Have you ever just needed to get away from everything? Husbands, kids, drama, responsibilities and just have a couple days to let it all go? A friend of mine and I have kids who are best friends. After multiple sleepovers and slumber parties we joked about how great it would be for our own grown up version of a slumber party. What if we booked a hotel for a night, watched movies, ate junk food and didn't worry about things like laundry and dishes. The joke grew until we actually decided to book an airbnb for a girls trip at the beach. 3 full days of relaxing, eating, beach laying, hiking, shopping fun and no kids begging for attention, sand castles or toys. That little joke turned into an excellent trip.
The bad thing after that type of trip, especially for someone with diabetes or struggling with keeping certain health factors under control, is that you immediately need to bounce back to staying on track once you are home. However, one of the best things about going to the coast is that fresh seafood is easy to find and is a very healthy thing to eat. Lightly sauteed fresh seafood is always a favorite of mine.
Of course, that means I brought home a cooler with fresh caught shrimp, scallops and flounder. That shrimp is exactly what I made today and what I am sharing with you! If you do not have access to fresh seafood you can easily make this recipe with previously frozen thawed shrimp.
One of the other things I used for this recipe is a pasta substitue. Instead of real pasta I made a run into Trader Joe's for Heart of Palm linguine. If you don't have a Trader Joe's you can also buy the Palmini brand online or at Walmart. Hearts of Palm is the edible inner core of a palm tree. I do recommend rinsing and patting dry on a paper towel before using in cooking only because there is a slight brine taste when it is packaged. Once you do that it was absorb the flavors when it is cooked. Also, you only need to add this at the very end of cooking your dish since it just needs to be heated.
All you need for this recipe aside from shrimp and heart of palm pasta is white wine (or broth is you do not use alcohol), lemon juice, garlic, butter, salt and pepper.
First you will need to prep the shrimp. If you have purchased fresh shrimp from a seafood market or your grocery store peeling the shell and deveining is important. Peel off the legs and outer shell. Use a small pairing knife to slit the top of the shrimp. You will see a dark vein running through the top. Just pull that out and discard. Don't ask me what it is because.... yuck. Technically you can eat this part but once you know what it is you will likely start checking all your shrimp.
Pat your shrimp dry on a paper towel. While you are doing that you should also go ahead and rinse then pat dry your heart of palm as well. Once all of this is done you are ready to start cooking!
Melt butter in a nonstick pan over medium high heat. Add minced garlic, lemon juice and wine. Mix in skillet and let simmer until about half the liquid has cooked away. This will only take about 3 minutes. Add shrimp, salt & pepper and cook until pink. Then add in pasta and stir together until the pasta is coated in remaining sauce and heated through.
Once it was ready to go I added a sprinkle of parsley and shredded parmesan cheese. This was SO GOOD and did not break my calorie or carb bank at all. Also, this made a big portion so if you eat smaller portions you may be able to get away with splitting this into 2 meals.
1/2 lb fresh shrimp 520 calories
9 oz heart of palm linguine 34 grams protein
2 tbsp unsalted butter 24 grams fat
5 oz white wine (I used Cupcake Light Hearted - 80 calories) 23 grams carbs
3 large cloves garlic, minced 6 grams fiber
lemon juice (I used a big squeeze but did not measure this) 4 grams sugar
salt and pepper
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