The day's deliciousness...

I've been ultra productive today and would like to keep on a roll...but first I want to share the food I made today because it was freaky fantastic.

I've been watching a PBS show I recently found on Netflix called "The Mind of a Chef".  I felt compelled to make something I had never made before and something that I have been craving for quite some time.  I've wanted Pad Thai for a long time but I rarely keep all the necessary ingredients on hand.  So today I looked at a few different recipes for inspiration to create the flavors I was looking for with ingredients that I have.

I used this recipe, Slow Cooker Thai Chicken Legs, as the basic structure of my dish.  I used my favorite recipe resource yummly.com to search Pad Thai recipes for supplemental ingredients since I didn't have all that was needed for the slow cooker recipe.  I rarely measure things when I'm cooking (not baking) so this is a rather loose recipe of my fantastico delicious dinner:

6 skinless chicken legs
1 can of diced tomatoes with onion and garlic
about 1/3 cup of creamy peanut butter
4 cloves of garlic
about 2 T soy sauce (more to taste)
about 2 Tlime juice
ketchup (just a squeeze)
brown sugar (to taste)
seasonings all to taste:
crushed red pepper
salt and pepper
garlic powder
onion powder
ground ginger
cilantro

Mix everything and pour over chicken in slow cooker.  Cook on low for 5-7 hours

My little legs just getting started on their journey to tastiness!

I served it with a really simple fried rice recipe I made in my rice cooker.  I just cooked some white rice (with salt and olive oil) as usual but with some mixed frozen vegetables and a little vinegar.  Once fully cooked, I added an egg, some garlic and onion powders, ground ginger and pepper.  Lastly I added some soy sauce.  It made a super yummy side to sop up some of that delicious sauce.

My plated finale:

I also made some banana bread using a recipe I've done before but this being my second time making it was far more successful, not just in look but also taste.  The recipe (which I follow to the letter except I use a bread pan and bake it for longer) is available here: Banana muffins with streusel topping.  And once baked (in an 8"x8" pan), looks like this:

Now I'm gonna go make my leftover chicken, sauce and rice into a soup so as to prolong the delicious!