shrimp

Baked Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta

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This is a meal I made fairly frequently when Ben and I first got married.  I rediscovered it in an old pile of recipes I’d torn out of magazines (that need some serious organizing) and I’m glad I did.  It’s easy, quick and delicious; all things I appreciated back then when I was teaching full time, and all things I look for in recipes now that I work at home full time.  The ingredient list is short, there is very little prep, and you can have this on the table in about 45 minutes.  Serve with rice, this orzo from Martha or with some good crusty bread to soak up the sauce.  The tomatoes get nice and soft, becoming just delicious squished on a piece of bread with a little of the warm feta.

This recipe was in an old issue of Food Everyday and I was happy to find it on Martha’s website also.  In reading the reviews online, a lot of people opted to used basil instead of mint, which I am sure is fantastic.  I personally like the mint, but I know some people who wouldn’t.  Other than that change, I’ve never felt the need to change anything.  I will say that this isn’t great leftover, as is the case with most seafood in my opinion.  So make a half recipe for 2 people, a full recipe for 4.

Baked Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta

From Martha Stewart

Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 4 thinly sliced scallions
  • 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  • 2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • 2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved
  • Coarse salt and ground pepper
  • 1 1/2 pounds peeled and deveined large frozen shrimp, thawed, tails removed
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh fresh mint, plus more for garnish
  • 4-6 ounces feta cheese

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 475°F with rack set in upper third.  Heat oil in a large skillet over medium.  Add scallions, garlic, and oregano; cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute.
  2. Add tomatoes. Cook over medium, stirring occasionally, until no liquid remains in skillet, 10 to 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
  3. Add shrimp and mint to skillet. Stir to combine; transfer to an 8-inch square (or other shallow 2-quart) baking dish. Crumble feta over top.
  4. Bake until liquid is bubbling, cheese is beginning to brown, and shrimp in center of dish are opaque, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with additional chopped mint.

 

Citrus Shrimp & Quinoa Salad with Edamame

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There is new-to-me website that I have been frequenting recently and that I am really liking….eatingwell.com.

Many of the recipes sound not only healthy, but also delicious.  I am anxious to try some of the desserts, like these lemon squares.  Baked goods are not always the easiest to make tasty and healthy, so I’d like to find out if they’ve managed to mix tastiness and nutrition.

Tonight I made these garlic-y citrus shrimp and a warm quinoa salad with edamame and roasted red peppers in a lemony tarragon sauce.  I served this with whole wheat pita bread.  This meal is packed with protein, quite flavorful, fresh and totally satisfying.  I finished dinner feeling full, but full of really good food, so no guilt!

Another plus is that the meal was simple to prep and came together incredibly quickly.  Quinoa is so much better for you than rice, and it takes about the same amount of time as white rice, and half the time of brown rice.  It is similar in texture to couscous, but has a nuttier flavor and is more substantial.  Shrimp is one of the quickest proteins to cook.  A mere minute on each side is all you need, but any more time than that can yield  a shrimp that is overcooked and rubbery in texture.

The only change I would make is to leave out the walnuts.  I didn’t find that they added anything to the salad but crunch and more protein…which we weren’t exactly lacking here.

I will keep you updated as I try more recipes from this site.  I already have another EatingWell dinner planned for later this week; chicken and fennel flatbread pizza.  Yum.

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Dinner Rush: Shrimp with Mango Sauce and Quinoa Salad

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The school year is about to begin!  My first day of teacher prep began today, so my casual lifestyle with tons of free time is about to come to an abrupt and unpleasant end.  Taking 8 months off from work to take a couple of part time jobs was pretty great.  It enabled me to move in to our new house and spend time getting things organized and just like I wanted them, running errands as needed, going to the gym whenever I wanted to, playing with the dog, baking and cooking without time restraints, perusing the Internet at my leisure and blogging whenever I pleased!  These days are sadly over.  I will miss you, my lazy life.

I must somehow move on to my new life with a positive attitude and a determination to somehow manage a full time job and the rest of the things I need and want to do.  Hold on, there are women who have more demanding jobs than I do, AND they have children, AND they’re members of groups and clubs, AND they take care of their house, AND they cook dinner, AND do laundry, AND blog!  If they can do it, then measly little me can do it!

I will not allow my new Monday thru Friday, 8-5 (or 6 some days) job keep me from making dinner on the weeknights.  I will also not stoop to macaroni and cheese from a box or putting a frozen pizza in the oven.  I WILL make real dinner!  So, every week I will make, review and blog about quick and easy dinner recipes that can be accomplished by a full time working woman…like I will be as of August 24.

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These recipes come from Epicurious Dinner Rush from issues of Gourmet and SELF.  They are both quite delicious.  The most time consuming thing about them is the chopping and prep.  I modified the quinoa recipe quite a bit after speaking with my wiser and younger sister, Sarah, who told me that the preparation of the quinoa in the actual recipe was a bit ridiculous.  I hadn’t ever used quinoa before, so I thought the process of washing it 5 times in cold water, cooking for 10 minutes in boiling water and then steaming it in a sieve for 10 minutes above the boiling water was normal!  Turns out, all you have to do is cook the quinoa as you would rice.  Hooray!  That little change made this dish much faster.

There is a recipe for lime and cumin dressing that goes with the salad, but I didn’t use it.  Instead of the olive oil based dressing, I simply tossed the salad with lime juice, cumin and some kosher salt.  I found the salad to be incredibly light and refreshing.  I thought about adding chopped tomatoes, but opted not to this time.  It would be delicious, though, so I may try it next time.  Here is the original recipe.

Shrimp is always a good choice for a quick meal.  Shrimp cooks quickly, just 2-3 per side, in a hot skillet.  The mango sauce has a great combination of flavors.  Sweet, spicy and perfect with the shrimp.  I served the sauce warm, but it would be good chilled also.  Here is the recipe from epicurious.

I served this meal with a few warmed corn tortillas, so Ben made shrimp tacos.  I liked it better without the tortillas, Ben liked his taco version better.  I think he likes when all the components of a meal come together in a nice little package.  He likes burritos, sandwiches, pizza, stromboli, lasagna, enchiladas, chimichangas and always seems to mix the food on his plate into a new casserole type dish.

This is a fairly quick recipe, and definitely a good choice for a weeknight dinner.

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