I'm sure I eat junk food way more than I should, especially if we're including things like Chinese food. 🙂 I've never made Pad Thai at home. I'll have to give it a try.
Now this just sounds amazing, as I've never tried to make my own pad Thai.
My mom made something she called Mexican Fried Rice and I used her recipe the other day (we grew up in Maine also) to see if it was as good as I remembered. It was very bland and in no way resembled any kind of fried rice I would eat today. It was basically rice, canned tomatoes and kidney beans with a little salt (no pepper)! My, how tastes have changed!
Now, I honestly don't remember the last time I had what could be considered "junk food". Probably during a road trip somewhere, we stopped at a MacDonalds or one of those fast food joints on the way. I still never order the burger, though, but might have some of their fries which I love! One of my weaknesses, actually, very hard to say no.
I'd say that junk food is a once-per-year event for me. Phil sometimes might have a burger when he needs to eat lunch on campus, but it's not very common. He often prefers a cappuccino with a brownie. I think that's not really junk food, it is from a bakery that does a great job. So there!
Pad thai is one of my all-time favorites and I've been thinking about trying a homemade version myself. Thanks for the recipe! Also, I consider "chinese" one of the healthier take-out fast-food options. You've got veggies in here and nothing fried!
I need to step away from purchasing this and make it at home. One of my favorite dishes! I'll be trying your recipe. Thanks, Maureen!
mmmm I love Pad Thai – it's one of my favorite take-out foods. I can't wait to try this, Maureen!
Thanks Maureen…that's tonights dinner idea taken care of!
Your homemade version is most appealing. After my husband's heart attack, we made a serious commitment to reducing salt in our diet. As a result, we don't eat out very much – and when we do, the next morning I wake up with a puffy face.
We don't have takeaway very often either Maureen – but we are lucky to have a very good Fish and Chip shop that also does great burgers, with heaps of gorgeous salad and that's usually my choice when we do.
Looks absolutely delicious, I really like chicken pad Thai!!! We have a great place locally to get authentic chicken pad Thai !!
Of course we eat junk food! Who doesn't? But these days not very much of the packaged supermarket stuff — we just bake what we want. Better flavor and much healthier. But we don't make our own potato chips, so do buy those (and they're pretty junky) — but not that often. I'd consider fish and chips a good step above those sorts of things. Not the best way to serve fish (all the added fat) but far better than a lot of alternatives. Anyway, I love pad Thai. Never make my own, though — I need to. Nice dish — thanks.
My twins (a son and a daugther) love chinese !
Usually is my brother who by and bring to them!
They love pizza hutt or Dominos pizza you know!
I love this Chicken Pad thai look delicious!
It always sounds a little heart-breaking…. but junk food still enters our mouth time-to-time… Specially, when one person at home is crazy for junk food… you have two choices, either, cook at home and also do lot of convincing… or shut up and go eat junk 🙂 I love to make everything at home, this Chicken Pad Thai is making me hungry!! Good share, Maureen!
"½ tablespoon sauce & 2 more tablespoons for sauce" – what sauce Maureen? Or am I being stupid?
Yup I'm stupid, I see from the instructions that it is sou sauce.
I agree 100%, homemade is always better than takeout. Your pad thai looks so good Maureen! Nothing like the soggy, greasy stuff you'd find in a fast food place.
Also I'm glad you're being firm about the fish & chips, it doesn't matter how healthy the fish is, deep-fried anything after a heart attack is no good! How is John doing? I hope his recovery is going smoothly.
You are right and he's trying.
I make no apologies for eating "junk food." I hate that term. Food is food. Just eat a variety of it.
We do eat a lot of Asian style foods in my house, and my bestest friend is Vietnamese, so eat her incredible food a bit too, but Asian food wasn't something we ate until my late teens. Unheard of when I was a kid. Spag bowl was about as close as we got. LOL!
It happens to me all the time..misplacing ingredients right when I need them. Sometimes they are where they are meant to be and i am looking elsewhere..you know what I mean? Pad Thai is my favorite thing to eat out…tried making it at home long ago but it didn't turn out as good as the takeaway or restaurant. Your version sounds amazing, can't wait to try!
Being over the age of 50 we tend to shy away from fast food. We've really been trying hard to eat well, using mostly fresh ingredients, less meat and dairy. I adore pizza so if I'm going to splurge, I want bread, sauce and cheese. We adore a local Turkish restaurant and the Mediterranean style of cooking really appeals to us. You won't catch us eating at a Mc-somthing or other similar restaurants. While traveling we try to eat at a Subway or somewhere a little healthier. My husband shares that same love of fish and chips, but he doesn't need it either. Whatever we eat, we try to "save room for dessert" from time to time – sorry for the shameless plug! This chicken pad thai looks great and sounds like something I could really enjoy. Have a great week!
