Quick Dinner and Meal Prep

We had a kind of low key Memorial Day. We'd had family over for some great smoked meats and delicious sides and desserts.

 John smoked some pork and chicken. He also made collard greens and I made cheesy grits. It was a very southern meal, that reminded us of our road trip last summer. 

I baked a pound cake! It was my first attempt and I have to thank my kitchen hero, Trisha Yearwood for the recipe.

For dessert, I put the pound cake into a strawberry shortcake trifle. I'd seen it on Valerie Bertinelli's cooking show. I may be watching too much Food Network.

It was a delicious day off from the diet. Now it is back to reality. We like to prep for the week. It helps keep me on track throughout the week.

First we pulled pasta out of the cupboard. We use these pastas because I am trying to avoid white flours. The edamame pasta also has 25 grams of protein per serving. The chickpea has 11 grams of protein. All good for my diet.

For my lunches for the week, I like something quick and easy. Since I eat at my desk and then walk on my lunch hour, I prefer something I don't have to heat up. So I shredded a couple of the chicken thighs that John smoked yesterday. These will go into my pasta salad for the week.

John cut up onions, peppers and mushrooms. I will put some of these raw into my lunch.

I started with the fusilli pasta.

Then we piled on the chicken and the veggies. We added a couple of tomatoes. A little light italian dressing and it was ready to go.  

The rest of the onions, mushrooms and peppers got saute'd in a little oil. I add them to my scrambled eggs in the morning to bulk them up and get more vitamins.

For dinner we had shrimp, Have I mentioned that I love shrimp? We have made shrimp scampi before, but we had to adjust it slightly. My food plan doesn't allow for any dairy during the week. So there goes butter and cheese, which are staples. But John is brilliant and he adjusted beautifully and I don't miss the dairy.

He grilled the shrimp in a little olive oil.

He took out the shrimp and added a little water to de-glaze the pan. You can also use chicken broth, but we used all ours in the grits and collard greens we made yesterday. Then he added garlic and red pepper flakes. Finally added the cooked edamame pasta.

The shrimp goes back in and it is all mixed up.

So with about an hour in the kitchen, I got veggies for my breakfast, pasta salad for my lunches and delicious dinner.

Chipotle Shrimp Tacos

The blog is back! Some how we took a little break that turned into an eight month break. Since then, we've been working harder on the "eating right" part of the blog.

I also started selling Pampered Chef, so when I found this recipe on their website, it fit all my diet needs and let me play with my new Pampered Chef toys.

We did change the turkey to shrimp, since our deep freeze is VERY full again, and we had shrimp near the top. John helped by defrosting the shrimp and peeling the shell off. Of course he saved all the shells for making some seafood stock later.

I got an onion and a green pepper. I only needed half of each.

I used my new Forged 5' Santoku Knife. It is made with forged steel and is our new favorite knife. It is super sharp and just handles really well. 

The food chopper is a tool we've had for a long time. It is great for chopping the pepper and onion very fine.

I used canola oil and added the peppers, onions and garlic.

While they softened I opened my cans. It took a jar of black beans, drained and rinse.

I added a tablespoon of chili powder and a teaspoon of cumin. This along with an 8 ounce can of tomato sauce and the black beans get added to the pepper mix.

They look ready to go!

I added the shrimp so they could cook for a couple of minutes.

Then we added the rest of the ingredients.

Everyone in the pool!

Finally a chopped chipotle in adobo sauce. John was teasing me all day because I kept calling it adobe sauce.

All stirred up.

While the shrimp finished cooking, John made a quick little guacamole to go along with the tacos. He learned a trick when we went to Mexico.  You look at the stem button on the avocado.

You flick it off and if you see green, it is perfect. We have never done this at the grocery store. John doesn't want to ruin it for the next person.

A little mash and some lime juice.

Finally a little salt and pepper to taste and it is ready to go.

I warmed the whole wheat tortillas in the microwave and plated it up.  It was great. Delicious smokey flavor and very hearty.

If you'd like to know how to get any of the great Pampered Chef products you see here, visit my website. I can also tell you how to host a Facebook party and earn free and discounted items!