Fork and Beans

Making food fun for the family

Asian Peanut Dressing

by

My beautiful friend Abby passed along a challenge to me to continue on a Blogger’s Relay about Hope. The point is to write about this little enigmatic word and pass it along.  Now, I don’t typically do posts like this because well, I just don’t. But since this issue has been on my heart anyway, I thought why not let go…

Sometimes the synchronicities that present themselves in life are just so blatant that it’s impossible to ignore them. Have you ever had a reoccurring theme happen in your life that you cannot help but listen? For the past 2 weeks, everywhere I am going, I am finding that traffic has been following me. And I mean everywhere…in the most ridiculous way. It really started to bother me especially when I found myself continuously stuck on the road at times that I should have breezed right through.  It hit me yesterday however, as I was sitting in my usual unexpected and horrendous traffic-ladden trip up to LA that maybe, just maybe, the Universe was trying to tell me something.

So I sat up and started to listen.

Letting go is the key theme of my life as of late. This is one of the hardest lessons for someone who likes to be in control at all times; someone who likes to know ahead of time in order to prepare. But I cannot escape this lesson–it’s in everything I am experiencing and it’s everywhere I go. Even on the freeway in a heaping pile of traffic.

The thing about traffic is that there is nothing you can do about it. No, scratch that. There are 2 choices you have in traffic: 1). You can get super angry about the situation and white knuckle it while secretly (or not so secretly) curse at everyone around you, all the while you are stressed, angry, upset and pissed; or 2). You can accept the situation and choose to relax and enjoy your trip–listen to music, sit in silence, make a phone call, whatever it is that will enable you to let go. This is a great parallel to life though, isn’t it? We always have the choice to find happiness, find hope, find the good if we so choose. It’s just up to us to make the conscious choice in doing so. It’s easy to let the things that bother us overshadow what is really going on in any given situation: an opportunity to make a different choice.

Hope is figuring this out. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you get good feelings from within, nor does hope mean that your problems will dissipate immediately following or perhaps ever. Hope is acknowledging that you have the power to choose to see things/people/situations/your past/life differently.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and musings on this topic.

Passing the relay onto these bloggers:

Shira at In Pursuit of More

Kristy at Keepin’ It Kind

Bill at Topicless Bar

Richa at Vegan Richa

Gabby at The Veggie Nook

Meg at Walking the Labyrinth

Asian Peanut Dressing Recipe

Raw Vegan

INGREDIENTS

  • 1/4 c. olive oil
  • 3-4 Tb chunky peanut butter
  • 3 Tb soy sauce
  • 2 Tb rice vinegar
  • 2 Tb maple syrup or agave
  • 3 scallions, thinly sliced (white parts only)
  • 1″ cube of fresh ginger, thinly grated
  • 1/2 tsp dry mustard

DIRECTIONS

  1. Whisk all ingredients together.
  2. Serve over pre-packaged broccoli slaw. Top with crushed peanuts, scallions and lime wedges.

About Cara

Based in Chicago with her husband and son, Cara is the creator behind the site Fork and Beans: A place where kids can have fun with their food.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. TAMMy

    I have made this several times and it is a big hit! I use 2 packages of sweetener instead of the maple syrup. Delis! Thank you so much for this great recipe!

  2. Tracie

    Hope moment. …

    Relanted to the lovely posts above..

    I was recently sitting in my care for the umteenth time waiting for one of my children after a sports practice. I was feeling impatient. Then for some reason it just hit me that this is my baby. He may be 15 but these are my last few years of sitting in my car waiting for one of my children. I now appreciate those precious moments waiting for my baby to come out! I pray, read, listen to music, make a list, call a friend or just sit back and think of the many sly questions I can be ready to ask to get that quiet boy of mine talking. Having a grown daughter who now lives on the opposite coast from me I can tell you, enjoy those moments in waiting in the car for your babies!

  3. Cadry's Kitchen

    That is some tasty looking slaw! I love peanut sauces!

    Oftentimes when I found myself in LA traffic, I went with a third option, and that was trying to figure out an alternate route to get around the massive back-up. Sometimes it completely worked, and I’d sail on side roads, thinking I was the most clever person ever. Other times I’d find myself stuck on side roads, knowing the trip home was going to take EVEN LONGER since I’d gone out of my way to sit in traffic somewhere off the beaten path. I can so clearly see myself on Sepulveda at a dead stop, while the traffic that had seemed so terrible on the 405 now whizzes past me. So much for HOPE of an alternate route! 🙂

    Now that I live in a small town, I never get any traffic at all, and you know what? I kind of miss it. A month or two ago, a car had broken down on a main street here, and I was in traffic for 15 minutes (my longest hold up ever here). I kind of relished it. I sat waiting with tunes playing, and it felt a little like home.

