Honey Lime Shrimp

I am all about easy make ahead dinners. When my little guy is asleep I try to do whatever I can to get dinner prepared. Yesterday, I decided to make a honey lime shrimp marinade for dinner. It was delicious. I only had enough time to let it marinade for 30 minutes before I cooked it but that was all it really needed because it tasted great. Today, I had a little bit of time this afternoon so I decided to make it again. It only takes about 5 minutes to get the marinade put together and then you just let it sit in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook it and it only takes a few minutes to cook. What could be easier?

I originally wanted to cook the shrimp on the grill but I was too anxious to eat it that I just dumped the whole bag of shrimp with the marinade into the pan to cook. It was delicious. I followed the recipe and just used 1/2 lb of shrimp but it was not really enough for two people. We each got about 7 pieces of shrimp. I would suggest doubling the recipe for two people.

I got the recipe from The Dough Will Rise Again


Ingredients:
1/2 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 cup olive oil
2 T honey
juice of one small lime, or half a large lime (2-3 T)
zest of one small lime, or half a large lime
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Directions:
1.) In a large ziploc bag, combine all the marinade ingredients. When everything is well-combined, add the shrimp, squeeze as much air as possible out of the bag, and close it up. Place it in the fridge.

2.) Let the shrimp marinate for 30-60 minutes, flipping the bag around once or twice during that time, so that all the shrimp stay evenly covered in the marinade.

3.) When you’re ready to cook, take the shrimp out of the fridge and let them sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat; there is no need to add any oil or butter to the pan, as the marinade has enough oil in it to keep the shrimp from sticking to the pan. (If you would prefer to use the grill for these, you can thread them onto skewers and toss them on the grill at this point.)

 4.) Add your shrimp to the pan in a single layer, making sure they are not too crowded; you can always cook them in more than one batch. Let them cook on one side for about a minute, until they curl up and start to turn pink. Flip them over, and cook for another 30 seconds or so, until the shrimp are opaque. Remove from the pan, and serve immediately!

I served our shrimp with a ceasar salad and green bean casserole. It was a great meal that took little preparation. I love those kind of dinners!

Teriyaki Salmon

My husband isn't a  huge fan of how full I can get our freezer. It's always pretty stuffed. So, I decided to start using up a lot of the stuff that I have in there. I don't think it's the amount of stuff in there but there are so many odd shaped things that it doesn't fit together very well and things are always falling.

I had frozen rice and frozen salmon in the freezer that I decided to incorporate into a meal last night. It turned out delicious and was so easy! Easy meals are a must now with this little guy demanding all of my attention. I'm not complaining though. This little one is so much fun!

I got the recipe from Damn Delicious

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 tablespoons honey 
• 1 cup water
• 2 salmon filets
• Cooked rice, for serving
• Sesame seeds, for garnish
• Sliced green onions, for garnish 

Directions:

• In a small saucepan over medium heat, add the soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, garlic powder, honey and 1 cup water; bring to a simmer.
• Stir in the cornstarch until thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 2 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.
• In a gallon size Ziploc bag or large bowl, combine the teriyaki marinade and salmon filets; marinate for at least 30 minutes to overnight, turning the bag occasionally. (Instead of using salmon filets I used a longer, thinner piece of salmon so I put it in a 9x13 baking dish, poured the teriyaki sauce on top, covered with saran wrap and let it marinade in there about an hour before baking. It turned out great!)
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly coat an 8×8 baking dish with nonstick spray.
• Place the salmon filets along with the marinade onto the prepared baking dish and bake until the fish flakes easily with a fork, about 20 minutes.
• Serve the salmon immediately with rice.

Steamed Lobster Tail

My husband went on a lobster trip with some of his cousins last year off Catalina Island. He brought back delicious scallops and lobster. We had eaten all of the scallops and lobster tails, except for two, soon after his return. As my husband and I were trying to decide what to do for our three year wedding anniversary this year and we decided to stay at home and celebrate with the last two lobster tails. I was going to be 36 weeks pregnant and since we had done big things the past two years to celebrate we were alright with doing something small.

