Day #117 - Thrown Together Shrimp

I'm beginning to think of myself as a culinary genius!

No really - I'm being serious. You can stop laughing now. I'm not claiming to be some sort of Martha Stewart or Rachel Ray knockoff, and I admit that most days, I resort to following someone else's recipe. But there have been many occasions where I have been able to throw together some pretty dang good meals with little or no effort.

Sometimes, I get these amazing ideas in my head while I'm at work, and I write them down so I won't forget them. Sometimes these ideas are food related - other times not so much. Today, while furiously plowing through a pile of junk on my desk, out of the blue - I had an AHA! food moment. It was after this moment that I called my husband and asked him to take the bag of shrimp out of the freezer - we were having shrimp tonight!

Now - my husband and daughter are fried shrimp kind of people. So I already knew I was going to batter and fry up a few to satisfy their needs. And then - after their bellies were full - I set out on a mission. My initial thought was to make a really yummy shrimp salad with a citrus dressing. But when I got home and saw the big tub of garlic staring at me in the fridge, I knew a shrimp salad just wouldn't do. In the end, I ended up just throwing together some of my favorite ingredients and flavors that we had in the fridge and came up with this delicious beauty of a dish (the picture doesn't do it justice).

The best part about this recipe, is the spinach. It soaks up of the flavor that gets left behind in the pan - it's really adds a bold flavor to this meal. You will LOVE it! I liked it so much - I made some more to take for lunch tomorrow!

Ingredients:

12 Jumbo Prawns (Shelled & Deveined)

4 Cups Fresh Spinach

4 tsp Minced Garlic

Juice From 1/2 Fresh Lemon

1 Tbsp Butter (I used Smart Balance - Light)

Directions:

Melt 1/2 the butter in a saute pan and saute garlic until just browned. Add shrimp and cook for 1.5 minutes. Turn shrimp and cook for an additional minute. Add most of the lemon juice to the pan and continue to cook shrimp for an addition 30 to 45 seconds. Remove shrimp from the pan and set aside. In the same pan, add remaining butter and then add spinach. Top spinach with remaining lemon juice and stir. When spinach is completely wilted, remove and plate. Top spinach with shrimp and enjoy!

Nutritional Information (Approximately For 6 Shrimp & 2 Cups Wilted Spinach)

Total Calories: 164 cal.

Total Fat: 2.5 g

Total Carbs: 6 g

Total Protein: 29 g

Day #116 - Tacos

Kayla has been DYING for tacos ever since her surgery. They are her all time favorite and it was torture for her not being able to eat tacos of all things! So - tonight we had tacos. Quick and easy - just the way I like it. You can find the recipe and nutrition information here - however - tonight's tacos are a little healthier than the previous version.

I ran into these bad boys at the store last time we went grocery shopping and had to try them:

Here is the breakdown between your regular soft taco sized tortilla and these Carb Balance fajita sized tortillas:

<-- Taco Size Flour Tortilla

Fajita Sized Whole Wheat Tortilla -->

You Do The Math!

Day #115 - Quiznos

I worked from 6:30 am until 5:15 pm today, I'm either coming down with a nasty cold or my allergies have suddenly gone into overdrive - I'm not quite sure which it is, and I'm sick and tired of the rain already! I am here to introduce to you today: Negative Nancy!

I have struggled all day to be in a good mood - I blame this nastiness that is going on in my sinuses. If it's allergies - then I must have developed a resistance to every allergy medication out there because nothing I am taking has helped. If it's a cold - then it better run its course fast because I don't have time to deal with this kind of crap. My ears are plugged and it feels like my head is stuck in the clouds. My throat is dry and scratchy and every time I tried to answer the phone at work today, I got laughed at on the other end. Oh - and last night - I know you have all experienced the one-nostril nose plug!

You know - where depending on which side you are currently sleeping on - one side of your nose is ALWAYS plugged. It starts out on one side of the nose and then you flip and lay on your other side, only to feel all the pluggedness giving way to gravity and draining to the other nostril, and before you know it - you are just one plugged up mess. Yeah - and if you're lucky enough to actually fall asleep - you wake up in the middle of the night with snot trails all up your cheek and and down the side of your face. It's fabulous - welcome to my world right now.

Anyway - now that I have completely grossed you out - let me tell you what we had for dinner tonight! My husband wanted to cook the salmon that we took out of the freezer over a week ago and never used. That is - until I pointed out to him the current color of the salmon and the fine print that says: "use immediately after thawing". As in - you better cook it the same day. The salmon ended up in the garbage. Sad.

Our fridge is empty - our food supply in the pantry is slowly dwindling down. I can use this as an excuse for not cooking tonight - but in all reality - I was just in a piss-poor mood and didn't feel like playing chef / waitress to my family tonight. So - we headed out to Quiznos because in an attempt to get back to eating healthy again - I knew they had this:

The Honey Bourbon Chicken Sandwich:

This sandwich is my all-time favorite. Not just because it tastes absolutely fabulous (a little sweet and a little spicy), but because a small sub has just 315 calories which will allow you to grab a bag of chips if you need a salt kick. Or - you can splurge and get the regular sized sandwich which still only has 520 calories and is much more filling and satisfying.

