Is everything better with Bacon?

I use to believe so! I love me some bacon! Until I saw this!


That my friends is a bacon FRUIT CUP! A WHAT! I don't know about this one! Who fruits their bacon? Do you?

See now if this were me, and if I could still eat this kind of food, my bacon cup would be filled with eggs and hashbrowns. Now doesn't that sound a tad bit more YUMMY?

So here are the ingredients for this bacon fruit cup, I'd be interested to see if anyone actually would try to make this.

Ingredients: 2 lbs Bacon (long skinny pieces are better than short fat pieces) Fresh basil leaves Homemade aioli (substitute: store-bought mayo + lemon juice) Fresh mango, cubed Large avocado, cubed 1/4-1/2 cup powdered sugar 1 teaspoon cocoa powder 1 large onion, sliced into thin rings 1 tablespoon brown sugar.

Tools & Materials: muffin tin baking tray large enough to catch all the greese.

Here's how to make the cute little cups, because I know you are just DYING to know. I was!!

Preheat oven to 500F. Turn your muffin tin upside-down, and place it on top of a baking dish to catch grease drips. If you don't have a large enough pan, get creative with aluminum foil - there's going to be LOTS of grease, and you don't want it smoking and burning on the bottom of the oven. A double sheet of foil with a folded-up lip will probably do the trick.

When the bacon cups are cool, carefully pry them off of the muffin tin. Lift from the bottom to avoid cracking the bacon, or otherwise damaging the shape.

Your fingers should do the job, but a silicone spatula can also be handy. I used a flexible silicone pan, so was able to fold the muffin cups inward away from the bacon for even easier removal.

Place the finished bacon cups on paper towels to finish draining and cooling.


OMG, it's like HEAVEN on a Paper TOWEL!!

Then all you do is fill your bacon cup up with whatever yummy goodness you wish. If you dare make the fruit cups, I totally want to hear about it!

Home Made Chinese Food!!

We all know how expensive going out to dinner can be, right? Well I decided to make my own Chinese food at home, using the Panda Express sauces I found at my local WINCO Food Mart. I was surprised at how easy this was to make. It was super cheap and tasted pretty darn good, if I don't mind tooting my own horn. You all know I don't mind doing that.

I decided to make Orange Chicken and Kung Pao chicken. YUM. The chicken was only $5 for over 2lbs of chicken. Steal. The Veggies were pretty cheap as well and the sauce I believe was only $3.99. The peanuts were the most expensive part of the meal, at $4.99.

Chop up all the veggies into similar sized chunks. I just eyeballed the amount and figured I'd chop up more if the chicken was too overwhelming. This was actually perfect. I used 1 half of each of the peppers, a few stalks of the green onion, 1 cucumber and a hand full of peanuts.

I made the orange chicken first because this is a super easy quick dish to make. I just took eggs and flour and breaded the chicken. Threw it in a hot pan with EVOO and cooked it. When it was just about cooked I added some green onions and the Panda Express Sauce. Super quick, Super easy, Super YUMM!

Next up was the Kung Pao Chicken. I placed the cut up veggies into a skillet (same one I used for the orange chicken, I washed it don't worry) until the veggies begin to get soft. Remove the veggies and cook up your cut up chicken pieces.

Once the chicken is cooked add the veggies back into the pan, add your Panda Express Kung Pao Sauce and the peanuts. Heat through!

There you have it! A yummy Chinese food dinner without the expense of a restaurant. I purchased frozen pot stickers and egg rolls from Raleys. Hey it's a work night and I'll take all the help I can get from the store. LOL I also made some plain white rice to go with the meal. I was too lazy to make fried rice.

What Chinese dishes do you like to make?

Thanksgiving, HERE I COME!

I've always wanted to cook a Turkey, only I've always been afraid it would turn out burnt on the outside and completely frozen on the inside. This year, I'm determined to try! Even if we end up eating Chinese Food on Thanksgiving, I'm going to do all I can to prepare for the big day.

I have 9 months to get it right. What a better way to learn how to cook a turkey, then to start with my very own whole chicken.