Well, as some of you know, our little bundle of joy decided to come 4 weeks early on our wedding anniversary. Needless to say, we did not have lobster tail, instead we had a steak celebratory dinner at the hospital with a bottle of sparkling cider. It was so delicious after almost two days of eating nothing.

Well, two and a half weeks later we decided to make our lobster tails. They were delicious and easy. We decided to steam them instead of grill them this time and I liked them much better.

Ingredients: 

Lobster tail

Butter

Garlic

Directions:
Fill a pot half way with water. Bring to a boil and fit the top of the pot with a steam chamber, steam basket, or use a colander.

Place lobster tails in steam chamber, basket, or colander. Cover with lid.

Steam lobster tails for 5-7 minutes. I used a colander and some of the holes were not completely covered so I steamed our tails for 7 minutes and it was perfect. Remove the lobster tails from the steamer and rinse with cold water. There will be a grey, stringy film on the outside of the tails when you take them out, you can take this off under cold running water.

serving suggestions:
We enjoy our lobster tails with lemon garlic butter. We mix grated garlic and melted butter in a bowl and then brush it onto the lobster tails.

Lemon Rosemary Salmon

It was one of those weeks that I didn't really get to cook at all because there was something going on every night and one of us didn't get home until really late. So finally on Thursday I decided to make a huge meal. I made lemon rosemary salmon. My roommate Margo in college cooked this for me one time and now this is the recipe I always use when I'm cooking salmon. It is so easy. The only thing I usually need to buy is the salmon and the lemons. I usually have everything else.

Ingredients:
Rosemary (I usually don't use fresh because I never have it. But either works fine.)
2-3 lemons (cut in thin slices)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 salmon fillet ( with or without skin. It doesn't matter. Depends on your preference.)
sea salt

Directions. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Place tin foil down on baking sheet if desired. Then place lemon slices down. Place the salmon fillet on top of the lemon slices. Then sprinkle the salmon with rosemary and sea salt. Use as much as desired. Then place the rest of the lemon slices on top. Lastly, pour a little bit of olive oil over the top. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the fish is easily flaked with a fork.

Baked Shrimp

I had one pound of shrimp left from our Mexico vacation. I was planning on making shrimp fettuccine Alfredo but, I didn't have time. I came across this recipe on pinterest and it was really quick and only required a few ingredients, which I had. It turned out really yummy and it only took 20 minutes to prepare and cook. I love meals like that!

After this meal though, I think I'm going to be tired of seafood for a while. I've eaten it almost everyday for the past week. I would not do well to live on an island I guess. 

Ingredients:
1 pound of shrimp
1 stick of butter
2-3 lemons (sliced)
1 packet Italian seasoning

Directions: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheet with tin foil (optional). Put 1 stick of melted butter on the cookie sheet. Cover butter with lemon slices. Place shrimp on top of lemon slices. Sprinkle Italian seasoning on top.  Place in oven for 15 minutes. It's that easy! Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Clam Chowder

 

I made homemade clam chowder. I thought it was going to be really difficult but it was the exact opposite. It only took about 30 minutes to make and it was so delicious! It was nice to use up the rest of our clams too. With this recipe, I substituted one can of clams for a handful of cut up clams that we had cooked on the grill the night before. This is going to be one of my new favorites!

I got the recipe from Grumpy's

Just F.Y.I. The canned clams and clam juice can be found next to the tuna fish at the grocery store. I always have a hard time finding ingredients I've never used before. Hopefully that helps.

Ingredients: 

4 slices bacon, diced

1 small onion, chopped
1 stalks celery, chopped
Old Bay Seasoning (1 tsp. or to taste)

(There is a picture of Old Bay Seasoning below. I had a hard time finding it. Maybe this will help.)

