Day 99: Bangin' Grilled Shrimp

Original Source: Skinny Taste

A while back I found a recipe for Bang Bang Shrimp that I still want to try but I haven't. Why? Because I found this one. No frying ( I loathe frying) and healthier. Why not? So I made the sauce and My Guy grilled the shrimp and voila... we found a keeper. This was SO good. Teen Boy had a friend over who tentatively grabbed a skewer, then came back for another after his first bite. I think I ate about 4 skewers myself. SO FREAKING GOOD. This will probably become a family staple.

Get the recipe here, if you love your family and your tummy

Day 77: Cajun "Shrimp" and Grits

Original Source: The Lettered Cottage

Did you notice the quotes around "shrimp" in the title of this post? Don't get confused. I didn't use faux shrimp or anything. I just didn't use any. For two reasons. 1) I didn't have any and no one volunteered to go get any. 2) My family has sort of lost our taste for shrimp these days. Still love it as a rule, but I think we were just burnt out. So I didn't make anyone, including myself, go pick any up. Why bother? There's enough protein in this meal with the sausage and cheese anyway.

So here are my thoughts. I'm going to keep this recipe, and then I'm going to tweak the hell out of it. The texture of the grits was perfect. Creamy and smooth and yummy. But, pardon my teen girl moment... OMG. The salt! I was afraid we'd all wake up shriveled and dead this morning. Between the sausage, the 1 TBSP of salt you cook in the grits and the massive amount of cheese, this was the saltiest thing I've eaten in a long time. And I'm a saltaholic, folks.  So if I can barely tolerate the saltiness, the rest of my family had to choke it down. I know that grits require salt. And usually quite a bit. But this recipe could probably omit it, or at least cut it in half. I'll try it again in a few months with that in mind, and maybe even with the shrimp and see if it's any better.

Still want the recipe? You asked for it. Get it HERE

Day 33: Chicken And Shrimp With Pancetta Chimichurri

Original Source: Food Network

Look how lovely. Really, food artists/photographers sometimes deserve a lot more credit than the cook. On the weekends, I like to cook things that aren't so easy in case I run into trouble. My Guy is here to stir while I chop or whatever. And don't let that scare you. This was NOT a difficult recipe. I just decided to try more than one new recipe that night and had 10 things going at once. I even made Teen Girl make the sauce for this recipe.

How did it taste? Well, the entire family agreed on one thing. The chicken was far  better than the shrimp. That might be because we all got sick of shrimp during a jambalaya kick we were on last year, but I'm not so sure. The sauce is pretty strong (right now, the leftovers have already stunk up my kitchen. Every time someone opens the fridge and lets the smell out, we groan.) and I think the milder chicken allowed for that strong taste a bit better than the shrimp. Also, I think I should have followed the photo more than the recipe. I ended up with REALLY green sauce and not the pretty drizzle you see above.

The recipe wasn't bad, but I'm not sure it is something any of us will ever crave again and so I'm tossing it out of my recipe book. Better luck to you! (PS - I served this with a side of orzo, and to store leftovers, tossed it all with the orzo as one dish. It absorbed some of the sauce and made it a little milder. (Pic below).

Yes, there are little black things floating in mine that you wouldn't see in yours. I tossed in a few chia seeds, since I try to do that whenever possible!

Tossed with the orzo for leftovers. Not bad.

GET RECIPE HERE

Day 7: Paula Deen's Jambalaya

Original Source: Food Network/ Paula Deen

FIND RECIPE HERE

I make this jambalaya/gumbo mixed thing that I created a year or two ago that my family loves. So trying a different recipe (even though this is straight jambalaya) is a bit scary. Why do all this when the final product isn't certain to be fantastic since we already love my own recipe? But... It was on my Pinterest board, so I had to give it a go!

Speaking of, you can find me on Pinterest HERE. I collect recipes there, and also post ones I already love to cook.

Everything's a Stewin'

Okay, so this is how mine turned out. (It looks a lot redder than it was.) It was good, but my recipe wins! This was extremely tomato-y and soupy. Good flavor but not a lot going on. I'll hang onto the recipe because it's simple and can quench a creole craving (sort of) in a pinch. But overall, I'd look for a different recipe!