Honey...I'm Gonna Be Late (Recipe: Lemon Grass-Shrimp Soup)

I just made this tonight because Jon was going to be a bit late coming home from work.  Our kitchen has been rearranged (I.e. moved all coffee items to a shelf outside of our small kitchen - we love our coffees and cappucicnos, so it cleared a lot of space) and cleaned.  Every time this happens, I become really motivated to find a "different" recipe - or come up with something on my own - and lay all of my ingredients out on my neat counter top.  Seeing as I had more time to play/work with tonight, I thought I'd dig into another type of soup I've been dreaming about....

Tonight's menu:  Lemon Grass - Shrimp Soup with a side of Red Curry Tuna and Crackers.  I found this recipe online, but did more of my own changes and additions than anything.

Noodle Soup
1.  Heat 2 cups of water and 1 cup of broth in a soup pot on the stove.
2.  Prepare other ingredients:
- Smash 1 stick of lemon grass and cut into 1 inch pieces
- Cut a 1 inch piece of ginger into pieces, big enough to take out of soup later
- Prepare 1 tbsp of fish sauce, 1 tsp of maple sugar, and 2 tsp of red chili paste
- Cut 4 large button mushrooms
- Prepare 3 tbsp of lime juice
- Have about 20 small shrimp ready to go (I had cooked shrimp)
- Rice noodles - enough for 2

3.  Add lemon grass and ginger to pot.  Boil for 5 minutes.
4.  Add fish sauce, sugar, and chili paste.  Boil for another few minutes.
5.  Add mushrooms and lime juice.
6.  Add shrimp.  If cooked, turn soup down and let it simmer.
7.  Four minutes prior to eating, add noodles in.
8.  Serve with fresh cilantro on top!

**This recipe was altered from another one I saw which means it can be altered just as easy again from this.  It turned out to be in between a good Vietnamese Pho and a Thai Hot and Sour soup.  Yum Yum!

Tuna and Crackers
Assuming Jon would be coming home extremely hungry, I thought we needed a bit of "crunch" to go along with the soup:

 1 can of tuna
1/2 tsp of red curry paste
1/4 cup of mayo

Mix together and add cilantro.  Serve on crackers. :)