The Best Food I Made This Weekend-Shrimp, Avocado and Tomato Salad with Quinoa

I made several food items this weekend but my favorite was the Shrimp, Avocado, Tomato and Quinoa Salad that I made Sunday.  I got the inspiration from this salad I found on Pinterest then I made some changes and additions.

I forgot to upload the photos I took so here is a photo of my inspiration
salad from here.  Mine had quinoa though.

Shrimp, Avocado and Tomato Salad with Quinoa and Lime Vinaigrette
1/2 pound of shrimp (I like easy peel)
cumin
chili powder
garlic salt
olive oil-for cooking shrimp
1/2 cup quinoa
1 small lime
2 tablespoons olive oil (can vary depending on how you like your vinaigrette)
sugar
2 small avocado's (or 1 large), cut into small bite sized pieces
a cup of cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 small red onion, chopped

1-Peel shrimp and sprinkle with a little cumin, chili powder and garlic salt.  Cook these in the olive oil and set aside to cool.  Once cooled, cut the shrimp into smaller pieces.
2-Cook quinoa per directions and let cool
3-Make a vinaigrette by whisking together the juice of one lime, the olive oil, a couple sprinkles of cumin, chili powder and garlic salt.  Add a small sprinkle of sugar.  You can adjust this all to your own taste and preference.  I mix it and taste it and add more as I go.
4-Add veggies to the vinaigrette and then add in the shrimp and quinoa once they've cooled some.  Mix everything together and refrigerate before serving.

This is a very refreshing and healthy summer salad!

What's your favorite summer salad/dish?

Wedding Week-Shrimp N Grits

Maybe you already know this from reading this blog, but I'm kind of in to food.  So for my wedding, food was on the top of my list for things that had to be awesome.  My brother had been to a bunch of weddings and he claimed that the best thing he'd had at any wedding were shrimp and grits.  Also, I like shrimp and grits.  So we decided to have a shrimp and grits station at our wedding (with martini glasses).  It was neat and people seemed to enjoy it.  We also had meat, potatoes, salad, chicken cordon blue bites, etc.  The food was pretty awesome.  I was very happy.

After our wedding I found this awesome shrimp and grits casserole recipe.  It is really good.  It's really just grits with a bunch of cheddar cheese and pepper jack cheese, some onions, peppers, rotel and shrimp.  Spicy and Tasty. I pretty much follow those instructions.  Sometimes I add in a little bacon and I usually use regular onion instead of green onions.

The wedding coordinator at the place I had my reception was all like, "you will not eat at your own wedding."   And I was like "uh, yeah I will."  And I did.  I also had someone save me a plate of appetizers from cocktail hour (that I missed because of photos).  I definitely recommend doing that.  Also if you make your bridal party take tons of pictures right after the ceremony, it's nice to have someone bring them drinks and food if possible.  I couldn't do this because I was at a Church but yeah, do it.  They will like you more.

So do people really hate grits?  I mean I get it if you are not super interested in plain grits.

But add a cup of cheese and they are delish.....

So in conclusion.....I really like food, I did eat at my wedding and grits taste great with tons of cheese.

Feelings on grits?
If you are married, did you eat at your wedding?
What is the best food you have ever had at a wedding?

MuckLuck-Another Dish Made with Vegetables (and some Meat too)

Apparently it's Vegetable Week here at Making Stuff is Fun.....  While perusing an issue of Southern Living (thanks mom) I found this recipe for Maque Choux.  According to wikipedia that is pronounced Mock Shoe or MuckLuck as B calls it.  Either way.  I thought it would be great to make since Farmer Gene gave me a bunch of okra and I have never really cooked fresh okra before.

I made a few changes to the recipe so here is my version.

Maque Choux with Shrimp (aka Muckluck)
2 links of Spicy Andouille Sausage (about 1/3 lb)-diced
1/2 medium sized onion-chopped

2 cloves garlic-minced
a little green bell pepper (it was all I had)-chopped
1 cup fresh tomatoes-seeded and diced
1 cup cut fresh okra-sliced in to small pieces
2 cups frozen corn
1/2 pound shrimp peeled and deveined (I always buy easy peel)
cumin
chili powder
lime juice
salt and pepper

1-Brown the sausage a little and then add the onion, garlic and pepper and saute until the veggies are tender
2-Add in the rest of the vegetables and cook until everything is hot (I think okra might take the longest) about 10-15 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.
3-While the veggies are cooking put cumin, chili powder and lime juice on shrimp and saute in a pan until they are cooked
4-Top the vegetable mixture with a few shrimp and enjoy!

I thought this was a really good dish especially with fresh vegetables in the summer.  Next time I'll make it with fresh corn too!  OK I think I'm veged out for a bit. 

Happy Thursday!  It's almost the weekend.  We can do this.

Garlic Shrimp, Tomatoes, and Feta with Couscous

We have decided that we really like garlic over here.  Right?  So I went ahead and semi-made up this garlic shrimp recipe the other night.  It is similar to something that my mom may have made me before.  I think.  Sorry if I stole it.  I used a garlic theme for this one though.  And its not too bad for you or too hard to make.  This made about 2.5 servings, maybe more if you eat less!

Ingredients

3/4 pound of raw, peeled shrimp

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 teaspoon minced garlic (I use the refrigerated canned kind)

1 can of petite diced tomatoes

garlic salt

container of feta cheese (I used a reduced fat tomato and basil flavored one)

lemon

prepared couscous to serve with shrimp

-Preheat oven to 400. 

-Add olive oil and garlic to a pan on the stove and cook for a couple minutes before adding shrimp

-Cook the shrimp until they are light pink, not quite done

-Put the shrimp in a baking dish

-In the original pot, add the can of tomatoes and some garlic salt.  Cook until the tomato juice boils.

-Pour tomato mixture over shrimp and sprinkle with about 2/3 of the container of feta

-Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

-Serve over couscous and squeeze lemon on top before serving

Anybody got any other good shrimp and/or garlic recipes?