a la kathrine!

shrimp & grits.
call me southern, call me what you will.

shrimp & grits are outrageously delicious!
i don't care where you get them... well, i do. i don't want them to suck! clearly!
but, they are a safe bet.
there is something about the creaminess of grits and the sweet luxurious taste of fresh shrimp that just pair so super well together.
so tonite! i make my own...
of course i need to "beef" it up with some veggies. so, i made some grits, they were instant. sorry, i'm no professional grits maker. i pan fried some shrimp, and i defrosted / pan fried some spinach. there is something about spinach that pairs so well with shrimp, grits, and shrimp & grits together! you will love it...
i layered my amateur-attempt at grits in the bowl, topped it with spinach, shrimp, and i made a savoury sauce to top it all off.
i put about a cup of chicken broth in a pan and added chopped roasted red peppers. yeh, they were out of a jar. i'm totally okay with that. i cooked that on super high on the stove to cook out some of the water in the broth. as it was boiling, i added about two tablespoons of weight watchers cream cheese. (what!? it's 2pts all together!) so, somehow i managed to make (what i believe to be) and creamy roasted red pepper sauce. i was pretty impressed with myself.
i topped my tower of grits, spinach, & shrimp with roasted red pepper sauce and took my fork, and dug in.
i cannot believe that i achieved a perfect balance of sauce to food, and meat to veggies.
i can't lie, i was totally blown away by myself.
yeh, i'm awesome.

my ultimate compliment was when i brought the shrimp and grits to work to share with a friend. i left a cup with the perfectly-portioned bite for her. i thought was rude to not share with with a fellow foodie, and luckily i did. what she was about to eat turned led her to give me one of my most flattering reviews.
"that was delicious" she said. "what was it?"
"shrimp, spinach, grits, and roasted red pepper cream sauce. i literally had to stop in the middle of my meal and portion you out a bite or it would've been gone"
"i've never had grits, and i don't like them. but i REALLY liked that." she replied.

as rj would say.... yesssssssssss.

roasted garlic and...

shrimp! and spinach!
*drool*
i pan fried some shallot rings in a low-medium heat pan to begin. after, i added some butter spray, chopped garlic (you know i love that stuff in the jar!), and spinach. after i cooked that through, i put some shrimp into a stone dish, coated the bottom with spray butter and garlic, and added my shrimp. i got the oven ready to a rip-roaring 400*, topped my shrimp with spray butter, and a pinch of panko.
bam!
those shrimp enjoyed a lovely 5-7 minutes in the sauna, before i broiled they got off for a minute or two.
*drool*
my perfectly cooked shrimp made their way out of the oven and jumped on top of my delicious spinach mix.
this dinner was quick & easy.... just like your mom!

...wait, have i made that joke already?

small pieces of raw fish marinated in lime or lemon juice.

that tuna ceviche really got me in the mood for... more ceviche!
i'm ceviche monster!
nom.. nom.. nom..

i rounded up a wealth (a small wealth) of shellfish. shrimp, scallops, and lobster tail meat.
i've made ceviche before, where i'll flash cook the shellfish.
dunk it in a pot of boiling water for a few seconds.
this time, i decided to keep it raw. i cut up my scallops, shrimp, & lobster. i tossed all my shellfish in a bowl, and added garlic, cilantro, red onions (that were marinated in red wine vinegar) and the juice of four limes. i thought of using avocado or tomatoes, but figured they would make a better garnish than ingredient. i made my ceviche on a tuesday and i let it "cook" until thursday night. on thursday, i thought that it was still a little under-"cooked". on friday, i didn't notice much of a difference in the change of the texture of the meat, but i felt a little safer eating it.
you know, after i fed it to some of my guinea pigs. ha!
i think my ceviche came out smashing! it was light, perfect for summer, and refreshing. my only complaint with allowing the meat to "cook" straight off in the lime juice, is that i feel the meat let out enough water that it made a not-so-attractive sauce in my ceviche. next time, i'll flash cook the meat and let it finish cooking in the lime juice & garlic.

no worries, i'm addicted to sea food.
there will be pictures of shellfish ceviche 2.0 up soon!
woot!

typical tremendous thursdays!

thursday dinners are always the best!
when i have an audience, i put on my a-game!
woot!
i made a lot of food for dinner this week, and i held it all together with some big flavors. it looked pretty rockin' and it tasted delicious.
here we go...
the shrimp was peeled and deveined. luckily, the deveining was done for me. why? because it's disgusting! i tossed the shrimp in a frying pan on medium / med-low heat and let them get opaque on each side. then, i added my mixture of (surprise, surprise) pineapple juice and spicy garlic texas pete's! yum! i had quite a bit of sauce, so i let the shrimp finish cooking with the sauce, and then i jacked the heat up to high and let that sauce cook down and get nice and thick.
oh, you little neon orange shrimps... how i want to eat you!
i cut up a chicken breast into some super skinny strips. i cooked that over medium heat and added onion powder / garlic / paprika / chipotle rub... anything i pulled out of the spice cabinet, really. made sure my chicken was just cooked through.
smear some fat free refried beans to a la bandarita low carb whole wheat tortilla (they're 1 point!) and added my chicken. they were an unfried, jacked up, taquito! finished that mess off with some mango-pineapple salsa from earlier in the week, and it was outstanding!
i made a plain salad topped with salsa to go with the shrimp, and added some extra beans.

super-fresh, spicy & sweet mexican!
this isn't taco bell, my friends!