Thai on a Truck

I love this little vacation I'm on. I've been staying with Kayla since Sunday night. We had our fun mini day trip to LA yesterday and have been going to the gym and making dinner for ourselves in the evening. It feels just like it used to when we lived together. She had to work this morning so I've been hanging around town today. One item on my to do list was to go to the CHP office in Goleta to get information about the hit and run for my insurance company. Some idiot hit me on the freeway Sunday afternoon and tried to flee the scene. I followed him and got his license plate number so they were able to track him down. There were only minor scratches on my car. The best part of this whole thing was that the cop informed me of an independent witness who made a call to 911 and also followed the guy for a few blocks. It makes me happy to know that there are such nice and caring people out there in this world. 

Since I was driving to Goleta, I checked on twitter to see what food trucks would be in the area. Thai on a Truck was super close to where I needed to go. I recently discovered them from following other food trucks on twitter. After my stop at the CHP office I made my way over to what is now my new favorite food truck. This place has such good energy. It's a husband and wife team who run this truck. The wife, who is so incredibly sweet, manages the ordering and the husband cooks up delicious Thai food. As I was snapping pictures of the truck, a man waiting for his order asked me if I was taking photos. He ended up being the father of the chef. I had a nice conversation with him while I waited for my food. He even let me take a photo of his Pad Thai. I need to order this on my next visit.

I ordered the green papaya salad and chicken stir fry with basil. I also got a Thai iced tea. Drinking a Thai iced tea or iced coffee should be mandatory when eating Thai food. 

Green papaya salad

This was so spicy but oh so good.

Chicken stir fry with basil... So yummy!

I drove up to the Mesa and had myself a little picnic overlooking the ocean. Today turned out to be such a lovely day.  I enjoy my days off so much but also love going back to work which is what I get to do tomorrow morning. 

No Peanut Pad Thai

For anyone who has peanut allergies and loves Pad Thai this recipe is for you. Even though it doesn't contain all the authentic Pad Thai ingredients, the sauce reminds me so much of it. Every time I make this, which is frequently, I always change it up a bit. I'll use different veggies depending on what I find at the farmers market. I'll make vegetarian versions and some non-vegetarian. Sometimes I'll even omit the rice noodles and use spinach or kale instead. For today's batch I started out by cooking my brown rice pad thai noodles according to the box directions. In a separate pan I sautéed a clove of garlic, (minced) and 1/4 of a yellow onion, (chopped). I threw in some sliced zucchini and broccoli and cooked them until tender. I love my food spicy so I added red chili flakes. I also added some leftover cooked chicken. Now it's time for the sauce. I'm not the type to use exact measurements so my advice would be to play around with the next three ingredients to get the consistency you like. For the sauce you will need creamy almond butter, a little water, and gochujang sauce. I use the Annie Chun's brand. It's a Korean sweet and spicy sauce that you can use on pretty much anything. It's delicious. I put a few squirts of the gochujang sauce in the pan followed by a spoonful of almond butter. I'll add a few splashes of water to get a creamy consistency. I let that cook for a few minutes and then add my brown rice noodles. Mix everything together and topped with sesame seeds.