Grilled Herb Shrimp

These were fantastic — too bad this recipe is arriving on the heels of there being basically no Gulf shrimp because of the oil issue! Sad 😦 But if you aren’t a seafood snob like I am, and don’t care where your shrimp are from — try this! 🙂

It’s delicious. And easy 😉

I served it with Parmesan risotto with peas and green beans. Delish!

Grilled Herb Shrimp

(Barefoot Contessa, by way of Pink Parsley)

2 pounds shrimp (16-20 count), peeled and deveined, but tails left on

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium yellow onion, minced

1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

1/4 cup minced fresh basil

1 teaspoon dry mustard

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon fresh black pepper

pinch of red pepper flakes

1/4 cup olive oil

1 lemon, juiced

1/2 teaspoon sugar

Directions

– Combine all the ingredients and toss to coat the shrimp.  Allow to marinate at room temperature for 1 hour, or in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.

Prepare grill.  Thread the shrimp on skewers, and sprinkle one side with sugar.

Grill the shrimp, sugared side down, for about 2 minutes, then flip skewers and grill until cooked through, an additional 1-2 minutes.

Fried Rice

We don’t normally eat “make it at home” Chinese food because it is simply never as good as the Chinese restaurant stuff. (Must be all that MSG? haha)

Regardless, I periodically want to try another recipe. This time I decided to try fried rice…it seemed pretty basic, so I thought it might come out a little better than our previous attempts at “Chinese at home”.

This recipe is phenomenal. The key really is cold rice, just as Joelen remarks on her page. I made the rice 2 days in advance and kept it in the fridge. I also made real ‘rice cooker’ rice, although I’m not sure if it would matter or if you could just cook up a package of minute rice. 🙂

I also cooked off my chicken (I just put it in foil packets with salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder and baked at 375 for 45 minutes) and cubed it in advance. This meant the meal took me a whopping 15 minutes to put together on the evening we ate it.

Awesome. 🙂

Final thought: I doubled the recipe when we made it (original measurements are below) — it served two of us dinner, and easily two lunches, with that amount as an entree. I didn’t serve anything with it, but egg rolls would be delicious!

Try this soon! We’ll be adding it to our rotation meals, and I’m dying to try it with pork, shrimp, etc!

Fried Rice

(Joelen’s Culinary Adventures)

1 cup leftover meats – pork, chicken, beef, seafood
1-2 eggs
3-4 cloves minced garlic
1/2 onion finely diced
3-4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup chopped vegetables (fresh or frozen) — Add whatever your family will eat. I added frozen peas/carrots mixture this time, but next time I’ll DEFINITELY add sugar snap peas and some of those mini corn cobs
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 tablespoon onion powder
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1-2 tablespoons light or dark soy sauce
1-2 cups prepared rice, cold
Directions

– In a hot skillet or wok, heat oil (I used a large ‘chicken cooker’ with sides, as I don’t own a wok)
– Add garlic and onions & stir, then add leftover meats of your choice, chopped up in bite sized pieces
– Stir fry meats until you get them a bit crispy, then push the meats aside and crack eggs into the pan
– Scramble the eggs into the pan until cooked
– Add cold rice over the eggs & meat into the pan, making sure to crumble it in your fingers. (Dumping a large chunk of rice is not going to work here. You need to crumble it so it separates nicely)
– Add salt, pepper, onion & garlic powders and soy sauce; toss
– Allow the rice to heat up and absorb the spices and soy sauce, tossing to help it along
– Add the fresh or frozen veggies and toss into the rice
– Continue cooking it all on high heat until rice is heated through and veggies are cooked

Simple Shrimp Scampi

I wanted shrimp for dinner this week, and a scampi just seemed delicious…this one fit the bill!

I did make some changes…I decreased the 5 tbsp of butter and increased the olive oil a bit. I also put a little extra lemon and chicken broth in, and then omitted the 2 tbsp of butter at the end.

That’s a heck of a lotta butter!!

Simple Shrimp Scampi

(Picky Palate)

5 Tablespoons butter (I cut this down to 3 and increased the olive oil)
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (increased to 4)
½ Cup finely chopped white onion
4 cloves garlic
24 medium shrimp, devained, cleaned, shell removed (fresh or frozen)
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
½ Cup chicken broth or white wine
2 pinches salt
¼ teaspoon fresh pepper
1 lb linguini pasta noodles
2 Tablespoons butter
¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
¼ Cup fresh chives chopped

Directions

– Place butter and olive oil into a large 5 qt skillet or other large pot over medium heat

– Once melted and hot sauté onion for 3-5 minutes until softened

– Stir in garlic for 60 seconds then stir in shrimp

– Season with salt and pepper and cook 4-6 minutes or until pink and firm and cooked through

– Stir in lemon juice and chicken broth. Reduce heat to low and set aside.

– Cook pasta according to package directions, drain and stir into shrimp

– Stir in 2 Tablespoons butter, parsley and chives

Garlic Lemon Shrimp and Orzo with Broccoli

This was delicious. It was the best new recipe I’ve tried in a LONG time (per DH!)

We’ll be adding this to our regular rotation — it’s delicious, super-quick to put together, and light-feeling. Perfect for summer — heck, you could feed this to company and they’d feel special 🙂

Garlic Lemon Shrimp with Orzo and Broccoli

(Cooking This and That)

1 cup orzo

1 broccoli crown, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 medium onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 lemon, juiced and zested

1/2 cup white wine or chicken broth

kosher salt and course ground black pepper, to taste

1 tbsp butter

1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined

2-3 tablespoons parsley, chopped

1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Direction

– Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil, add the orzo and cook until al dente (about 8-9 minutes). During the last 2-3 minutes of cooking, add broccoli to the pasta water. Drain orzo and broccoli and set aside.

– In a large saute pan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat, and add onions. Cook until soft and translucent, about 4-5 minutes, then add garlic and cook for an additional minute.

– Add lemon juice, zest, and wine/broth to saute pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, summering for 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

– Stir in the butter, and continue stirring until melted

– Add the shrimp to the saute pan, and cook until pink and cooked through (about 4-5 minutes). Add the orzo and broccoli, parsley, and cheese to the shrimp and toss gently to combine

– Serve immediately

– *We discovered this is even delicious and amazing COLD as well!