Two Quick Shrimp Meals

We eat a good amount of shrimp at our house.  Here are two ways for quick meals under 15 minutes of cooking (good for summer!)

Shrimp Tacos - season with some chili powder, salt & pepper and pick your own taco fillers

  

 Prosciutto Wrapped Shrimp in Spinach Salad - tear prosciutto to smaller pieces to wrap around shrimp (no need for seasoning) 

(spinach picked fresh from my garden)

Cinnamon Sugar Muffins - total time 40 minutes

If you like cinnamon sugar even half as much as I do, you will love these little muffins/donuts!  We had something similar at a bed and breakfast in New Orleans last Fall... so I searched for recipes until I came up with this one.  Works for breakfast, snack, or dessert!!

Muffin Batter

.333 cup butter

.5 cup sugar

1 egg

1.5 cup flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tbsp nutmeg

.5 cup cream

Cinnamon Sugar

6 tbsp butter (to coat muffin for sugar to stick)

.5 cup sugar

3 tbsp cinnamon

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Brown butter in a sauce pot and allow to cool.

2.  Add cooled (but melted) butter, sugar, and egg into mixer.  Stir until creamed together.  Add baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and cream.  

3.  Slowly add flour a little at a time until combined.  Spoon out batter into muffin pan and bake for 25 minutes.

4.  Allow muffins to cool.  Melt butter in a bowl.  Combine sugar and cinnamon on plate.  Roll each muffin in melted butter before rolling it in the cinnamon sugar.  Enjoy!

Crispy Baked Chicken Wings - total time 1 hour

For an easy, tasty weekday treat or when friends are over for game day, these baked wings are delicious and not much work at all!

1 cup flour

3 tbsp paprika

2 tbsp chili powder

salt & pepper

6 whole chicken wings

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix the flour, paprika, chili powder, salt, and pepper in a bowl.  

2.  Dredge each chicken wing in the flour mixture making sure it is completely covered.

3.  Lay wings on a covered baking sheet and spray with oil.  Bake for about an hour and serve with BBQ sauce.

Asian Salmon Cakes - Total Time 40 minutes

I guess this is kind of a spin on crab cakes.  Everyone says salmon is good for your heart, but I am just not a big salmon flavor fan, however this is good because of all the other flavors with it!  (Please excuse the chipped plate in the picture.  I guess we use them too much?)

A word of caution, if you get results like I did, I thought the whole 'cake' idea was going to crumble apart in the pan... but instead it actually formed 'cakes' in the pan from the jumbled mess I put in there.  So no worries if you can't get the salmon to form cakes when putting it in the bread crumbs! 

1 pound of salmon

3 eggs

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup panko breadcrumbs

2 minced green onions

.25 cup sesame seeds

olive oil

1. Heat pot of water to rolling boil, turn heat down to medium-low, place salmon in pot to poach for 7 minutes. 

2.  While salmon is poaching, heat oil in pan.  Combine eggs, soy sauce, race vinegar, sugar, and salt in medium sized bowl and whisk together.  Combine breadcrumbs, green onions, and sesame seeds together on a plate.

3.  Remove salmon from poaching water and shred with two forks.  If the salmon still had skin, it should slide right off.  Add salmon to bowl with egg mixture and combine together.

4.  If you can form the salmon mixture into cakes, do so and coat with breadcrumb mixture.  If not, just place handfuls into the breadcrumbs, roll around, and place in pan (it could look messy, but it will turn out!)  Cook 3 minutes on each side and serve!

what salmon looks like while being poached

 my salmon 'shreds' were more like salmon 'chunks'

looked a mess at first, then turn into 'cakes' somehow

Regular Chicken Parm - Total Time 30 minutes

 I used to make this meal using Tysons chicken patties, it was really quick.  But since watching Food Inc (and several other reasons), I no longer buy anything from Tysons or Purdue.  But Chicken Parm from scratch is still quick and easy!


1 pound chicken breast (local, grass-fed when possible)
.5 cup flour
1 egg or .5 cup milk (for breading chicken, I think they are interchangeable)
.5 cup bread crumbs
some fresh italian herbs (I used basil, oregano, rosemary)
1 cup tomato sauce
1 fresh mozzarella ball
olive oil


1. Heat pan with olive oil and preheat oven to 350 degrees.  'Flop' (or 'dredge') each chicken breast into plate of flour.  Make sure it is covered. Flop each piece through the egg or milk.  Then flop it in a plate of breadcrumbs and chopped italian herbs.
2.  When oil is warm, place chicken breasts in pan.  Flip chicken after about five minutes, depending on thickness.
3.  Place chicken in casserole dish.  Spoon tomato sauce and add a slice of mozzarella over each breast.  Put in oven for 10 minutes or until cheese is bubbly, and serve!

I added some breadcrumbs to the zucchini I sauted and it gave it a different (and tasty) texture... always looking for something different to try!

Nutella French Toast - Total Time 20 minutes

I love breakfast foods!  Especially on the weekends when I have time to make things.  But this one is so easy and fast that I might just roll out of bed a few minutes early from now on (perhaps only hit snooze once?).

2 slices of bread (I used cinnamon bread)

2 tbsp Nutella

1 egg

.25 cup milk

butter

1.  Heat butter in pan.  Spread Nutella on bread (you could go crazy and add to both sides).  Close bread like a sandwich.

2.  On a deep plate or casserole dish combine egg and milk (you could use cream).  Soak the Nutella sandwich on both sides.  Place in pan.  Cook about 4 minutes each side.  Sprinkle powdered sugar, sliced bananas, or strawberries on top... or just eat it.  Yum!