For $7.12 you can have your own whole chicken! This will feed about 4 people. Buy fresh, not frozen so you don't have to worry about thawing it out. It's your first time cooking a chicken, make it as easy as possible. Beware: The neck and liver and guts are still inside the chicken. Yeah, I'm not a fan of cleaning out the inside of the chicken, that's just wrong, however someone has to do it. Don't forget to rinse your bird out, just fill the cavity up with water a few times to get it nice and clean.

So you have your chicken, now grab all the ingredients you will need to make this delicious bird!

You will need a crock pot for my recipe. No ovens here.

Fresh Rosemary

Fresh Oregano

Butter (everything is better with butter)

Cajun seasoning - We are taking this chicken to the next level

Garlic

Salt and Pepper

Onions

White Wine

Chicken stock - Water, no water needed here!

Injector optional - It's like $2.99 at the grocery store

Using your hand, separate the skin from the meat near the opening of the chickens cavity. Be careful not to rip the skin. It maybe easier if you use a paring knife to help you out. Now don't go all healthy on me here by removing the skin. Leave it on, just don't eat it if you don't want to (your missing out on the Cajun spice if you don't.)

Rub the rosemary and oregano and garlic between the meat and the skin of the bird. Next cut up some slices of butted and stuff those in there as well.

Cut up your onion into large chunks and place it inside of the chicken's main cavity. You know, the place where you pulled out all the guts.

Salt and pepper the outside of the bird and sprinkle the Cajun seasoning all over. Don't be shy here, give that bird some flavor. I also sprinkled some more rosemary ontop of the chicken.

Place the chicken breast side up into the crock pot.

Pour some of the wine and chicken stock into your crock pot. Not to much, just enough to cover the lower part of your chicken. As the chicken cooks, it will generate it's own juices. You can then throughout the cooking process, use your injector to suck up those juices and inject them back into the chicken.

Cook on low for 6-8 hrs (8-10 if you open the lid to inject the juices.) The skin's going to be slimy after it's cooked, it's nasty to the touch, however, it's okay! The trick to this recipe is you end up with a great crispy
skin.

Here's how:

Once you've cooked the chicken remove it from the crock pot and place it on a baking sheet skin side up. My Chicken was so juicy and tender it fell apart as I tried to remove it from the crock pot. This is perfectly fine, because it doesn't matter how it looks, long as it tastes good! Cook at 450 for 10 to 15 minutes or however long it takes to turn a crispy golden brown. Do not over cook, you don't want it to dry out.

YUMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I served my chicken with garlic baked broccolini and potatoes.

Broccolini - Place spears on a cookie sheet. Drizzle EVOO all over the broccolini and mix it all up with some minced garlic. Place in the oven on 375 until it turns golden brown. This is so nutty and delicious. Thank You Rachel Ray.

Potatoes - Cut up red potatoes into to small squares. Cut up some onion similar in size to the potatoes. Place them both on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with EVOO, Montreal Steak Seasoning and minced garlic. Mix together and place in the oven at 375 until golden brown. These will take about 20 - 25 minutes to cook, so you'll put this in before the broccolini.

Dinner is served. Simple and delicious. Hoping the turkey is going to be just as easy.

One white girl and one Puerto Rican Mutt!

What happens when 1 White girl and and 1 Puerto Rican mutt get together in the kitchen?

They make Lumpia of course! Well I guess we used the wrong wrappers because they were more like egg rolls. So us White and Puerto Rican people like to call then Lumpia Rolls. No matter how they look, they still tasted yummy.









You can't make Lumpia rolls without of course having a margarita or two, maybe 3.

Soda Machines, Awards and MEME's. What does it all mean.

Over the weekend I was tagged and given another award. I'm the bomb and we all know it. I can't believe how lucky of a blogger woman I am. Thank You, Thank You. No pictures please, I haven't had my daily botox injections or my extensions put in.

Mimi over at Living in France presented me with this wonderful Award. Please check out her blog, she writes wonderful posts and is a dedicated commenter. She is hilarious, if you don't believe me check out her post "A Fart by any other name.....Is still Frikken embarrassing." If that post doesn't pull you in, I don't know what will. lol Thank you so much MIMI, for thinking of me. I must award this to four blogs, so here I go:

Emilisq
Mama Mel
Valerie
Yonca

I've been tagged by Twenty Something Mom. Check this out and everyone is invited to participate- MEME. Don't forget to check out her blog, you have to see her post A Poet who didn't know it. OMG what wonderful pictures and how cute is that poem?

