Man oh man….what an amazing Labor Day weekend! Kieran’s family lives in Rhode Island, so we flew out to spend time with them. A lot of people I know hate going to the airport…not me…I love it! It’s the anticipation of going somewhere to have an adventure and besides the vacation itself; it’s my favorite part of the trip!
His parents welcomed us to Rhode Island with a slew of amazing activities! They booked a whale watching boat ride in Cape Cod, and a tour around Boston. I haven’t been to either place so I was high on excitement! My cheeks burned due to smiling so much! Plus…I was on the east coast which meant one thing……fresh seafood……omg the seafood….I’m still dreaming about our meal at Legal Seafood on Sunday night! As I food blogger I should have taken a picture….hindsight…sigh. I DID however snap a pic of the oysters I ate the last day of our trip!
Anyway, our first trip was whale watching. I’ve never been to Cape Cod and I certainly haven’t been whale watching. It was a double whammy of happy fun times! Cape Cod is beautiful. I think I used the words “cute”, “amazing”, and “adorable” about 15,000 times. I was like a little kid who kept squealing in the back seat whenever they see something cool out the car window.
“OMG!!!! LOOK AT THAT ADORABLE HOUSE!!!”
“AHHHHHHHH, LOOOOOOK, A CUTE CAROUSEL IN THE PARK!!!”
“HEHEHEHEHE, THE MAIN STREET OF THIS TOWN IS PRECIOUS!”
My excitement was infectious because every time I shouted out with glee, everyone in the car would laugh!
The whale watching excursion was amazing…..absolutely amazing. The weather was picture perfect and the boat’s galley had a bar (yeah baby)!!! We actually saw 6 whales during our trip! None of them did a full breach, but we got to see lots of fins. All around it was an amazing day. 😀
If you are in Cape Cod, near Barnstable, check out the Whale Watching tour! The boat is comfortable, the staff is friendly, and the view is spectacular. It’s a family-fun day of excitement!
The next day, we drove around Boston, taking in all the sites. We viewed the financial district, Paul Revere’s grave, the USS Constitution (aka Old Iron Sides), Bunker Hill, MIT, Harvard, and much much more!
After a DELECTABLE dinner of seafood at Legal Seafood Restaurant, we grabbed some pumpkin beers in one of Boston’s oldest bars, The Warren Tavern. I can’t even tell you how cool it feels to have a beer at the place George Washington and Paul Revere use to haunt……well….maybe they STILL haunt the tavern…(insert scary ghost sounds)….that would be kinda cool. Talk about raising your spirits!
I always look forward to our trips to the East Coast and I look forward to when we go again!
So, after a weekend full of rich foods, I wanted to ensure our eating was back on track. So I decided to put together a Lo-Mein “salad”! I call it Lo-Mein “Salad” since I have an entire head of romaine lettuce thrown in there! We basically went vegetable-less all last weekend, so I made sure this dinner was packed with healthy vegetable deliciousness!!!
In the food photographs it looks like I used a ton of pasta, but I didn’t. I used maybe 1/4 of the fettuccine in the box (approx 2 cups cooked). So even though we had some carbs, this dish didn’t taste heavy.
Both Kieran and I enjoyed this dish tremendously and I can’t wait to eat it again! My inspiration came from Rachel Ray (her No Pain Lo-Mein recipe…link below). She skips the chicken and uses mushrooms. I bet mushrooms would be phenomenal in this!
Vegan and Vegetarians can simply omit the chicken! I bet cooking up tofu would be wonderful
- 1-2 chicken breasts
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh ginger, divided and minced
- 1 organic red pepper, chopped
- 1 cup carrots, cut into match sticks
- 1 cup bean sprouts
- 1½ cups snow peas (frozen is OK)
- ½ cup green onion, (white parts only) chopped (save green parts for garnish)
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 cups cooked fettuccine noodles (approx ¼ of the box of pasta)
- 4 cups Romaine lettuce
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- Sesame oil for drizzling
- Almond slices for garnish
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Boil a pot of water and cook the fettuccine noodles. It's best to drain the pasta 2 minutes before they are done. Rinse the noodles in cold water and set aside until needed.
- While the pasta is cooking, place the chicken in a large plastic baggie. Add the 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, the rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, and 1 tablespoon of fresh ginger. Close/seal the plastic baggie and mix the ingredients around to ensure the chicken is evenly coated. Marinate the chicken in the refrigerator for approx 30 minutes.
- Heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Discard the marinade and cook the chicken until fully cooked or reaches an internal temperature of 165. Set chicken aside on a plate and do NOT wipe out the skillet.
- Add more vegetable oil to the skillet if need be. Now add all the vegetables (snow peas, red pepper, white parts of the green onion, carrots, and bean sprouts). Saute the vegetables until they soften (approx 5 minutes). When the vegetables are almost done, make a well in the center of the skillet, and add the remaining ginger and garlic. Cook the ginger/garlic in the center of the skillet for 30 seconds, then stir them into the vegetables.
- Once the veggies are softened, add the romaine lettuce. Toss everything around in the skillet until the lettuce has wilted.
- Now add the cooked fettuccine noodles and toss everything around in the skillet so it's well mixed.
- Cut the chicken into bite sized and add them into the skillet too.
- Pour in the remaining ¼ cup of soy sauce and stir so everything is well coated.
- Taste for salt at this point. If you think the dish needs more salt, you can either add more soy sauce or your favorite finishing salt.
- Drizzle a little sesame oil over the dish and toss.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve up tasty lo-mein salad on a plate and garnish with green onion and almond slivers!
To help save time while cooking, I marinated the chicken while I cut up and prepped the other ingredients.
Sesame Oil can overpower a dish REALLY quickly. When adding it at the end of the cooking process, be sure to add a little at a time, then taste the dish. You can always add more, but you can't take the flavor out if you add too much!
Recipe adapted from Rachel Ray
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