Summer Shrimp Salad with Watermelon Champagne Vinaigrette

 

Ok so let me set the scene of this meal for you.

It’s Wednesday – Hump Day – mid-summer. It’s warm, but not offensively so. There’s a slight breeze that feels really nice against your skin and it’s evening so there’s just enough shade for you to think to yourself, “It would be nice to have dinner outside tonight.”

And maybe you have a spouse or significant other arriving home soon. Or, if not, maybe you have a good friend who doesn’t live that far away and you invite them over. Because this evening feels like the kind of evening for good conversations and relaxation. After all, you’ve only got half the work week to go and you feel kinda good.

Thinking about what you want to prepare, you don’t want anything fussy. It should take maybe 30 minutes to prep. You don’t want anything too heavy – it’s just a tad too warm for that. You want something fresh, light and good. But since this evening feels so breezy you also want something that feels a little fancy. Because…well…you deserve it!

This is the meal you make for that occasion. Ladies. This is a meal to put on a maxi dress to eat!

A word about the dressing. It totally makes the salad. So I tried to limit the amount of fat in other places in the recipe so you could spend it on the dressing. I can't even describe how good it is. And with the watermelon...swoon! It feels fancy because it is fancy - but not fussy!

Nik’s Summer Shrimp Salad with Watermelon Champagne Vinaigrette
(The above picture is either one non-op portion, two post-op portions, or a combination thereof)

Ingredients:

For the salad

• 10-12 cooked/shelled shrimp in the size of your choosing (I used medium, 24-30 ct.)
• Garlic powder
• Salt and Pepper
• 4 c. salad mix (I used spring mix…just make sure to use something hearty)
• About 10 chunks/balls of seedless watermelon (I bought a small personal sized one and made the balls with a teaspoon measure)
• 2 tbsp. crumbled goat cheese (garlic/herb flavor works well here)
• 2 tbsp. pepitas (roasted and shelled pumpkin seeds – I used unsalted)

For the dressing (makes enough to toss into about 4 servings of salad so don’t freak out!)

• 3 tbsp. Champagne vinegar (it’s available in most grocery stores)
• 2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 heaping tsp. honey Dijon mustard (or the same amount of regular Dijon mustard with ¼ packet no-calorie sweetener, if you want to skip the honey)
• 2-3 tbsp. juice from the watermelon (of which there should be plenty)
• ½ tsp. minced garlic
• ¼ tsp. black pepper

Directions:

Spray a small skillet generously with non-stick cooking spray and set it over medium heat, allowing it to get hot.

If your shrimp are frozen, run them under some cold water in a colander. If not, then season them with garlic powder, salt and pepper.

Place them in the hot pan and cook about 2-3 minutes, turning once. Set aside and allow them to cool.

Place salad greens in a mixing bowl with watermelon, goat cheese and pepitas. Add half of your dressing and toss salad with tongs.

Distribute evenly between two plates. Top with shrimp and serve.

To Make the Dressing: In a bowl, whisk together vinegar, oil, watermelon juice, garlic and pepper. Refrigerate at least one hour before straining through a sieve into a bowl or dressing bottle.

Outtake Photos

Not sure you've ever wondered, but I generally photograph on my front porch (I live in a row house which means my house is attached to other houses on either side). My neighbors think I am very strange!

I was trying to play with the mood on this one, but I think I just ended up making it look like it's about to rain on my salad. Hmph. The struggle continues...

This was almost the cover photo for this recipe but I wanted you guys to see the whole salad. Oh, fun fact: that super cute "napkin" is actually an apron I got as a souvernir from Haiti. I liked the pattern and I don't have many cloth napkins so I figured I'd just MacGuyver it!

From the BF Barbecue: Julia's Jerk Shrimp & Caribbean Quinoa Salad

This past weekend I held a BBQ for Baltimore-area Foodies. It was GREAT! My friend Margaret offered up her “ranch” (aka beautiful home near Frederick, MD) for the event and we all brought a WLS-friendly dish to enjoy.

The only thing that bugs me about doing live events is that BF has a readership across the U.S. (and, according to the Google, around the world) and there are many Foodies who simply cannot be there. And unfortunately I don’t have the resources to come to each and every one of you!

