Cilantro-Lime Shrimp

Recently, I came across this recipe on pinterest, and I knew that it would be a perfect, quick week night meal.  I paired it with our favorite rice from Trader Joe's, and the two went perfect together.  Rick called it one of his favorites!  This recipe is another one that is going to be come a repeater on our table! I'm going to post the original recipe here since the only change that I made from the  is to use our Garlic Olive Oil from The Crushed Olive instead of regular. 

Here's what I did...

Cilantro Lime Shrimp

Ingredients

2 tsp olive oil
2 lb shrimp, shelled and deviened
6 cloves garlic, crushed
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 lime
salt and pepper 

Directions 

Heat a large frying pan on medium-high heat. Add oil to the pan, when hot add shrimp. Season with salt and pepper. When the shrimp is cooked on one side, about 2 minutes, turn over and add garlic. Sauté another minute or two until shrimp is cooked, careful not to overcook. Remove from heat. Squeeze lime all over shrimp and toss with cilantro.

Enjoy!

My new favorite salsa

I'm back from the dead!  Okay, not really dead, but with work and working out (and I went on a diet last year....down 30 pounds!), I haven't made time to blog. Sadly in my "posts" here there are several started ones from last year that were neglected and never finished.  I've decided, though, that I'm going to TRY to do at least one recipe a week. 

Another thing that has caught my attention is pinterest!  I'm sure that you've heard of it, and once I got the hang of it, I realized what an excellent resource it is for all kinds of things!  My favorite thing to do is to search for recipes (Imagine that, right?). Pinterest has totally put in direct contact with other bloggers out there that I would probably never heard of.   My first amazing find was a salsa.  As you may remember, I'm a huge salsa fan, and while I enjoyed the one I made way back when, it was still missing something.  Then I saw a pin for this salsa.  I was a little skeptical of one of the ingredients (the honey) and couldn't believe that I didn't think of another (the cumin).  This one is even easier because it utilitzes diced canned tomatoes along with Rotel tomatoes (always a favorite of mine).  I've made a couple of subtle changes when I've made it for Rick and I or for our neighbors, but it always turns out perfect!  I hope that you enjoy!

Super Easy Salsa
Ingredients
1  14 oz can diced tomatoes
1 10 oz can orginal Rotel
1/2  sweet small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled & smashed
1 jalapeno (sliced)
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
medium size handful cilantro leaves, washed
juice of 1 lime

Directions:
Put all the ingredients in the base of a food processor or good blender and pulse to combine for 30 seconds or so until all the ingredients are finely chopped and salsa is desired consistency.                  

Taco Tuesday Night!

This weekend, I was craving tacos.  I didn't want anything fancy, just straight out of the Old El Paso Box type of taco.  I don't think that I've ever made them myself as an adult, but I do have fond memories of them from my childhood.  When I mentioned it to Rick on Saturday night, he surprised me with baby back ribs so tacos got postponed until last night.  Even though I had told him about my box taco plan, Rick said that he knew that I'd probably end up doing something different.  Of course, he was right...well, sort of.

When I stopped by Publix on my way home from work yesterday, I picked up an onion to cook with the ground beef that Rick was bring over and pre-shredded lettuce.  As I was headed toward the aisle with the Mexican food products, I passed the seafood counter and noticed that snow crab legs were on sale.  An idea popped into my head!  What about crab tacos???  Sounded yummy to me!  I ended up getting just one cluster so that we could have one "special" taco and the rest would be the normal ones.  Obviously, Rick knows me very well!  I decided to grab a lime to go with the crab legs and opted for the half hard tacos and half soft taco combo box. 

I didn't tell Rick about my surprise special tacos until he came over for dinner.  I had also gotten some of that evil cheese dip that is like the dip they serve in Mexican restaurants so that we could have a pre-meal snack while I made dinner.

We were pleasantly surprised by the results of my crab tacos and I am including the recipe here.  I got 2 small, soft tacos out of one cluster so if you are wanting to do more, I'd use that as the guide (or dosage calculation for those nursing students out there ;) ).  I used dried cilantro instead of fresh because I was afraid that it would go bad over the holidays.  I'm not including the box taco recipe since they come on the box!  Enjoy!

