july 12, 2012 dinner

dinner is a spot-hitting bowl of golden garlic shrimp, accompanied by slaw made with the last of this week's homemade mayo.

june 26, 2012 lunch

today's lunch is leftover shrimp salad with hard-boiled eggs, purple cabbage, cucumber, tomato, and red onion in a lemon-dill sauce. it is easy and inexpensive and delicious, and just the right amount of food. it may not look like much, but it's filling!

june 25, 2012 lunch

monday work lunch is a yummy salad of shrimp, hard-boiled egg, purple cabbage, red onion, cucumber, tomato, spinach, and romaine, tossed with a sauce of olive oil, spicy brown mustard, cayenne, garlic powder, dill and lemon juice. it is adapted from everyday paleo's shrimp flying saucers recipe.

june 21, 2012 dinner

my sis and i made a belated father's day dinner for my dad and stepmom tonight. (on actual father's day, ungrateful daughter number one was camping and ungrateful daughter number two was hiking.) i decided to go with tried-and-true well-tested favorites.

here is a wilted arugula salad, topped with bacon, chopped walnuts, and shallots cooked in the bacon grease, a little olive oil, and a drizzle of blood orange basalmic. drizzled a bit on the tablecloth too. oops. a small cat toy was on the table for some reason, and also made it into the shot.

i repeated the shrimp recipe i did a couple of nights ago (baked in a sauce of pureed olive oil, shallot, garlic and red pepper flakes, with a few splashes of chicken broth). i suppose it would have been nice to have mixed it with some veggies or put it atop a nice bed of something or other, but we had four dishes going at once in the kitchen, and were trying to time them. it kind of felt like we were on an episode of top chef.

the spanish tortilla with rutabaga i've done a couple of times now turned out great. on top are some chives and the purple blossoms of the chives, which lend it a nice peppery, floral flavor.

and this was sheer awesomeness. my sister made these raw, vegan, gluten-free, grain-free brownies, using only ground nuts (walnuts and pecans), raisins and dates. the frosting is coconut oil brought to liquid state, then whisked with cocoa powder. it's then chilled to give it that shellacked frosting crust. top that with some fresh peaches, raspberries and strawberries tossed in lemon juice, lemon zest and mint, and i have a new favorite dessert.

we then sat out on the deck and watched anna's hummingbirds at the feeder. a pretty perfect evening all around!

june 19, 2012 dinner

greens on the right are nutty and crunchy and wonderful roasted broccolette, while asparagus spears, also roasted, fill in on the left. baked shrimp in the middle, in a sauce of garlic, olive oil, crushed red pepper and shallot.

 i found the shrimp recipe here and it's big flavor and payoff for little effort!

june 10, 2012 brunch

this sunday, we attended a vietnamese family's baby shower. i brought an empty stomach with me, and was glad i did. the salad on the right is goi du du tom made of green papaya noodles, shrimp, basil, mint, cilantro, carrot, and nuoc cham. the eggy looking things on the left are actually made of pounded rice with sweet mung bean paste yolks. 

and then there was this soup. i was pretty well stuffed already, but how can you say no to the proud grandmother's homemade bun bo hue, which i'd never had before. it's similar to pho, but with vermicelli noodles and a richer broth. it was a real treat.

june 6, 2012 dinner

we currently have a ton of shrimp in the freezer, so decided to go with coconut shrimp for dinner. i dredged the thawed, shelled and deveined shrimpies first in beaten egg, then a crumbly mixture of almond meal, coconut flour, finely shredded coconut, salt, pepper, and paprika. they baked up nice and crispy on a greased cookie sheet in the oven (400 degrees for about 12-15 minutes). they turned out not only cute, but delicious too! for sides, we roasted up a head of cauliflower and sauteed up some rainbow chard. i usually cook my greens with garlic/onions/shallot, but tonight, i used only chicken broth during cooking. when it was all nice and wilty, i took it off the heat and added a smashed garlic clove and a drizzle of olive oil, as well as a bit of salt and pepper. (go easy on the salt, since it was cooked in broth.) nice, mellow flavor. try it out the next time you cook up a mess of greens!