But I figure the least I can do is share the yumminess that comes out of the live events I do in hopes that you guys pick up a new recipe that you love. In the spirit of this, I am sharing as many recipes as I can from the BBQ.

First up is Julia’s Jerk Shrimp &Caribbean Quinoa Salad (for a quick tutorial on quinoa, click here). Julia is a Foodie but she’s also someone I correspond with locally through a coffee meet-up group I belong to. She’s been making this salad a while, mentioning it for a while. So I had to INSIST she bring this as her dish to pass at the BBQ.

It was YUMMY! Despite the name it was not “hot-spicy” but what I call “spice-ful” (meaning it has spices that don’t burn your tongue and you can taste those spices). It also had a sweet/savory combo flavor going on that I really liked!

Julia's Jerk Shrimp & Caribbean Quinoa Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry quinoa
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1-1/2 pounds shrimp, peeled & de-veined
• 2-1/2 tablespoons jerk seasoning
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup each, chopped: strawberries, green grapes, mandarin oranges, pineapple tidbits in juice (juice reserved)
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
• Caribbean vinaigrette: 3 tablespoons reserved pineapple juice, 3 tablespoons lemon juice (one lemon), 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, jerk seasoning to taste

Directions:

Rinse quinoa under cold water (if package requires...some quinoa is pre-rinsed so you can skip this step). Combine chicken broth & quinoa in a pot. Bring to a boil, cover, turn heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes until broth is absorbed. Set aside to cool.

Pat shrimp dry and place in bowl or large Ziploc baggie. Add olive oil and jerk seasoning. Toss to coat and let it marinate for at least 30 minutes. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and cook shrimp until cooked through (about 2 minutes per side, depending on size of shrimp). May need to work in batches. Set shrimp aside.

Mix vinaigrette ingredients thoroughly. Combine chopped fruit, cooled quinoa and shrimp in a large bowl. Add dressing and stir to combine.

NOM! It was sooooo good I found myself wishing I'd taken some leftovers home. But alas. I guess I have to make some for myself. 

This recipe was brought to you by:

Julia, proud member of the Foodie Nation since 2011!

Nik's Berry Chicken Salad

Forgive me, Foodies! Both for the less than ideal pic AND for totally missing the potential Independence Day connection. :)

Chicken is a staple in my household. And for my family - me, the two divas, dog and cat - it is most economical to buy a whole chicken rather than buying packs of chicken pieces.

The elder diva loves all things chicken, while the younger HATES any meat with bones (she's about a hiccup from being vegetarian). The dog just likes meat. The cat is indifferent to everything except tuna.

So that is to say that there are a lot of needs to fill and whole chickens usually do the job. And chickens have a definite life-cycle in my household. Usually I either roast it whole or cut it into parts (contrary to public opinion, butchering a chicken is neither hard nor particularly time-consuming). Either way we have our first initial meal from it then I leave it for leftovers for a few days.

After that, the meat is up for grabs and I make things with it like my curried chicken or chicken-bacon ranch salad. With whole chickens, once I've picked the carcass I usually use it to both make broth/stock and to make a simple gravy my dog seems to love mixed in with his food.

So yesterday was "chicken pickin'" day. And I knew I wanted to make chicken salad for lunch but I wanted something different. Here's what I came up with!

Nik's Berry Chicken Salad
(Makes about 2-4 portions, depending on your pouch capacity)

Ingredients:

• 1 c. shredded chicken meat (I used breast meat)
• 1/3 c. unflavored Greek yogurt (I used 0%)
• 1 heaping tbsp lowfat mayo (you can use fat-free if you want, I never will!)
• 2 tbsp. your favorite raspberry vinaigrette (I used this)
• 1/8 tsp. ground black pepper
• A dash of garlic salt
• 3 strawberries (that are just about ripe), sliced
• 1/4 c. blueberries
• Optional: any other berries you like + a handful of toasted nuts might be nice for crunch. I didn't have any.