Here are the rules of this
1. Collect the book that you have most handy.
2. Turn to page 161.
3. Find the 5th complete sentence.
4. Cite the sentence on your blog.

The Friars Club, Encyclopedia of Jokes - (Hey I'm at work and this was the closest book to me. I could have grabbed "Quickies" but I thought this to be more appropriate. What my company writes Jokes, Horoscopes etc for facebook, we have some crazy stuff happening here all the time.

Okay so this book, yeah racial jokes not very appropriate. Lets try again as I guess I was wrong.

The book Quickies, Fascinating Facts About the Facts of Life. Our celebrity content writer recently left the company and she placed this book, plus others on her desk. THIS IS NOT MY BOOK. I promise. She can attest for that.

"Although (their) actions are reprehensible, we agree that the voyeurism statute, as written, does not prohibit up-skirt photography in a public place."

Okay there you go. Sorry I'm not sure I like this MEME. Hmmm what do you think? I think I need someone to recommend a book to me. I haven't read anything since Sunday at Tiffany's.

SODA MACHINE, SODA MACHINE. I WANT A SODA MACHINE. The moment you've all been waiting for. So my sister purchased a Soda Machine. When she first told me I was like, "What, yeah that's really healthy." till I went on the company's website. This was nothing like I expected it to be. After reading all the information about the machine, I actually think this is pretty cool. Here is the website: http://www.sodastreamusa.com/

So here is what they say about nutrition:

Controlling Sugar, Carbs or Calories? Welcome to SodaStream
If you're looking for great tasting soda, but on a low sugar or no sugar diet plan, just cutting back on carbs or concerned about calories, SodaStream is for you. With a SodaStream home soda maker and over 25 delicious regular, diet and caffeine-free soda mix flavors to choose from, you'll enjoy freshly made, great tasting soda that fits your health and dietary needs.

Regular Soda mix flavors contain less sugar, calories, carbohydrates and sodium than national drink brands. Regular flavors are sweetened with a combination of sugar and Splenda® brand sweetener. Diet soda mix flavors contain no sugar, no aspartame and are sweetened with Splenda® brand sweetener.

SodaStream even has all-natural, unsweetened flavor essences for making refreshing, lightly flavored sparkling water. MyWater flavor essences are available in Orange and Lemon-Lime - just like squeezing a wedge of citrus into your seltzer.

So go ahead and close your eyes and take a sip. There's no mistaking the delicious taste of all your familiar favorites including Cola, Lemon-Lime, Root Beer and a whole variety of fruit flavors.

Here is what they say about Environment:
Americans drink more than 55 billion liters of soda and seltzer each year. That's almost 200 liters - about 600 cans - for every adult and child in the United States. And, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, that adds 10 1/2 cubic feet of packaging per American — over 3 billion cubic feet - in our landfills and recycling facilities every year. With a SodaStream home soda maker, you'll enjoy freshly made, great tasting seltzer and soda in just seconds ... and you'll be helping our environment by drastically reducing waste from store-bought cans and bottles. And with no batteries or electricity, you can use your soda maker in your kitchen, outdoors on your patio or deck, or on your boat or RV.Reusable Bottles Reduces Packaging:

No bottles or cans to recycle or throw away
Saves thousands of containers for a family of four in a year
Carbonating bottles last for three years

Highly concentrated soda mix minimizes packaging A family of four could slash their home soft-drink-related packaging usage by over 90%, simply by using a SodaStream soda maker. That's a whole lot of cans and bottles that won't end up polluting our environment. SodaStream's plastic carbonating bottles are reusable for up to three years, and Penguin glass carbonating carafes will last even longer than that with proper care. A typical American will toss away over 1500 aluminum cans (and/or hundreds of plastic 2-liter bottles) over three years — while a SodaStream owner will use just one or two reusable carbonating bottles or carafes that come with the home soda maker.

SodaStream's highly concentrated Soda mix syrups also dramatically reduce waste. A single bottle of Soda mix will make 12 liters of soda, the equivalent of 34 cans or six 2-liter bottles. Choose from over 25 regular, diet and caffeine-free flavors including Cola, Root Beer, Lemon-Lime and fruit combos like Cranberry-Raspberry, Apple-Peach and Pink Grapefruit. Take a sip, enjoy ... and feel good that you're helping the environment.

