Really is there anything on this earth better than a pasta dinner that takes 25 minutes, is relatively healthy and is made with peanut butter? No. The answer is a hard no. I say ‘relatively healthy’, not because it’s a pasta dish, but because it’s one of those foods that you literally won’t be able to stop eating. Honestly, I don’t even know why I’m sharing it because I’m just leading you all off a cliff into a deep, dark carb coma. But, I digress – that’s your warning.

Since we’re on the subject of carb comas, I want to update you guys on something I’ve been working on. In the last 6 months, I’ve started incorporating a lot more starchy carbs, or what I call “bonus carbs”, on days that I work out especially on big load days like leg day, and I’ve noticed a huge difference in my ability to build muscle and in my overall physique*. Like, I have BOOTY now. And it is NICE. I try to still make these carbs high in fiber, but I don’t worry about it too much because I’m still getting my fiber from fruits and veggies. Like I said, these are just “bonus carbs”. My recovery and energy levels on these days have improved drastically. On my off days or even on my cardio days (keep in mind, my cardio game is weak), I’m eliminating really starchy cards like bread, pasta and rice and sticking to fruits and veggies only for my fiber source. So, I’m still 100% following PHFF, I’m just tweaking my fiber sources depending on the day. I’m putting something cool together for you guys to show you exactly what I’m doing to gain muscle and stay super lean, and I think I’m going to make it free. Because booty gainz should be free!!

Back to the recipe – I try not to use any weird or uncommon ingredients in my recipes, but I think powdered peanut butter (like PB2) is fairly mainstream now and honestly I much prefer to use it over regular peanut butter when I’m cooking. Peanut butter gets all weird and stringy when cooked and you need a lot of it to really flavor a dish. Plus, you can add a shit ton of peanut flavor without turning this into a 1000 calorie dish (not exactly what we’re trying to do over here). Because like I said, you WILL overeat this dish. DON’T FIGHT IT.

Feel free to spice this up with more garlic chili paste. I’m a pussy, and so are the heat levels in my recipes.

I like this with a big side of steamed broccoli (at least 2 cups) with a little Kerrygold butter, salt and sesame seeds. However, you could also add the broccoli right to the dish and just add in more sauce. I always make a big batch of this sauce because it’s great drizzled on or dipped in just about everything – potstickers or wontons (I buy Bibogo brand from Costco), steamed green beans, chicken, pork tenderloin, steamed fish, my body, salad, spring rolls.

Here’s the breakdown:

Protein – chicken

Healthy Fat – sesame oil and powdered peanut butter

Fiber – broccoli

Bonus carbs – rice noodles

Didn’t hit the weights today? Then you probably don’t need a ton of carbs. You can easily replace the pasta with a 1 lb bag of broccoli. Add extra sauce and some crushed peanuts to up the fat a little to make up for the lost pasta.

Peanut Chicken Noodle Bowls

Author: Megan Hansen, RD, LD

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 4

Peanut butter and pasta. You’re welcome.

Ingredients

Chicken Noodle Bowl

• 1 lb chicken breast

• 3 T tamari (or low sodium soy sauce)

• 8 oz rice noodles

• 2 T sesame oil

• ¼ c powdered peanut butter

• 3 T rice wine vinegar

• 1 T garlic chili paste (Sambal)

• 1 t honey

• ½ tsp garlic powder

• ¼ c chopped cilantroMarinade

• 3 T tamari (or low sodium soy sauce)

• 3 T rice wine vinegar

• 1 T sesame oil

• 1 T garlic chili paste (Sambal)

• 1 T honey

• 1 t garlic powder

Instructions

1. Combine marinade ingredients and mix well. Pierce chicken breasts a few times, and marinate for at least 10 minutes, up to 2 hours.

2. Preheat oven to 450F.

3. Start boiling a pot of salty water, and cook rice noodles until they’re done. Drain.

4. Bake chicken for 12-15 minutes, or until cooked through. If your chicken breasts aren’t even, they won’t cook even, so make sure to pound them out before cooking them for even cooking.

5. While everything is cooking, whisk together 1 T sesame oil, ¼ c water, powdered peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, chili paste, honey and garlic.

6. Shred the chicken, add it to the noodles and gradually add the sauce, tossing to coat as you go. You may not end up using all the sauce – just depends on your taste buds. Top with cilantro.

Serving size: 1/4 recipe

Fat: 12

Carbohydrates: 40

Fiber: 1

Protein: 32

Notes

Swap with 2 lbs of broccoli if you want to eliminate the starchy carbs. This is what I do on rest days.

For sure add a big side of veggies with this – I recommend about 3 cups of steamed broccoli.

Feel free to use regular or whole grain fettuccine noodles instead of rice noodles. Whole grain noodles will add lots of extra fiber!

Peanut allergy? Just use 1/4 c of tahini instead.

*I recently saw Yung Joc at a club and he told me he liked my physique, so from now on I’ll only be referring to my body as my physique. FYI.