I recently received another cookbook…this one is called The Fix-It & Enjoy It! Cookbook by Phyllis Pellman Good. It’s filled with tons of easy to do recipes – no pictures though, but Pellman Good makes up for it with very clear instructions.
As I was flipping through the book looking for ideas for dinner that wouldn’t involve a repeat of excessive heat in the kitchen I came across two delicious sounding recipes…the Tuscan-style pork ribs with balsamic glaze sounds awesome and will definitely be on the dinner table this weekend (but it does require baking so I need at least one day reprieve) and shrimp with ginger and lime that just needs a quick sauté – perfect!
So here’s the thing….it’s hard for me to just simply follow a recipe, I seem to always have to add something, change something…and this time was no different. Don’t get me wrong, the shrimp recipe is great all by itself and easy to follow for those intimidated in the kitchen. But what I love most is when I find a dish that can so easily become something else entirely. In the book, it is suggested to serve the sautéed shrimps over rice and ordinarily, that’s probably the way I would go, except today - for two reasons….1) I really only like shrimps over basmati rice and being on The South Beach Diet means brown or wild rice and I felt that was not the flavor fight I wanted in my mouth; plus 2) it’s too frickin’ hot to steam up my kitchen with rice after yesterday. No problem, I do have some baby spinach I could sauté with a little onion and garlic for the base.
But then I finally got hit with the creative bug…this, of course, at 9:30 in the morning, while the house was still cool! What if I sautéed the shrimps now and used them cold in a salad for supper?! So that’s exactly what I did – a quick 15 minutes for the shrimps to sit in a marinade and an even quicker sauté because I used medium sized (who are they kidding – in my world I call these small, since I love jumbo or bigger than jumbo shrimp, but I digress) and a taste for seasoning. The taste was subtly Asian and slightly sweet which gave me the idea for an Asian-style vinaigrette.
I actually cooked up the entire 1 pound/1/2 kilo of shrimp thinking I would have enough to make some shrimp salad sandwiches in pita pockets for lunches….silly me, who am I kidding - we ate the entire salad which included every last shrimp! Oh well, shrimp sandwiches will have to wait for the next time around.
I’d love to hear how you get creative with a recipe.
Menu
Related links: Food and Drink recipes South Beach Diet
2 comments:
Oh, that looks delicious and it's a great idea for beating the heat!
Cookbook with no pictures, hey, that's for me. Love the look of the shrimp and what a good idea to get the cooking out of the way early.
Bad luck about the sammies, but I know where you're coming from!
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