  4. Anonymous Burn

    “The artist is grounded in freedom. He is not afraid of it… He has a core of self-confidence, of hope for the future.” We are artists not because we create art but because we choose to live life on purpose because of that hope. I’ll let you know when I’m finished with my post. Love you.

  8. Richa

    you hear that.. thats me yelling and cussing at the traffic:) and then i just get panicky. its just not worth it:) hubbs tells me jokes to keep me distracted so i dont go into extreme moods.
    we r thinking of finding a new place and that thought is also freaking me out.. i will miss my small home, and the community garden right across the street.
    that slaw looks fabulous! hope you are doing good. xoxo

  10. Kristy

    Yes!!! This post put the biggest smile on my face. 🙂

    You do have a choice. I choose to be happy. I choose to let go. The outcome will be just as it should be- totally perfect.

    Big hugs. I hope you have a great weekend, Cara!

    P.S. Awesome peanut sauce!

    • Shira

      I’m with Kristy – wishing you a Fabulous weekend as well Cara! This is a great post and your writing is wonderful. I’ll be traveling for the next day or so, who knows what might inspire me – I’ll see what I can do to keep the relay going! You said it so well, I am going to check out the posts before you as I imagine there are some goodies out there, just like this one! 🙂 And yes, I’m hungry and that salad looks awesome!

  11. Tasty Yummies

    Great post Cara and definitely a thought that can be carried through on all aspects of our life. Letting go. I too loathe traffic, but I like you, have started to realize that letting things like that (among many other things) bother me is useless and a total waste of energy. (Plus I am gonna have to get used to it with us moving out there).
    I myself am not a patient person and I really hate when things are out of my control. Lately I am dealing with that very thought process while we are trying to sell our house. Everything is so out of my control and I have done everything I can to make the process go smoothly. Now we have to wait. And wait. And wait some more. I cannot make the perfect person find this house and want to buy it, I can only wait for them to find us. It is frustrating and it is very challenging to not let it bother me with every week that passes. To not get impatient. But I am just doing it. It feels better to let go and let life happen instead of freaking over the littlest things that you have no control over. That just makes every day feel totally yucky! Anyway, sorry for the rant 🙂 Thanks for the great post, so nice to know I am not alone!

  12. Brooke (Crackers on the Couch)

    It’s funny what a transcendent experience traffic can be? I decided long ago that God was teaching me patience (which I had been praying for). Nothing teaches patience like a 50 mile stretch of no passing zone stuck behind an old guy going 20. Traffic around here is worse than LA in my opinion, mostly because I avoided going there at all costs when we lived in OC. There is no avoiding it here and there seems to be no remedy for it, either. Except transcendency. And possibly a fresh coating of peanut sauce.

  13. Laurel

    I’ll see your Hope and raise you Love; it is after all what makes the world go ’round. Here’s my ante, 10,000 kisses.

  14. Abby

    I have to admit that I usually loathe these things and ignore them, but this one posed an interesting challenge. So instead of rolling my eyes, I rolled up my sleeves and forced myself to kick my own butt–not just in the post, but in my situation. I also hate passing these things along, but I immediately thought of you. Every post, every day, you inspire hope in me with your spirit and your outlook. I figured it was worth passing along the baton in hope you would share that again 😉

    Thank you for being you!

    • Cara

      I don’t like doing this stuff either 🙂 haha. But I think that positive attitude of yours snuck its way into my computer so when I saw the baton handed over, I actually decided to be okay with it. Thank you for thinking of me…seriously. What you said just blew me away and I am so appreciative of those words! It was funny because I started to put your name back up there on people I was passing it along to. Hmmmm, must mean you inspire hope in me as well 😉 (without a doubt!)

  15. Gabby @ the veggie nook

    I admit I struggle with this topic as well- in traffic I am often one of those people who chooses to rage and be frustrated. And in a funny way I am perfectly content to stew in my frustration and I don’t want to do a thing about it. But really, where does that get me? In the end it just leaves me in a sour mood, potentially colouring the rest of my day. Your definitely right that we have complete control over how we see the world. I would be much better off if I chose to look at things in a more positive light.

    Great post Cara!

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