Crab Soft Tacos
Ingredients
1 cluster snow crab legs (1 cluster makes 2 small soft tacos)
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/2 teaspooon dried cilantro
Garlic powder
Shredded lettuce
Salsa of your choice
Soft taco shells
Light sour cream

Directions
Cook crab legs in boiling water until cooked.  Remove crab meat from shells and place in bowl.  Add a dash of garlic powder, lime juice, and cilantro.  Mix together and drain excess lime juice.

Place desired amount of lettuce in the middle of the soft taco shell.  Top with half of crab mixture, salsa and sour cream.  Fold taco and enjoy!

Grilled Chicken Breasts with Corn Salsa

As my final semester of nursing school moves forward, I'm wishing that I had more evenings to cook for Rick and I, but with clinicals that start at 6:45 am, I am cooking more for myself than us. At least I have Ty and Weezy to keep me company now. Too bad, they don't have thumbs, or I'd have them chopping, too!

I've also decided to start eating more healthy dishes. This one is one of the first lower fat meals that I've tried in a long time. I'm of the belief that just because it's healthy, it doesn't have to taste like crap. I turned to my favorite place on the internet for recipes, epicurious.com in search of the perfect meal. I've been craving grilled chicken lately, and when I stumbled across this recipe, I knew that it would be the perfect way to use up some of the chicken that I bought on sale at Publix this weekend.

I did the marinade for the chicken first, and I opted to stray from the recipe and use Corona Light instead of dark beer. I also added two gloves of garlic and doubled the amount of low sodium soy sauce. I let two chicken breasts marinate for two hours and thirty minutes.

The corn salsa...all I can say is wow! Once I got it together, I sampled it with some tortilla chips, and it was as awesome as the recipe reviews say! It was a struggle not to continue eating it all. I immediately called Rick and told him how delicious it was! I foresee myself making it again in the very near future!!! I did use the juice of half a lime (had to do something with the other half of lime that I had) and added one clove of minced garlic.

Grilled Chicken Breasts with Corn Salsa

Ingredients
Salsa

• 1 1/4 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• juice of half of a lime
  
• 2 teaspoons chopped seeded jalapeño chili
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
  

Chicken

• 1/2 cup Corona Light
  
• 2 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 teaspoons chopped seeded jalapeño chili
• juice of half of a lime
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  
• 4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves

Directions

For Salsa:
Combine all ingredients in bowl. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 4 hours ahead. Cover and chill.)

For Chicken:
Combine first 5 ingredients in medium bowl. Add chicken and turn to coat. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 4 hours.

Preheat barbecue (medium-high heat) or preheat broiler. Drain chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Grill or broil chicken until just cooked through, about 4 minutes per side. Cut chicken into thin diagonal slices. Arrange chicken on plates. Top with salsa and serve.

Easy Gameday Enchiladas

An unfortunate "run-in" with another car yesterday was the final road block against my going to Chapel Hill this weekend to see the Heels take on my grad school alma mater, The Citadel. Even though I was fine (as was the other driver), I decided that I really didn't want to drive for five hours alone. The best part of my not going is that I get to see Rick this weekend. School has started for me, and work has gotten stressful for him so I'm very happy to be spending time with him.

Last night, I decided that I wanted to make enchiladas. I've never made them before, and I love the challenge and adventure of making a new dish. As is my custom, I went searching the internet for ideas. I came across this recipe on foodnetwork.com and decided to tweak it a bit to make it my own. Doing them today for the first day of college football seemed like a good idea. Rick was over and doing work on his laptop while the enchiladas baked in the oven and ESPN Gameday played in the background. It was really hard to keep from snacking on the rotisserie chicken last night because it smelled so good. I was nice enough to let Rick eat one of the legs this morning when I started shredding it. My preference for salsa is always the ones that are near the produce instead of the ones with Mexican food at the grocery stores. They have a lot less sodium. I'm hoping that someday, I will master making salsa, too. When the enchiladas came out, I barely had time to take picture of the first on one of my UNC plates before Rick grabbed it and ran.


