Recipe - Garlic Lemon Shrimp with Linguine (under 400 cal!)

I made this for dinner the other day and it was so good I though I would share the recipe.

(sorry this picture is so lousy but it I hadn't planned on posting about this so it was a very quick, last minute cell phone photo)

Garlic Lemon Shrimp Linguine

Garlic Lemon Shrimp with Linguine

(Serves 2)

What you need: 

• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil    
• 8 oz. uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined (~ 14 extra large)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 6 tsp lemon juice
• ¼ C. white wine *
• ¼ C. low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/8 C. fresh parsley, chopped
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 4 oz. uncooked linguine

*You can substitute the wine with very dry sherry or extra dry vermouth. Or simply double the chicken broth to ½ C. total liquid.

What to do:

Boil some water in a large pot and cook linguine according to package directions. (Once done, drain and keep warm until needed).

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season shrimp with salt and pepper. Add shrimp to pan and sauté until pink, about 2-3 minutes. Add garlic and about ½ the parsley and sauté, stirring constantly, about 30 seconds more. Remove shrimp to bowl and keep warm (leaving as much garlic in pan as possible).

In the pan, add wine, broth, lemon juice and remaining parsley and bring to boil. Boil, uncovered, until the sauce is reduced by about half. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add cooked linguine to pan and toss to coat. Split pasta into two bowls and top with shrimp evenly. Sprinkle with a little more parsley, if desired.

I put the recipe into myFitnessPal and it stated... per serving: Calories = 366 and total fat = 7.2g. Not bad! (This recipe serves 2). (your values may vary depending on your ingredients, brands and measurements!)


This really came out so delicious and, despite the seemingly small portion, I was fully satisfied after the meal. I served with a fresh salad on the side. I hope you enjoy it too.



(recipe adapted from Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook Shrimp Scampi Recipe)

How to {frugally} Dress up a Dessert Plate

I know I am a little late with this post as it relates to a craft I did for the 4th of July, but you really can use this "trick" for any occassion so I figured I would share it anyway. It's fast, super easy and cheap frugal. Just the way I like it! {TWSS} ;)




How to dress up a simple dessert plate



We went to a BBQ for the 4th of July and were asked to bring a dessert. I raided my pantry and found a box of funfetti brownie mix that I had bought on clearance after Christmas for some ridiculous price like 50 cents. The kids helped me whip the brownies up and instead of using the green, red and white "funfettis" that came with the mix (since the colors weren't exactly patriotic), we used our own mix of sprinkles from the pantry and just sprinkled them on top. YUM!

Who doesn't love some gooey brownies??

When it came time to pack them up and head out to the BBQ, I decided not to use one of my fancy glass/metal/ceramic platters so I wouldn't have to worry about cleaning it off when we left or leaving it there or whatever. So instead, I went for my dessert plate "trick" of choice which is to dress up a simple disposable plate.

First I selected a plate. I've done this before using those nice thick paper plates but didn't have any in my "stash" that day, so instead, I used a simple white stryofoam plate. Really any type of disposable plate will work for this project as long as the plate isn't too thick. You'll see why in a minute...

Next I took a hole puncher and made holes around the outer lip of the plate - about 1" apart. I just eyeballed it. (This is why you don't want the plate to be too thick or plastic or something that would be difficult to hole punch).

Then I found a piece of ribbon in my "stash" and threaded it through the holes.

Tie it off with a bow and TA-DAAA! From drab to FAB! :)

Since it looked a little too valentine-ish with all that red and white, I colored a few simple stars in the gaps with a blue Sharpie. Much better and definitely nice and patriotic. :)

Everyone thought the plate was so cute and I had no qualms about leaving it at the BBQ to be thrown away later!

What are some of your favorite ways to dress up otherwise plain items?



Linking up to these fun parties - be sure to check them out:
Someday Crafts
The Thrifty Home
The Frugal Girls

Re-Generate your Green Onions? It's true!

Several months ago I saw an idea on Pinterest that claimed you could re-generate green onions simply by placing the cut off stems in a cup of water. Ummmmm. Really? I mean, REALLY??? OK, I gotta admit, I was pretty skeptical. In fact, I didn't even repin it to any of my boards as I wasn't sure I was buying it.

Well, I happened to have a bundle of green onions on hand the other day for a recipe. So, I decided to give the old idea a try. I mean, it was worth a try, right? Well... follow me this way...

