The Most Fantabulous Shrimp-n-Grits

Tags

cream sauce, grits, recipe, shrimp

(Adapted from AllRecipes.com)

1 cup water

1 pinch salt

6 tablespoons grits

2 tablespoons olive oil (or better, vegetable broth.  I use mushroom broth – yum!)

2 tablespoons diced onion

2 tablespoons diced green bell pepper

20 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

1/4 cup white wine

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 fistfuls of fresh spinach

salt and ground black pepper to taste

Bring water and a pinch of salt to a boil in a saucepan and slowly mix in the grits, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low and simmer grits until tender and smooth, about 20 minutes.  Recite lines from My Cousin Vinny, i.e.: “No self-respectin’ Southerner uses instant grits!” (For Pete’s sake, don’t tell anybody if you DO use instant grits!) Stir often. Set aside and keep warm.

Heat broth (of your choosing) in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  (Here’s the Purpose Driven Mom coming out in me:  you don’t want to sauté with olive oil because it cannot withstand high heat and will release harmful free radicals as it cooks.  Okay, rant over…)  As you’re sautéing, add a few more drops of broth as needed if you feel it’s evaporating out too fast.

Stir in onion and green bell pepper and cook until onion is translucent, about 4 minutes. Lightly stir the shrimp with the vegetables and broth until pink; remove shrimp from pan and set aside.

Pour white wine into the skillet and stir, dissolving any browned bits of food in the bottom of the skillet; slowly add the cream and stir gently.  Reduce heat to low and simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper, then add fresh spinach and stir until it’s just a little wilted.

Gently combine the sauce with the grits and ladle onto plates.  Top with shrimp and serve.  Become somebody’s favorite chef ever.

The first time I made this, I didn’t have enough grits on hand and was afraid the meal would be lame.  So I made sweet biscuits and served the shrimp and grits over them.  Oh.  My. Goodness.

(If I can ever figure out why my biscuit recipe is so wonky – and fix it – I’ll share it with you.  Until then, I don’t want you to bake them up and be like, “Um, Lori?…what’s with this freaky biscuit batter??!!”  But they taste incredible, so I promise to share someday…)

I also use the same sauce with pasta (like this delicious organic spinach and cheese ravioli that I found at Target.)  It’s a win!

Chicken, Mushroom, and Wild Rice Soup

This is THE BEST home-cooked chicken and rice soup.  I was amazed at how awesome it is! It makes a lot (14 cups) so plan to share.  😉  You will use a lot of pans in making this, but it is sooooo worth it. 

2 (6-oz) packages long grain and wild rice mix
10 cups chicken broth, divided
3 Tbsp butter
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms (I use organic baby bella)
1 cup chopped fresh onion
1 cup chopped celery
¼ cup butter
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup half-and-half
2 T dry white wine
2 cups cooked shredded chicken breasts (I used one of the grocery store rotisserie chickens to save time in a pinch)

Bring rice, 4 cups chicken broth, and 1 seasoning packet from rice mix to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat.  Cover, reduce to low and simmer for 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender. 

Meanwhile, melt 3 T butter in large skillet over meium heat; add mushrooms, onion and celery and cook, stirring often, 10-12 minutes or until tender.

Melt ¼ cup butter in dutch oven over medium heat; whisk in flour, stirring constantly, 1 minute or until thickened and bubbly.  Gradually whisk in remaining 6 cups broth and cook, stirring often, 8-10 minutes or until slightly thinckened.  Whisk in wine and half and half.  Stir in mushroom mixture, chicken and rice.  Cook, stirring occasionally, 5-10 minutes or until thoroughly heated.  (Do not boil.)

Balsamic Feta Portobello Burgers

Makes 2 burgers:

2 large Portobello mushroom caps, stemmed
3 T balsamic vinegar
1 T olive oil
1 t minced fresh garlic
½ t pepper
¼ t salt
¼ c crumbled feta, gorgonzola or blue cheese
2 T light mayo
1 t balsamic vinegar
Baby spinach leaves
Sliced tomato
2 burger buns
Plenty of napkins!

Scrape gills from mushroom caps.  Combine 3T vinegar, oil, garlic, salt and pepper in a zip-top freezer bag.  Add mushrooms, turning to coat. Chill 30 minutes to 1 hour, turning occasionally.  Remove mushrooms from marinade and discard marinade.  

Grill mushrooms over med-high heat until tender (3-4 minutes each side)

Remove from grill and immediately sprinkle feta cheese to underside of each cap. 

Stir together the 2T mayo and 1t vinegar; spread on burger buns.  Build burger with the spinach leaves, tomato and mushroom and serve immediately.

Ginger Flank Steak with Edamame Rice

Serves 2-3 people  (Count on two with some leftovers!)

1 1-lb flank steak
½ T Kosher salt
1 t pepper
½T parsley
¼ t ground ginger
½ lime
1 pouch ready-to-serve Basmati Rice (I use Uncle Ben’s 90-second microwavable pouch)
1 cup fully cooked and shelled edamame (buy shelled edamame frozen, then steam in microwave.)

