Noodles With Lime-Peanut Goodness and More

I had a really good day at work today--a little stressful, but ultimately very rewarding. However, the real star of the day was dinner: this is one of the most amazing meals ever! And vegan, of all things! It was rich and filling and delicious, though anybody who says it makes 6 or 8 servings is a liar...we could barely stretch it to four (dinner tonight plus our lunches tomorrow), even chased with a cookie or two. But it was just that good. Here's how we made it:

Noodles With Lime-Peanut Sauce (adapted from The Food Network)

1 box whole-wheat linguine
1 cup broccoli florets
1 cup frozen peas
2 cups (about 6 ounces) sugar snap peas, trimmed
1/2 cup natural creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 scallion, cut into pieces
3/4 inch fresh ginger, finely grated
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup shelled unsalted peanuts

Cook the pasta. Drain and keep warm.

While cooking the pasta, toast the peanuts in a dry pan over a medium heat until they become fragrant, about 3 minutes. Set them aside to cool. Make the sauce by pureeing the peanut butter, soy sauce, water, vinegar, lime juice, scallion, ginger, sugar and red pepper flakes in a food processor or blender until smooth.

Right before serving, steam broccoli and peas and toss with the pasta and sauce. Chop the peanuts, sprinkle them on top and serve.

We also had a successful impromptu trip to CVS tonight--I realized I had some Extra Bucks ($14) expiring today and so we dragged our butts out in the cold (I realize this generates little sympathy among many of you!) so we didn't lose out on them. We ended up getting a bottle of Sambucol, a black elderberry extract which is $12.99 and generates $10 in ECB this month (PLUS there's a mail-in rebate so it's free plus $10! ...not to mention the fact that it is a hippie naturopathic immune booster and we're excited to try it) and then a stick of deodorant we needed anyway. We used our $14 ECB, paid $1.98 out of pocket, and got $10 back plus a bunch of coupons. Send in that mail-in rebate and we'll be rollin'! Best of all, my receipt didn't say "limit reached," so I'm going to go in and do the same thing again later this week.