Saves Energy: No Electricity, No Batteries, No Transport Miles
No batteries or electricity
Reduces energy used to manufacture bottles and cans
Reduces gas and pollution from shipping packaged beverages
Eliminates pollution from batteries

Operating without batteries or electricity, SodaStream home soda makers are highly energy-efficient small appliances. Appliances that work without electricity improve the environment by cutting down on the emissions generated by electrical plants, giving us cleaner air and ground water.By operating completely on power supplied by the compressed air in the carbonator - an easily renewable fuel source - SodaStream does not contribute to environmental pollution made by batteries. Empty carbonators are returned to SodaStream to be cleaned, inspected and refilled with CO2 drawn naturally from the air. Carbonators are reusable as long as they remain in good condition.

Store bought soda and sparking water travels hundreds of miles from the bottling plant to the store shelf, usually in trucks that get fewer than 10 miles to the gallon. Instead, SodaStream uses the water that's already in your home, saving literally tons of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere.

Tell me would you buy one of these? What do you think about it? I'm considering it. I love the sparkling water idea. Hopefully my sister will comment on this explaining what is she loves and hates about the machine. I really thought this was going to be like the fountain machines you see in Fast Food restaurants. The downside I think is you can't make a cup of soda, you have to make a whole bottle. I think it would be more convenient to make it buy the cup and be able to choose your flavors. Like the Keurig Coffee maker. If you don't know what a Keurig Coffee maker is, OMG you're missing out. I LOVE MINE!! You have to google it!!

Garlic-Buttered Sliced Steak with Onions

Doesn't that just sound so yummy? I made this recipe last night, only as usual I made little tweeks here and there. I have followed this recipe to the "T" and OHHHH MAN is it good, but way to much food and all that butter is overwhelming, but that's what makes it ohh so good. I had to snap a pic of the onions in the pan, just because they looked wonderful. I served this up with some steamed asparagus and wild rice pilaf (purchased a box from Trader Joes). I also had french bread on the side, but I didn't have any so that's why it's not in the picture. I gotta watch the Girlish figure you know. LOL Okay anyway.

On the Lisa scale of easy to find the Ingredients - I give this a 10 I had everything in my house
Easy to Make - I give this a 12, hey it's my scale
Taste - I give this an 8, It was good, but i think my Mediterranean steak tastes better. lol

INGREDIENTS:

3 tablespoons extra-virgin Olive Oil, 3 turns of the pan
2 large yellow skinned onions, thinly sliced
2 roasted red peppers, drained well and thinly sliced
Salt and pepper
A generous handful flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
4 (1-inch) thick slices from a round loaf of good quality semolina bread, from the center of the loaf
4 tablespoons butter (I omitted this item , I just didn't wanted it more healthier)
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 (12 ounce) NY strip steaks


DIRECTIONS:

Preheat broiler. (I didn't toast my bread, lazy me, but come on it was 104 degrees at home last night)

Heat extra-virgin olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-low to medium heat, then add onions and roasted peppers, season with salt and pepper and cook gently until soft but not caramelized, 12 to 15 minutes. Stir in parsley.

Heat a large skillet or a cast iron griddle to high. (I heated up the BBQ, it's summer why not)

Toast the bread under broiler and reserve.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat, add garlic. Remove pan from the heat and set aside until the steaks are cooked. (okay instead of this, I just rubbed the garlic on the steak with some S&P, trying to keep it healthy people, no butter if not necessary)

Season 1 side of the steaks with salt and pepper and place seasoned side down in the hot skillet or griddle.. Cook 3 minutes until the meat can be moved easily. Season the reverse side of meat. Flip steaks, reduce heat to medium and cook 6 to 7 minutes for medium rare, 8 to 10 for just pink. Remove meat and let rest a few minutes. Slice steaks 1/4-inch thick against the grain. Top with Onions and Peppers, if you toasted your bread, place the sliced steak on top of the bread and top with onions and peppers and garlic butter if you made it.

Again cell phone pictures, I'm sorry, it's just so much more convenient. I added a pic of counter, just cause I think my little guys are super cute!

Enjoy!

