Cherry Tomato Shrimp Scampi

I successfully ate shrimp for 7 meals last week. I’m not sure you can constitute that as successful, but regardless I did it. When I tested this shrimp scampi recipe earlier in the week I didn’t think about the fact that I’d be away for the weekend near water aka a surplus and desire to eat as much fish as possible. A spontaneous dinner date to a favorite seafood spot in town didn’t help either. After meal 7 I think I can confidently say I’ll be taking a siesta from shrimp for a bit, but you can bet when I’m ready again this recipe will be the one breaking my shrimp fast.

This recipe comes together so quickly. The white wine butter (I use ghee) sauce is kind of insane. Just hold the pasta, add crusty bread, you’ll be wanting to sop up every last bit. I also added tomatoes for a pop of color and flavor amongst the shrimp. Pair with an easy green salad, I just did butter lettuce, avocado slices, leftover parsley from the shrimp and a vinaigrette, and your meal is done.

Cherry Tomato Shrimp Scampi
yields 3 servings | recipe adapted from BevCooks

Ingredients:
1 lb. large frozen shrimp, thawed, peeled, and deveined
2 Tbsp. ghee (or butter)
1 Tbsp. olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ shallot, finely chopped
½ cup white wine (I used sauvignon blanc)
10 oz cherry tomatoes
3 tbsp. chopped parsley
1 pinch red pepper flakes
1 lemon, zest and juice
Salt and pepper
Crusty bread and a green salad, for serving

Directions:
Over medium heat, melt the ghee and olive oil in a large pan. Add the garlic, shallot, and tomatoes, and sauté for 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add the wine and crushed red pepper to the pan, and give it all a stir. Turn the heat to medium-low, put the lid on your pan, and let the tomatoes, garlic, and shallot simmer for about 5 minutes, until the tomatoes begin to wilt.

Once the tomatoes are starting to soften, add the shrimp to the pan and season generously with salt and pepper. Squeeze half of the lemon into the pan and let the shrimp cook for about 1-2 minutes per side until pink. Stir in the lemon zest and parsley and give it a taste. Adjust seasoning as needed.

Serve in a low bowl with toasted crusty bread and a green salad!

Annie

This recipe was prepared in the Phantom Chef 11” Deep Fry Pan, a new favorite line of kitchenwares!

Bites of My Life

August, but howwwwww? That’s all I’ve got this morning. Happy monday, happy bites, happy August?…

-Tini Tuesday girls do Martini Monday for the new Hudson House opening. Their Blue and Gold martini is what made me fall in love with martinis!
-Breakfast tacos for lunch are cheap, filling, and too easy!
-Not pictured: chips and salsa for dinner, pictured: key lime pie for dessert. Friday night in style.
-Walked to the farmer’s market with friends Saturday morning and got a loot for the week!
-FIG SZN is here (but unfortunately these are just from TJs not the farmer’s market). I love to snack on figs whole, but this smoothie and these blondies are two fig faves!
-Just a great Saturday afternoon of live music and drinks with my Dallas college besties.
-Stayed in Saturday night to cook a summery meal, listen to my favorite playlist and discover that Lucky 7 is available to stream on IMDBtv. Anyone else used to love this made for TV movie?
-Woke up Sunday to begrudgingly workout. Things really turned around when I discovered a live Fleetwood Mac themed flow on Obe! They are replaying it tomorrow (Tuesday 8/4 at 9am)!
-Sunday snack board for lunch! One of my favorite ways to eat!

Annie

3-Bean Salad

One of my best friends has been following a vegan diet for the past few months and claims she has never felt better. I eat vegetarian accidentally all the time and have tried eating vegan once before. There is a ton of information out there about the benefits of veganism, so I thought I’d challenge my self to eat plant based last week. I prepped some delicious overnight oats, and this delicious 3-bean salad, but dinner got away from me when I ended up at a new Dallas hot spot and dove into enchiladas completely forgetting about my “vegan” diet. OOPS!

Anyway, back to this salad. I love beans, but I feel like they can get a bad rap. For vegans and vegetarians, beans are an incredible source of protein. Even for meat eaters, I think we should all love a bean now and then. There was a little sandwich spot at OU that my friends and I loved to go to. I’d almost always order a 1/2 sandwich and salad combo with my salad choice being their 3-bean salad. It wasn’t a popular opinion amongst my fellow 20 year olds, but I loved the kidney bean, green bean and chickpea salad they served.