Directions:

In a cup, combine Greek yogurt, mayo and dressing and stir until it resembles yogurt. (It will first be sort of clumpy but if you stir it for a minute or two it'll smooth out.)

Put your shredded chicken in a bowl and add spices to the chicken. Mix thoroughly.

Add yogurt/mayo mixture (Note: if you don't want to use mayo, try a drizzle of olive oil but you do need a little bit of fat. Greek yogurt alone doesn't hold well in chicken salads without giving off a "dry" aftertaste). Mix thoroughly.

Lastly add your berries and nuts, if using them.

This was a delightful surprise. Interestingly the black pepper is the star of this thing. The pepper against the berries and the savory chicken is quite nice! I ate this straight out of the bowl for lunch. They would also be good on a plain rice cake or with some whole wheat crackers if that's your thing.

BF Cook-along: Cold Asian-Style Quinoa Salad

Ok, first my apologies to my Foodies who only access the blog and not my Facebook or Twitter pages. Let me get you up to speed.

I decided to do a cook-long and it works like this. Folks give input on an ingredient they'd like to see everyone get challenged to use in a recipe over the course of the week. I pick an ingredient from those suggested (using a random generator) and we all make something with that ingredient, snap a photo and post it. The idea is...to get new ideas!

So for this inaugural week the ingredient was quinoa. If you've never heard of it, read this and we'll wait for you to come back.

All up to speed now? Lovely.

So tomorrow I'll announce next week's ingredient AND I'll post pictures (and recipes where I have them) of other Foodies' quinoa submissions. Look for it!

My recipe was in pursuit of an alternative to pasta or potato salad at the forthcoming Memorial Day barbecues. I love cold salads but I just can't do noodles. So here's what I came up with. The amount yields enough to pass at a function so if you're making it just for you OR you're not sure if others will like it, I highly suggest halving it.

Nik's Cold Asian-Style Quinoa Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 c. quinoa (if you have some cooked quinoa lying around, great! If not, there's guidance below)
• 2 c. water (if you have to cook your quinoa)
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 orange bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 small red onion, diced
• 2 c. cooked and shelled edamame (soy beans - I usually just got
•  a bag of frozen edamame and let it thaw!)
• 1 small can tiny shrimp (see picture below OR if you don't like shrimp a cup of diced cooked chicken meat works fine too)
• 1 small can Mandarin orange slices, drained of their liquids and rinsed
• 1/2 c. Light Asian Sesame or Sesame Ginger salad dressing
• 1/2 c. almond slivers

Directions:

If you need to cook your quinoa, the only thing I did differently from my general quinoa cooking directions is that I first dry toasted it, which really just means I put a dry pan (free of nonstick cooking spray or oil) on a medium flame and let it get hot, then added the dry quinoa and stirred until it started to brown. It just deepens the flavor a little bit. 

While the quinoa is cooking, dice up your peppers and onion and put them in a big bowl along with the edamame, cover and refrigerate. Once the quinoa is done refrigerate until cooled. DO NOT ADD HOT QUINOA TO YOUR VEGGIES!

When everything is nice and cool, combine quinoa with veggies, mandarin oranges and shrimp and mix thoroughly. 

Add the dressing and mix again. Cover it again and let it sit in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.

When you are ready to serve this, heat a dry skillet over medium heat until hot and add the almond slivers. Toast them until they are fragrant and slightly brown.

Add toasted almonds to the cold salad mixture, toss and serve!

I like this salad! It's crunchy (both from the almonds and the edamame), a little salty and a little sweet. I think it could stand up against any other barbecue side dish!

BF Review: Lean Cuisine Salad Additions

It even happens to me, dear Foodies. I wake up late, get out the door late, get the kids to school and..."Oh crap! I forgot to pack lunch!"

Thankfully there's a supermarket between the diva's school and my job (I only work about 3/4 mile from their school!) so I headed there to see what they could offer me. And I came across this:

Lean Cuisine Salad Creations (Southwest-style chicken)

• Simply add your lettuce!
• 260 calories
• 9g fat
• 26g carbs (probably from the beans and tortilla strips)
• 4g fiber
• 18g protein

So I decided to give it a whirl! I like a salad and I'm an adventurous gal.

