Thai green curry noodle bowl

Thai green curry noodle bowl: lots of sweet, tangy Thai food flavor in a lightened noodle bowl for a quick, healthy weeknight dinner.

Yo, peeps: I'm back.

Sorry for being relatively incommunicado over the busy holiday season. It was extra extra busy for The Ninj because ... brace yourselves ... we moved. Again. To yet another state.

(I know, right?)

After bidding farewell to Kentucky, we are now happily ensconced on Maryland's Eastern Shore. (Job 1: I'm personally judging the crab cakes and shrimp salad sandwiches at every local establishment I can find. I mean, how else will I be able to identify The Best?!)

If you've read any of my previous adventures-in-moving posts, you know there's a lot of stress involved. And living in a house that looks like it's built out of moving boxes. And trips to the dump-I-mean-recycling-center. And inability to locate food photography props.

Luckily for you, that box was recently unearthed, which allowed me to photograph and now share this amazing Thai green curry noodle bowl with you.

Trust me, you are going to want to make this for a weeknight dinner ASAP.

Healthy one pot Asian pasta

Get a complete, good-for-you dinner on the table in 10 minutes with this one pot Asian pasta. Weeknight dinnertime just got easier -- and healthier!

Have you tried my one pot tomato basil pasta? Somehow I bet you have, as it's the most popular recipe on this site. Seriously popular: 126,000-people's-eyeballs-looking-at-it popular. (Squeeeeeeee!)

That means I don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand that you love you some quick-and-easy weeknight meals. With pasta.

Well, guess what? ME, TOO!

Which is why I've come up with another one-pot pasta for you. As with the one pot tomato basil pasta, it's ridiculously easy and comes together in one pot in 10 minutes. Yes! Ten minutes to dinner, plus leftovers for lunch.

And this one pot Asian pasta is healthy, too, loaded with good-for-you veg like peppers, carrots, mushrooms and bok choy. Plus, the pasta is whole wheat (feel free to opt for a gluten-free pasta if that's your jam). With or without chicken, it's a healthy, complete dinner that I know your entire family will love.

And it's ready in 10 freakin' minutes, people!!

No lie. If you haven't yet tried one of these one-pot wonder pastas, you're going to go cray cray over this. You simply throw all the ingredients into one large pot, bring it to a boil, stir like a maniac and then -- WHAM! -- dinner is complete.

What could be easier?

Spicy Korean beef bowl

Topped with tangy kimchi, this super fast spicy Korean beef bowl with quinoa and bok choy is a healthy, gluten-free riff on bibimbap. 

I've said it before but it bears repeating: The Ninj and this blog are all about healthy, easy recipes that anyone can make -- especially for weeknight dinners, when we all feel we don't have enough time to cook a healthy meal.

This spicy Korean beef bowl, a gluten-free riff on bibimbap, is my new favorite example of just such a recipe.

For those that aren't familiar with it, bibimbap is a traditional Korean rice bowl topped with sauteed vegetables, a spicy sauce, some meat and a fried egg, all of which is tossed together just before eating.

In February, I was in New York City for a meeting. (Oh my, doesn't that sound glamorous? Trust me,  my life is not glamorous, unless you call working at home in yoga pants glamorous. Besides, I was only in New York for about 24 hours and spent most of it either at the airport or in a meeting room.) While there, we ate at a restaurant called Barn Joo, a self-proclaimed "Korean-inspired gastropub" (whatever the heck that means) with a farm-to-table focus. I really enjoyed Barn Joo's bibimbap because it was served in a hot stone bowl, which made the rice slightly crispy and chewy.

That chewiness made me think of quinoa, which I've been enjoying over the past few years as an alternative to rice in many recipes, not only because of its higher percentages of protein and fiber but also because it's gluten-free, which is an important recipe consideration for many of my readers. (As a pasta addict, I get plenty of gluten every week, so eating a little less of it by choosing quinoa is probably a good thing!)

Crunchy bok choy salad

Crunchy bok choy salad, with a clever ramen noodle topping and a sweet-and-spicy peanut dressing: an easy, healthy weeknight meal.

This is one of those recipes that I've been making for years -- one of my go-to, healthy and easy weeknight meals that I really should have shared with you long ago.

Maybe it's fate. Maybe the universe wanted me to be ready to photograph it really, really well so that you'll be convinced to try it and spread the good news of the bok choy salad. And its three secret weapons.

Secret Weapon #1: Ramen noodles.

Yes, ramen freaking noodles. Yes, the kind that you buy in the little cellophane packages for 22 cents or some ridiculous pittance like that. But just the noodles, mind you, not the nasty little packet of "flavor."

And you don't even need to cook the noodles. Just put the package on a hard surface, smash it all up with your fist, then open the bag and throw out the flavor package.

Voila: Instant crunchy salad topper.

(I know, right?)

But wait: There's more.

CSA Share Ninja Rescue: bok choy and rutabagas

My indoor seedlings, as it's still a bit too chilly to plant the garden here in Vermont

Welcome back! It's the first week of the 2012 edition of the CSA Share Ninja Rescue, in which you, the readers, tell me, The Ninj, what veggies in your CSA share are giving you consternation and I give you some recipe ideas.

If you need help with a veggie, leave a comment below or send me an email before this coming Friday. Recipes suggestions are posted on Mondays.

This week, readers have requested help with rutabagas (reader from the South) and bok choy (not sure where she's from but I'll go with it). I'm just jealous that you're even getting fresh veg, as we are still having occasional frost here in Vermont.