Monday, January 14, 2013

Quick, Easy & Delicious

You wanted quick and easy, well I have quick, easy and delicious!!! As requested by some of my fellow bloggers I am going to provide you with a recipe of a random dish I thought up of during my drive home from work one day.  Most days during my hour drive home from Clearwater I am usually thinking what am I going to have for dinner?  Do I really want to cook or do I really want to make it easy on myself and go towards my default of a salad?  I decided I think I'm willing to cook but as long as it doesn't take long to prep and cook everything.  


The first thought I had was I have shrimp in the freezer and that won't take long to defrost in some water and peel.  Then I realized what veggies I have in my fridge a red pepper and whole small to medium sized onion.  The next decision I made was what other veggies that I wanted to add to the dish, spinach and edamame, and what to serve it on top of, brown rice.  I cooked the shrimp and veggies with some Cajun seasoning that I absolutely love.  

Normally when I cook for one person and one meal, I always make extra for my lunch the next day and for Ryan to have for lunch or dinner the next day as well.

Here are the ingredients:

1 red pepper, sliced then cut in half
1 small to medium sized onion, quartered then sliced
1 package of fresh baby spinach
1/2 bag of frozen edamame beans
Frozen shrimp, defrosted and peeled (decide yourself how much you want depending on size of shrimp)
Cajun seasoning
Chicken broth
Olive oil
Brown rice, instant or pasta

Start cooking the instant brown rice/pasta according to the package before cooking the shrimp and veggies.

Mix some Cajun seasoning to shrimp before cooking.  Saute the shrimp in some olive oil.  Remove from the pan and set aside.

In the same pan add a little bit more olive oil and saute the onion then set aside.  Then repeat for the red pepper.  Then cook the frozen edamame beans and then add fresh spinach after a minute.  I mixed some chicken broth and Cajun seasoning together and poured it over the edamame and spinach.  Once the edamame beans and spinach is all cooked add shrimp, onion and red pepper back to the pan and season with Cajun seasoning.  Once well seasoned serve on top of the brown rice.  

Or if you are making this with pasta put the pasta in the pan and season with Cajun seasoning until everything is well seasoned.

Depending on personal preference you can have this with white rice, regular pasta, brown rice, or whole wheat pasta.  It is up to you!

I decided to make this with pasta.



There are good amount of dishes that I make where I do not follow a recipe and throw together various ingredients that I think would take good together.  One of my favorites is making a stir-fry with lots of different veggies to make it very colorful and add some tofu to it and use a sauce that I was introduced to by my boss.  I know that not everyone is fond of the thought of eating tofu but you can put shrimp, beef, chicken, pork, or a combination.

7 comments:

  1. I love edamame and shrimp so am looking forward to trying this recipe-thanks!

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    1. You're welcome, I hope you enjoy it!

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    2. I love this recipe! Another one of my favorites that's super easy to make is stone-ground mustard on salmon served cold with toast or on a salad. I make my salmon similar to this recipe the day before I want to eat it and refrigerate it over night.
      http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/mustard_crusted_salmon.html

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  2. Hold on...did you say you made up this recipe on the fly? That is unbelievable to me! The last time I did that, we ended up ordering take-out. :) This sounds so delicious, and perfect for the cooking-challenged, like me! I might give this a try tomorrow.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I did. I normally have that conversation in my head during my drive which sounds really weird but normal for me! Let me know what you think. We can always do a cooking lesson after I build my new home and have a gas stove!

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  3. Would it be weird if I tried it without the shrimp and chicken broth? It looks good and not to difficult. I am not much for cooking normally.

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    Replies
    1. I don't know how tofu would taste with this but I'm sure vegetable stock would work well as a substitute to chicken broth.

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