Kristine's Baked Shrimp Scampi

Behold! My first recipe! Nevermind that it's with a protein that I honestly don't like to touch... it's still tasty.

Baked Shrimp Scampi on a Bed of Linguine

Baked Shrimp Scampi
Ingredients

• 3/4 - 1lb large shrimp (prawns
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons white wine (the dryer the better)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 - 2 shallots, minced
• 4 teaspoons garlic, minced
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• dash of red pepper flakes (or more or less depending on how spicy you want the dish)
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• Cooked pasta (recommened: angel hair) [optional]

Right when the shrimps come out of the oven, they should look kinda like this!

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Make sure that the rack is in the center of the oven.
2. If your shrimp are not already cleaned, do so. Leave the tails on.
3. Make sure your shrimp are dry and then put them in a bowl. Add 3Tbsp olive oil, 2Tbsp white wine, and 2tsp salt and mix. Leave them in the bowl while you do step 4.
4. Melt the 1 1/2 sticks of butter. In a smallish mixing bowl, add the butter you just melted, the minced shallot, 4tsp minced garlic, 1 tsp thyme, a dash of red pepper flakes (or more... just keep in a mind that a little goes a long way), 2Tbsp lemon juice, and 1/2tsp salt. Mix together well.
5. Arrange the shrimp in a glass or ceramic baking dish so that they are next to each other but not overlapping or stacked. Pour the remaining olive oil and wine over the shrimp. Pour the butter mixture over the shrimp. The liquid shouldn't come over the top of the shrimp.
6. Bake in your preheated oven for 10 - 12 minutes until shrimps are cooked (pinkish).
7. Place shrimp over a bed of cooked pasta. Ladle the butter sauce from the baking dish over the shrimp and the pasta. Serve hot.

My First Bento!

In an effort to eat more healthily, use more left-overs, pack food more efficiently, and in general be kinda nifty, I've decided I'm going to try making bento boxes for lunches! This first one was for Curtis to take with him to work.

I am ridiculously pleased with myself.

Rice balls
- white rice (left over from dinner)
- chicken teriyaki (left over from dinner)
- sprinkled with goma sio
To make the rice balls, I got my hands wet and scooped up some rice into my left hand. With my right hand, I pushed in some of the left over chicken teriyaki (cut up into little pieces) into the rice. Then I tried to fold the rice around the chicken teriyaki, but ended up having to pick up more rice with my right hand and kinda smoosh it on. Then I rolled it around in my hands (keeping my hands wet really helped keep the rice from sticking) until it was smooth and none of the chicken poked out. Then I sprinkled the goma sio (black sesame seeds and salt) over the top of the rice ball.

Veggies
- snap peas
- carrots
- grape tomatoes (which, I have been informed, are gross)

Interested in bentos? Check out http://justbento.com

Lamb Chops with Greek Yogurt & Mint Sauce

From WeightWatchers New Complete Cookbook
"Lamb Chops with Yogurt-Mint Sauce" page 202

This was my first attempt at both lamb chops and broiling. The lamb turned out a little less crispy on the outside and a little more done on the inside than I would like, but still delicious! Clean up was also super easy; I'll definitely be broiling lamb chops again.

Lamb chop with Greek yogurt & mint sauce

The sauce was also really easy, though I had to use the food processor which can be kinda hard to clean. It doesn't help that I'm super scared of accidentally loping off one of my fingers since the blades for the food processor are so sharp. Crisp and light, the sauce paired really nicely with the lamb.

I used plain Greek yogurt instead of plain regular yogurt. I wasn't able to find a small container of plain, non-fat yogurt and since I almost never eat yogurt I didn't want to buy one of the large tubs. I was very pleased with how it turned out.

Brown Lentil & Pasta Soup

From "Perfect Pasta" published by Parragon Publishing
"Brown Lentil & Pasta Soup" page 14

I was not overwhelmingly happy with this dish. The whole thing turned a sort of muddy brown color (the mint didn't keep any of its green and both the broth and the pasta turned the same shade of brown as the lentils). I was unable to find the canned lentils that the recipe calls for and used dried lentils. When I looked up online and on the packaging how to cook them, everything I found indicated that I should just throw them in the soup and let them cook in there... unfortunately, they used up all the broth and then some to cook and they took a very long time. By the time the lentils were done, the pasta was mushy.

Tasted like Navy Bean soup, but was much more difficult. Might as well make Navy Bean soup...

French Onion Salisbury Steak

From free "Cuisine at Home" sample magazine
Page 34 - 35

This is one of my favorite dishes. I'd never made it before, but my mom has and I've always loved it.

I used 80/20 ground beef (the butcher said it was the same thing as ground chuck)... this lead to a VERY fatty dish. Not to say it wasn't tasty... it was just very fatty. After refrigerating it, it was really obvious how much fat was in it because it all clumped together in an orange-ish (because of the beef broth) film. It all melted in the microwave though! Next time, I'll probably sacrifice a little bit of the flavor for leaner beef.

With crock pot mac & cheese on the side... yummmm.

Crock Pot Macaroni & Cheese

From Slow Cooker Revolution by America's Test Kitchen
"Macaroni and Cheese" page 239

First off, I would like to say that the America's Test Kitchen cookbooks are probably my favorite to work with. The recipes are always good, there are lots of helpful tips (such as which brand of cheddar cheese works the best with this recipe), and no matter how intricate the recipe may be, they are always do-able with the easy to understand instructions.

I thought the macaroni and cheese was delicious, if wanting a bit of salt. Curtis thought that it lacked a little flavor. I am not sure if he wanted a sharper cheddar or a stronger cheese... but I'll probably make this again. It was unbelievably easy. Mix in a pot, pour into crock pot, wait, eat.

Black Bean Burgers

From Double Delicious!: Good Simple Food for Busy, Complicated Lives
Page 111

Not that successful.

The burgers tasted "okay" at best. They didn't really ever fry so they were just a warm goopy blob on the plate. Curtis said they were okay wrapped up in a tortilla with salsa and cheese and extra onion, but as a burger for dinner, they didn't really stand up to the test. Disappointing.

Turd Burger.

Made marginally more appealing with corn bread. Marginally.