I think it worked out well. This was different than anything I remember you making in the past, and it was quite tasty. It had a great spice level and a nice Thai-esque feel to it. It was a good thing to do with chicken breasts, too, because they can get kind of boring for me.
A: me. freaking. too. i get soooooo bored with chicken breasts. I mean, yeah yeah, they’re good and all, but they just don’t generally excite me or spark creativity… unless i stuff ‘em with goodies, but i’ve done that pretty recently.
T: yeah, stuffing em with goodies is a GREAT thing to do with chicken breasts. Damn dry flavorless pieces of crap. They should grow chickens that have duck breasts. That would be the shit.
A: okay crack head. so what’d ya rate this meal?
T: 4.4/5. It was quite tasty, and delightfully spicy. And I really get excited about fresh jalapeños It might be nice to try this with rice noodles instead of fettuccine (as you said while we were eating). What’s your rating?
A: i feel pretty similarly. i give this meal a 4.323/5. it was good, with the exception being the pasta. the pasta was just alright. in the recipe i don’t tell the user what type of pasta to use, but i suggest vermicelli. i think with the right pasta this would have gotten a much higher rating from me.
T: Yeah, from me too, I think. It might have also been interesting to have some of those super-hot peppers soaked in fish and soy sauce that they sometimes have at thai restaurants. But it was good as it was. So, you were saying that the sauce requires no cooking, and that rice noodles require no cooking… does this mean that this meal (aside from the chicken) could theoretically pass as a “raw food” meal if the veggies and stuff were left uncooked?
A: to tell you the truth, i don’t really know the “rules” of raw food “cooking”. i am apt to think that the process that the rice noodles had to go through to become rice noodles would exclude them from the whole raw food thing. you could always make veggie “pasta” with one of those little devices for making veggie pasta… can you tell i don’t know what they’re called?
T: One of those little devices… is that a brand name? I just thought of something… where do you draw the line of processing before something no longer counts as being raw? I’ve always thought it was the act of heating that made the difference, but would something marinated in lime juice be considered cooked? Can raw food people eat ceviche?
A: these are some good question that i just don’t know the answers too. if anyone who reads this knows anything about the whole raw food movement, let us know in the comments!

Recipes in this post:

• Spicy Cashew Pasta with Chicken

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