Stir It Up! » Blog

Wild shrimp was on sale at my grocery store, so of course I had to take advantage. I love grilled shrimp, it’s one of my favorite meals, but since Scott wasn’t around to grill (I won’t touch the Big Green Egg), I needed to figure out another way to make the shrimp. I’ve never made scampi before, and now, I’m just trying to figure out why I waited to long. It was delicious!

Here is what you need:

• 1.25 shrimp (which was not even close to being enough for us)
• 3 tbsp Kerrygold butter
• 1/2 tsp celtic sea salt
• dash pepper
• 4-5 fresh garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tbsp dried parsley (I didn’t have fresh)
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1/4 tsp lemon zest

Start by doing my least favorite part, cleaning and de-veining your shrimp.  Then pat dry with a paper towel and add salt and pepper.

Next add the butter to a hot pan, and as soon as it starts to melt, add your garlic and let that cook 1 minute. Oh, the smell is fantastic! Okay, now add your shrimp and cook about 3 minutes until no longer pink and now set aside.   Now, pour the wine, parsley, lemon juice and zest (Yes! I got to use my new juicer and zester thanks to a thoughtful friend!) in pan. Let it cook for about 45 seconds until it thickens, and then pour over your shrimp. Yum!!

I think next time I will make at least 2 lbs worth.  It was so good we were all eating the garlic out of the sauce when the shrimp was gone.  I bet it would go really well over cauliflower rice too.

Oh, and  did I mention dessert?  My son is “Leader of the Week” at his school, so I needed to make a portable snack for his class for tomorrow.  You may know I love chocolate and fruit (it’s good and fun) for class treats so this wasn’t that different but since I’m sending in the snack, I thought this would work well.   All I did was make mini fruit kabobs with a toothpick, melt some dark chocolate chips and about 1 tsp of coconut oil in a bowl. Then just drizzle until they’re pretty well coated.

I’m going to use bananas too but have to wait until the morning so they don’t turn brown. Alice doesn’t love blueberries so she used pears tonight for a change and that was really good too!

What a fun month November has been. From riding the trails in Asheville with my sweet husband…

To celebrating Turkey day here with my family…

Life has been good. I feel like the most fortunate person in the world and truly so am thankful for everything.  I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving as well!

Okay, so please tell me why is it, the day after Thanksgiving, you want to eat leftovers but particularly the leftover treats?  Maybe it’s just me, but for some reason, I crave treats more than anything (well, except my favorite broccoli casserole) on this day.  So, today, I used what I had (we are still at the beach) and made some baked apples and man, they hit the spot!! And of course, it was so easy to make them.

This is what you need:

• 3-4 crisp apples
• 3-4 tbsp grass fed butter
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp coconut palm sugar
• some ground nutmeg and cloves
• 1-2 tbsp raw crushed nuts (I used almonds and walnuts)

Set oven to 350. Next, cut up the apples into quarters, put in oven safe glass dish and set aside.  You could peel them, but the skin doesn’t bother us, so we didn’t.

Next heat up some butter (approx. 1 tbsp of butter per small – medium apple) and pour over apples.  Then, stir until they are coated all over. Then add your spices and nuts to the apples and mix together.

Then cook on 350 for about 80 minutes or until apples start to get soft. Be sure to stir them up about half way though and maybe once more. When you stir them, be sure to use a spoon and scoop up the juice and put it all over apples).  Then, allow to cool (don’t burn your tongue like I did!) and enjoy!

He look so annoyed to be in this picture, doesn’t he? But he’s so cute! I had to show him off.  We are coming up on 14 years of marriage and knowing each other for 27 years. So hard to believe.  I am especially thankful for him…

I know this looks not super pretty and kind of messy, but it was delicious!

I was going to eat them alone, which were great that way, but hey, it’s the holidays and they happen to have my favorite cheat, Artic Zero Maple Vanilla, at the grocery store here so I thought, what the heck!

I hope you are all looking forward to the next month as much as I am! Bring the holidays on!!

Chicken Parmesan is nothing new or exciting but I can always guarantee that everyone in my family will love it.  It’s a simple recipe and similar to the “fried” chicken I do, just add some cheese and sauce.

Here is what you need:

• 1/2 cup Trader Joe’s almond meal (I like the meal better than flour for this)
• 1 tsp, garlic powder
• 1 tsp, dried basil
• 1 tsp, onion powder
• 1 tsp celtic sea salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 1/2 lb chicken breast
• 1 tbsp ghee or butter
• mozzarella slices and some parmesan cheese
• Can of tomato sauce (add spices)  or some marinara sauce

Mix the first 6 ingredients above in a flat bowl and set aside.

Then, cut up chicken into strips and pat dry.  Now, heat up a large pan on say medium high and add about 1 tbsp of ghee or butter to melt. While the pan is heating (don’t let the oil over heat!), put each piece of chicken in the bowl of almond meal mix and make sure it’s covered all over.  Then carefully place each piece in the pan and cook until just brown, then flip.  Add more ghee or butter, if needed.

While the chicken is browning (it doesn’t take long),in a glass oven safe dish, pour some marinara (watch for added sugar if you use a pre-made sauce) or homemade tomato sauce on the bottom of the dish.

I don’t usually buy the pre-made sauces because I like to make my own, but I had heard that this one has only natural ingredients and no added sugar, so I thought it was worth a try.  It has a lot of olives, too, which we all love.

Okay, next, add the browned (but still raw in the middle) chicken over the sauce. Then cover with more sauce, and some mozzarella and parmesan, if you do dairy. It’s just as good without!

Now cook on 350 for about 10-15 minutes. I turned the over up to 450 for the last few minutes to brown the cheese.

I love that my kids are getting old enough to take pictures for me.  This is Alice’s first attempt. Not too bad I don’t think, sans the toes…

I meant to take a picture of the whole meal but it went too fast! Sorry! And again, sorry for any grammatical errors but this had to be a quick post.   I’m almost through with fall photography season! Woo hoooo!!