Recipe: Kickin' Grilled Shrimp

This recipe actually originated with Skinnytaste.com so you may have seen this on my Pinterest board for Skinny Meals. I have been eyeing it up for a while now and finally convinced Mike to buy some shrimp. He's not a huge seafood eater so I hardly ever get to have fish or shrimp and I was stoked when he said ok.

As usual, I changed the recipe around just a little to fit our palate, but this is soooo delicious you have to try it!!

Kickin' Grilled Shrimp

INGREDIENTS:

2 tbps. light mayo

2 tbsp. sweet Thai chili sauce

2 tbsp green onion, chopped fine

sriracha to taste

1 lb. large raw shrimp, deveined and shelled

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat your grill. Combine mayo, chili sauce, sriracha, and green onions. We did these on skewers, so if you're using wooden skewers soak in some water. You won't have to do this if you have metal ones. Lightly oil your grill and add shrimp. brush on some of the mayo mixture. Cook about 6 minutes or until light pink. Turn to other side and repeat. Pull shrimp off the grill and brush on more mixture. Serve and enjoy!!!

Recipe: Taco Salad

I know, I know...it's been almost a month since I've posted and I'm really sorry. Truth is, I haven't kept up with either blog that well lately. And, there's really no excuse except I'm lazy.

I was talking with someone recently about how it seems like I'm so busy, but I'm really not at all. So, I'm not sure why I can never find time to do anything. And, and I don't mean this in a mean way, my blog is last when it comes to priorities with my family. Even though it's just Mike and I, if I ever felt like he was upset about me blogging or really thought it took up too much time, I would stop.

But, I'm here today with my new food craving. Taco salads. Mike and I have tacos or burritos about once a week. Lately I have been craving some taco salads and thought of a cool way to do the actual tortilla bowl, so we went for it a few weeks ago. It was delicous!! And Mike was convinced he would never be full by it, and would have to have 2, but he was wrong!! They were so filling, and it's all great stuff to eat, so I figured I would post the recipe.

Taco Salad

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. extra lean ground beef

1 pkg. low sodium taco seasoning

3-4 burrito sized flour tortillas

shredded cheese

salsa

lettuce

onions

corn

tomatoes

sour cream

and any other toppings of your choice

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375º and spray two cereal bowls with nonstick spray. Brown ground beef and season according to package directions. Set aside. Chop up toppings and other ingredients.

Gently push tortillas down into the cereal bowls. You may have to fold some edges to make them fit. If you have a slightly bigger bowl that will work just as well. Place in oven for about 10 minutes or until the edges seem to be crispy. Take tortillas out of the bowl and place bottoms up on rack until bottom gets crispy.

Take bowls out and fill with ingredients. 

Enjoy!!

Recipe: Egg Cupcakes

I have seen these around Pinterest for a while and decided to give them a try a few weeks ago. I'm so happy I did. They have now become part of my Meal Prep Sunday and you can switch it up every week to make it less redundant. 

And...the recipe is super easy!!

Egg Cupcakes (makes 12)

INGREDIENTS:

12-14 eggs (depends on how full you pour)

1/2 medium onion, diced

1 green pepper, diced

breakfast meat

1 cup shredded cheese of your choice

salt

pepper

garlic powder

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 425º and grease a 12-cup cupcake pan. If you wish, saute your peppers and onions and cook meat if necessary. Wisk together eggs and add seasonings of your choice. Pour eggs into cupcake pan filling about 3/4 of the way. Sprinkle some onions, peppers, and meat into each "cupcake". Then, add cheese. Baking will vary. When cupcakes seem firm, remove and sprinkle with salt and pepper if desired. Set on cooling rack to cool.

Strawberry Delight

My mother-in-law makes this for us a lot. She always has a dessert when we come over for dinner, but she knows we're trying to keep it healthy-er so this is our way of satisfying our sweet tooth while not necessarily compromising our "diet".

Last year at one of our staff Goodie Days I made this. It's so quick and easy all I had to do ahead of time was cut up the angel food cake and strawberries. Then when I got to school I assembled it and VOILA! Easy, healthy, sweet.

