Shrimp Scampi with Linguini

Not sure where I found this recipe, but it was in with all of the recipes I copied from my Mom's recipe box....the reason why I don't know where this recipe came from...my mom doesn't really make seafood dishes, so why would I have copied this recipe from her recipe box?

Nonetheless, I tried this recipe the other night and it was scrumptious! (And, the leftovers were probably amazing...but Ryan got to enjoy those)

The recipe I used called for dry white wine...I didn't have any, so I omitted it. Not sure how it would have changed the outcome, but if you want to add it to this recipe add 1/2 a cup.

Shrimp Scampi w/ Linguini
Ingredients
1 lb. linguini
4 T. unsalted butter
4 T. extra virgin olive oil
2 shallots, finely diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 onion, diced
1 T. red pepper flakes
1 pound shrimp
Juice from 1 lemon
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley leaves
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 c. mozzarella cheese, shredded

Step by Step Directions
1. Cook the linguini according to the package directions.
2. In a large skillet, melt 2 T. butter and 2 T. EVOO over medium-high heat. Saute the onions, shallots, garlic, red pepper and red pepper flakes. (approximately 3-4 minutes)

3. Season the shrimp with salt and pepper. (I also sprinkled with garlic salt) Add them to the pan and cook until the shrimp are pink. Then, add lemon juice. Remove from heat.

4. In the skillet, add the remaining 2 T. of butter and the 2 T. EVOO and the parsley. When the butter has melted, return the shrimp and shallot mixture to the pan.

5. Reserve 1/4 c. of noodle water and then drain the pasta. Return the pasta to the pot. Pour the shallot/shrimp mixture over the noodles and add the starchy noodle water as well. Stir.

6. Sprinkle with cheese and serve!

Pizza Meatloaf...a throwback to my childhood

I have been in a bit of a cooking rut lately. It didn't help that I thought I was on death's door for two weeks. But, I have made a few "new" recipes in the kitchen in the past few weeks....new as in...I found some recipes  my mom used to make and I thought I would put my own "spin" on things...

The first one was one I used to LOVE back in the day, but she didn't make it very often. Most times it was just meatloaf. I guess whenever cheese is involved, that is a dish I will remember forever.

As for the ground beef, I used the 90/10 package. I thought about using the 93/3, but I figured I needed a little bit of fat. And, I'm sure you could use ground turkey instead of ground beef. Also, for future reference I may play with different types of toppings...but for this one, I stuck with cheese (and red pepper flakes, of course!)

Total time to make this is around an hour, but most of that is the baking portion.

Pizza Meatloaf
Ingredients
1 lb. ground beef (90/10)
1 cup tomato paste (6oz.)
1 cup water
1/2 t. oregano
2 garlic, minced
1/2 c. Italian breadcrumbs
1/2 c. diced onion
1 T. fresh parsley, diced
1 beaten egg
1/4 t. fennel seeds
1/2 t. onion salt
1/2 t. - 1T. red pepper flakes
1 c. mozzarella cheese
salt and pepper

Step by Step
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine tomato paste, water, oregano, fennel seeds, onion salt, parsley, half of the red pepper flakes and minced garlic in a bowl.

3. Combine 1/2 of the above mixture with the bread crumbs, diced onion, egg, and salt/pepper.
4. Mix together (I used my hands) with the beef. Shape into a loaf and place into a shallow baking dish.

5. Bake 45 minutes without sauce.
6. Remove from oven. Top with rest of the sauce mixture. Then, top with cheese and remaining red pepper flakes. Bake until cheese has melted (about 5 minutes)

Serve with a green veggie and mashed potatoes.

Microwaved Spicy and Cheesy Sliced Potato

These potatoes pair nicely with the Spicy Healthy Hot Wings at Home recipe found on this blog.  I love how easy and tasty these turned out to be! Especially since I am not a big potato fan! (hard to believe, but true)

These were prepped and made in less than 15 minutes!

Spicy and Cheesy Sliced Potato
Ingredients
2 baking potatoes
2 T. melted butter
2 t. chives
2 t. green onions
2 t. garlic salt
2 t. chili powder
2 T. - 3T. shredded Mexican cheese

Step by Step Directions
1. Slice the potatoes (make sure not to go all the way through) and place in a microwave safe casserole dish. (my dish was sprayed with PAM)

2. Whisk the chili powder and garlic salt into the melted butter.

3. Pour the butter, chives and green onions over the potatoes.

4. Microwave for 10 minutes.

5. Pull the slices further apart and top with cheese.

Serve with the Spicy Hot Wings!

