Rainbow Veggie Noodles.

Wednesday NOODLES in for the win 🙂

For real though, I can’t think of a better food to get us through the mid-week hump. Noodles are always the way to go. Typically my noodles are of the cheesy kind, but

As you know, I am craving all things colorful and fresh. I’m not shy about being completely over the white snow, but since it’s not going away anytime soon (at least not for me) that means I’ll just have to bring the colors to my food!

OK ok, and I kind of love Thai food. And Thai food just happens to be rather colorful, so I lucked out with this one!

I need to make it known that there are REAL noodles in this Pad Thai. I know it looks like it’s all veggie noodles, but that’s only because my red beet noodles turned my Pad Thai noodles a pretty and vibrant shade of pink. Natural food coloring at it best, huh?

Honestly, though these noodles make me soo happy.

They are everything an easy weeknight meal needs to be. And these days I am all about EASY. I can’t lie, juggling everything lately has been a real struggle, and I know you guys get that, so Easy is the name of the game these day. But umm, please don’t look at the ingredient list for these noodles and run away. Most of the ingredients are just different veggies, and everything is very quick and simple to prepare.

Promise. 🙂

Ok so here’s the deal. This bowl has all the flavors of traditional Pad Thai, but it’s made way healthier, more colorful and easier!! I used a spiralizer to make beet and sweet potato noodles, which is super fun and so pretty. If you don’t have a spiralizer, no big deal, just cut the sweet potatoes and beets into tiny matchsticks or half rounds. If you’re not a fan of beets, you can replace them with extra sliced bell peppers.

The rest is simple, just add in a ton of veggies – you can mix them up, swap in your favorites, or just use whatever you have on hand. Next add in the Pad Thai noodles, spinach or watercress, fresh basil and peanuts and then top with the most KILLER sauce. These noodles are all about the sauce.

The sauce is a mix of sesame oil, ginger, soy sauce, fish sauce, a little lime, a little spice and cilantro. If you’ve never tried using fish sauce, now is the time. It’s one of my favorite ingredients. I use it on all my Thai dishes, but also in some unexpected places too. Beware though, it stinks… like don’t smell it, cause that might make you not want to use it… and trust me, you want to use it! That said, fish sauce is obviously not vegan, so if you are a vegan reader, you can omit the sauce from the recipe and just use a little more soy sauce.

Also important about these noodles… the peanuts! Peanuts in Thai dishes are my favorite. I love their saltiness, crunch and flavor. Perfect final touch.

I did not add any main source of protein to these noodles, since I originally set out to make a simple Thai salad. But somehow that Thai salad turned into Pad Thai. If you’d like to pump up the protein factor in this meal, I personally would add peanut grilled shrimp. My second choice would be a peanut grilled chicken. Just something simple. Maybe with lots of basil and a little cilantro. 🙂 I love my fresh basil and cilantro.

And that’s that!! See, simple, quick and easy.

SIDE NOTE: I have to say a big thanks to everyone who mentioned in their comments that I might have dry sockets last week. I went to the dentist on Monday and it turns out I suffered through five days of serious dry socket pain. UGH. By the time I saw the dentist she said I had gotten through the worst of it and that things are now healing like they should. She did give me some medication to help clean the area and relieve some of the pain, so thankfully I am finally getting back to my normal energetic self. THANK GOD! Low energy + pain = no fun.

Rainbow Veggie Pad Thai Noodles… All the color you need! 🙂