The soggier the better

So this morning I was running late and stressed as always, but today especially because last night, being the Dodo brain that I am forgot to make the boys lunch, leaving me to scramble this morning at 5:30am to get it altogether quickly so we could hit the road. Let me first off say that I am not a morning person . In the chaos that it was, of peanut butter and honey sandwiches and gogurts (store these in the freezer for yummy frozen yogurt), I somehow managed to remember to pack my lunch. As simple as it sounds, it was perfect! So good I couldn't manage to stop feeding my face to take this picture, so you get to see the leftovers. Yes, taken by my camera phone again. Seriously, I know I seriously need to remember to grab my digital and keep it in my purse. We all know sometimes I'm just not the brightest crayon in the box or elephant in the pack. Anyway this Vanilla yogurt and captain crunch tasty treat was soooo good. The kicker, it sat together for hours before I ate it, so the captain crunch became soggy and the yogurt turned red and blue in parts, which made it that much better. Can you say yum!! Pat on my back for this one, or as D would say "YAY ME!" I'm stuffed and ready for a nap.

Crème brûlée can never be Jell-O. YOU could never be Jell-O.

“Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.”

Sometimes you just have to sit back and "smell the coffee!" Take it back to when life was simple, no fancy meals or cell phones, a world where you could just send your kids outside to play and not have to worry. The good ole' days as I like to call them. Hot summer days sipping on cold fresh lemon aide (made from real lemons and sugar) not pre-packaged. A world where as kids we played outside everyday instead of on the computer.

When I think of simple and easy, refreshing and wonderful. I think of JELLO. Strawberry and Orange layered Jello to be exact. Sugar-free or regular, this is a past-time treat. Low calories, super easy to make and costs maybe $.45 per box. It just doesn't get better then that. I don't even need to FooFoo it up with fancy whipped cream or fresh fruit. This is about simplicity. The simple pleasures of life.

Inspired by the boys, who both were craving Jello last week at different times to be exact. It just so happens that I have a ton of it in my pantry, so they were in luck. Just add boiling water and cold water and WHAMO, you have great tasting refreshing JELLO. It doesn't get better then that.

Lemon Chicken with Rosemary Rice and Steamed Organic Broccoli

So my son was craving Lemon Chicken, he recently had it while we dined out with our neighbors at one of our fav Japanese restaurants. Instead of paying $50 for all of us to eat out, I decided to Google, you got it!, a Rachel Ray recipe for Lemon Chicken.

So comments on the meal were:
"It's too lemony."
"It doesn't taste like lemon chicken, I don't like it." (after all of it was eaten except 2 pieces)

Me personally, I would make it again and thought it was good, especially for my first attempt. It was a tad on the sweet side, so I need to either use less lemon curd or figure something else out. Ahhh Lemon Curd, supposedly very hard to find in stores, I found it at Raley's right in the Jam and Jelly isle, so for me it was super easy to find. Well the boy found it first, so props to him.

So this is another bad picture, taken today, yes it’s my lunch. I have to stop using my phone's camera as you can tell it takes horrible pictures. But then again I didn't plan ahead, not thinking I'd be writing this blog, otherwise I would have taken it last night when it was all pretty on the plate with the broccoli. Yes, the broccoli is not here, it was so good there was none left over and I made a whole steamer pot full for 3 people.

So the Lisa scale:
Difficulty: I give it a 10, really simple to make.
Finding the ingredients: I give it a 10, I had everything in my house except the Lemon Curd.
Yumminess: I give it an 8, I’d make it again, just with some minor tweets.

For this recipe I made it just how the recipe states, only I didn't add any hot water. I thought the sauce already looked too thin, so I added more lemon curd to thicken it up and some flour. I ended up using 11oz of Lemon curd, which I think is why it ended up so sweet. I also left the chicken on the side, and didn't put it back in the sauce as the recipe calls for. I wanted to give everyone the option of how saucy they wanted their chicken to be. Plus if they didn't like the sauce at all they could omit it completely.

