Picnic Food - PW's Beef Noodle Bowl

Have I mentioned soccer?  If I haven't, let me mention it again - soccer.  We have soccer practice on Mondays at 5:30 pm - yes, at dinner time, but with dads who work coaching I'm not complaining.  We have soccer games on Thursdays with anywhere from 5:30 pm to 7:10 pm game times.  Game nights are not as hard as practice nights as the games are done in 30 minutes.  But practice is 1 hr long and it's on the opposite side of town from where we live.  That means we finish at 6:30 pm, pack up our gear, hike to the van and then drive home, generally arriving at 7 pm.  In my opinion, that's too late for my kiddos (and me) to be eating dinner.  So every Monday night we have a picnic at the soccer field just before practice.  My husband works close to the soccer field so he meets us there as soon as he gets off work.

These weekly picnics are trying my creativity as I plan a picnic but not serve sandwiches every week.  This week, I made Pioneer Woman's Beef Noodle Bowl..  I love how Pioneer Woman tells it like it is and shares her life with us.  It always makes me miss living in the country - but not the working a farm part, and not the snakes and mice near (and we'll not talk about inside) my house parts.  And have I mentioned I'm not much of a sandwich fan?  You'll have to bear with me as I'll probably remind you every time I post a recipe from our picnics - last soccer practice is May 14th.

The cast of characters for this recipe (not pictured here, spaghetti and grilled steak):

Before I tried this recipe, I had never heard of Ponzu Sauce.  I still don't know what else to use it for.  But since this recipe is ALWAYS a winner for my family, Ponzu is a staple in my cabinet. 

Yes, I use a fork as a whisk - because I don't like my current whisk.  Someday I'll replace it.













Pour 3 Tablespoons of the marinade over your steak and put in the refrigerator.

Cook your spaghetti and then add it to the remaining marinade.  Put it in the refrigerator until you're ready to serve.  Just before serving, take out your steak and slice it against the grain.  Add it to your noodles and mix it up.  Serve.

And yes, this is a staged serving since my family ate it at the park and I don't normally take these bowls to the park.  Even though I did have to take ceramic bowls because I didn't have any plastic ones available tonight.

I am not adding the recipe here because I'm not sure what Pioneer Woman's policy is on sharing her recipe.  Go here for a printable version of her recipe.  Her pictures are a million times better than mine too, plus she adds green onions which I was out of today.

You may have noticed that there are no THRIVE products used in making this recipe.  Shelf Reliance does offer Spaghetti and Brown Sugar.  I just haven't purchased those items, yet.  I am also very excited to know that if I bought THRIVE FD Beef Dices and used dried garlic instead of "fresh", I could try making this as a shelf stable recipe!