Miso Shrimp with Sautéed Vegetables (Clean and potentially Paleo)

Y'all, it has been a whirlwind of a past few weeks! Not really anything different has happened, other than I feel like I have been going non-stop from the moment I wake up at 5 am to the second I pass out from exhaustion at 10:30 pm with barely even a chance to check my email. It's pretty much a miracle my teeth get brushed and the dog gets fed and I haven't yet left my keys in the freezer. In the meantime, fast but fresh dinners like this one have been absolutely imperative during this recent craziness. 

Seafood en Papillote

As promised, y’all, here is a non-beef, perfect for the end of summer recipe! I don’t know what got into me last month… I posted way more beef recipes than I normally eat. Anyway, today is a fantastic dish. For you vegetarian (fish eating), dairy free and gluten free lovers out there, you’ll be extra happy! It’s fancy. It’s healthy (ish). It’s delicious. It’s Seafood en Papillote!

Breaded Halibut with Chipotle Mayo

I was kind of lacking inspiration for dinner last night. I had cleaned the house from top to bottom all day and been in the kitchen messing up a chocolate cupcake recipe since I didn't have enough eggs. I needed something quick, something light, something not chicken or beef.

Bang Bang Shrimp

Some sort of Bang Bang Shrimp recipe seems to be all the rage across the virtual food highway... which is great! I'm glad people are experiencing the wonders that are the Bang Bang! I wonder if they have a more in depth history, but my extent of knowledge regarding their existence is from Bonefish Grill, which is a very tasty seafood restaurant mainly based on the East coast. Travis and I frequented this restaurant during my visits to Pensacola, where he was stationed during flight school. There is a branch right by the airport there, and I may or may not have thought about their business hours when making my flight plans. 

So before you think I'm utterly insane for considering a restaurant's business hours while making flight arrangements to go see my husband, let me clear up a few things.....

1. Of course the priority was to go see Travis. No doubts about that! 

2. He lived in Milton, not Pensacola proper. He didn't even technically live IN Milton, just north of it. Milton is the sticks- like cue the banjos sticks. Their "nice" restaurant was not much better than a Burger King. I kid you not. Bonefish grill was the nicest restaurant for the next 100 miles or so north of the airport.

3. That's how good the Bang Bang Shrimp are.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this dish- it's a fried shrimp appetizer covered in a light layer of sweet and spicy chile sauce. It's a wonderful combination of creamy mayonnaise, sweet Thai chile sauce, and spicy Sriracha.

I don't fry foods often, but when I do, normally I use the three step method of frying- dredge in cornstarch or flour, dip in milk or an egg wash, then dredge again in breadcrumbs or panko. It's tedious and messy and it takes a while since you have to do each piece by itself. Tasty, yes, but not very time efficient!

This recipe I used tonight calls for a thick batter that coats the shrimp and then you just drop them in hot oil. I was a little wary since I've tried batters like this while trying to make corn dogs and it just slid off the meat, even when it was patted dry and dusted with flour. But I thought what the heck, so I gave it a shot.

It worked out pretty well, considering it was so much less labor and time intensive than the dredging method. It was not as crispy crunchy as I would have hoped the shrimp would have been, but they're definitely not soggy. The flavor of both the fried shrimp by themselves and the sauce were spot on from what I remember having in the restaurant. 

Tuna Pea Wiggle

Sadly I only have one picture of this delicious dish. Me being a complete space cadet left the camera in the "on" position for a couple hours before deciding to make this for dinner, and the battery died after I was able to snap this one shot. What can I say, I've been frazzled lately!! Travis and I are going to Hiroshima for the weekend in celebration of our 3 year wedding anniversary on April 25. I've been working, doing laundry like a crazy woman, cleaning, getting our dog Otis to our friend's house for the duration of our trip and trying to finalize our to-do list for while we are in mainland. It drives Travis crazy, I am sure, that I try to plan out flights, hotels, trains, subways, and busses down based on their schedules I can find online. Despite his free spirit desiring to wander around for 3 days, I am proud of myself for finding them since everything is in Japanese and it can be difficult to determine which link to follow when you're looking at everything written in a very foreign language. I just don't like getting lost, or having a lot of downtime on vacations. I don't like feeling like I've wasted time walking around when I could have researched the destination a little better prior to going. So with that monstrosity of a to do list right before our trip, a quick dinner was in order.

Quick and Simple Fish Tacos

I have a confession- these were my first fish tacos. 

It's blasphemy. I know it's what you're thinking. I know I'm probably the last person in the modern world who hasn't tried them. I don't even really have a good excuse! I could say I grew up in Dallas and fresh fish just wasn't a big thing there, but that's not necessarily true. I know Dallas is in Texas and Texas is known for beef, blah blah blah. But flash frozen fish has been a big thing since I can remember- my parents bought salmon all the time even though my sisters and I wouldn't touch the stuff as kids.