Mix together the salt, pepper, parsley and ginger and rub on all sides of the steak.  Slice steak across the grain into thin strips for grilling (we use our little George Foreman) OR grill whole steak on regular grill (slicing will be last step).  Remove from grill and squeeze lime over steak.  Cover loosely with foil and let stand 10 minutes.

Prepare rice according to package and steam edamame.  Stir the edamame into the rice and squeeze lime over the rice mixture. 

Slice steak across the grain into thin strips if not already done, and serve over rice.

Kasie's Lasagna

This is my sister-in-law’s famous lasagna recipe, and the only one that I cook anymore.  It’s that good…

Meat Mixture:
1 lb. ground beef
1 clove freshly pressed garlic
1 T parsley
1 T basil
1 t salt
1 can diced tomatoes
2 6-oz cans tomato paste

Cheese Mixture:
1 24-oz. container cottage cheese
2 beaten eggs
1 t salt
½ t pepper
2 T parsley
½ c parmesan cheese

Additional Ingredients:
1 lb. sliced mozzarella cheese
Lasagna noodles (I use oven-ready noodles so I don’t have to cook them separately.)

Brown the meat; drain.  Add next 6 ingredients and summer uncovered 20 minutes until thick, stirring often. 

Cook and rinse lasagna noodles if not using the oven-ready kind. 

In another bowl combine all ingredients for the cheese mixture.

Line the bottom of an 8×8 pan with lasagna noodles.  Layer half the cheese mixture over the noodles, followed by a layer of mozzarella slices, and then half of the meat mixture.  Repeat layers. 

Bake at 375 for 45 minutes.

I often use two loaf pans (instead of the 8×8) and freeze one for later.  🙂

Jill's Red Beans and Sausage

Let me just say that I tried four times over the last fifteen years – UNSUCCESSFULLY – to cook a pot of red beans and rice.  It’s a Louisiana staple, ya know, and it’s supposed to be as natural as breathing.  I failed every time.  For whatever reason, the beans never softened up.  I whined about this problem to many friends over the years who each offered their recipe for me to try.  Still no luck. 

Am I just not meant to cook red beans and rice????

Then this winter when the cold set in (the thirty-degree kind, as that’s the only “cold” Louisianians really know), I bemoaned out loud the fact that I could not make a decent pot of red beans and rice to save my life.  My friend Jill overheard me, and suggested I try this “no-fail” recipe.  She said I absolutely had to buy Camellia beans, and if I followed that simple rule, she guaranteed my success.  Oh, she also said the bay leaves were ultra-important.

Well, I tried it.  And I was completely shocked (not to mention thrilled) when they turned out so dog-gone delicious that I knew I had to share the recipe.  It is deceptively simple, but for someone who could not manage to cook it correctly before, this recipe was a life-saver of ginormous proportions. 

Are ya ready for it?  Here it is:

1 1-pound bag of Camellia red beans

1 large yellow onion (preferably organic), sliced long (as in, not to make rings, but rather to make big wedges.  Slice onion in half from top to bottom, then slice each half into about four wedges.  They will separate and cook down, so have no worries!

1 pound smoked sausage, sliced into disks and then halved

1 slice bone-in smoked ham (cut into 1-inch chunks)

3 bay leaves

Rinse the beans and place them with all other ingredients in a large dutch oven (I think mine is a 5-quart, and it was plenty big.)  Add water until it is about 1/4-1/2 inch above the beans.  Bring to a boil and then simmer covered 3-4 hours until the beans are soft. 

You can thicken it to your preference by removing the lid at the end and cranking up the boil for about 20 minutes or so until it is the thickness you want.  Serve over some naturally healthy brown rice. 😉

HooooooooWee!!!  Dats waddime tawkin’ bout dere!

My Favorite Chicken Manicotti

Tags

chicken, condensed soups, stuffed pasta

 8 manicotti shells
1 can creamy chicken mushroom soup, undiluted
½ c. sour cream
2 c. chopped cooked chicken
¼ c. chopped onion
1 (4 oz.) can sliced mushrooms, drained**
2 T butter, melted
¼ c. warm water
½ t chicken flavored bouillion granules
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese

Cook manicotti shells according to pkg, omitting salt. Drain, set aside.

Combine soup and sour cream, mix well.  Combine half of soup mixture and chicken, mix well. Set aside remaining soup mix. Stuff manicotti shells with chicken mixture; place in greased 12x8x2 baking dish.

Saute onion and mushrooms in butter in large skillet until tender; set aside.  Combine water and bouillion, stirring until dissolved.  Add all to reserved soup mix, stirring well.  Spoon over manicotti. 

Bake, uncovered at 350° for 15 minutes.  Sprinkle w/ cheese and bake an additional 5 minutes.

**Note: I now detest canned mushrooms; feel free to substitute ½ cup fresh sliced mushrooms!