Southwest Style Shrimp

If you look through my food in this blog, there would be one thing that you'll notice - the recipes are no-fuss ones that are quick to make.

Well, this one is not an exception. This whole dinner will take you no more than 30 minutes to prepare, provided that your shrimps have already been shelled and deveined.

This recipe takes on a southwest inspiration. It calls for chili powder. If you're not into spicy food, I suggest that you go easy on this spice. However, I guarantee you that despite the amount of chili powder required in this dish, it is not as spicy as you would expect it to be. And, the black bean and corn salad also balances the heat pretty well.

You may serve this with toasted pita wedges as I did. Or I'd imagine that yellow rice would go well with this too.

Black Bean, Corn & Shrimp Salad
(Yields 4 servings)
1 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1-1/2 lb med shrimp, peeled and deveined
Cooking spray
2 tbsp fresh lime juice, divided
1-2/2 c frozen whole kernel corn, thawed
1/4 c bottled salsa
1/4 c chopped fresh cilantro
1 (15-oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained

1. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat
2. Combine first 3 ingredients in a large bowl. Add shrimp, toss to coat.
3. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add shrimp, saute 3 minutes or until done. Add 1 tbsp lime juice. Remove shrimp from pan. Add corn to pan, saute 1 minute. Stir in salsa, cilantro, and beans, cook 30 seconds or unti thoroughly heated.
4. Stir in 1 tbsp lime juice.
5. Serve shrimp over bean mixture.

Lets Do The Salsa!

I'm not talking about "Salsa" the dance, though I wish that my hubby and I can do the Salsa like the sexy dance that it is! LOL....

"Salsa" is also the spanish word for sauce, or it could also mean a mix of ingredients, usually involving tomato. I've decided to make a little salsa to accompany our tequila-lime flavored chicken wings. So, lime would be the common ingredient in our dinner tonight. For my version of salsa, here is what I did:

I juiced 1/2 of a lime and whisked in about 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil (more or less, I just eye-balled it), salt and pepper to taste. I let the vinaigrette sit for a few minutes. In a separate bowl, I seeded and diced 2 med. sized vine-riped tomatoes, diced 1/2 softball sized red-onion, seeded and diced 1 piece jalapeño pepper, chopped 2 tablespoons cilantro. Then I tossed the the tomato mixture with the vinaigrette. Adjusted the seasoning.The salsa was a breeze to make, yet it made a perfect pair to our chicken wings. The cilantro really gives this dish a fresh taste, and the crispy but a little spicy jalapeño was a good combination. The salsa served as our salad, but I can imagine that this would be good with some tortilla chips as well.

Note: Jalapeño pepper is very hot, and its heat lies in the seeds and membranes. If you want a more spicy salsa, then you can leave them whole and just dice the whole thing up. Be sure not to touch your eyes while working with the pepper. And don't forget to wash your hands afterwards!

Tex-Mex Fun

My idea of a fun meal is something that requires the most minimal of cooking. And tacos fit the description. Ground meat is really the only thing you need to cook for this dish, and it doesn't take long to do so. Since the rest is basically salad, it's a no-sweat meal. Yeah, there's a bit of chopping/dicing involved, but with just the two of us, I don't need to chop a whole lot.

Tacos, I'd say is good to eat if you're watching your diet, that is, if you don't add tons of sour cream and cheese in it. It is a very versatile food in that you can easily substitute the ingredients to make the dish healthier, or simply to suit your preference. For instance, you can use whole lettuce leaves instead of the taco shells. That there will save you some calories. Or you can omit the sour cream and just use salsa. That would definitely be healthier.
My husband wanted ground beef this time around, but we've tried this with ground chicken and turkey too. We even had tacos one time using the vegetarian "meat" (it's made of tofu and alaskan fish meat - but it tasted like beef, I swear).

I have the taco seasoning that I bought from the grocery but due to the sodium content in it, I used only about a teaspoon of it for the meat. I also added garlic, onion and green peppers , a dash of worcesteshire sauce, red pepper flakes, freshly ground black pepper and Emeril's Essence seasoning to the meat for added flavor.
For the veggies, I chopped lettuce, tomatoes and seedless cucumbers. I also added diced fresh avocadoes in it (instead of guacamole, which is healthier). Just a dallop of sour-cream light, salsa and a bit of cheddar cheese... and that's it... an easy and fun Tex-mex meal for us!