Pad Thai Recipe Review

This week we tried Family Fun Magazine's Pad Thai. It was one of those night where I was not in the mood to cook. At all. Yet, I really didn't want to spend money or time going out, or to waste groceries; so, I sucked it up and cooked. Yes, there was whining involved. I'm a work in progress.

I've never made Pad Thai before and I confess it was one of those recipes that I was excited about when I bookmarked it, but then the enthusiasm wore off the closer I got to making it. The kitchen was feeling cramped and in fact when I drained the noodles I ended up accidentally sending 1/3 of them down the drain. I took the bean sprouts out of the fridge, sprouts that were dated sell by Jan. 20th (I made this the 18th), by the way, and they were a oozy, rotten, gross mess. You're welcome. Not sure what happened there, if you have any tips on handling bean sprouts for me I'm all ears. Anyway, I was definitely not feeling the mojo is what I'm sayin'. I believe it's the first time I've ever put a meal on the table and before anyone even has a chance to take a bite announced, "you don't have to eat this, but I want everyone to try it". To say I did not have confidence is an understatement.

Well...it was pretty good. I'm not claiming it was authentic Pad Thai, but it was quick, easy, and very well received. I will definitely be making it again. I had doubled the amount of chicken in it and next time I will double that to a full pound. Jacob would also like me to double the egg--he loves the scrambled egg in fried rice and this. The kids loved the chicken and could not get enough. Julianna also liked the "spaghetti". Jacob thought the whole thing was good, Mark and Rebekah gave it their seal of approval as well. There was more sauce than I would have expected, but that's probably due to so many noodles literally going down the drain. It didn't have the heat you would expect from Pad Thai, but since I was serving it to my whole family that was a plus. A bottle of Sirachi on the table solves that problem. If you're a Pad Thai fan, or if you're just looking for something slightly exotic and different to introduce your family to, I encourage you to give it a try. (That's Family Fun's image, by the way, mine was not that pretty.)