So last night, I hit up a local farmer’s market with two of my friends/coworkers, Jessie and Tim.
We were in search of inspiration for something to make for our friend’s dinner we scheduled what seems like 5 months ago…. All because you have to be VIP to get on Jessie’s calendar … Not pointing fingers or anything…
We did a loop around the market, to check out the goods:
After a mini-powwow on our findings, we decided to go with fajitas for our friends dinner.
We ended up going with:
2 green peppers
1 lb of mixed lettuce greens
1 green zucchini
1 yellow zucchini
2 ears of corn
1 candy onion (basically a mild onion, but we were all super intrigued by the name)
We divided the remaining necessities for our fajitas amongst us, and each of us left to grocery shop/scavenge for food in our fridges/pantries. Us accountants are so dang efficient sometimes 😉
First thing I did when I arrived at Tim and Jaci’s house was spread all the ingredients out on the counter.
I guess I’m not capable of cooking unless I’m surrounded by a big fat mess 🙂
I don’t know why, but I always get the words bulgur and barley mixed up! I know the difference between each of the grains, and I can easily identify them, but my brain just jumbles up the names sometimes!
Case in point: I found this recipe for Tabbouleh with Feta and Shrimp a while back and decided over the weekend that I would make it sometime for dinner this week. All week, I’ve been thinking to myself “why do they call it tabbouleh when it’s got bulgur in it? Don’t they know tabbouleh is made with barley??”
After 5 days of contemplating this, it JUST NOW dawned on me that the recipe did, in fact, call for bulgur which is, in fact, what tabbouleh is made out of. Hahahha… geesh. Suddenly, this recipe made a lot more sense to me 🙂
First, I cooked up 1/4 cup of bulgur (AKA not barley) per the package instructions and 3 ounces of shrimp. Then put it all in the fridge to cool off.
In a bowl, I mixed together:
1 tbsp parsley, chopped (the smaller, the better)
3 tbsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp each salt, pepper, ground cumin
Then I tossed the bulgur (I swear to you, I just typed BARLEY… wow) with:
For you visually challenged that is:
1/2 large cucumber, diced
1/4 cup parsley, chopped (the smaller, the better)
1 roma tomato, diced
1/4 cup chopped green onion
2 tbsp crumbled reduced fat feta
Topped it off with the dressing, and put everything back in the fridge so the flavors could mary merry 😉
Come clooooooossssseerrrrrr:
T-A-S-T-Y. Just like the tabbouleh I’ve had at my favorite middle eastern restaurants… well not JUST like it, but still tasty in its own right. Next time, I wont be so lazy and I’ll chop everything into smaller pieces 🙂
Stats on the tabbouleh: 360 calories, 50g carbs, 3g fat, 28g protein, 10g fiber
Since I had a post-work meeting today, I was amazingly proactive last night 😉 . Not only did I cook up my dinner ahead of time but I also packed a Berry Almond Luna Bar to hold me over til dinner:
This was pretty tasty, and the berry flavor was really strong. However, the blueberry bliss Luna bar tops this bar hands down. That is for darn sure!
For dinner tonight, I tweaked and further healthified a recipe I found in this month’s Cooking Light for Spicy Shrimp Salad. The recipe called for two ingredients I had never used: bibb lettuce and chipotles in adobo.
For those of you who have no idea what bibb lettuce is, it looks kinda like a little bouquet:
I was just going to use romaine, but this little guy was so cute I decided to give it a shot.
Last night, I grilled up one serving of medium sized shrimp seasoned with salt and pepper.
Then I tossed the shrimp with:
2 tsp lime juice
1 tsp fat free mayo
1 tbsp chopped chipotle in adobo
2 tbsp chopped red onion
1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 tsp ground cumin
After my post-work meeting, I heated the shrimp mixture up in the microwave and threw it on top a bed of bibb lettuce and added some tomatoes. I tasted a bit, and realized it was pretty spicy, so I topped it off with a dollop of fat free sour cream to cool things off.
I consider myself a lover of spicy foods. Case in point, I put black pepper, red pepper flakes, and franks red hot on pretty much everything but my yogurt and overnight oats. Despite my love and affection for hot foods, about two bites into the salad I literally felt like my entire face was on fire! Chipotles in adobo seriously do not f’ around.
After my mouth cooled down, I tried to give it another go, but one bite in and the insane heat was back in full fury. I quickly downed half a tomato trying to calm the fire engulfing my face.
Needless to say, I didn’t finish the salad. I think this could have been really tasty if I cut the chipotles back to 1 tsp and also used a different type of lettuce. The bibb lettuce was kind of soft and didn’t have much crunch to it. I prefer a crunchy romaine for my salads.
Stats on the salad I wasn’t physically cable of eating: 205 calories, 20g carbs, 3g fat, 21g protein, 5g fiber
Upon some deliberation of my freezer inventory, I decided my back up dinner would be a Gardenburger black bean burger on a Joseph’s low carb pita with onion, tomato, ketchup, and mustard.
boring
It was ok… but I was really craving shrimp. Maybe I’ll make a smoothie later to compensate 🙂
Stats on the burger: 210 calories, 36g carbs, 5g fat, 12g protein, 10g fiber
Ever since I saw the recipe for Cajun Jambalaya in the July 2010 issue of Clean Eating magazine, I’ve been dying to try it!
Luckily, I already had some leftover grilled chicken from last week and leftover turkey sausage from the “corn dog” I made over the weekend, so there wasn’t a ton of prep work for me to do. You could definitely use raw meats though–everything is chopped into bite size pieces so it cooks through pretty fast.
I can’t believe how ridiculously easy this was! Basically, I mixed the following list of items together in a bowl:
Sprinkling of S&P, onion powder, red pepper flakes
1/2 cup dry brown rice
1/4 cup low sodium chicken broth
Then I layed out a big piece of foil, sprayed it down with olive oil cooking spray, and dumped everything onto the foil:
Then you just wrap it up like a Chipotle burrito — making sure that the edges are sealed tight so the liquid doesn’t leak out. Pop into a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes, and VOILA!
JAMBALAYA!
This was spiiiiiiicy! I loved it! And it made a TON of food. One note for next time — some of the rice that was sitting on the top of the pile got a little crunchy. I think this can be fixed by either soaking the rice in water before putting it in the mix, or by adding more liquid to the pouch.
I’m in love with this foil pouch cooking method!
Stats on the Jambalaya: 384 calories, 46g carbs, 8g fat, 30g protein, 5g fiber
I’ve been eyeballing this recipe for Shrimp and Zucchini Pasta for over a week, so I decided to make it for dinner tonight. I used the Skinny Taste recipe above as my starting point, and scaled it down to one serving. I also omitted the olive oil and used extra chicken stock in its place.
I haven’t had pasta in a while, and just the thought of eating it made me want a HUGE plate. So I decided to peel the zucchini into thin pasta-like strips (rather than cubing as per the recipe) to really bulk up the pasta feel.
I tasted the veggie/sauce mixture, and decided it needed a little extra oomph. So I added about a tbsp of balsamic vinegar and a liberal dusting of red pepper flakes (I like it hot!).
Shrimpy pastalicious
Take a closer look:
shrimptastic!
My mouth was on fire after finishing this delicious pasta! I had to eat a couple frozen grapes to cool things off 🙂
Stats on the pasta: 342 calories, 49g carbs, 2g fat, 29g protein, 9g fiber
Here’s a few shrimptastic recipes I’ve stumbled upon that look like things I need to try:
