New Recipes!

The first two recipes come from The Whole Tulip – thanks Carolyn and Adri! Both call for seafood, the first scallops and the second shrimp, and I was kicking myself for not bringing some home from the beach. I substituted chicken for each. I had some in my freezer I needed to use (and for those of you who don’t have it in your freezer, get the value pack from Harris Teeter, use what you need for these recipes and freeze some for later), so I let it thaw and then cooked it stovetop in a skillet with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar and some salt and pepper. At first I put the whole breast in the skillet and cooked it over medium heat. Then, once it had been on for about 10 minutes, I took it off, cut it into strips, saw that it was still pink and had a ways more to go, and put it back in the skillet. It worked well though. I would have preferred to have grilled it, but this was an easy alternative. Once it was cooked, I added it to the prepared veggies. Very tasty dishes, and I felt good about my healthy eating habits….until we pulled out the Blueberry Yumm Yumm desert. I shouldn’t have had that “one bite,” and would have been better off had I walked away, but it is so good. I’ll include the recipe for that as well now that blueberries are buy one, get one.

Succotash with Grilled Scallops and Parsley Drizzle - Adri Warrick via The Whole Tulip
This dish was especially good because we were lucky enough to have some of my father-in-law’s sweet corn in our freezer. Becoming a Perry has turned me into a bit of a corn snob. I refuse to buy sweet corn at the store (sorry Harris Teeter), and rarely even get it at the farmer’s market. There’s something about eating corn picked the day of that spoils you. And even though this had been in the freezer it tasted just as fresh as that we had over the 4th.

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 small onion diced
2 1/2 cups frozen corn, thawed (or 4 ears corn)
1 package frozen lima beans, thawed
1 medium zucchini, quartered lengthwise and sliced
1 pint grape tomatoes, havled
1 1/4 pounds large sea scallops
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves

Parsley Drizzle:
1 cup lightly packed flat leaf parsley
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoon water, as need to slacken
Combine all ingredients in blender or puree

Directions:
Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook about 2 minutes. Add the garlic (it doesn’t say how much in the ingredients, but I did two cloves and that worked well) and cook 1 minute more. Stir in the corn, lima beans, zucchini, and tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionly, until the veggies are tender.

(This is where I cooked chicken)
Meanwhile grill scallops (either grill pan, outside grill, george foreman, etc..) Pat them dry and season with salt and pepper. Cook scallops until middle is opaque 5-6 min, turning once.

Stir the vinegar and basil into succotash, season and top with grilled scallops (or chicken or shrimp or whatever you’d like).

Soba Noodles with Veggies and Shrimp - Adri Warrick via The Whole Tulip
I substituted spinach for the kale and added squash and zucchini. The amount of veggies you use depends on your preferences. You can even add different veggies if you’d like. This was a delicious stir-fry, I loved using the soba noodles. They only take 3 minutes to cook. I think I probably put a little too much olive oil in the skillet when I started sautéing, but the soba noodles absorbed it once I added them. The Tamari sauce is a healthier alternative to soy. I read on the label (I bought San-J Organic) that 1 tsp has 313 mg sodium vs. the 590 mg found in only ¼ tsp. of salt. We were very generous with the Tamari sauce. It makes the dish.

1 package soba noodles (I used two rolls of the noodles. The brand I bought had 3 rolls of noodles in it. The 2 rolls was plenty for us)
Kale (3 or 4 handfuls of spinach…probably could have used a little more)
snap peas (actually did not use these)
shredded carrots (I think I used 3 carrots)
mushrooms (I did one pack or pre-sliced mushrooms)
frozen or fresh shrimp (whichever you have on hand)
Tamari sauce

Bring pot of water to a boil.

Chop vegetables

Add olive oil to pan and sauté vegetables and shrimp (I let the veggies sauté and then I added the cooked chicken once they were almost done).

Once water boils add soba noodles and cook for 3 min. Drain water and add noodles to stir fry. Once everything is heated and cooked through add tamari sauce (amount will depend on your taste buds)

Pork Chops with Squash Casserole
I concocted both recipes. Well actually I stole the idea of using my go-to steak rub for the pork chops from my parents. So you don’t have to look back to previous posts to see what goes in the rub, here you go. It’s a mixture of kosher salt, pepper (fresh ground is probably better) and garlic powder. I have no measurements for you, but you can’t go wrong. I put all in a little ramekin and kind of swish it around to mix it together. Sprinkle the rub on all sides of the pork chop and put it in a shallow casserole to cook. It probably would have been even better on the grill, but I was impressed with it in the oven. I cooked it on 350 for about 20 minutes (maybe???) you may need to adjust the cooking time. I definitely had to cut it in the middle to see how it looked a few times. Colin likes his pork on the lesser done side than I do. I prefer medium rare for steak, but don’t like to see any pink in the pork.

Squash Casserole
2-3 squash
Onion
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Breadcrumbs
Shredded cheese

I love cooking this. All I do is cut up the squash and onion and put them in a pot. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add a little olive oil and water to the veggies and toss to coat. Once they begin to cook, the veggies will lose additional water and cook in their own juices. Let the squash and onions simmer on low for about 45 minutes. Once the veggies are very well done and extremely tender – the squash is basically falling apart – spoon them into a casserole dish with a slotted spoon. Top with breadcrumbs and cheddar cheese. Pop into oven and bake at 350 until cheese is melted – about 15 minutes.

Baby Crying – better go! Will be back with blueberry yumm yumm and some spinach salad recipes!