Tag Archives: garlic

Lemon-Garlic Shrimp With Israeli Couscous & Broccoli

Last night I decided to make a recipe from my Weight Watcher Weekly handout and it was nothing short of delicious. It’ll definitely be added to the rotation for future meals! Therefore, I wanted to share it with you. I am always looking for more ways to get fish and shrimp onto our meal plans. We eat chicken A LOT! 😉

shrimp

Lemon-Garlic Shrimp with Couscous and Broccoli

{Weight Watchers Weekly ~ May 10-16, 2015}

4 cups low sodium chicken broth, divided

1 cup uncooked Israeli couscous {got it at Trader Joe’s}

4 cups broccoli florets {got it pre cut in a bag}

2 tsp EVOO, divided

1 pound large shrimp, peeled & deveined

1 large shallot, minced

2 tbsp minced garlic

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes, or to taste

1/4 cup dry white wine {I used Chardonnay}

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 tsp grated lemon zest

3 tbsp minced fresh basil {I used thyme}

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, bring 2 cups broth to a boil over high heat. Add couscous and broccoli to pan; cover, reduce heat to low, and cook until broccoli is tender and couscous is cooked, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Meanwhile, in a large nonstick sauce pan, heat 1 tsp oil over medium-high heat. Add shrimp and cook, flipping once, until lightly seared and cooked through, about 2-3 minutes per side; remove to a plate.

Add remaining teaspoon oil , shallot, garlic, and hot pepper fakes to pan; cook, stirring a few times, 1 minute. Add wine; stir and scrape up browned bits from the bottom and sides of pan. Add remaining 2 cups broth and increase heat to high; cook, stirring occasionally, until reduced to a thick sauce, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add shrimp to pan; stir in lemon juice, lemon zest and basil.

To serve, spoon shrimp over couscous-broccoli mixture. Yields about 3 1/2 oz shrimp and 1 cup couscous-broccoli mixture per serving. {4 servings, 9 pointsplus/serving}

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I hope you enjoy.

Happy Monday!

Meat & Potatoes ~ Must Be Father’s Day!

Jay wanted meat and potatoes for lunch and dinner yesterday, so that is what Jay got.

We had a little hiccup along the way and discovered his first lunch choice, Irv’s Burgers, is closed on Sundays. So we decided on runner up, Umami Burger in Los Feliz.

Fortunately we were seated immediately and got to ordering…

Tempura Onion Rings with Jalapeño Ranch & Sweet Potato Fries with Roasted Garlic Aioli

Jay had the Manly Burger {of course} ~ beer-cheddar cheese, smoke salt onion strings & bacon lardons

I had the SoCal Burger ~ butter lettuce, slow-roasted tomato, house spread, house-made american cheese & caramelized onions

For dessert we all shared a peanut butter and marshmallow fluff moon pie {OMG!} and a peanut butter chip ice cream sandwich. Gone in a flash!

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In between our two meat and potato meals, we visited The Grove where I made a little dent in the niiiice Crate & Barrel gift card Jay won in a raffle at work and he and the kids went to the  Apple store and fiddled with the iPod Touches and spotted Stevie Wonder!

{sorry Stevie, this is probably the worst ever picture of you…I mean not YOU, but the picture quality!}

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For din din, his choice was chicken fried steak and garlic roasted mashed potatoes with blue cheese. I made Sonoma salad for a little something green!

Thanks, P-Dub for helpin’ me out with this one. I had NO idea how to even begin to make this….

And there you have it…meat n taters with a little speck o green peeking out in the background ~ a MANLY meal!

{for the mashed potatoes I just boiled up three large taters that were peeled and cubed until fork tender. then i melted half a stick of butter and about 3/4 cup milk and added it to the potatoes. i roasted a whole head of garlic [cut about 1/4″ off the top, drizzle with EVOO, salt and pepper, put cut side down on a large piece of foil and wrap the garlic in the foil. roast at 350* for about an hour. the garlic will be soft and spreadable! squeeze out the cloves and add to the potatoes and butter/milk mixture]. use hand mixer to blend until smooth. also added a little blue cheese.}

I was a little nervous about this meal since it’s something I’ve never made and wouldn’t ever order at a restaurant…but it was quite good. The cube steaks were very lean and I used just a little canola oil to pan fry them. The pan gravy turned out very well, too, since gravy is not one of my strengths.

{side note: Pioneer Woman mentions that her favorite way to eat chicken fried steak is between two slices of soft white bread with mayo. In the recipe she mentions Miracle Whip and I had to laugh because, I too, can not stand the stuff! When I was about 6 years old, I vividly remember being at our neighbor’s house and the mom serving me some kind of sandwich with M.W. ….. I must have said I {didn’t care for} it because I recall her saying, “Oh, no honey, it’s not Miracle Whip!” UM, YES IT WAS! Remember that commercial where the guy goes to the store in the middle of the night because he ran out of it? Yeh. NO thanks! I’m not a picky eater at all, but if you really DON’T want me to come over for lunch, just serve sammies with [the whip] AND alfalfa sprouts. Blech!}

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I am addicted to making these gift caddies! This was the one for our hero…..

{a couple Seattle’s Best iced mochas, Peanut Toffee Buzz CLIF Bar [with caffeine!], Carmex 3-pack and some shower gel}

{a nice big Hefeweizen and an orange to float in it}

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It was the perfect day even though {we} forgot the camera, Irv’s was closed and it took 15 minutes to park at The Grove.

Here’s proof of the perfection…..

Have a great week!

Un{brie}lievably Amazing

When we lived in San Diego {and before kiddos!} we’d go wine tasting in Temecula quite a bit.

There was always one stop we had to make, but it wasn’t for the wine…it was for the sourdough baked brie at Maurice Car’rie Winery.

Oh. My. Word.

Amazing!

Their wines are nothing to write home about, but we’d go in and taste while we waited for our garlicky brie goodness {it takes like 20-30 minutes after you place your order to get your bread!}

So, naturally I think of this deliciousness from time to time and did a little Google search to find a recipe that sounded just like what I remembered:

Baked Brie With Roasted Garlic

{I got the LAST triple cream brie at Trader Joe’s!}

{Fresh out of the oven}

{Then cut into wedges, serve and get weak in the knees!}

Please make this.

Please.

$38 Burger Craving Averted

Last weekend Jay had a burger craving.

We usually use ground turkey for our burgers.

But…he wanted a “real” burger and I could tell that he was eluding to a trip to Red Robin.

My penny pinching self sprung into action and after a quick trip to Trader Joe’s, created a burger bash for less than a fifth of the cost of a trip to RR.

Mini Burger Buns: $1.19
One Pound 80/20 Ground Beef: $2.49
Garlic Fries: $2.69

(I had all the other ingredients already on-hand)

I decided to make Pioneer Woman sliders ~ caramelized onions, blue cheese and Tabasco mayo!

And the TJ’s garlic fries are just like the ones from Gordon Biersch….garlic chunks galore!

But, the best part was that the kids ate them, too and I didn’t have to play short order cook and prepare 15 different things!