Strawberry Delight

INGREDIENTS:

2 quarts ripe strawberries, quartered

1 angel food cake, diced

1 tub light vanilla yogurt (I use Dannon Light and Fit)

DIRECTIONS:

Layer ingredients in a trifle dish or bowl as follows: angel food cake, strawberries, yogurt, repeat.

It's as easy as that. 

quick tip: I like to quarter my strawberries the night before and stir in just a tiny bit of Sweet and Low to marinate.

Fresh Homemade Salsa

First off, don't forget to stop by tomorrow because we have a giveaway!!!

I'm IN LOVE with this salsa. It is super easy to make and I always get a ton of compliments on it. If you like fresh chunky salsa you will love this! And it isn't hard to make at all, just a lot of chopping. And if you wanted it a little less chunky it would be even easier because all you would have to do is put the veggies in the blender and voila!

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 small red onion, diced

1/2 small white or yellow onion, diced

1garlic clove, chopped

1 lime, zest and juice

1 tsp olive oil

1/4 red pepper, diced

1/4 green pepper, diced

1/4 orange pepper, diced

1 jalapeno, diced

4 roma tomatoes, diced

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

1 cup frozen corn

1 can black beans, drained

salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Dice the onion and garlic. Put it in a bowl with the oil and juice and zest of the lime. Let sit while you chop the rest of the ingredients and mix together. Serve immediately or refrigerate overnight.

If you choose to use the blender, rough chop all the veggies (minus the corn) and throw them in the blender with the juice and zest of the lime, the oil, salt, and the cilantro. Then blend until the consistency you desire. Add corn and black beans.

Ugh, I love this stuff!! We add it to everything!! My most favorite is mixing it in an omelet. But I also love just eating it on it's own with some chips!! YUM!!

Skinny Copycat Chick-Fil-A Nuggets

I am in love with Chick-Fil-A. The closest one, however, is up the highway for 15 minutes so we tend to stick to the one delivery place in our town. haha. So, when i found this recipe for copycat Chick-Fil-A nuggets I knew I had to try it. Not to mention it was a SKINNY RECIPE!!

The only problem was it called for pickle juice and I had just thrown away my last jar. However, finishing off a jar of pickles is never a problem for me so the next time we headed to the store I was sure to pick up a jar! (Always save the juice!! If you don't want the copycat chicken nuggets, pickle juice is always good for pickle shots!! pickle shots = pickle juice + vodka)

While I was preparing the nuggets, super easy by the way, Mike looked up the recipe for copycat Chick-Fil-A sauce and we tried that out, too!! Yes, I had mac-and-cheese. I have been craving it, but I didn't feel guilty at all. Especially because one serving of these nuggets (4) is only 149 calories!! For full nutritional info see the original recipe at Skinny Mom.

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. boneless chicken breasts

1/2 cup pickle juice

1 egg

1 egg white

1/2 cup milk

1 cup flour

2 tbsp powdered sugar

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp celery salt

1/2 tsp dried basil

coconut oil (really any oil)

DIRECTIONS:

Cut chicken breast into large nugget size pieces and marinate in the pickle juice for 30-60 minutes. The chicken will shrink just a little when cooking.

Put oil in skillet and heat. The temp should be about 350º. While that is heating up, mix wet ingredients together in a bowl. Then, mix dry ingredients into a separate bowl. 

Place chicken into the wet ingredients. Dip each piece into the dry ingredients and place in the skillet. Cook on each side about 3 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. 

Remove chicken from oil and let dry on a paper towel covered plate. Serve and enjoy!!

Ooops and here's the link to the copycat Chick-Fil-A sauce!!

On another note: Hopelessly Ever After is having it's monthly Thirsty Thursday linkup on Thursday!! For those interested the theme this month is Mardi Gras!! You can link up anything entertaining related: decorations, dranks (alcoholic drinks), recipes, anything I can use at a Mardi Gras partaaaayy!! Just head on over to Hopelessly Ever After and link up your post!