Tonights Dinner - Shrimp & Couscous

I am still having fun (and feeling real good about) using what I have in my freezer and pantry and new fresh produce items each week to make our evening meals. Today it was large shrimp I took from the freezer and a box of whole wheat couscous from the pantry. I used some of the lemons I bought on friday and made a lemon couscous using chicken broth, lemon zest, lemon juice and a little butter. I love that in 5 minutes you have a pot of cooked couscous.

I defrosted the 2 pounds of large shrimp. Put some olive oil and 4 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet and heated and stirred until the butter melted. Can you believe this Italian girl forgot to replace the garlic she used up? Yep. So from the pantry I took Gilroy Garlic Festival dry garlic garni and shook a good amount into the skillet. (This seasoning has garlic and herbs and is very good.) Then I tossed in the shrimp and stirred until they were just barely pink, then added a little white wine and lemon juice and cooked just until the shrimp were done.

I served it on top of the whole wheat lemon couscous. It's a definite keeper and both dishes whipped up within minutes. If you use garlic and not the dried garni I did, I would suggest you add some chopped Italian parsley to both the shrimp and couscous, and if you like heat, some dried red pepper flakes would be nice too.

Hmmmm, now what to stuff the fresh poblano chiles I bought at the Framer's Market friday........

Today's Lunch

Diane's Spinach Salad with Grilled Shrimp.

Here's my recipe:

Fresh baby spinach leaves
Thinly sliced red onion, cut into smaller pieces
Fire roasted red peppers (from jar, I use TJ's fire-roasted), sliced thin and then cut into smaller pieces
Toasted sliced almonds
5 to 6 Raw large shrimp with tails removed (I use Frozen from Costco - thaw) for each starter salad (more if eating as a meal)
Good-quality tequila (I use Casadores Reposado)
Butter, melted
Penzey's Spice Trinidad Dry Marinade (OR some garlic powder and lemon zest)
Marie's Spinach Salad dressing (found refrigerated in produce section of market)

Marinate raw shrimp in tequila for one hour. Melt butter in a glass-measuring cup in the microwave for 30 seconds on HIGH. Stir in a little Trinadad dry marinade.

Preheat indoor grill to 350 degrees F. (You can also grill the shrimp on an outdoor grill.) Spray grill with nonstick cooking spray. Place shrimp on grill and cook just a few minutes on each side until pink. Do not overcook! Baste with butter mixture while grilling.

Meanwhile in a mixing bowl mix spinach, red onions and roasted red peppers. Toss with dressing to taste. Place on individual salad plates. Top with grilled shrimp and sprinkle with toasted sliced almonds. Enjoy!

NOTES: There are no set amounts here. For each individual serving of salad, I use a good-sized handful of baby spinach. All other ingredients are to taste. Be careful, you can easily over-do the goodies in this salad.
You can easily grill the shrimp in your George Foreman Grill. Set the temperature for 300 degrees F, and grill 1 minute. Check to see if down. Sometimes they need another 15 to 30 seconds of grilling time. After melting butter in microwave, toss shrimp intot he measuring cup and coat well before placing them on the GF grill. You can also use your outdoor grill as well.
In a rush? Though I like the smokey tequila taste marinating them first adds to the shrimp, it is not a necessary stepThe Marie's salad dressing used in this recipe has a good bacon taste to it.