Recipe #16: Shrimp Tacos with Cilantro-Lime Sour Cream

Source:  Lifesambrosia.com

• 20 medium prawns, peeled and deveined
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 corn tortillas
• oil for frying
• shredded lettuce
• diced tomatoes
• sliced avocado
• cilantro lime sour cream (recipe follows)

1. In a bowl whisk together olive oil, garlic, cumin, salt and cayenne pepper (if using). Add in shrimp and toss to coat completely. Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes to give the flavors a chance to marry.
2. Cook shrimp in a skillet on medium heat until pink and cooked through, about 5 minutes. Turn off heat and cover to keep warm.
3. Use enough oil to lightly coat the bottom of a small pan, about 2 tablespoons. Heat over medium-high heat. Cook tortillas one at a time until soft, about 30 seconds on each side. Fold over to make a taco shell. As you cook each tortilla, place them on paper towels to absorb any of the oil left over.
4. Spoon 5 shrimp into each taco shell. Top with lettuce, tomato, avocado and cilantro-lime sour cream.

Cilantro-Lime Sour Cream

• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• juice and zest from one lime
• salt to taste

Stir all ingredients together in a bowl.

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So I was in a seafood mood last week again and shrimp is always my go-to for seafood.  A lot of times, my grocery store has shrimp from the seafood counter pre-packaged and marked down and I will snatch that up and find something to make.  Shrimp cooks so quickly that it makes it an easy ingredient for a weeknight meal.

Also apparently, I was so hungry I neglected to take any pictures of this dish.  Again, sorry.

It was very good.  The shrimp on it's own had a bite to it, so the cilantro-lime sour cream really helped to balance that.  My husband enjoyed this as well, and he's not as big of a shrimp fan as I am, nor does he care much for cilantro.  Cilantro is one of those things that some people really don't care for.  I enjoy it myself, but I know quite a few people who won't eat something if it has cilantro in it. 

I used prepared lime juice, instead of fresh.  So there was also no zest.

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Ratings
Special Ingredients Needed:   I don't usually have cilantro in the house. 

Ease of Preparation:  Easy. 
Taste:    Very good.   

Overall:  9 out of 10

Recipe #15: South of the Border Sandwiches

Source:  The Girl Who Ate Everything via Pinterest

1 loaf French bread, cut into 3/4" thick slices

½ cup olives, chopped
½ teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup lite mayonnaise
1/3 cup nonfat sour cream
1/3 cup green onions, chopped
1 pound sliced turkey
2 medium tomatoes, thinly sliced
2 ripe avocados, sliced
¾ cup cheddar cheese, shredded
¾ cup pepper jack or Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, combine olives, chili powder, cumin, and salt; set aside 2 Tablespoons of this mixture. Add the mayonnaise, sour cream, and green onions to the remaining olive mixture.

Place bread on an ungreased baking sheet and spread 1 Tablespoon of the mayonnaise mixture on each slice. Top with slices of turkey and tomatoes. Spread with another Tablespoon of mayonnaise mixture (I didn't add this because I didn't think it needed it). Top with avocados and cheeses. Sprinkle with the reserved 2 Tablespoons of olive mixture. Bake @ 350 for 15 min. Makes 8-10 servings.

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Okay, our final snack.  These took a little bit more work. 

I did not put the olives in the spread because I cannot stand olives.  Also like the website said, I didn't add the extra spread on top.  I used it all on the first layer.

Also, our supermarket apparently has a different definition of french bread than what I've grown up with.  So this made a lot of sandwiches and they were bigger than I had expected.  This is more of crowd snack.

They were okay.  I'm not sure I'd go to the trouble to make them again.  Especially since you really have to eat them right away - once they cool, they really aren't very appetizing.

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Ratings
Special Ingredients Needed:   None. 

Ease of Preparation:  Average.  A lot of slicing and layering. 
Taste:    Good.   

Overall:  6 out of 10.

Recipe #14: Bacon Wrapped Chicken Bites

Source:  Skinnytaste.com via Pinterest

1-1/4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
10 slices bacon, cut into thirds

Preheat over to 375.  Wrap a piece of bacon around each piece of chicken.  Secure with a toothpick.  Place on a baking sheet.  (I lined mine with parchment paper for easy clean up.)  Bake on lower rack of oven for 25 minutes, turning halfway through.  Serve immediately.

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Another super easy, super good Super Bowl snack.  These little bite-sized chicken wrapped bacon pieces were great.  

It really didn't take much time at all to wrap and secure the chicken.

After baking:

I served these with duck sauce and BBQ sauce.  The kids even heated these up and ate them the next day.

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Ratings
Special Ingredients Needed:   None. 

Ease of Preparation:  Easy. 
Taste:    Good.  Pretty much anything wrapped in bacon is a success in our house. 