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 pounds chicken breast or chicken tenders, cut into chunks
1/4 cup all-purpose unbleached flour
Coarse salt
2 tablespoons wok or vegetable oil, 2 turns of the pan
1 tablespoon (a splash) white or rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup chicken broth or stock 8 ounces
(1 cup) prepared lemon curd
1/4 cup hot water (I omitted)
1 lemon, zested
2 scallions, thinly sliced or 20 blades fresh chives, finely chopped

DIRECTIONS:
Coat the chunked chicken lightly in flour, seasoned with a little salt. Heat a large skillet or a wok-shaped nonstick pan over high heat. Stir fry chicken until golden, 3 or 4 minutes (until it's cooked). Remove chicken from the pan and return pan to heat. Reduce heat to medium. Add a splash of vinegar to the pan and let it evaporate. Add stock or broth to the pan and scrape up any drippings with a whisk. Thin curd by stirring in a little hot water ( I didn't do this, it already looked really thin). Add curd to broth and whisk to combine. Add chicken back to the pan and simmer for 1 to 2 minutes to thicken sauce and finish cooking chicken pieces through ( I did not add the chicken back in, I added a little flour and more lemon curd to thicken it up). When I added the flour and more curd (don't recommend adding more curd) I then, add the scallions or chives and zest, and stirred well to combine zest and scallions or chives evenly throughout the sauce.

I served this with Organic steamed broccoli, nothing like fresh veggies steamed. I also had rosemary rice. Rosemary rice is super easy, just add a spring of rosemary to your rice cooker and remove it when it's done. It just gives the rice that little bit of flavor that makes you think "hmmmm, what is that?"

Spicy Shrimp with Bok Choy Noodle Bowl (aka PHO)

So you will find that most, well pretty much all of my recipes come from Rachel Ray. Her recipes are super easy, fun to make and actually taste, well really good. Most of the time, they become my own recipe, as I usually end up changing the recipe to fit my taste. With this recipe I used less red pepper flakes then originally called for (and I like spicy, but come on Rach. 2 tsp is ridiculous). Replaced the shitake mushrooms with white button mushrooms (just cause I had them in my fridge and didn't want to waste). I opted to omit the ginger completely (I'm not big on ginger) and the seafood stock (I couldn’t find it in the store, and didn't even think to look for clam juice). I had to add Serrano peppers and cilantro, seriously what is PHO without that?

I have to say with all the changes, this was off the hook!!!! BEST PHO EVER!!!

So the photo isn't the greatest but this recipe inspired me to start this blog after the fact. I only have a picture because I texted it to my neighbor who I thought had to try it and she loved it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

On the Lisa Scale for Difficulty to make, 10 being super easy and 1 being majorly hard to make.

I score this a TEN, it's a TEN!!

On being able to find the ingredients easily in my pantry or the store, 10 being super easy and 1 being majorly hard.

I score this a TEN, it's a TEN!!

Cook and prep time: Apx 45 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

3 tablespoons vegetable oil, 3 turns of the pan

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

4 cloves garlic, chopped (or two teaspoons of the crushed garlic in a jar)

2 bins of white button mushrooms whole, then slice them (or 1 case of the sliced button mushrooms) really any mushroom will work and just put in what you think looks good.

1 medium bok choy, trimmed and cut into 3-inch pieces, then cut sticks lengthwise (I just tore up 2 bok choy, didn't worry about trimming them or cutting them)
Salt and pepper (this is key to flavor)
2 quart chicken broth (original said for 1 quart, but I added 2 quarts and felt like I could have used 3)
1 1/2 pounds medium peeled and deveined shrimp
1/2 pound vermicelli (thin spaghetti) (I used capellini spaghetti, it's all I could find)
4 scallions, cut into 3 inch pieces, then shredded lengthwise into thin sticks (I just chopped them up)

1 Serrano pepper chopped, seeds and all go in the pot

1/2 bunch cilantro, just chop it up and put it in the soup

Toppings - Soy Sauce (I think this is a must), extra Serrano peppers and chinese hot sauce (any kind works)

DIRECTIONS:

Heat a medium soup pot over medium-high heat. Add vegetable oil, 3 turns of the pan, crushed red pepper flakes, garlic, mushrooms, and bok choy, then season with salt and pepper. Add chicken broth. Put a lid on the pot and bring soup to a boil. Add shrimp, Serrano pepper and noodles and cook 10 minutes. Add in scallions, and cilantro and cook 2 minutes, then turn off soup and let it sit 2 to 3 minutes more. Adjust salt and serve.