Date Night Honey Cilantro Shrimp and Quinoa Salad

Ah, date night. I vaguely remember date night. I can see it now through a fog of diapers, teething and footed pajamas. I remember getting dressed up in high heals (I vaguely remember high heals) and going to a movie.

Now date night is in the living room after baby boy has passed out. I love it. I really do.

A few nights ago I made this Honey Cilantro Shrimp and Quinoa Salad along with these brownies for date night. Then we watched the Sherlock on Netflix.

Make sure you watch the video. Head over to YouTube and leave a comment and give that like button a click.

I made the shrimp with a few things I had in my cabinet. It turned out great. Roasting shrimp makes it sweet and plump and it's so easy.

Honey Cilantro Shrimp:

What you'll need:

1/2 pound shrimp peeled and deveined
A bunch of fresh cilantro - about 1/2 a cup.
2 -4 tbsp honey
2'4 tbsp olive oil (I used Extra Virgin Kalamata Oil)

Combine honey, olive oil and cilantro. Add in the shrimp and mix with your hands.
Place in a greased pan and roast on 350 for about 20 minutes.

Quinoa Salad

What you'll need:

1/2 cup uncooked Quinoa - cook according to package instructions.
2 tbsp dried cilantro
1 tbsp lemon juice
One avocado cubed
2 cups cubed mango
stir together and add some fresh cilantro as garnish

Three (or four) ingredient bread

This week we are all about simplicity. We have had a simple smoothie, a three ingredient cake and now a three (or 4) ingredient bread.

I have mentioned before that my husband and I are not big drinkers. Drinking isn't something we have a moral or spiritual issue with, we just don't do it very often. So a bottle of wine or beer will last for months in our fridge.

My husband bought a sample six pack at Publix a few months back and was trying this beer - Yeti. It didn't quite suit his tastes. He was about to pour it out when I made him stop.  I don't like to see anything wasted, but I don't drink beer at all. So I scoured the internet until I found this recipe. Okay, it's got to be more simple than that, right?

Why yes, yes, it is. Just Google Beer Bread or Soda Bread and you will find a host of recipes. I just tooled with this one a bit to make it fit what I had in my cabinet 

Let's get started.

What you'll need:

3 cups flour*

1 tbsp. baking powder 

3 tablespoons brown sugar or honey

1 - 12 ounce bottle of beer. 

* if you use three cups self-rising flour then you won't need the baking powder.

Preheat your oven to 350 and grease a bread pan.

In a bowl sift or whisk your flour and baking powder. Add your honey and stir.

Then add your beer and mix, mix, mix.

It will be clumpy. That is good.

Spread into your pan and pop it in the oven for about 55 minutes until it passes the knife test.

This is really great with a little honey. (My husband put butter and honey on it and it was amazing.)

Three Ingredient Pineapple Ugly Cake

Picture this: It was Easter Sunday. We had to all be dressed and at church in a pinch and I was in the kitchen cutting potatoes and making sweet tea for Easter dinner when I realize we had no dessert. This is South Alabama! That won't do!

But what was I supposed to do? I still had to shower, dress, feed the baby and get him in his Easter outfit. And I had nothing to bake.

But I did have a box of cake mix I got BOGO at Publix, (Seriously, I love Publix) a can of Pineapple (also from Publix) and some I Can't Believe It's Not Butter (Guess where I got that? Yup. Publix.).

So I threw them all in a casserole dish and hoped for the best. When I pulled it out of the oven I had buttery, flakey, sweet, tangy goodness.

What you'll need:

A boxed cake mix

A can of fruit or pie filling - any will work

Some butter - or in my case fake butter (which I rarely use because well, it can't be good for you)

Preheat your oven to 350 and grease that pan.

Drain your can of fruit and dump it in the pan.

Then dump the cake mix on top of the fruit.

Add some butter and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes. That's just enough time to shower and dress mama and baby!

Mama and Baby cook: Panko Crusted Tilapia Taco

 Print this recipe

Want to feed your entire family (4) for less than $10? Of course you do. Try this amazing Tilapia Taco. It's sweet. It's spicy. It's wonderful!

Five4FiveMeals.com presents a cooking show where I show you how to cook a meal for a family of four for less than $5 a person.

Today we make Panko Crusted Tilapia Tacos. This recipe yields 8 small tacos and costs less than $2.00 per person.

What you'll need:

Taco:

Four 4 oz Tilapia filets
1 cup Panko Crumbs
1 tbsp dried cilantro
1 tbsp lemon pepper
Tortillas
1/2 cup cheese

Peanut Sauce:
4 tbsp creamy Peanut Butter
4 tbs hot water
1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp lemon juice

Pico De Gallo:
2 Roma tomatoes, diced
1/4 sweet onion, diced
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1 tbsp lemon juice
heaping table spoon garlic, minced

Preheat your oven to 350.

Taco:

Mix the panco, cilantro and lemon pepper. Wet your fish and press into the taco. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

Pico De Gallo: Mix tomato, onion, cilantro, 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, 1 jalapeno seeded and minced, garlic. Place in fridge.

