Rice noodles in Ukraine?! WHAT?!

On Monday, I found out that I wouldn't be working until next week.  This should have been awesome, but because I've had an entire month of waiting for work to start, I was a little bit frustrated, so I spent most of Monday looking at recipes and pictures of food online.  This put me in an even worse mood, because I still had an entire pot minus one bowl of vegetable bean soup left to eat.

Fast forward to Tuesday morning.  I found out that Alia, my site mate, is also out of work for the next few days and is willing to cook with me.  So, it's off to the bazaar for vegetables.  My tomato lady and the woman in the stall next to her see me coming and say, 'Oh! Here comes the little хозяйка (housewife)!'  I was then greeted with smiles and offers of fresh apples and tomatoes.

Upon arriving home with my bag filled with eggplant, zucchini, onions, garlic, and carrots, I began to can the remainder of the vegetable bean soup so that I can have it in the winter.

I ended up with seven of these jars.  Fantastic.

I tagged along with Alia to her English Club in the afternoon, so I decided that all of my vegetables needed to be chopped before we came home to cook.  I got those lil' guys sliced up nice and thin.

Back from English Club.  Time to start cooking!  Here's what we used:

1 medium eggplant (thinly sliced)

2 red onions (thinly sliced)

1/2 large zucchini (thinly sliced)

2 large carrots (thinly sliced)

1 whole chicken breast (cut into strips)

2 cloves garlic

150 grams rice noodles

soy sauce

teriyaki sauce (WHAT?! Yeah, Alia found it in Ukraine)

1)  Sautee your vegetables.  Zucchini and carrots should be cooked until just a little tender, then eggplant and onion and garlic should be added.  Also, add half of a small packet of teriyaki sauce (probably the equivalent of 1/4 cup).

Yeah! Colors!

Owning two frying pans makes me feel like a baller.

2)  While the vegetables are cooking, start cooking the chicken strips with a little bit of oil and soy sauce in your second frying pan.  What?  You only have one frying pan?  Then start cooking the chicken strips in some sort of cooking pan that is shallow.  Only cook the chicken about halfway.  You want it to still have a bit of pink on it.

Yeah.  Like that.

3)  Now you're ready to add noodles.  Wait, what?  You mean I haven't talked about the noodles yet?  Oh, okay.  Before you add the noodles and while the chicken is beginning to cook, boil some water and put the noodles in a bowl that is separate from the water.  When the water boils, remove from the heat and pour over the noodles until they are just covered.  Leave noodles in the water until they are a bit flexible, like al dente rice noodles.  You don't want to fully cook them because they will get mushy when fried with the chicken.

Awesome.  Also, everyone should have a purple strainer.

4)  Dump those noodles into your cooking pan/frying pan with the chicken.  Dump in the rest of your teriyaki sauce and a little more soy sauce.  Stir around until the chicken is fully cooked and the noodles are coated in delicious and are slightly crispy.  Your vegetables should be tender and flavorful now, too.  SERVE IT UP!  Chicken and noodles on the bottom.  Vegetables on the top.  Done.

Hooray for slightly healthy meals cooked with friends!

Recipe by chocolatelionpirate and Alia.