a peek inside the fishbowl

Before I get to the nitty gritty I want to first shout something from the bloggy rooftops:

MY KIDS ATE THIS.

I was so happy I almost fell under the table.

First, look at all the colourful veggies I used:

For our family this kind of meal works better than a stir-fry since my kids prefer their veggies in raw format. And these are raw!

I think if you’re looking for a gateway dish to Vietnamese-style cuisine this might be a good one for you.

Here’s the recipe … although a did a few things differently you may want to consider too:

• I only had 1 tablespoon of fish sauce left in the bottle (this is something that is commonly available at large grocery chains) and subbed low-sodium soy sauce for the rest. This worked out fine. Warning: fish sauce smells a bit funky, but tastes good when you’re eating it. Trust me on this.
• I used a regular English cucumber
• I didn’t have sugar snap peas so I used raw red pepper instead.
• I cooked up some raw shrimp instead of using pre-peeled/pre-cooked because they’re usually cheaper. (To cook them quickly, just poach for a few minutes in boiling water and run under cold water.)
• I used one teaspoon of the chili sauce, but you can omit this if you want.
• I only sprinkled a couple teaspoons of the dressing onto the girl’s plates. I didn’t want to overwhelm.

This was the finished product. I served it with fresh pineapple and a few rice crackers:

Isn’t it pretty and fresh?

I’m so happy I found a keeper. Man. It was about time.

For my next dish, I’ll be sneaking in some veggies the girls don’t normally eat. (Shhhh!)