Easy Gameday Enchiladas
Ingredients
1 rotisserie chicken
1 cup light sour cream
1 16 oz container of salsa (I used Chachie's medium)
1 can of Old El Paso Enchilada Sauce
1 1/2 cup grated Cheddar Cheese (I used 2% milk cheddar)
1/2 cup grated Mozzarella Cheese
1/2 sweet onion finely chopped
Salt and pepper
6 8-inch tortillas
Cooking spray


Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray.

For sauce:
Mix the salsa and enchilada sauce together in the blender.

For enchiladas:
Shred rotisserie chicken and place in a large bowl. Discard skin and bones/carcass. In a smaller bowl, mix cheddar and mozzarella cheeses together. Add sour cream, onion, 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce, and 1 cup of cheese mixture to the shredded chicken. Salt and pepper to taste. Mix thoroughly.

Place around 1 cup of chicken mixture on a tortilla and roll the tortilla. Place tortilla seam side down in the baking dish. Repeat with remaining mixture and 5 tortillas. Cover the enchiladas with sauce, reserving a little bit. Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and place in the oven. Cook for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, remove dish from oven and discard aluminum foil. Add rest of cheese mixture to the top of the enchiladas and cook for another 6-8 minutes.

When serving, I put a little bit of the reserved salsa on the plate and then placed an enchilada on top of it. Enjoy!!

Easy Peasy Quesadillas

Thursday, I went to the farmer's market on Daniel Island with Niki and Jeff. There weren't too many booths, but I did pick up two beautiful green peppers that I'm looking forward to stuffing for Rick and I soon. One lady had a pickle booth, and I probably had more than my fair share of her pickled okra. I would've bought some, but I have two jars at home that my mom gave me. I did, however, buy some dill spears and some salsa. The salsa was chunkier than I prefer, but the taste was perfect with just a little bit of bite.

For dinner, Rick and I decided to do quesadillas because I was dying to use the salsa that I had purchased. I sauteed shrimp that was seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Usually, I mince garlic, but I was feeling a little lazy so I went with the powder. The shrimp were sauteed in olive oil. Because I had a ton of shredded cheese, I opted to "sandwich" the shrimp inbetween a layer of cheddar and a layer of mozzarella.

My favorite pan was sprayed with a little Pam, and we were in business! While I was putting together the first one, Rick said that he wanted to do the second one (his) himself. He did a great job and didn't lose any cheese when he flipped it (something I sometimes struggle with myself!). Rick is on a "super foods" kick, and he started coming up with all kinds of future quesadilla idea. Even though I had cooked up a whole pound of shrimp, we didn't use it all and had some to snack on throughout the evening. I really wanted to take a picture of Rick cooking to post here, but unfortunately, the batteries in my camera were dead! Unfortunately, my camera batteries were in my car, and we were experiencing some amazing storms. Once the quesadillas were cooked, I topped them with the salsa and a little bit of light sour cream. Delicious!!!

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
Olive oil
1/2 pound shrimp (peeled and deveined)
Garlic powder
Salt
Pepper
PAM cooking spray
Two tortillas
Shredded cheddar cheese
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Salsa of your choice
Light Sour Cream


Preparation
For shrimp filling
Season 1/2 pound of shrimp with salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste. Heat around 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add shrimp and cook until shrimp is opaque (stirring with a spatula). Transfer the shrimp to a plate that is covered with a paper towel and set aside.

For quesadillas:
Heat a large pan over medium-high heat and spray with Pam. Place one tortilla on the pan and covered half of the tortilla with shredded cheddar cheese. Add half the shrimp to the cheese, and cover with mozzarella cheese. Fold other side of tortilla over and cook for 2-3 minutes. Flip tortilla and cook on the other side for 2-3 minutes. Remove from pan and repeat with the other tortilla.

When they are finished, cut each into four pieces and top with salsa and a small amount of sour cream. Enjoy!!!