Even when my kids were in their early teens and begged to go to McDonald's, I held firm. I said we could eat at any place that used cloth napkins. 🙂 That meant no fast food.
I adore Pad Thai and make it fairly often. There are so many versions so it is fun to compare. I wish we had a good Chinese take away near us, but we don't! Sounds like John is doing good and that IS good!
Love, love a good phad thai!
We love a good pad Thai and your recipe reads so deliciously. Won't don't eat much fast food, JT will buy it from time to time but I'd really rather not eat. Particularly since your recipe only takes 30 minutes. So easy and so tasty.
I love Pad Thai – one of my absolute favorites and definitely doesn't count as junk food. But like Nagi I am not sure I have ever made it myself. I love potato scallops – Mum used to give us some ridiculous small amount of money like 20c that I used to spend on buying three potato scallop at the local takeaway. Heaven!
I like the name Belly Good. 🙂 Pad Thai is definitely one of my favourite Thai dishes, and this looks and sounds like a very delicious recipe. Nomm and thanks.
Great name for a Chinese takeaway! We don't do junk food – fish & chips doesn't count does it? Last time I had a Maccas was 1996!! Pad thai is a great standby isn't it – the spicier the better.
We rarely buy "junk food" simply as there are no decent providers close by. Pizza shops load them up with everything, crap cheese and ham and when you ask for vegetarian with almost no cheese they just baulk. I must admit I'm a sucker for a Maccas egg and bacon muffin but when I go there and ask for no bag, no straw and no packaging it just too hard for them and then I get stroppy. These days junk food for us is home made pho or a curry. A bag of potato chips does go down well after a big day out in the garden though. I'm led to believe battered fish with batter removed is better than grilled fish from the F&C shop.
on the bbq? You genius!
This is our go to quick I need dinner recipe. Always have frozen uncooked prawns in the freezer, oodles in the cupboard. The rest just gets thrown together. An amazing healthy, tasty dish whether cooked at home or from the take away.
I most often reach for fast food when I'm sad. J and I just had pad thai for supper last night! Chicken sounds like a great idea!
This looks so good, I've been craving pad Thai for weeks so this is a sign, now I'll have to go make it, right now !
I never eat junk food, Maureen:-) O, you just saw through this lie, didn't ya. Great post as usual, friend. It is okay to take a break once in a while. Your pad Thai recipe looks great!
oh wow! I love your chicken! Looks delicious!
so many things are better at home than at a restaurant and pad thai is one of them especially if it looks like yours. It looks amazing and so flavorful.
Chicken pad thai is one of my favorite noodle dish. Actually it's difficult to get a decent one here in Beijing. Can you believe it? Even China is way closer to Thailand than the US… Anyhow, last time I order this dish in a not-so-cheap restaurant, they used ketchup for the sauce. Yikes! Thanks for reminding me how easy it is to cook this one at home. Can't wait to try this out!
We all eat junk food from time to time … I'm trying to limit that but with kids… going crazy over colored stuff and preservatives , it is sometimes hard to control them :)… How is your hubby now? I hope he is doing better ..and PLEASE PLEASE be super firm with him when it comes to deep frying food. For some reason I did not like fish sauce with chicken it gave it a bad fishy smell that did not go along with chicken taste, how do you overcome this feeling? May be it was the recipe I used back then, I should try yours.
i am all for home made food though sometimes we do eat out but thats coz at times I want a break from the kitchen.
Have never made pad thai and now that I have your recipe,i intend to make it this Sunday.
I'm hoping on a plane and coming to your house to eat. Catching up with your website this morning is making me very hungry! Chicken Pad Thai is my all time favorite Thai dish!
At home we don't eat Junk food or maybe sometimes but we are not a fan !!
Pad Thai is one of my favorite noodle dishes… this looks great!!
I love pad thai. I have a question. Did you boil the noodles beforehand to cook them them so it would be just a quick stir fry after with the rest of the ingredients?
Oooh, this is one of my favorites, too! There's a great Thai restaurant in my town, and I've become addicted. But I'm always scared to make it at home…I had this idea that the sauce must have a million ingredients in it and I'd never get it right. Happy to be proven wrong! Thanks for sharing this.