2 cups diced potatoes
1 bottle (8 ounces) clam juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 cans (approximately 7 ounces each) minced clams

(I used 1 can of minced clams and one handful of chopped cooked clams)

3 tablespoons flour
2 cups half-and-half
1 cup milk

Directions:

Cook bacon until crisp in a Dutch oven or large, heavy saucepan. Remove bacon to paper towels; drain. Remove most of the bacon grease from pan. Add onion and celery to bacon drippings; saute until softened. Add Old Bay Seasoning and cook and stir another minute. Add potatoes and clam juice, salt, and pepper. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Remove from heat. Add minced clams with their liquid. Whisk flour into milk; add to chowder with half-and-half. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until clam chowder thickens and bubbles, or about 3 minutes.Sprinkle with crumbled bacon and enjoy!

Grilled Shrimp on the Barbecue

We made it home from Mexico safely. It was a blast and we had a lot of adventures.

Adventure #1- right when we crossed the border we had to turn our phones off so we didn't get roaming charges. But, we didn't really know where we were headed yet, so we took a few wrong turns, but eventually ended up in the right place.

Adventure #2- we were on the road a lot later than we thought and at 10:30pm we were finally 30 minutes away from our destination and we came a cross a military checkpoint. You know, the ones where they have machine guns hung across their chest and tell you to pull over and get out of the car. So, there were 2 guys searching our car, then there were 4 guys searching our car, and then there were 6 guys searching our car. So, with 6 guys we couldn't watch them all to see if they were taking anything or if they were planting anything. It got a little bit uncomfortable. But, lo and behold they took out every single thing that we brought and went through it. They went through every bag, zipper, compartment, you name it. Then at one point, two guys were trying to rip the back seat of my car up and I was about to tell them that it doesn't come out. (It's a mustang, there's no storage underneath the seat.) Well, when it wouldn't come up they just got their screwdrivers out, shoved them under the seat, and ripped the whole back seat out of my car and set it down on the cement. I thought I was going to die. Then, they took everything out of my trunk and started ripping the carpeted walls down and searching where the spare tire was and everything. Then, after about 20 minutes, they put everything back and told us to be on our way. Whew!! We made it!!
 
Adventure #3- After all of our fun adventures in Mexico, it was time to drive home. We left Mexico at 7:30am and made it in line to cross the border at 11:30. Then, while we were waiting in line, we got mangos and a cut up coconut to snack on. So, we're just hanging out listening to music and having a grand old time when we hear a pop, so we turn down the music and we didn't know what it was so we just ignored it. Well, then a few minutes later we realize that the car was overheating. So, we turn it off and open the hood. It is starting to smoke and the coolant is so hot that it is boiling over. So, some guys come running over with water to poor under the hood and we put the car in neutral and just push it along in line as we try to take car of the overheating problem. So, basically a couple guys had to help us push the car and try to cool it down for about 45 minutes until we got close enough to the border line that we could turn on the car and drive it through. When we turned on the car though it made an awful noise so when we got across the border we stopped at an Auto Zone and we had to buy a new fan and replace it in the parking lot. Holy cow was it hot outside! Tyrone and I were both sweating! But, in the end we made it home and the car is doing great. The check engine light actually went off by itself today. It's like brand new.

Well, while we were in Mexico, we stopped at the fish market and bought 10 pounds of clams and 3 pounds of shrimp. We had intentions of eating it in Mexico but with all the parties and activities going on, we didn't get around to it. So last night Tyrone cooked up some clams and shrimp on the barbecue.

For the clams, all you do is soak them in water before hand and then just throw them on the grill. Tyrone's Cousin G.r. taught us how to cook them.When the shells pop open, They're Done! I liked to sprinkle it with garlic salt but Tyrone likes it with just El Pato sauce on it. It already has a little bit of a salty taste to it because of the salt water. So, play around with it and see what you like.

For the shrimp, Tyrone did an excellent job.

 We put the shrimp on skewers through 2 sticks so that they got cooked more evenly.
For the marinade:

1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, thyme, and parsley chopped
3 cloves of garlic minced
3tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

we didn't have time to marinate the shrimp in this so instead we just brushed it on and let it soak about 15 minutes before grilling. Cook on low so that they get cooked all the way through. Make sure not to overcook them or they become chewy and rubbery.