Peanut sauce: Using a jar, scoop in 4 tbsp peanut butter, add 4 tbsp hot water, brown sugar and lemon juice and shake (with the lid on of course). It will be the consistency of salad dressing so you will need to refrigerate for 20 - 30 minutes.

Place the fish on your tortilla and cover with peanut sauce and pico de gallo and a little cheese.

Kale chips - so simple it hurts

Can cabbage be trendy? It can if it is Kale. I have heard much about Kale- soups, stews and chips. Chips? Yes. Chips.

People who have tried or made Kale chips rave about them. So I decided to see what all the fuss was about. And darn, they're good. It is the most easy snack you will ever make and the health bonuses are overwhelming. Kale is rich in calcium, high in vitamin K, vitamin C and beta carotene, and sulforaphane, which is believed to be an anti cancer agent. 

But bottom line, Kale is simple and better for you than a bag of Lays Potato Chips. Seriously, 25 minutes and you're done.

What you'll need:

A Bunch o' Kale

A little Olive Oil

Kosher Salt

Preheat your oven to 350.

Break up the Kale like so.

Drizzle with olive oil

and sprinkle with Kosher salt.

Pop in the oven for 20 minutes and bam!

You have Kale chips. The end.

Hummus a new tune

Print this recipe

I love hummus. It is a protein packed snack. My sister has this really cute story about my baby niece holding up a carrot and declaring she needed hummus. 

I can purchase hummus for $3.99 at Publix (I love Publix) but I convinced myself I could make it at home. That was until I realized you couldn't make it without Tahini - a delicious sesame paste that is both exotic and pricey. At $6.99 a can (ouch) I was better off just buying the Sabre Hummus. But no. I would not be deterred from my mission.

So I experimented until I came up with a cheaper and delicious alternative that costs just around $1.25 to make.

What you'll need:

1 - 19 ounce can chick peas

2 heaping tbsp minced garlic

1 1/4 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp ground red pepper flakes

3 tsp ground cumin

food processor

Drain and rinse your peas then dump them in the food processor with the lemon juice, garlic, cumin and half the red pepper flakes. Turn on the processor and wait. It will all become creamy and delicious.

Once throughly mixed place in a bowl and garnish with remaining pepper. Enjoy!

One pot pork roast

Last week my grocer had pork roasts on sale for $1.99 a pound. As a rule I never pay more than $2.99 a pound for meat. The roasts were HUGE so I cut them in half, and had two -2 pound roasts.

We recently moved, and in a horrible twist of fate, my crock pot has gone missing. *clutches heart, sobs uncontrollably.

Let's all have a moment of silence for Clarese the Crock Pot.

Okay *sniffle* we can get back to topic. I pulled out the cast iron Dutch oven my husband gave me for Christmas (Yes, I am at the age where I get sexy gifts like Dutch ovens) and down to the business of making a sweet red pepper pork roast. A beef roast can be substituted if your family doesn't eat pork. This is an eight person roast, easy and costs around $10 to make. This is a great dish for company.

What you'll need:

1- 2 pound pork roast (or beef they both work the same for this recipe) ($4)

1 good sized onion($.99)

4 small sweet red bell peppers ($1.99)

1- 16 oz jar of salsa ($1.65)

A little smidgen of olive oil ($.09)

4 cups rice - not instant (to be served over) ($1.00)

Preheat your oven to 350 and oil the bottom of your pan. If you don't have a Dutch oven, a deep casserole dish will work.

Chop your onion and pepper into strips and line the bottom of the pan.

Place the roast over the onions and peppers and cover with salsa. Cover the dish and slide it into the oven. You will cook it on 350 for about 3 hours.

Cook the rice according to the package directions. (What? You need me to tell you how to cook rice?)

This is seriously delicious and ridiculously easy to make.

Idiot proof shrimp

Need a dinner in a hurry that is sure to please? Try idiot proof shrimp! There are only three ingredients (four if you count olive oil, which you shouldn't).

My mother makes something similar and I pulled this together one night when cooking for my husband for "date night." (When you have an infant date night usually means you just eat off the good china.)

What you'll need:

A pound of shrimp (pealed and deveined)

1 cup white wine

4 tbs (1/4 cup) minced garlic

I love the look of the oil mixed with the wine.

Warm up a little olive oil over a medium heat. Add in the shrimp. Once they have just started to turn pink pour over the wine and add the garlic. Be sure you continue to keep everything moving in the pan or else the garlic will burn and be gross.

After the shrimp are good and pink remove from heat and serve immeidatly. This is great over pasta or paired with a salad. And if you want to finish off the wine you cooked the shrimp in, have at it!

Shake, shake, shake it

Sunday night while preparing dinner I decided to force Spring in a little early with a salad that featured pears and apples. I wanted to top it with a honey mustard dressing. But, I didn't have any. So what's a girl to do when she is craving something lacking from her fridge? Make it herself!

What you'll need:

One small jar - I used one that once contained Kalamata olives. (Ah! Kalamata olives...)

2 tbsp spicy brown mustard

3 tbsp honey

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

1/4 extra virgin olive oil

Okay, here comes the tricky part. Ready? You measure all of that in to the jar and you shake it.

It was delicious. And it would probably make for a great marinade on chicken.