Shrimp into the New Year

My new year’s resolution for this year is not a lofty goal.  It is pretty plain and simple, “learn how to cook shrimp.”  It may seem like an easy task but for a girl born and raised in Nebraska I didn’t grow up eating seafood, unless you count fried fish from Long John’s Silver.   In more recent years I’ve started to eat shrimp when eating out and paying a pretty price for it.  So I figured it was time for this dietitian (which I must remind everyone is not the same as a chef) to learn how to sauté and grill shrimp.  Plus shrimp is nutritious.  It is high in protein, iron, selenium, B vitamins, and low in calories and fat.

This summer I made some half-hearted attempts to grill shrimp but it turned out overcooked and tough.  Embarrassingly I later learned I was cooking shrimp that was already cooked, whoops.  So to those of you who also aspire to reach this goal please start with buying uncooked shrimp.  Uncooked shrimp can be found in the freezer section and the meat department in your local grocery store.  Uncooked shrimp is grey in color and typically pink shrimp is cooked and often served as “shrimp cocktail.”

I used the Internet to aid me in the process of finding highly ranked shrimp recipes. Allrecipes.com is a fabulous resource for finding recipes and all of the recipes are ranked in popularity.  I chose to start with a Cajun Shrimp recipe that had received five out of five stars in popularity.  The ingredients are common and I had all of them at home.  This recipe was so simple and only took me ten minutes to make.  Not to mention inexpensive.  When making these recipes, I set a timer for six minutes and flipped the shrimp over after three minutes.  Ask my husband, I am very likely to overcook meat and this keeps me on track especially when my son is pulling at my leg during cooking to go and play choochoo trains.

To make this a complete meal I paired the shrimp with whole grain brown rice from Uncle Ben’s.  This is a new product and it comes in a microwavable pouch that only takes 90 seconds to cook.  I also serve it with steamed fresh vegetables that you can find in the frozen food department.  This entire meal costs less than $10.

Cajun Shrimp

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons paprika
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 pound uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined

Directions:  In a large nonstick skillet, sauté the paprika, thyme, salt, nutmeg, garlic powder and cayenne in oil for 30 seconds, stirring constantly.  Add shrimp; sauté for 2-3 minutes or until shrimp turn pink, stirring occasionally.  Source of recipe is Allrecipes.com