Roasted Blackened Shrimp Tacos with Chipotle Yogurt Sauce

Ever since I began roasting shrimp, I can barely cook it any other way! It's so quick and easy. I really wanted some tacos the other night,so I whipped up this delicious recipe and created a yogurt sauce that I thought you all might enjoy ....

 CHIPOTLE YOGURT SAUCE

1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp adobo sauce
1 squeeze of lime juice
Salt and pepper to taste

ROASTED BLACKENED SHRIMP 

1 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tsp paprika
1.5 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp olive oil






TACO ADORNMENTS 

Flour or corn tortillas
Broccoli slaw
Cilantro
Sliced avocado
Peaches
Cherry tomatoes
Feta or goat cheese

To roast shrimp:

Preheat oven to 400F.

Toss shrimp with olive oil, pepper, oregano, cumin, paprika and garlic.

Place evenly on baking sheet and roast for 5 minutes.

To make chipotle sauce:

Mix all ingredients in separate bowl and set in refrigerator to chill.

To assemble tacos:

Warm tortillas in pan. About 15 seconds on each side or until lightly charred.

Spread chipotle sauce on base of tortilla, then add shrimp. Adorn with other ingredients as you like.

ENJOY!

Crab-Stuffed Salmon

I love crab. I love salmon. So why not combine the two?

Prepped salmon fillet (before baking)

Cooked salmon fillet (after baking)

INGREDIENTS

Serves 2

8 oz Lump Crab Meat (you can usually find this already prepared in your grocer’s seafood section...I like blue crab for this recipe)

½ Lemon

¼ c  Minced Garlic

3 Tbsp Parsley, minced

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Black Pepper

1 Salmon Fillet

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to bake at 400°F.
2. In a small bowl, season crab meat with minced garlic, parsley, the juice of half of a lemon, salt, and pepper.
3. Lengthwise, slice salmon fillet down the center to create room for the crab stuffing.
4. Stuff salmon with crab meat mixture, using about 4oz of crab per salmon fillet.
5. On a baking sheet, bake salmon for 15 minutes at 400°F.
6. Switch to broil, move rack to the top layer, and broil salmon at 500°F for an additional 5 minutes.

Garnish with fresh parsley and lemon....and ENJOY!

The Perfect Lobster Tail

In my opinion, there a few things more savory than a juicy lobster tail! Here is a quick and easy recipe for your repertoire...

INGREDIENTS

1 whole lobster tail 
1/2 tsp ground paprika
Lemon wedge
Ground white pepper, to taste (or black pepper is fine)
Coarse sea salt, to taste
1/4 cup melted butter








DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the broiler to 500F
2. Place lobster tail on a baking sheet. With kitchen shears, cut the lobster tail lengthwise. Pull apart the shell slightly, and season the meat with salt, pepper, paprika and 1/8 cup melted butter.
3. Broil lobster tail until lobster meat is opaque, which is approximately 5-7 minutes (depending on the size of your tail). If you are broiling more than one lobster tail, it may take 7-10 minutes.
4. Before serving, drizzle with remaining butter and the juice of one lemon wedge.

Healthy serving suggestions: Mashed cauliflower, side salad, roasted asparagus...

ENJOY!

20-Minute Deliciousness

I fully planned on eating dinner at a friend's house tonight, but ended up having to get some work done, so I headed home instead...and I hadn't planned dinner. I'm a couple days overdue for a grocery adventure, so I put my thinking cap on, and cooked up this yummy meal in about 20 minutes with some random things in my kitchen! Sometimes you just gotta get creative!

Curry-roasted shrimp, with roasted peach, chayote and basil medley, baked tomato and a peach-basil yogurt dip.

INGREDIENTS

Raw shrimp (if you can get them already deveined, great!)

Peaches (you can get them canned, I won't judge you...but drain the juice out of the can)

Basil leaves

Tomato

1/2 cup Greek Yogurt

Chayote (Mexican squash)...you can use regular summer squash, too...I just think chayote is fantastic!

1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 tbsp curry powder

1 tsp crushed red pepper

1/2 tsp sea salt (or regular salt will be fine)

1/2 tsp ground pepper (I like mine freshly grounded, but you can use the pepper shaker, if you like)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Slice the peach (or use 1/2 canned peach slices -- drain the juice out of the can) and spread the slices on the baking sheet. Sprinkle peaches with 1/4 tsp salt. On the same baking sheet, roast 1/2 tomato and quartered slices of squash (or chayote). Roast peaches, tomato and squash for 14 minutes.
2. In separate bowl, mix shrimp with olive oil, curry powder and the remaining 1/4 tsp of salt. As soon as the peaches, chayote and tomato come out of the oven, set them aside and put the shrimp on the baking sheet, and roast for no longer than 5 minutes.
3. Peach-basil yogurt: put remaining peach slices in blender or food processor with crushed red pepper. Mix blended peach mixture with greek yogurt and chopped basil leaves. Set aside.
4. Once shrimp comes out of the oven, mix chayote and peaches (add a bit of chopped basil), and plate all food (see above picture). Put peach-basil yogurt in a separate dish to dip the curry shrimp in...or you could spread the yogurt over the shrimp...either way, it's yummy.

AND ENJOY!

Much Ado About Scallops

It's no secret I'm a seafood enthusiast. On my 10th birthday, all long-limbed and twiggy, I proceeded to devour 3 lbs of snow crab legs...by myself....with room for more! I've always loved seafood and always will....I think it's the New Englander in me. 

Anyway, one of my Dad's favorite seafood dishes is scallops and I remember him eating them from time to time when I was a kiddo, but I don't think I really tried them until a few years ago. They are delicious! And now, I eat them so much, I'm kind of burned out on them, but they are easy to cook and actually, quite good for you! 

I usually just pan sear them and throw them on top of a salad, but I had some cauliflower and heirloom tomatoes I needed to use, so I whipped up this quick, delicious meal.

Scallops, chili-spiced mashed cauliflower, heirloom tomato and feta salad

The salad is pretty self-explanatory (pick your favorite greens, chop tomato, sprinkle feta and some balsamic vinaigrette, and ta-da! Salad complete! You could add some pine nuts for a little something extra, too)

Cauliflower is actually equally as easy to make! I modified this recipe since I didn't want to use olive oil in my cauliflower, so I added a little zip by adding a tablespoon of some chili-spiced cream cheese I bought for a dinner party a few weeks back.

Broiled scallops are quick and very easy... Turn the broiler on high. Pat your scallops dry, season with coarse sea salt and black pepper and set aside. Add one tablespoon of olive oil to shallow baking dish (I just use my Pyrex) and place scallops in dish. Broil for 5 minutes, flip scallops over and broil for an additional 5 minutes. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and paprika (for color). Serve immediately.

ENJOY!