I’m going down a rabbit hole and I’m not surprised if I lost you, but if you are still here, I’m basically just here to tell you that this 3-bean salad is great. Great for lunch balanced with some berries or apple on the side, would be great as a side at a barbecue or could even make a great dip with Fritos or tortilla chips kind of like a Texas Caviar situation.

3-Bean Salad
yields about 4, 1 cup servings

Ingredients:
1 -15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
1-15 oz can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1-15 oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 cup grape tomatoes, quartered
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 avocado, cubed
2-3 Tbsps. olive oil
Juice of 1 lime
Salt and pepper to taste (I use a decent amount)

In a large mixing bowl add first six ingredients. If serving immediately add avocado. If serving later, wait to add avocado until time to eat. Add in olive oil, lime juice and salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Serve as an entree with fruit, a side dish or with chips for a dip!

Store in an airtight container in the fridge. Will stay good for 5-7 days (without avocado). I take this salad as lunch and divide amongst 4 of my favorite jars and take 1/4 of an avocado with me to add day of right before I eat.

Annie

Bites of My Life

Popping in on a Wednesday for one last bite as an official OKC resident. I cross the border tomorrow to stake ground in Texas. But let’s recap a really great last week before I go.

-You may remember me mentioning my co-worker Ethan back during my stint at Topgolf. We hadn’t seen each other since we left that job three years ago, but we ran into each other at a stoplight, literally, which then proceeded to plans to get drinks before I moved. It was like things never changed when we got together!
-If you love ginger like I do, run to TJ’s for this lemon and ginger sparkling water.
-To celebrate Global Running Day, Chlo and I traded our normal path to run through the prettiest area of the city followed by a Whole Foods breakfast after.
-Exhibit A of Whole Foods breakfast. Somewhere on our run our conversation made a turn to yogurt. We satisfied the craving immediately with a non-dairy yogurt and fruit and granola from the breakfast bar.
-A work happy hour to celebrate my work-wife’s HR certification and a last toast before my move. PSA if you didn’t know, I’m keeping my job just working remote. ILY Social Order!
-My friends threw me the best going away party last Friday. We grilled out, there was a balloon garland, adorable cookies and a few too many rounds of flip cup that resulted in a few too many tears…
-Wedding #2 to celebrate our princess bride Em alongside my best friends from high school.
-Quick break from packing for this clean out the fridge meal: grapefruit, salami, pickles and mustard. I wish I could say this was weird and strange, but I often eat meals that look just as odd as this.
-Mom made this orzo and farro salad alongside this sheet pan meal for a last Sunday dinner and it was delicious night of and just as good for leftovers these past few nights. Would be amazing to take to a summer cookout.

p.s. Did you catch last week’s post on the Best Brandy Ice in OKC?

Forever grateful for you Oklahoma. I’ll be back soon (in a month 🙃)

Annie

Bites of My Life

It’s always hard to jump back into the week after a really great weekend. This weekend was a really great one. I spent the past three days at the lake with some of my best college friends. We’ve been "lake ratz” for the past three years, with confident plans to resume next year as well. It’s one of my favorite traditions as well as the perfect way to kick off summer. The weekend has consistently fallen on my birthday which is just an added bonus.

Spent the first day of my 26th year, starting to pack and prep for my move and ended with an impromptu birthday dinner with mom and dad (we are celebrating Friday!). Mom made two of my favorites. This salmon and this salad. Finished the day with The Bachelorette because I am unashamedly loving Alabama Hannah’s season!

-Last Monday was the epitome of living in Oklahoma. The day went something like this: weathermen predicting severe weather, the entire state cleaning out their storm shelters and parking their cars in every open garage, businesses shutting down, all for nothing to happen. Yes after staying home from work and “taking shelter” at my parents, all we got was rain…
-Can’t wait to start Save the Plums. Thanks to Ellen for the early bday gift!
-Shared how I prep then freeze Perfect CCCs when I’m making cookies in advance on instagram stories last week. All the tips are saved in my highlights!
-The Best Breakfast Casserole made it’s appearance at the lake this weekend. Always a crowd pleaser and always great for a bigger crowd.
-Oklahoma has been dumped on the past few weeks. We rolled up to our rental to find a foot of water covering the road leading up to the house and the ramp to the dock halfway under water. Don’t think for a minute this stopped us from wading through it to enjoy time on the dock.
-Coffee (tea) and cards before the days got started.
-Lake food is the best food, but it also makes me not want to eat it for another year. So many chips and beers consumed….
-We had a table on the deck of our rental that fit all 14 of us around it. We spent each night after dinner circled around this table playing rounds of picolo and playing song after song.
-The packing has begun, but first I’m having a garage sale to purge my belongings.

Annie