So the box gives three easy prep steps:

Step one: Put your dressing in a cup of room temperature water to thaw. Yeah. My office doesn't do room temperature. It does hot. So I worked with it.

Step two: Microwave chicken & veggies in the steamer pouch for 2.5 minutes on high.

Step three: Assemble your salad by putting lettuce on a plate or bowl (yes it really does say that), followed by chicken & veggies, dressing, then tortilla strips (I'm a rebel. I did strips then dressing).

Firstly, this is the MOST work I've ever done for a frozen meal, ok? This better be good cuz this is almost as much effort as making my salad from scratch. Well not really, but still.

So I taste and...

• Um...the star of this salad is definitely the dressing. The corn lends a lot of flavor and I am amenable to the texture of black beans but the dressing popped. Wasn't too spicy. It was just right.
• The chicken, however, was a wee bit...bland. But it's only got 590mg sodium (which is paltry in terms of frozen stuff) so what can we expect?
• I wish I'd let the chicken cool a little bit more before I put it on my salad. It made my lettuce a bit wilty (and it was already wilty cuz it took me until 10:30 to put the bag of salad mix in the fridge).
• Some might question my decision to use the tortilla strips. My pouch, my choice. They do separate them out so there is nothing stopping you from tossing them if you are deathly afraid of tortilla strips. I like the crunch.

Final verdict: I actually liked this. I think if I was better prepared I would not have found the steps quite so labor intensive. But then, isn't the point of frozen meals that you don't HAVE to be prepared? That's a debate point I'll leave to you, dear Foodies. Long story short, I think it's a good option, especially on those days when you want a salad and can't/don't want to go out and procure one. 

And lookit! I even found you a coupon so you can try it for yourself! Squee!

Protein Caramel Apple Salad

Oh Foodies...how I can't wait to move and have a more spacious kitchen so that extension cord is no longer in my food shots!!!



So...it's almost two weeks into the new year. Let's talk sensible sweets, shall we?

I don't know about you but there comes a time, especially after holidays filled with rich food and lots of treats, that I get this strong and instinctual desire for cleaner food.

Such is the case now. I originally made this as a knock-off of something I found at the salad bar at Ruby Tuesday's. But, as some of you may know, I am prone to "very special" blood sugar moments if I have too many of any kind of carbs partying on my plate (or in my bowl, as it were), so I had to figure out a way to anchor this goodness with some protein!

I'm going to give you two versions of this recipe: a "just for me" version that will yield about 2-3 small servings and a "shareable" version that will yield 3-4 normal-sized portions. For newbies and those who just want to give it a whirl, go with the former. If you have a family who might be interested, go with the bigger recipe!

Nik's Protein Caramel Apple Salad

"Just for Me" Version:

1/2 a sweet apple, diced however small you want it (I used a Pink Lady)
1/2 a tart apple, diced however small you want it
1/2 a just ripe banana, cut into half-circle shapes
1/4 c. unflavored Greek yogurt
1 heaping tablespoon vanilla protein powder
1 tbsp sugar-free caramel syrup
1 tbsp no-calorie sweetener
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp lemon juice
1 heaping tablespoon whatever nuts you like (I used sliced almonds, but walnut pieces might also be nice)

"Shareable Version"

1 whole sweet apple, diced
1 whole tart apple, diced
1 whole ripe banana, sliced into half-circles
6 oz. container unflavored Greek yogurt
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
3 tbsp sugar-free caramel syrup
2 tbsp no-calorie sweetener
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 oz. whatever nuts you like

Directions:

Combine apples and bananas in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, combine protein powder and caramel syrup until a paste forms (if it's too dry, add a tiny bit more syrup but the paste is important so you don't get protein powder chunks in your final product).

To that, add your yogurt, sweetener, lemon juice and cinnamon.

Add to apple/banana mixture and toss lightly. Refrigerate until ready to use.

If desired, toast nuts in a dry pan for about 2 minutes before adding to the top of your salad.

This is especially good if you make it the night before. The flavors really set in and it is GOOD!

What are you guys eating to recover from the holidays?