Nutritional Information (Approximately for 1 Regular Sandwich on Whole Wheat Bread):

Total Calories: 520 cal

Total Fat: 8 g

Total Carbs: 76 g (21 g from sugar)

Total Protein: 29 g

Day #89 - #114

I realize I haven't been the most faithful blogger by any means - even after rededicating myself to my goal in my last post - I have still managed to fall behind. The last dinner I posted was on March 28th - which puts me exactly 28 days behind!!! Yikes! Where has the time gone???

I'm going to attempt to get caught up - but there are some huge gaps where I can't remember what we had for dinner - but it's not entirely my fault - so cut me some slack! Be prepared - however - because this post is gonna be a long one!

Sunday April 25th: Easter Dinner (Day #114)

We all managed to get together for Easter at my parent's house this year - All 12 of us! It was fabulous! We pigged out on ham, funeral potatoes, homemade rolls, salad, corn on the cob, pickled beats, and cherry pie! Can't beat that! However - I'm paying for it all today! It's back to the healthier way of eating for sure!

Tuesday April 5th - Saturday April 23rd (Day #96 - #113)

Somewhere during these 19 days - I managed to cook a few good meals. What exactly they were - I couldn't tell you because A) I didn't take any pictures. B) I didn't write them down like I promised myself I would start doing. and C) I'm just a flat out Slacker - with a capital S! Sorry!

Monday April 4th: Sympathy Nothing (Day #95)

**sigh** I'm discovering there are a lot of days where my family doesn't really eat dinner! For one reason or another - we just don't eat the last meal of the day!! This week - is the start of Spring Break - and unfortunately - my poor little Kayla Bug is spending her spring break recovering from surgery! You can read about her ordeal here!

Needless to say - since Kayla couldn't eat - we didn't eat either! Except - I'm pretty sure Jim and I snuck in a few bites of ice cream while Kayla was taking a mini nap.

Sunday April 3rd: Popsicles (Day #94)

We got back from Spokane in the late afternoon - just in time to pick Miley up from this hell-hole of a kennel we took her to for the weekend. I will NEVER take her to that kennel EVER again. I don't think she pooped the entire time she was there! Don't get me started! Anyway - by the time we picked up the dog, got home, unpacked, took the dog to the dog park so she could get some exercise after booked couped up in a stupid kennel all weekend without ANY walks or ANY form of exercise - we were exhausted and called it a day without eating dinner. Actually - I think we all had a Popsicle somewhere during the evening. It's the dinner of champions!

Saturday April 2nd: Papa Murphy's Pizza (Day #93)

We were in Spokane - visiting various people and places we love. Since we didn't have a whole lot of dining options, we grabbed a couple of pizzas and cooked them at my Grandma's house. Pretty easy.

Friday April 1st: Trail Mix From Costco (Day #92)

A few months ago, we bought tickets to a concert for this night. The plan was to get all snazzied up and head to Seattle for a night of fine dining and then the concert. Unfortunately - things didn't exactly go as planned and we ended up not eating dinner at all and we just barely made it to the concert in time for it to start! You can read about our fiasco here!

What I didn't mention in that post - is that during the car ride to Spokane, we all snacked on Costco trail mix cause we were kind of starving.

Thursday March 31st: Chili and Cornbread (Day #91)

The last time we made a batch of chili - we had a TON leftover. So - we filled the freezer with containers of homemade chili. We also bought this really HUGE bag of cornbread mix from Costco that has been sitting in our pantry for the last 12 months. What are you supposed to do when you have a TON of chili and a TON of cornbread mix??? Eat chili and cornbread - duh!

Again - this is a recipe I have posted once before and can be found here!

Wednesday March 30th: Manicotti (Day #90)

The last time Jim surprised me and made Manicotti for dinner, the recipe made so much, he made a smaller dish and stuck in the freezer for another meal down the road. Tonight was a freezer meal kind of night! I was kind of skeptical to try manicotti after it had been frozen - but in all honesty, I couldn't even tell it had ever been frozen! It tasted just as fresh and delicious as it did the first time!

For the recipe and nutrition information for this Manicotti recipe - you can find it on my original post here!

Tuesday March 29th: Chicken Bruschetta Pasta (Day #89)

Ingredients:

1 lb Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts, Cut Into Strips

1/3 Cup Reduced Sodium Organic Chicken Broth

1/4 tsp Garlic Powder

1 tub (10 oz) Philadelphia Original Cooking Creme

2 Cups Grape Tomatoes

2 Cups Hot, Cooked Bow-Tie Pasta

12 Fresh Basil Leaves, Torn

Directions:

Cook chicken in a large, non-stick skillet on medium heat for about 5 or 6 minutes. Stir in chicken broth and garlic powder and let cook an additional 3 minutes.

Add cooking creme and tomatoes , cook and stir for 3 minutes.

Stir in pasta and top with basil!!!

This is probably one of the most simple meals I have ever made in my entire life. Only cold cereal and toast can top this in the easy category. If you haven't tried the new Philadelphia cooking cremes, I would recommend it. They seriously make cooking simple and really yummy!