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Monday, October 11, 2010

Project Skinny Me

This blog theme is hosted by Miss Candy; I'm so excited to join her group challenge and lose post pregnancy pounds. Here is my status report after week five:

For the past two weeks I've been off the bandwagon. Our trip to Maryland was fun and the wedding was a success! I've even lost one pound by doing nothing but you don't want to hear that!! Here's more on how I plan to get back on track.

For this week I've made a commitment to eat more fruit and veggies. I often struggle with this area due to prep time and I'm not a fan of eating veggies so I really need a push to include them in meals. Stopping at my favorite Italian market did the trick, they have beautiful veggies and fruits at cheaper prices than Publix (our local grocery store).

Putting everything in a wooden bowl helps me to see and remember to eat them every day, although I don't recommend leaving open corn out for long, it starts to shrivel fast.

Sunday night I made the following dish -

Fresh Tomato & Spicy Shrimp Linguine

prep & cooking time - about one hour

FRESH TOMATO SAUCE
Start with your favorite skillet, we like our cast iron skillet. Crush 3 cloves into a hot skillet with 1 tablespoon of oil. Stir fry for about 3 minutes. Add 1/4 cup of diced onion and cook for 3 minutes. Add 1/4 cup of diced green pepper and cook for 3 minutes (add more oil if necessary so the veggies don't stick). Add 2 cups of diced tomato and cook on medium temperature.

Spice to taste and here are my favorites: oregano, parsley, sea salt (also known as kosher salt), black pepper and sugar.

The sugar helps cut down on the acidity of the tomato sauce.

Since this is a small dish for 2-3 people I sprinkle the spices in for color and flavor. For your sake I'll advise the following amounts:

1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon parsley
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Once the mixture is bubbling for 5 minutes turn heat down to a low simmer and cook for 30 minutes.

In the last 15 minutes of cooking make the pasta.

SHRIMP
Start with thawed or fresh shrimp, remove the veins, shells and tails. Spice as follows:

1/2 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika (it can be found in a red can in most stores, if not available just use regular paprika)
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/16 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
1/16 teaspoon hot red pepper

Those last two measurements are really a dash or a pinch or even a sprinkle!

Sprinkle seasonings over shrimp and cook in olive oil for 5 minutes on medium heat.


You may notice I didn't fill the plate with pasta, that's because we each had a fresh ear of corn.

2 comments:

Unpolished Parenting said...

wow that looks so good! And I totally get what you mean by needing to eat more veggies. I've just never been a huge fan. It's definitely something that I need to work on too!

Ruth said...

I just am struggling to get my last 10 pounds off!!!