First I cut off the green stems and left the white roots strapped together by a rubber band.

How to re-generate green onions

Then I dropped the bundle into a small tupperware container, added some water and placed it on the pathetic miniscule just plain old sad excuse of a window ledge in the kitchen.



re-grow your green onions



Then I waited.

But not long.

Because...

By Day 3, my stubs looked like this...

And by Day 5, we were here...

And just ONE day later we already had this!

On to Day 8...

And here we are at Day 15. So it took about 2 weeks to get to this point. A not-quite-so-perfect, but damn-good-enough batch of green onions! WOW!

Regenerated Green Onions

What do you know?? It actually worked! Go figure! I will never buy green onions again! OK, well, that may not be true. To be honest, my re-growth isn't quite as "hardy" as a new batch of onions from the grocery store would be. But they'll work! And I can't say if these will re-generate again after I cut off those new green stems. BUT, I defintiely plan to give it a try! :) And I'll be sure to come back and update ya!

In the meantime, I highly recommend this trick at least once!

This post has been featured! Thank you so much! Please be sure to check out these fabulous blogs and their parties!

  

Linking up to these fun parties:

Polish the Stars

Someday Crafts

The Thrifty Home

House of Hepworths

The Frugal Girls

A Little Knick Knack

While he was Napping

Kitchen Fun with my 3 sons

Rainbow Treats

Yes, another post about Boogey's RAINBOW Party (see full party details HERE). Are you sick of reading about rainbows yet?? Well, if you are... too bad. I'm not done yet! :P

:)

This time I thought I would talk about the Rainbow Treats we made.

{Fruity Pebble} Rainbow Treats

Now, I have to say I was kind of surprised at what a big hit these were. Frankly, I'm not really a fruit-flavored cereal type of gal. So, to be honest, I wasn't "blown away" by these. But apparently, I'm alone in my indifference to fruit-flavored snacks because these knocked the socks off all the guests and were devoured by the kids and adults alike! (although I did notice that it seemed like the dads consumed the majority of these treats... huh, go figure! Wives, take note! LOL)

There really isn't any rocket science behind making these. Essentially, they are just like rice krispie treats but you make them with Fruity Pebbles instead. Here is the recipe I followed (from the fruity pebbles website and on the inside of the box):

Rainbow treat ingredients

What you need:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine

1 pkg. (10-1/2 oz.) miniature marshmallows (6 cups)

1 pkg. (11 oz.) Fruity Pebbles Cereal (about 8-1/2 cups)

What to do:

Microwave butter in 4-qt. microwavable bowl on HIGH 45 seconds or until melted. Add marshmallows; toss to coat. Microwave 1-1/2 minutes or until marshmallows are completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring after 45 seconds. Add cereal; mix well. Press firmly into greased foil-lined 13x9-inch pan. Cool. Cut into squares.

That's it! Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!

These were an absolutely perfect addition to the snack table as they were so pretty and all RAINBOW-Y!

Rainbow treats are so pretty!

We hardly had any left at the end of the day and I froze the leftovers. Yes, did you know you can freeze these kinds of treats?? Well, you can! Read on... ;)

I have done this before with a regular batch of rice krispie treats and they freeze fabulously! This is a great idea when you have leftover cereal or marshmallows (as is often the case in our house) but don't need a whole pan of tempting goodies sitting around for you the kids to eat. Simply whip up a batch of {your choice type of cereal} marshmallow treats. Cut into individual sized portions, then wrap in foil. I just take a large piece of foil, cut it with scissors into small squares, wrap my treats in them individually, and then store everything in a freezer bag in our deep freezer. You can take out one at a time and just leave them on the counter (or throw them into a lunchbox!) and they are defrosted in no time. I typically take a couple out of the freezer before I start making dinner and they are ready to go for dessert. The kiddos love them! I usually press some M&M's on top as they are cooling for an extra special yum-factor. ;)

Anyway... back to my rainbow treats... definitely try these sometime as a nice variation to the "usual" rice krispie treat.

{fruity pebble} marshmallow treats

These would also be a fun treat for St. Patrick's Day!

*See the rest of this RAINBOW party HERE!

Party Punch

When I posted about Boogey's Rainbow Party HERE, I mentioned that I served some punch for the kiddos.

Rainbow Party Punch

I've never made a party punch before but did a quick search online to get some ideas in my head about the basics. I didn't follow any one recipe in particular, but kind of just "winged it" and it turned out DEE-LISH!  All of the kids loved it and the parents enjoyed it too.

