Marinated & Grilled Shrimp

I don’t have photos of this, but thought I’d pass on the recipe since the kids devoured them with such gusto. 

Used about 1 pound of frozen shrimp.  Thaw in cold water.  In a bowl mix 3 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp fish sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp lemongrass, 2-3 cloves garlic chopped, 1-2 inch piece ginger grated/chopped, juice of 1 lime, 1 lemon, 1 orange, dash or two of cayenne or chopped chili pepper (habanero, serrano), handful of chopped cilantro.  Place defrosted shrimp in marinade and let sit for at least 2 hours in fridge.  Optional tsp galangal.

Grill & enjoy!

Dinner in 10.

At story time in the library yesterday a mother mentioned she never cooks because she doesn’t have time. Instead of saying I completely understand because my time is crazed right now and I have no time, I told her she could try some recipes I’d just cooked.  One I told her, took as long as boiling the pasta to make.  Her interest was piqued.  Now, I probably should have told her that I was up until 1:30 last night sorting and folding laundry because I’d let it go to the point of digging socks and underwear out of the mountain filled baskets, but I didn’t want to tarnish my super-mommy image (actually nobody who knows me thinks I am supermom, because I am usually honest about how messy my house is and how I just can’t do it all).  Ah, but one can dream and pretend for a day. 

I know that some people choose to keep a tidy house over cooking meals for their kids and I do have some friends that have tidy homes and cook great meals (even a couple that hold fulltime jobs) but they’re just much more organized and less ADD than me!  I have a cluttered office, an over abundance of toys to weed through, a laundry situation that constantly eludes me, and a back yard that will soon win the WT award.   Cause truth is I’d rather be cooking than cleaning, I’d rather be writing than cleaning and I’d rather have an over scheduled schedule than cleaning.  Now, if I start making more money I can hire someone to come clean regularly… ooh, and if I make tons I can hire someone to do my laundry.  Well, that means getting more clients and that takes a lot of time.  But, for now, messy house and laundry up the wazoo.

 

Back to the food… Here is one of recipes I told her about.  It took about 10 minutes.  

 

Shrimp Bianco with Spinach and Tomatoes

 

1 pound frozen de-veined shrimp

1/4 onion (or 1 shallot) finely diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

handful parsley, chopped

baby spinach (I used what I had from my CSA about 2 cups)

handful cherry tomatoes, cut in half

3 Tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup cream

1/4 cup white wine

sea salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

1 pound thin spaghetti

 

Run cool water over shrimp to thaw, set aside.  Put salted water on to boil.  Chop the onion, garlic and parsley.  Heat olive oil and sauté the onions then add garlic, making sure neither get brown.  Add shrimp and when they’re just turning pink add wine, cream, parsley. Stir for 30 seconds then add spinach and tomatoes and salt and pepper.  As soon as spinach is wilted, strain spaghetti and toss with shrimp mixture.  Serve. 

 

My kids loved this dish.  I loved that I made it so quickly.  I was seriously considering getting a pizza, but managed to save money and give something a little more nutritious in less time than it would have taken for the pizza delivery person to drive over here.  And there was not a single whine at the dinner table! 

 

Unfortunately because it was so quick, I didn’t have my camera ready during the cooking process. Next time!

Grilled Seafood and Baby Bok Choy

While shopping my sons the other day, my middle one requested some shrimp.  I saw some beautiful diver scallops there as well and decided a few of each would be great for grilling.  When I showed the boys the baby bok choy they actually hoorayed!  My brother joined us for dinner so I included an approximately pound-sized filet of salmon to grill with the shellfish (or else it wouldn’t have been enough for 5, especially with my brother’s appetite).  Salmon and seafood are great to grill for clean up convenience and also so you don’t have the smell lingering around the house the next day! 

After putting the jasmine rice on the stove and starting up the grill I put the baby bok choy on to stea m.  With baby bok choy you can steam the whole thing together, with the larger size you should cut the stems off to steam a minute longer first before adding the leaves.  Once the leaves are wilted, they’re done.  Shock with cold water.  Keep to the side to finish later.  

I then shelled the already cleaned shrimp, put a 2-3 on a soaked bamboo skewer, then  drizzled them with olive oil, sea salt and ground pepper.  I repeated skewering, etc. with the scallops.   I then put some olive oil on a plate and the salmon on top, flipping it over to coat it, then added salt and pepper.

