Fresh Cooking=Happy People: We want Japanese if you please.

I love food. That much is clear. But what you may not know is I love pretty much all ethnic foods. OK. That was an overstatement probably. But I have a serious love affair with many many noodle dishes. One of my favorites is Japanese Pan Noodles. Oh my heavens I could eat these every day. Except then I wouldn't have anything interesting and new to cook for you, so that won't work will it.... I am drawn to rich warm comforting flavors like red curry, anything teriyaki and soy sauce based. If it has sweet pepper sauce you have me for life. That is too good for words. Sweet. Spicy. Yum.

I'll admit I head over to Noodles and Company pretty often to enjoy their version of Japanese Pan Noodles. They have it down pat. (I only wish they would serve it with a little more sauce.) I do NOT like dry noodles. Icky. So I usually ask for a little extra sauce, cause I'm annoying like that. :)

Anyhoo. I thought I would cook up some Japanese Pan Noodles at home with the yummy veggies from this weeks Winder Dairy Produce Box! (I have been having so much fun designing meals around the food that we are filling their boxes with!) I am a fan of Rainbow Chard. It has such a complex nutty fresh flavor and the colors!! Wow. Gorgeous. Between the carrots, rainbow chard and snow peas I would say we have the fixings for something special. Let's get this whipped up and eat!

Excuse me. I just drooled. Sorry.

Now focus. You can eat when you're done! Just a little secret... When cooking this meal I made way too much sauce at first. I halved it when I typed up the official recipe, so don't fret if your sauce looks like a smaller quantity then mine.... I told you I'm a sauce gal when it comes to noodles, so you can't blame me for over shooting by double can ya?

First we will bring our 8 cups water to a rolling boil in a large pot. Toss in the noodles. I like to add a little salt and vegetable oil, but you don't have to if you don't want. Boil the noodles for 7 minutes. Don't overcook them. Just cook to al dente. Slightly tender.

When your noodles are cooked to your liking, drain them and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process. Set them aside for later.

Now lets prep the veggies. We need to mince the garlic, peel and mince the ginger, peel and chop the carrots into large sticks and separate the stems of the rainbow chard, then chop.

Lucky for me I had my handy dandy lil sister over to help me with my cooking and prep work since my back is giving me grief this week. Isn't she cute!! Love this gal.

To remove the stems of the rainbow chard fold the leaves over and run a knife along the spine to separate the leaves. At this point I dried the leaves and wrapped them in a paper towel in a Ziploc bag to save for a later dish.

Look at that color!!! So pretty and vibrant. It tastes as good as it looks, which is a bonus. :)

Next up on the docket is the luscious sauce. Not remember I made WAY TOO MUCH so ignore how full that bowl is. He he.

Mix together the rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sweet pepper sauce, garlic and ginger. Set this lovely concoction aside to add to the stir fry.

Now that you are prepped and have all the veggies and noodles ready to rock and roll let's get the chicken cooked up. Heat the vegetable oil and sesame oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season chicken breasts with salt, pepper and crushed red pepper flakes. Brown chicken on both sides and cook with lid on. When chicken is done remove it from the skillet and let it rest for at least 5 minutes.

Wipe out your skillet a little and return it to the stove top on high heat. Pour in roasted sesame oil and add your cooked udon noodles. Let them brown stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and pour in the sauce. Ooooh. This is the good stuff right here. It smells so good. Toss it well to coat all the noodles and perform a taste test to make sure you like where you're sauce is at. Maybe it needs more pepper? It should be pretty salty from the soy sauce so you should be good there.

Now add your carrots and rainbow chard. Mix it together. Cook for an additional 5 minutes to caramelize the sauce with the noodles a little. Mmm. Now remove the skillet from heat and add the snow peas. We only want them to be slightly cooked and that will happen in the next two minutes while you are preparing to plate your meal.