Spicy Healthy Hot Wings at HOME!

The Super Bowl is almost here! Time to invite friends and family over for your Super Bowl party...whether you watch it for the game or the commercials, one thing is for sure...you MUST have wings to make your party complete!

Now, I LOVE wings. But, I DON'T love how I feel after I eat them. They are a bit too much to handle when the majority of the time I eat very well. So, I wanted to come up with a recipe that would just as tasty as any hot wing we had ever had, but without all of the extra fat and calories. So, I didn't bread them or fry them. I did pull out the crock pot...

One thing I will suggest if you are going to try this recipe, make sure you have baking sheets that have raised edges otherwise, when you broil the wings, the juice will make an awful mess of your oven. (ours is self cleaning right now!)

Spicy Healthy Hot Wings
Ingredients
12 full wings (frozen or fresh)
1 t. red pepper flakes
4 garlic cloves
1/2 t. onion salt
1/2c. light beer
23 fl. oz. Frank's Red Hot Sauce

Step by Step Directions
Mix all of the dry ingredients in with the beer and half of the Frank's Red Hot. Place the wings into the crock pot. Pour the remaining Frank's over the wings.

If frozen, cook on low for 7 hours. If fresh, cook on high for 2-3 hours.

Be VERY careful after cooking the wings. They are VERY tender and will fall apart.
**I cooked the wings overnight and then refrigerated the wings all day.**

Carefully, place the wings on a greased (I used PAM) baking sheet.
Set the broiler to high, bake for 7-8 minutes.

Serve with blue cheese and celery!

Cajun Shrimp Pizza

For this Super Bowl theme week, Wednesday was reserved for the location of the Super Bowl...NEW ORLEANS! Unfortunately, I didn't have a ton of time, so I had to go with something quick! Therefore, no crawfish dish or jambalaya....

So, this recipe is super yummy and quick! And, I used Creole seasonings instead of Cajun seasoning only because I forgot we had any Cajun seasoning left.  It was just one of those nights...at least dinner got on the table...you all know what I mean!

Cajun/Creole Shrimp Pizza
Ingredients
1/8 purple onion, diced
1/8 green pepper, diced
2 T. Creole/Cajun seasoning
12 or so raw shrimp
pizza sauce
pizza crust (I used Boboli original pizza crust)
(I also used some of the leftover crab meat from Tuesday night's meal)

Step by Step Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Season both the shrimp and the veggies with the seasonings.

2. Saute the peppers and onions. Remove the veggies from the heat.

3. Cook the seasoned shrimp until they are no longer pink.

4. Top the pizza crust with sauce, then the veggies, cheese, and then shrimp.

5. Bake for 8 minutes.
Enjoy!

Roasted Garlicky Green Beans

I found a recipe on roasting garlic and I just HAD to try it! But, I didn't want to put it on bread (just yet) I wanted to see what the garlic was really like after roasting it...so I figured if I used it on a vegetable that would be a good combination...healthy somewhat bland vegetable meets the deliciousness of garlic.I will DEFINITELY use this on bread soon!!!!

Roasted Garlic
1 bulb of garlic
a few splashes of extra virgin olive oil
aluminum foil

Step By Step Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut top 1/3 of garlic off.

Place on large piece of aluminum foil and drizzle EVOO over it. Crumble the aluminum foil around garlic.

Bake for 45 minutes.

Garlicky Green Beans
Ingredients
green beans
roasted garlic paste (from above recipe)
salt and pepper
(Grated cheese....going to try using this next time!)

Step by Step Directions
1. Steam the green beans for approximately 3-4 minutes.
2. Using a paper towel to hold the garlic, squeeze the garlic paste out.

3. Transfer green beans to a pan. Stir in garlic paste. Continue to cook for 1-2 minutes.
4. Season with salt and pepper. (add in cheese if you prefer)

Eat the day after and get more of a garlicky taste!

Not So Pretty Crab Cakes...