I put the salmon on the grill first since it takes longer.  Once it had cooked a few minutes I added the shrimp and scallops.  I took them off after turning and the shrimp was just pink and scallops had more whitish-solid appearance.  You don’t want to over cook either as they’ll become tough.  It only takes a few minutes. The salmon doesn’t take very long either- it should still be dark in the center to be flavorful and tender. 

After the seafood and fish were done I finished the bok choy.  In a pan I heated 1 tsp sesame oil, a Tbsp canola oil and 1/2 tsp soy sauce.   I added the bok choy (I chopped mine into approximately inch pieces which make the leaves easier for the kids to eat) until warmed and coated.

 

Delicious for all!  My kids love this meal!

We use Tamari (by San-J and others) soy sauce which is richer in flavor and has no wheat, unlike the most popular types of soy sauce.  Perfect for those on gluten-free diets.  It also has no artificial flavors or preservatives and is naturally fermented.  Shoyu soy sauce (think Kikkoman’s) is made with a combination of soy and wheat.  There even are some cheaper soy sauces that use acid hydrolyzed soy protein instead of traditional brewing methods.  They have a longer shelf-life but you sacrifice quality, taste and possible health benefits.

© 2010 mykidsreallyeatthis.com

Quick Meal- Pasta with Seafood & Micro-Greens

It was one of those days around here, which is pretty often, when dinner time was upon us already and nothing was on the stove, in the oven or on the grill. So, what’s fast?  Pasta!  I had remembered earlier that we had a half package each of frozen large shrimp (uncooked) and Langostinos (cooked) and we could make a pasta with them.  Langostinos are a crustacean, like crayfish, just about 2 inches long.  I got these ones from Trader Joe’s. 

We took the frozen packages out and thawed them in 2 separate bowls of cold water.  Put some water on to boil the pasta. Chopped a couple of cloves of garlic, one shallot and 1/4 red onion (because that’s what we had in the house).  Sautéed them all in olive oil for a few minutes and added chopped organic white mushrooms (I tend to buy certain things organic and some conventional) a pat of butter, sea salt and fresh ground pepper.  After a few minutes added some white wine (please use what you’d actually drink and don’t ever buy “cooking wine” it would leave the same awful flavor in your food as in a glass)— about 1/4-1/2 cup and some more olive oil.  Added the drained shrimp that was cut into half (smaller bites) and took off the heat while the pasta is cooking. Once it’s finished and drained, added the pasta to the garlic, mushroom, shrimp mix, stirred in the Langostinos, package of baby organic spinach and 3/4 package of micro-greens and put back on heat stirring regularly for about a minute or two.  No need to really “cook” the vegetables or Langostinos, just heat them.  All done!  It was less than half an hour in total. 

The micro-greens I got from Trader Joe’s too (one of my favorite stores) and are the sprouts of Red Russian Kale, Red Cabbage, Purple Kohlrabi, Purple Radish and Beet Greens.  They are intensely flavored and only about an inch long- root and all.  Some of these ones are quite peppery too.  Micro-greens are really rich in nutrients too.  Because of their intensity, you don’t need other herbs with this dish, but you wouldn’t go wrong with some fresh chopped basil. 

We hadn’t done this dish as such before, so I wasn’t sure how the kids would react except I knew that my middle son would whine, “I don’t want that” per most every dinner.  Today he added, “I told you I wanted just plain pasta with butter.  Didn’t you remember that?  Of course I did, I just ignored it.  My kids get plain pasta with butter often when we go out to eat.  It’s funny because we don’t usually have the things listed on the kids’ menu at home I let them order from it out.  It’s a treat we’re out, so I let them have a treat of chicken nuggets or plain pasta with butter!  The funny thing is as soon as the whine is out of the mouth, the fork is in.  He ate it all and really enjoyed it.  This was also one of the cases where he said he didn’t like mushrooms unless they were in a cream sauce, so I had him try it… he ate the rest without complaint.   

I’m sure some kids would love to eat cookies, candy and ice cream instead of all the good foods but as parents we know they wouldn’t survive on a diet like that.  Well, they need the nutrients in vegetables and fruits and if they’re served regularly they will eat them.  We got a taste for them at some point, so will they.  Kids have to be introduced to them to understand they should be eating them every day.  There won’t be the struggle some have over just a few veggies if they just have them in front of the kids every day.  And when there are so many quick (and yummy) ways to do it, it becomes easier for all involved.  

©2010 MyKidsReallyEatThis.com