.bang bang shrimp.

Have you ever had one of those nights when you just don't want to cook? This was one of those nights but I knew my husband would kill me if I suggested take out (again), plus he was working late and would be hungry when he got home.

I didn't want to slave for hours, nor did I have that kind of time, so I checked the pantry, freezers and fridge and found some ingredients I knew would work well together. The wonderful thing about this recipe, is that it is QUICK! You can have this made in 30 minutes - no joke.

Here's the list of ingredients I used:

• Shrimp


• Garlic


• Gingerroot (not dried ginger you use in baking)


• Red bell pepper


• Green onion


• Cilantro


• Chili oil


• Oil


• Red pepper flakes


• Coconut milk


• Fish sauce


• Soy sauce


• Sugar

How to prepare:

While the shrimp are thawing in the water, put 2 cups rice in a medium pot with 3 1/2 cups water. Cover with a lid and put on to boil. When it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to simmer and set the timer for 20 minutes.

Once the shrimp are thawed, drain well and pat dry with paper towels. The shrimp I use are not small but not huge. I also buy deveined shrimp that have the shell on, but for this recipe, I took off all the shells except for the tail because I just like how it looks. ;)

-Mince 2 cloves garlic and grate 1 tsp fresh gingerroot.

-Slice up one red bell pepper

-Slice 1 1/2 bunches of green onion on the diagonal (slicing on the diagonal makes it look fancy!)

-Roughly chop some cilantro

Heat a skillet or a wok. I use a wok but use what you have. When hot, add 2-3 Tbsp oil and a couple shakes of chili oil. I went a little too crazy with the chili oil which resulted in a pretty spicy dish, so I'm warning you, if you don't want this too hot, use just a little oil, or omit it altogether.

Add the ginger and garlic and saute for 30 seconds to release their fragrance. Add the red bell pepper and saute for a couple minutes. Then add the green onion, shrimp, and a shake or two of red pepper flakes. Saute until the shrimp start going from translucent to opaque. This doesn't take very long and we want to take care not to overcook the shrimp. Overcooked shrimp = tough and chewy = UNDESIRABLE!

When the shrimp are halfway cooked through, add 1/2 can of coconut milk, 1 Tbsp fish sauce, 1 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar, and a handful of chopped cilantro. Cook for another couple minutes until the shrimp are finished.

By this point, the rice should be done. Spoon rice into a bowl and then scoop shrimp, veggies, and sauce over the rice.

A wonderfully fragrant, sweet and spicy dish that is sure to satisfy any craving for Thai/Indonesian food. And the great thing about this dish is that it's not only delicious, but it's easy and quick to make! You can't beat that. Enjoy!

.grouper sandwich with cajun mayonnaise.

I'm back! YESSS! Jim was out of town this week and took my camera with him to get pictures of houses and well... silly me... completely forgot that all of my recent pictures were ON that camera card. Doh.

I've got some great recipes to share but I wanted to start with this one. A delicious, juicy grouper sandwich with a mild cajun mayonnaise. Very quick to make.


First let's make the mayonnaise.

In a bowl, mix together 1/2 cup mayonnaise, and dashes of garlic powder, onion powder, salt, cayenne pepper, thyme, paprika, and 2 red jalapeno peppers (seeded). Oh and a little black pepper.


These are the red peppers I used. I found them next to the pickles and pickled jalapenos. They're very squishy so all you have to do is squeeze out the seeds. If you want your mayo spicier, leave the seeds in. Just cut up the peppers with a knife and add to the bowl.


On a plate put 1/4 cup flour and 2 tsp cornstarch.

In a bowl, put 1 cup flour, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp thyme, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp cayenne and a dash black pepper. Mix together well.


Slowly add some beer to the bowl and mix with a fork until you have a crepe like batter.


It should be thick enough to coat the fork.


Lightly coat fillets of grouper with the flour and cornstarch.


Dip in the beer batter. The batter will not want to stick because of the flour, but keep turning it until it's all coated.


I was in a hurry tonight so I heated the oil in a pot instead of my wok. Use whatever you need to use. Heat to 360 and carefully put the coated fish into the oil. Fry until nice and golden brown. This will take about 5 minutes. You want to make sure your oil isn't too hot otherwise it'll be nice and brown on the outside, but the fish will be RAW. Yuck. You don't want that!

Pull the grouper from the oil and drain on paper towels. If you want to use another kind of fish, go ahead. You can use cod, halibut, or any other white fish that holds up and won't break apart when cooked.

Slice up some tomato, red onion, and pull leaves of lettuce. I used red leaf lettuce for it's color.

Assemble the fish, veggies, and cajun mayonnaise on a toasted bun and serve with salad or fries.