Well, I tried. I don't know how people make pretty crab cakes. There must be a trick I don't know about. Or, I could chalk it up to how much I dislike the Ravens, so since this was the "Ravens" recipe for the week...I could leave it at that. (And no, I won't go off on a tangent on how much I am not and never will be a Baltimore fan....bleck!)

Back to the recipe...I gathered the ingredients I would use to put together a crab cake. Apparently, I missed the true "glue" of the cake. I think I needed to use more mayo or another egg...but whatever it was I missed it. Or, I mixed the ingredients together in the wrong matter...I'm not sure. Next time I might mix my dry ingredients first and the other ingredients together in another bowl. Then, combine. However, they tasted very good, had a GREAT "bite" to them, but they didn't stay together as a "cake."

burnt and falling apart...BUT tasty!

Well, here is my crab cake recipe...feel free to give me any tips you have for improvement!!!

Pugh's Not So Pretty Crab Cakes
Ingredients
1 lb. crab meat or imitation crab meat (depends on how much money you want to spend)
1/2 red pepper, sauteed and diced into small pieces
1/2 green pepper, sauteed and diced into small pieces
1/2 c. Panko bread crumbs
1/2 c. bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
1 T. chives
2 T. Old Bay seasoning
2 T. mayo
a few splashes Frank's Red Hot

Step By Step Directions
Mix all ingredients together. Form into cakes. (I used a 1/4 c. to measure)
Heat over medium heat for 8-10 minutes. Flip once.

Forever and Ever....

Just had to put that out there...

A San Francisco Treat ~ Joe's Special

Since this week has a "Super Bowl" theme, I did a little bit of research to find a simple dish from San Francisco. The story behind this dish can be found here. But, in case you are pressed for time, here is a tidbit:

Original Joe's
“The name “Joe’s” was a generic name that dates back to the Barbary Coast in San Francisco. During the 1920’s, a group of entrepreneurs decided to open a new restaurant on Broadway Street in San Francisco….it was also a restaurant where the “Joe’s Special” was created. Folklore has it that a customer ordered a spinach omelet very late at night. The customer asked the chef if he had anything else available to cook. The chef replied he had some hamburger left. The customer asked him to throw some of the hamburger into his omelet. The dish became so popular that they eventually put it on the menu.”

Thus, this is a very easy recipe to make and you probably have the ingredients already in your kitchen!

This recipe was adapted from: Good Food

Joe's Special

Ingredients

-eggs (1 egg for each person eating the dish)

-splash or two of Tabasco

-approx. 1 t. oregano

-salt and pepper

-extra virgin olive oil (enough to cover the bottom of the pan)

-1 T. unsalted butter

-1 medium onion, diced

-1 clove garlic, minced

-92% lean ground beef (use enough for the group you are serving)

-1 lb. fresh spinach

Step by Step

1. Whisk eggs, Tabasco, oregano, salt, and pepper together. 

2. Over medium heat, heat EVOO and butter until the butter melts. Add onion and garlic. Watch that the garlic doesn't burn.

3. Add in ground beef. (I added more Tabasco over the meat). Stir until brown. 

4. Cover with spinach. 

When the spinach begins to soften, make a "nest" and pour egg mixture in. Continue to stir together until the egg scrambles. It doesn't hurt to add in a bit more salt/pepper and/or Tabasco. 

I served with a piece of garlic bread. I would also recommend serving with salsa. Ours turned out to be a bit dry (and we love salsa). 

And....

For dessert we had strawberries!!! From PLANT CITY, FLORIDA!!! They are the BEST!!!

Super Bowl Week Menu!

As I was putting this week's menu together, I was feeling like a boring cook. Anything I wrote down seemed like something I had made before....and well, that was last week. (as I'm sure you noticed! My apologies!)

Anyway, with the Super Bowl less than a week away, I thought I would theme this week with tailgating favorites...only a bit healthier and served nightly with sides. Also, I included two recipes influenced by the two Super Bowl teams...I will post tonight's dinner (hopefully) tonight.

This week's (tentative) menu...things sometimes tend to change!

49ers Monday - Joe's Special (A San Francisco inspired recipe)

Ravens Tuesday - Maryland Crab Cakes, Mac n Cheese, Garlicky Green Beans

NOLA Wednesday - Cajun Shrimp Pizza

Tailgate Thursday - Crock Pot chicken wings, potato fries and veggie

Friday....nothing on tap just yet...