Day 25 - Shrimp Scampi

Back on the cooking wagon!

Ingredients

1 lb. jumbo shrimp, shelled and deveined 2 tbsp unsalted butter 1 tbsp minced garlic 1 tbsp freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley 1 freshly squeezed lemon 1 tbsp grated lemon zest Kosher salt Ground black pepper

Directions

Shell, devein and dry shrimp (leave tails on).
Season shrimp with salt and pepper.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat, add butter.
When foaming subsides, raise heat to high and add shrimp in single layer.
Cook shrimp for one minute.
Add garlic and cook for an additional minute.
Turn shrimp over and cook for two more minutes.
Transfer shrimp to a serving bowl.
Return the skillet to medium heat, add lemon juice.
Scrape any browned bits from bottom of pan with wooden spoon.
Boil liquid for 45 seconds, then add the zest and parsley to the sauce.
Pour sauce over shrimp and toss to combine.

I don't know if my palate isn't enhanced for this or...what the problem was. This was not a palatable meal. I don't know what could have fixed this. It was bitter, had a horrid after-taste. I think had I added a cream sauce, it would have made it a lot better, but murdered it from a nutritional standpoint. I'd have to really consider some alterations before even thinking about making this again.

Day 14 - Poor Man's Pot Roast

1 lean 2 lb beef roast 2 medium onions peeled and halved 4 carrots, peeled and cut in half 1/2 a large cabbage cut in 4 wedges 2 potatoes, peeled and cut in half 4 cups Emeril's beef broth 2 bay leaves 2 cloves of garlic salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Put Slow cooker at medium high heat.
2. Add all to pot and cook 3-5 hours.
3. Serve with vegetables and juices.

You know, I just wasn't a fan of this. The flavor wasn't there, so it was just an underwhelming dish for me. I haven't tried cabbage in a pot roast in the past, but I definitely will do it in the future...if I can just find a better pot roast recipe. :)

Day 9 - Ground Turkey Stroganoff

Ground Turkey Stroganoff

Ingredients

1 lb extra lean ground turkey

1 onion, chopped

2 cans 98% ff cream of mushroom soup

2 8oz packages mushrooms

1 cup fat free sour cream

1 package egg noodles

Directions

Brown turkey & onion in a large pan.
Add soup, sour cream & mushrooms.
Simmer for 15 minutes, or until mushrooms are soft. Serve over noodles.
Makes 8 1 cup servings.

Easily the long lost half-sister meal to the prison food I made on Saturday. The consistency was weird. The mushrooms were completely unnecessary and added a strange flavor. Everything else was bland. Though I'm very sure if I had left out the mushrooms and added corn and some seasoning, this could have been a lot less gross. With time, I'll come to understand seasonings more so I'll know what I can add if something is tasting a little off. I don't blame the original source for this recipe. I blame my ignorance about seasoning. I did add my Tony Chachere's and it made it alright enough to get it down, but I wouldn't call this a "good" dish.

Day 6 - Ground Turkey Potato Casserole. AKA: "prison food"

Ingredients:

1 pound lean ground turkey

1 medium onion

1 medium green bell pepper

1/2 tsp table salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

8 oz canned mushrooms

10 3/4 oz Campbell's 98% Fat-Free Cream Of Mushroom Soup

4 medium potatoes 

Peel and slice 4 potatoes. Parboil potatoes, rinsing off excess starch. Saute' onions and peppers in 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil. Add turkey and cook through. Place potatoes and turkey with onions and peppers in a 3 qt. baking dish. Add remaining ingredients. Bake for 35 minutes at 400 degrees in oven.

The last time I ate a meal with this flavoring and consistency, I was sitting in the cafeteria of my elementary school. Saying this tasted like cat food would be insulting to the cat food industry. The potatoes were very starchy. The "casserole" didn't have the consistency of casserole. We tried desperately to "save" the dish by various means. Added a few shakes of garlic salt to a bite? Nope. Tony Chachere's didn't even save this dish. There's so many variances which would need to be made to this dish to make it palatable, it would become a different dish entirely.

I did, of course learn a few lessons from this dish. When a recipe says it takes 30 minutes in an oven to turn sliced raw potatoes soft, it's lying. Green bell pepper tastes nothing like sweet bell peppers. Salt and pepper doesn't go very far when it comes to seasoning dishes. Tony's seasoning can't make everything better. Last, but not least, you can tell who your real friends are when you serve something disgusting for dinner. If they don't make fun of you and still thank you for making it, they're worth keeping.

Dinner on the plate:

Dinner where it really belongs: