Calling all curry lovers!

Tired of the same old pasta all the time? It's time to spice up (literally!) your usual pasta dish. Skip the tomato sauce and meatballs this time and let your imagination run wild.

I give credit for this dish to Noodles and Company a great family owned and operated Chinese restaurant that I worked at through college. I learned so much from working in this place about thinking outside of the box and putting an Asian twist on things. They serve a delicious curried rice noodle, including shrimp, chicken and pork with thinly sliced onions, carrots and bean sprouts.

Now, when I was making my lunch this afternoon, I wanted some curry rice noodles. So I improvised a bit and made my own version, using whatever I could find in the fridge. I was missing the rice noodles, but I did have some angel hair pasta. The two noodles are similar as they are both very thin.

Noodles & Co. also puts some scrambled egg in the dish, so the first thing I did was scramble up a couple eggs, and then set them aside. Then I lightly sauteed the thinly sliced carrots, but not for too long because I still wanted them to have a slight crunch. Then I tossed a few pieces of shrimp into the pan. I've been keeping a bag of frozen, cooked shrimp in the freezer, so I thawed out a handful of pieces. I added back the scrambled eggs and then tossed in a handful of the angel hair pasta, that I already had boiled and set aside.

Now here comes the curry. I used a generous amount of curry powder, but you can add however much you like, depending on how spicy you may or may not want it to be. I added just a little bit of water to dissolve the powder into the noodles. I let it all stir-fry together, which didn't take very long at all. Once all the noodles were coated with a brilliant yellow color, I knew it was done.

Talk about fabulous. It was such a delightful meal. I added a few flakes of crushed red pepper, to substitute adding chili paste, which I used to PILE on everything at work. I would have totally loved onions and bean sprouts as well, but it still tasted great. Get creative with your curry noodles when you try it. Try throwing in some pea pods, or use fried Tofu instead of meat. Creativity is the secret to living off of Ramen Noodles. And don't forget to wash it down with a Thai beer! 不客气