Marinated Shrimp

Marinated Shrimp
Serves around 4 as a heavy appetizer, 7 as a light appetizer

1 pound shrimp, steamed, peeled and deveined
2 lemons, 1 thinly sliced, juice of the other (around 3 tablespoons)
1 can jumbo black olives, sliced in half
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 Tbs fresh chopped parsley
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 Tbs red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1 bay leaf
Salt & pepper

Place shrimp, sliced lemon & onions, black olives and bay leaf in a gallon sized zip lock bag.  Combine the oil, lemon juice, vinegar, mustard & salt and pepper in a small bowl and lightly whisk together.  Poor the liquid over the shrimp and then sprinkle with parsley.  Refrigerate for at least 8 hours - 24 even better, turning the bag over every several hours.
Serve the shrimp in a bowl and then place that bowl inside another bowl filled with ice (fancy cooler). Don't forget to have appetizer picks and a small dish to dispose of them unless you are providing forks with your appetizers (I am very careful with these because of animals and children - I always use a thicker plastic pick rather than wooden toothpicks).

Healthy - Salmon with spinach, mushrooms and tomato

Simple, healthy weeknight dinner is all I am going to say.

Salmon with Spinach, Mushrooms, and Tomato
Serves 2, easily double or triple
2 salmon fillets
1/2 cup cremini mushrooms, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
2 cups of baby spinach, torn
2 tablespoons of roasted tomato dressing
Salt & Pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Place the fillets in a shallow baking dish, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt & pepper.  In a bowl mix spinach, mushrooms & tomato, toss with the dressing and touch of pepper.  Spoon veggies over the salmon and bake for 35 minutes.  Serve over brown rice & top with a touch of Parmesan cheese.  Enjoy!

While we are being healthy I will introduce my new craze, fruit infused water.  For Christmas my husband gave me a apothecary style beverage dispenser & I have loved making different flavors of water for us.

Lemon with frozen cranberries

Cucumber & Lemon

Orange & Cranberries

The beginnings of Orange & Lemon

These have all worked well and keep for 2 or so days on the cold counter.  Strawberry & Kiwi was wonderful but not good for more than 24 hours.  Anything to drink more water!

Stuffed Baby Peppers...

This dish inspired me while I was running 6 miles on the treadmill in May.  Yes I watch Food Network as I workout!!!  I admit it & love it!.  Anyway gorgeous Giada was prepping her version of stuffed baby peppers and my mind started spinning.   She used peas, my husband doesn't do peas - I'll add spinach & turkey bacon rather than pancetta.  Anyway here is my version of Baby Stuffed Peppers

1/2 onion thinly diced & caramelized
3 slices of turkey bacon, crisply cooked & diced
3/4 cup of part skim ricotta
1/4 cup Parmesan & Romano Cheese
1 box frozen chopped spinach, thawed
Lemon Juice
Hot Sauce
Salt & Pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
20 sweet baby peppers
Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Add cooked onions. bacon, and spinach to mixing bowl - toss.  Add ricotta, cheese, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, & hot sauce to mixture.  Toss together. Remove tops from peppers and ribs from the inside.  Fill peppers with the spinach mixture with your  fingers & ensure mixture is in entire pepper.  Line in a baking dish and coat outside of peppers with PAM.  Bake 35- 40 minutes.  Serve & enjoy!  This is really a great side dish or even appetizer.  Just note it does take prep time.  I recommend if you are serving to anyone other than your family - Fix the day before (or at least before you get dressed) - will store perfectly in fridge cover in plastic wrap - just bring to room temp (about and hour) before putting in the oven.

Grilled Broccoli

So simple, so yummy.  This was a recipe my best friend from high school and I used to fix all the time.  Honestly I still prepare it many times a month.  If you have a picky eater in the house this will win them over, I promise.

Fresh broccoli bunches, 2 servings per large bunch
Italian dressing, regular, light (I use) or fat free


Cut the broccoli into florets, watch the size b/c you don't want them small enough to fall through the grill.  Toss with Italian dressing (enough to coat) and allow it to sit for an hour or longer, turning occasionally.  Simply grill over medium high heat for about 4& 1/2  minutes per side.  Watch closely, but allow it to char a bit.  Remove from the grill and add back to the bowl you marinated it in and toss with a bit more dressing.  Serve with a touch of Parmesan (if you want to - Mike Butler avoid this step).  Yum and even wonderful cold the next day!  Enjoy! I normally grill these while my chicken or steaks are resting.

Spiders have taken over our kitchen chandelier!

Fingerling Potatoes with Thyme

Simple and delicious.  I came across this new potato recipe, and was inspired to make some changes.  This has become my favorite potato recipe.  You can make it as healthy or as decadent as you want.  Also don't be discouraged if you can't find fingerling potatoes you can use new potatoes, red skinned or white rounds.

Fingerling Potatoes with Thyme
1 1/2 to 2 lbs of fingerling potatoes
4 cups low sodium chicken broth
6 sprigs of thyme
Mediterranean Sea Salt & Pepper
*This is best prepped in a cast iron skillet

Wash potatoes and cut the larger potatoes in half so they are all about the same size. Place as a single layer in the skillet and add the thyme sprigs, crank of pepper, & 2 cups of broth.  Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.  Allow the broth to evaporate (30 minutes), add another cup and allow to evaporate (30 minutes)  then add the final cup, again allowing it to evaporate.   Add a crank of pepper & sea salt. Remove the thyme sprigs (the leaves have fallen off at this point) and transfer to your serving dish.

At this point these are very healthy and delicious.
The following are the things I have added: caramelized onions, sherried onions and mushrooms, caramelized onions with Parmesan cheese and sour cream & every combination plus butter.

Approximate cooking time is 1 & 1/2 hours, but please keep an eye on them - you may want to keep extra broth on hand just to be safe.

Fingerling Potato