Tag Archives: lemon

Food

Lemon-Garlic Shrimp With Israeli Couscous & Broccoli

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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}

*****

I hope you enjoy.

Happy Monday!

Food

Sweetart

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I’ve been aware of cake balls/cake pops for awhile now. My friend, Alisah, in Texas told me about cake balls a couple years ago…I had to literally talk myself out of making them. I would say I did pretty well…

However, making cake pops {just cake balls on a stick} was on our Summer 2011 To-do List and so that is what we did over the weekend!

I had my first cake pop a couple months ago and was underwhelmed. The inside was WAY to gooey for how I imagined cake pops to be. I wanted to make sure and strike the perfect balance between cake and frosting without them being too gooey or, for that matter, too dry and crumbly. I’d seen several recipes, but Wendy’s tutorial was the best! Humor is a must when you’re making these things….

I decided to make Lemon Lime Cake Pops

{the perfect combination of sweet & tart!}

I started with this:

{just prepare and bake cake as directed on box. the only changes I made were adding the zest of one lime to the mix and using the juice of one lime as part of the water measurement. I baked in a 9X13 pan, let cool and then crumbled into a large bowl}

Then I added some of this:

{Duncan Hines has a lemon frosting but I thought that may be a little too much so I decided on classic white. I also added a little more fresh lime zest to the crumbled up cake before mixing in the frosting. I used about 3/4 of container [this was the smaller size, NOT the taller one]. Just stir with a spoon and the mixture will come together and you will see that it becomes “rollable”}

Stick it into the fridge for about 30 minutes before rolling into balls.

I used this to help with the sizing:

{Once I scooped out the cake mixture and dropped it on some parchment paper, I hand rolled into smooth balls and placed them back onto the parchment paper and back into the fridge for about 30 more minutes while I got the coating ready}

Take a bag of these:

{You have to be REALLY careful when heating these in the micro…I screwed up the first bag! 30 seconds on half power, stir, 15 seconds on 50% power, stir, and repeat in 15 second [50% power] intervals until smooth. Dip your lollipop stick into just a bit of white chocolate and insert into cake ball. The chocolate acts as a glue. You now have a naked cake pop! Once you have all the sticks inserted, use a spoon to coat the pops with the chocolate. This is the time consuming part. For some reason these Hershey chips were not as runny as I would have liked them to be…I thought I was going to be able to dip the pops into the chocolate and get a nice smooth coating…not so, but still didn’t look too bad. Next time I’ll use Wilton candy melts…I think they melt down a little smoother. Place your newly dressed pops onto parchment paper and douse with sanding sugar, jimmies, or sprinkles. You’re done!}

There was one point in this process when I swore I would never make these again, but once I popped one in my mouth, that all changed. I will definitely be passing plates of these out whenever I do make them because they are way too dangerous to have in the house.

Looking forward to creating different combinations for Halloween, Fall, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, etc.

How about a spice cake mix, cream cheese frosting and butterscotch chip coating? Wonder if those would melt down nicely.

Or chocolate cake mix, chocolate frosting and Reese’s peanut butter chips?

Strawberry cake, cream cheese frosting and white chocolate coating for a girly baby shower or Valentine’s Day?

Cake batter cake pops with yellow cake, rainbow sprinkles mixed in with the frosting then coated in yellow candy melts and showered with more rainbow sprinkles?

The cake pop possibilities are endless…….

Happy Tuesday!

Linking up over at Lady Behind The Curtain

Linking up a day early over at Sugar and Dots.

Food

Lemony Crispix

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When I saw this recipe, I knew it was going to come alive in my kitchen soon.

We make Puppy Chow every Christmas. However, this offers the perfect tangy twist for springtime.

It really is like eating a lemon bar, without all the fuss.


Pick up some festive Easter or Spring cellophane bags, fill ’em with lemony goodness and share with friends & neighbors.

Don’t forget to save some for the Easter Bunny!

*****

{The recipe calls for 9 cups of cereal. I used the whole box of Crispix ~ about 12 cups. All other measurements were left the same.}

Float My Boat

These Are A Few Of My Favorite {Springs}

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Seersucker Pants:

{via}

Cadbury Mini Eggs:

{via}

Daffodils:

{via}

Orange Flats:

{via}

Ruffled Scarves:

{via}

Filling Easter Baskets:

{via}

Lemon Chex Mix:

{via}

Simple, Old-fashioned Egg Dye:

Open Windows:

{via}

Floral Headbands:

{via}

*****

So far our Spring has been a wet one…seven inches of rain on Sunday!

Looking forward to opening the windows and feeling that breeze again.

Spring Havaianas Giveaway coming up real soon….

Happy Tuesday!

Food, Friends

Tricked Out Tuna

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If you love tuna as much as I do, then you may be looking for some new ways to take it up a notch.

My good friend, Nancy, makes hers with lemon and dill…seriously delish!

I like to do a sweet and spicy version with crushed pineapple, red peppers and wasabi mayo. If you like wasabi and you haven’t discovered TJ’s Wasabi Mayo yet, go check it out.

And finally, the hubby has his own twist on tuna!

Lemon Dill Tuna Salad

1 can albacore tuna in water, drained and flaked

mini dill pickles, finely chopped

mayo (amount to your preference)

Squeeze of lemon

A couple shakes of dill weed (or fresh)

Mix together and serve on sourdough or by itself on a bed of lettuce.

Pineapple Wasabi Tuna Salad

1 can albacore tuna in water, drained and flaked

red pepper, finely chopped

crushed pineapple plus a tad bit of the juice

Wasabi mayo (amount to your preference)

This is great on multigrain bread (I like Milton’s)

Protein Packed Tuna Salad

(Jay’s recipe)

1 can albacore tuna in water, drained and flaked

1 hard-boiled egg, chopped

Red onion, minced

Sweet pickle relish

Celery salt

Fresh groud pepper

Mayo (of course!)

All three are great with a thin slice of Swiss cheese, too.

Today I had the Lemon Dill on a nice big bed of Spring mix & veggies.

Couldn’t post this without mentioning Jessica Simpson…(“is this chicken?”)

Coming up this weekend…Slow cooked French Dip Sliders & “Everything But…” Chopped Salad