Overall:  9 out of 10

Recipe #13: Brownie Marshmallow Swirl

Source:  Pillsbury Brownie Box

1 package Pillsbury Chocolate Fudge Brownie Mix
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
2 large eggs
1 7-1/2 ounce jar marshmallow creme
1/3 cup Pillsbury Chocolate Fudge Flavored Frosting

Prepare brownie mix according to package directions.  Bake in 13x9 inch pan according to package directions.  Cool completely.

Spread marshmallow creme over brownies.  Microwave frosting in small bowl on HIGH 10 to 20 seconds, stirring until smooth.  Drizzle over marshmallow creme.  Swirl with tip of knife to create marbled appearance.  Chill 15 minutes.

Coat knife with no-stick cooking spray as needed.  Run knife around inside edge of pan.  Cut brownies into 20 squares.  Store loosely covered in refrigerator.

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This was our dessert for Super Bowl Sunday. 

Everyone thought it was delicious.  It was very easy too, except for the marshmallow creme part.  If there's an easy way to spread marshmallow creme over something, I've yet to figure it out.  I do microwave it for a few seconds at a time, but it still is a challenge.

Apparently, I don't have a picture of these.  Sorry.

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Ratings
Special Ingredients Needed:   None. 

Ease of Preparation:  Easy. 
Taste:    Very good.  Generally, I believe you can't go wrong with brownies and topping. 

Overall:  8 out of 10

Recipe #12: Potato Skin Poppers

Source:  Smith's My Products

3 cups frozen hash browns
2 cups Cheddar cheese, shredded
1 16-ounce container sour cream, divided
3/4 cup cooked bacon pieces
1/3 cup green onions, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
14 flour tortillas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cook potatoes according to package directions.  Stir together cooked potatoes, cheese, 1 cup sour cream, bacon, onions, salt and pepper.  Warm tortillas, then spoon mixture in the center of each and roll burrito-style.  Place seam down on a baking pan.  Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown.  Cool for 5 minutes, cut diagonally into halves and serve with remaining sour cream. 

Serves 10 to 12

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I made this as part of our Super Bowl snacks.  It didn't specify what size tortillas to use, so I just used the burrito sized that I had and ended up only using 4.  I cut the cook rolls in to 3 pieces.  They were pretty good.  My family felt they had a twice-baked potato taste to them.  My husband said if we added some scrambled eggs, we'd have great breakfast burritos.

Before baking.

I served these with both ranch dressing and sour cream on the side. 

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Ratings
Special Ingredients Needed:   None. 

Ease of Preparation:  Easy. 
Taste:    Good.  Think twice baked potato in a tortilla. 

Overall:  7 out of 10

Recipe #11: Spicy Shrimp Sandwich (Shrimp Only)

Source:  Life's Ambrosia via Pinterest

1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 pound medium shrimp (about 20 shrimp) peeled and deveined


Combine cumin, garlic powder, 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, chili powder and olive oil together in a bowl. Place shrimp in the bowl and toss to coat.
Place shrimp in a skillet over medium heat. Cook until pink and cooked through, about 5 minutes.

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This is part of a sandwich recipe that includes an avocado mayonnaise.  Since I already was making the po'boys, I didn't think we needed 2 different sandwiches so I just followed this recipe for the shrimp and added it to the other.

The shrimp was delicious by itself.  I do plan on making the rest of the recipe someday, but it was great with the po'boy sauce and lump crab. 

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Ratings
Special Ingredients Needed:   None. 

Ease of Preparation:  Easy. 
Taste:    Very good.  The husband loved this.  The kids were just okay with it. 

Overall:  8 out of 10

Recipe #10: Lump Crab Po'Boy

Source:  The Bitchin' Kitchin' via Pinterest

12-16 oz super lump crab meat (you can also use jumbo lump crab meat if you like, but super lump is fine as well -- and cheaper!)
1 tbsp creole seasoning
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 shallot, diced finely
1 tsp garlic, diced finely
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
squirt of Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
2-3 Sourdough loaves

Prepare the crab: Toss the crab with the creole seasoning.  

 

 

Prepare the remoulade sauce: Combine the remaining ingredients. Mix well.

 

 

Prepare the sandwich:
a. Slice the sourdough loaves 3/4 of the way through, making a pocket for the crab and remoulade sauce.
b. Add some remoulade sauce in the bread "pocket".
c. Stuff with seasoned crab meat.
d. Add more remoulade sauce on top of the crab meat.

I added some lettuce on top so that's why the sandwich looks so empty.

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I also prepared some shrimp and added that to the sandwich as well.  Recipe in the next post (Recipe #11.) 

This was really easy to make and delicious as well.  There's nothing to cook so you can easily throw this together without much mess. 

There was a little bit left over and I ate it the next day - much to my husband's disappointment.  He had been hoping to have some when he got home from work.  It was even better the second day.

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Ratings
Special Ingredients Needed:   None.  Lump crab - you might not regularly keep that in your cupboard.  I know I don't.
Ease of Preparation:  Easy. 
Taste:    Very good.  The husband loved this.  The kids were just okay with it. 

Overall:  8 out of 10