.grilled fish tacos.

I get requests from time to time from blog readers. I *love* these requests because it gives my family the opportunity to try dishes that I probably would never fix. This recipe for grilled fish tacos was requested by Jenni. (Hey Jenni! :D)

If you've had fish tacos, you're probably familiar with how they are made. The fish is usually battered and fried. We were looking for a more healthy alternative so instead of frying, we grilled. Of course, you'll have to overlook the fact that I heated the tortillas in oil, am using Mexican crema, and guacamole. I mean... yah.. it's "healthy". LOL You could probably heat the tortillas in the microwave to soften them up if you want to skip the oil route.



I started with some tilapia. You're going to want a fish that will not fall apart once it's cooked. Sea bass and cod are other options if you can't, or don't like, tilapia.



In a bowl, mix together the juice of two limes, 1/4 cup olive oil, some cilantro, and salt and pepper.



Pour on the filets and let marinate for about 20 minutes. The acidity from the limes will actually start to cook the tender fish, so you don't want to let them marinate for too long.



While those sit, thinly slice or shred some cabbage.



For visual color, shred up a little red cabbage as well.



(I'm going to have to figure out a dish to use up the rest of my cabbage. Hubby is NOT a fan so it'll have to be a)really good that he will love it, or b)something I will enjoy eating a lot of. LOL)



Slice up some red onion.



And wedge some limes. These are to squeeze onto your tacos right before eating, and also to help hold them up on your plate. Pretty cool huh?



Oh and we can't forget radishes. You can slice these nice and thin so you can put them directly on your taco. I left mine halved to eat on the side.



Arrange everything all pretty like on a tray.



Heat a little oil in a skillet and carefully put two CORN tortillas in, stacked on top of each other. We want to fry them together.



After a minute, flip them over and do the other side. Pull from the oil and let sit on paper towels. Do this until you have as many tortillas as you need. If you do this step ahead of time, throw them in the oven to warm back up.



Grill up your fish. Look how yummy that looks.



You're going to want a bottle of this. Mexican Crema. If you can't find it, do a google search for it and you can find easy directions. It takes a day to make though.

Now it's time to assemble. Put some fish on the tortilla, spoon a little crema on top of the fish, then some cabbage and onion. Top with some hot red salsa and guacamole.

I topped ours with fresh pico de gallo instead of salsa. It was very yummy. Serve with beans and rice.

.udon salad with pan seared ahi.

This is my first entry using my point and shoot camera. It didn't do too bad a job. I had to re-learn some of the features because it's been about a year since I've used it. Sorry for some blurry shots! With time, I will get better. :)



I am a big fan of The Next Food Network Star on the Food Network. One of the challenges, contestant Lisa had to make a dish with the ingredients received. In her basket there were udon noodles, lemon, beets, cilantro, and chicken. She made what looked like an amazing udon salad.



I kind of recreated that salad tonight using different components and changed out the chicken (which I *ALWAYS* use) with delicious ahi. Ahi is yellowfin tuna. It's firm and meaty which I really like with the lightness of the salad.



I will tell you right now that this dish can be made in 30 minutes. I kid you not. We've been working on the wood flooring in our kitchen this weekend (read: FUN! -- NOT!) but we needed some things from Lowe's before we could move appliances (oven and fridge) back into their places. So I dashed to the store and got home 45 minutes before hubby had to leave for work. He's on nights this weekend. yuck-o! I didn't want to leave him dinner-less, and the tuna needed to be cooked tonight, so I quickly raced into the kitchen and got started so he could take dinner in with him. Here's what I did.



Start with a pack of Udon noodles. They didn't have true udon at the commissary so I went with these. They do say Udon on the package, but they're not as tubular as the original. Cook them according to the directions on the package. When they're done cooking, drain the water off and rinse well with cool water.



Grate a carrot or two.



Chop up one bunch of green onions or scallions. Cut them on the diagonal to make them look pretty. It's all about presentation ladies (and gents)!



Thinly julienne (or slice in sticks) some red bell pepper. I used half of the pepper.



Use about 1 cup snow peas and put in a shallow pan of water. Bring to a boil and let cook for a minute. Drain quickly and then plunge these into some cold water to stop the cooking. This is called blanching.



When the peas are cool, drain again and then cut them in half on the diagonal.



Time for the dressing. This is a soy ginger vinaigrette that was just awesome on this salad.



In a bowl put:
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/8 cup sesame oil
1/8 cup olive oil
1/8 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp gingerroot, minced finely
1 Tbsp garlic, minced finely
2 tsp brown sugar
and some fresh cracked black pepper.



Mix all the ingredients well and set aside.



Put your drained noodles in a large bowl.