There is no science to this punch... I literally just dumped my ingredients into the beverage dispenser (the kids helped me), gave it a stir and done! Here is what I used:

Boogey's RAINBOW Party Punch

• 1 large can (12 oz.) frozen pink lemonade concentrate
• 1 lemonade can's worth of water
• 1 large bottle (64 oz.) of berry-flavored juice
• 1 bottle (2 liter) of Diet Sprite
• 2/3 of a large can (46 oz.) of pineapple juice (give or take depending on your tastes)

That's it! The kids loved this punch and there was hardly any left over at the end of the party. We mixed and served it in the awesome beverage dispenser the Heela gave me for Christmas. I don't know what it is about these things, but I honestly believe they make drinks taste even better! Plus, the kids love being able to serve themselves!

{If you want to make this punch a little more "adult friendly" just add a little vodka ;}

Do you have a favorite punch recipe?


Linking up to these parties - be sure to check them out!
While He Was Napping
A Turtle's Life for Me

Rock Star and Zebra Striped Cupcakes

So in my post HERE about my 5-year old's Rock Star Party, I mentioned that I had made some "rock star/tie dye/zebra" cupcakes. To go with the theme, they were pink, black and white zebra stripe (kind of) but didn't quite turn out as well as I had hoped. Granted, they still tasted great, but didn't have quite the stripe effect I had wanted - clearly I am an amateur. But... I'll give you my tutorial anyway in case you want to give it a go.

Zebra-stiped and tie-dye cupcakes

I was originally inspired by THIS post where she made a fabulous striped cake that I thought would be perfect for the Rock Star party. But since I always make cupcakes for my girls' parties, I thought I'd try a twist on it.

The first thing I did was mix up a batch of boxed yellow cake mix. Then I split it into 3 bowls and colored 2 of them accordingly with my Wilton gel food coloring to make black and pink batter.

Colored cake batter using Wilton gels

Next I transferred the batter into squirt bottles.

Squirt bottles gave me more control over the batter

Then I squeezed a little bit of each color into the center of each cupcake liner giving it a bit of time to spread out before I squeezed in the next color.

Let's get started squeezing...

Then I continued...

Keep going...

And continued...

Looking good....

And continued...

Not bad...

Until I had run out of batter and had only barely half-filled my cupcake liners. What the heck??!! Thankfully I had another box of batter so I repeated my mixing/coloring/filling and squeezing process, but by that point I was pretty annoyed and tired and admit that I kind of rushed through the process for the second half. *sigh*  But I finished them all anyway and they looked like this before I popped them into the oven...

Ready to go the oven

When they came out of the oven they looked pretty cool from the top!

Neat-o Stripes!

And even looked cool on the side where you could see the stripes through the wrapper.

You can even see the stripes through the wrapper

But when I cut one open, it didn't have nearly the striped effect I was going for.

Not as many stripes as I wanted :(

You can see where I obviously got lazy and started rushing just to get them done. *sigh* Pretty neat still, but not perfection. And, yes I am a perfectionist, so I was kind of bummed that I put all that effort into it and it didn't look perfect. But I sucked it up and reminded myself that none of the kids (or the parents, for that matter) would know what they were supposed to look like, so it didn't matter that they wern't perfect.

Since I did like the way the tops looked, I left half of them unfrosted. The other half I frosted with white icing and topped them with a zebra sugar-sheet circle.

Zebra-striped sugar sheets added some rock-n-roll fun!

I found the sugar sheets at Michaels (used a 40% off coupon, of course!) and cut them into circles with a cookie cutter from my stash.

Sugar sheets found at Michaels

Cut them into circles the same size as the cupcakes

Overall, everyone thought they looked cool so I decided not to beat myself up too much for the "failure" of my cake stripes. I added some cupcake toppers to the plain cupcakes to really "rock them out!". (using a images from the file I won from Bird's Party)

Rockin' Cupcake Toppers

Rock n Roll Cupcakes

Rock Star Party Cupcakes

As I said, I'm just an amateur (still, not bad for a CPA, huh?) so I guess I won't complain or criticize myself too much! Whatcha think?


Linking up to these parties - be sure to check them out!
The Frugal Girls
Truly Lovely
Keeping it Simple
Under the Table and Dreaming
C.R.A.F.T.
House of Hepworths
Eat at Home Cooks