Add all of the prepped vegetables and the dressing into the bowl. Toss to coat.



Taste and season with sea salt and more cracked black pepper, if needed.



Take your ahi and sprinkle both sides with sea salt and cracked black pepper.



Get your skillet nice and hot over medium heat on the stove.



When it's hot, drizzle a little olive oil into the pan and then quickly put your tuna in. You want the pan hot so it sears the outside. This will leave the inside nice and moist because it locks in the flavor and moisture. Cook for 3 minutes.



Flip with a spatula and cook on the other side for 3 minutes.



To serve, plate some of the udon salad then top with the tuna steak. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and a sprig of cilantro.



This can be served warm or cold. If you want to make this up ahead of time, go right on ahead and do it! If you're feeding a crowd, slice your tuna once it's been cooked. It will go further.

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_79nmc9jwdj

.crab rangoon.

I'm going to apologize in advance because I don't have a "finished" photo of these. I made crab rangoon when we had some friends for dinner and was in such a hurry to get everything on the table, the picture of my plating was not taken. I'm sure you will all be okay with that?



These were *amazing*. We get rangoon from this chinese place near here, and while they're appetizing, they aren't "knock-your-socks-off" fantastic.

You can make a bunch of these and freeze them for whenever you're having a craving, or you eat them all right now. It's up to you my friends.



The filling is easy. 6 products for the filling and you're there.

1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
1 cup crab (imitation or real - I used real)
2 Tbsp finely chopped green onion
2 Tbsp finely chopped water chestnuts
1 clove garlic finely minced
1 tsp sugar



Use your hands to moosh it all together. You just want to make sure everything is evenly distributed.



Take a won ton wrapper (found in your produce section, or by the tofu) and put a teaspoonful of the filling in the middle.

Crack an egg and separate. We need the egg white for this. Get your finger a little wet with some of the egg white and rub it carefully along all four edges.



Put another won ton wrapper right on top and press the edges to seal shut. Now put a little egg white on each corner.



Pinch the corners together like so.



This is what they will look like when you're all done.



Like I said, you can freeze these. This is the point when you can do that. Leave them on a tray and put in the freezer. Once frozen, put them in a freezer bag.



Heat oil in a wok (or pot on stove) to 350*. Carefully put your crab rangoon in the oil. Let cook until nice and golden on both sides. If you froze these, you *might* need to pop them in the oven once they're fried to ensure they are heated all the way through.



Pull from the oil and let sit on paper towels to finish draining off any oil.











I probably could have made my own sweet chili sauce, but why? You can find this in the asian section of your grocery, or at an asian food market.

So there you have it. Delicious, creamy, crabby crab rangoon. A little sweetness with the savory, light texture with the green onion and water chestnuts. A perfect party treat. (Hey! Every day can be a party, right?)

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_75crmbp6ch

.orange glazed halibut.

The other day I got an email requesting a fish dish. I had been wanting to try this recipe for some time and thought now would be a great time to test it. I really love when people request recipes because it gets me out of my rut and gets me to try new things.


It was a good opportunity. I have noticed we don't eat enough fish. Paige turns her nose up at it, but I have been able to get her to take some bites and expand her palatte a little. We have something called "Adventure Night" where I make something new. The rule is you must try 2 bites of everything. If you don't like it fine. Eat what you do like on the plate. We all have learned to like a lot of foods this way.



Take 3 oranges and juice them. This will give you 1/2 cup of liquid.

Peel another orange and using a paring knife, slice between the membrane cutting out each segment. Cut the orange slices into pieces.

Finely slice another orange. (This means you're going to need 5 oranges total)

Dice some onion. You need 1/4 cup.

In a bowl mix together 4 tsp cornstarch with 1/2 cup chicken stock. Make sure there aren't any lumps.

In a saucepan melt 3 Tbsp butter.

Saute the onion for a minute or two. Stir so you don't burn the onion.

Sprinkle in 1/2 tsp tarragon.

Add the orange juice. Bring to a boil.

While mixing, add the cornstarch/chicken stock. It will immediately start thickening. Don't let it go too long.

As soon as it coats the back of a spoon, remove from the heat.

Add the orange pieces and 1 tsp salt.

Look at this beautiful piece of halibut. I picked this up at Costco when I was there this weekend. I picked up Rainbow trout too!!! Love it. Rinse the fish with cold water and pat dry.

Put the fish in a baking dish and cover with the orange glaze. Layer your orange slices on top. Put in a 350* oven for 20 minutes.

Here's what it looks like after baking. This would be a great dish to serve for your husband's boss. It is really quite beautiful to look at and light on the palatte. I served this with wild rice pilaf.

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_54c7m62mcq