Tequila Shrimp

Today was a day of really hard work at our house. The kids played hard at school and Kevan and I worked nonstop.

Poor Kevan really has it hard. He has a wife who has really lofty ideas for the house which he gets to make a reality.

Two of those ideas are just about complete in the kitchen which I'll be able to show pictures of hopefully next week (depending on how fast Kevan can get the countertops and backsplash laid).

I spent 8 hours today painting. Which means that I'm pretty much crippled right now thanks to my absurdly bad back. But I made a lot of progress and should be able to finish up with just a little work before our Day of Dates begins tomorrow.

So here is a fantastic recipe for Tequila Shrimp that Kevan made for dinner tonight. That guy... he's a keeper.

Tequila Shrimp
- 1 cup Tequila
- 2 cups raw Shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 1/2 cup Cilantro
- Lime juice to taste
- 2 cups Brown Rice
- 1 can Black Beans
- Tortillas
- Sour Cream
- Mexican Shredded Cheese
- 1 can Black Olives


1. Throw some deveined and peeled raw shrimp in 1 cup of tequila to marinate for 1/2 hour. Chop up 1 clove of fresh garlic and toss in with the shrimp. I like to add in a couple of squirts of lime juice and the cilantro at this point. Once the shrimp have marinated, throw the entire mixture into a pan on med/high heat. Let the the tequila reduce by about 1/2 to let the alcohol cook off so those kids can eat some also. We don't need to give them any excuses to not eat their dinner. :) Cook the shrimp until they're nice and pink. Add Salt/Pepper to taste.

2. I love using the bags of frozen peppers. I get them for $2.25 at Target and can get two meals out of them. So if you have those frozen peppers toss them into a strainer and defrost them in the sink under some cold water (otherwise use some fresh yellow, red, and/ or green peppers) and then toss them into a pan to cook with the shrimp. I love garlic, so I'd toss another clove into my pan at this point.

3. Cook up some rice. We used brown rice tonight and it was fabulous. I've made the switch from white rice to brown rice for my daily cooking.

4. Throw some black beans into a pan over low-medium heat.

5. Toss into a bowl or tortilla and throw some sour cream, salsa, black olives, mexican cheese (or cheddar if you have that) and serve!

It's delish and I love the tequila flavor of the shrimp and the kids go crazy for it which works for me!

Enjoy! I'm off to put kids to bed and then find a heating pad to lay on.

Chicken Taco Quesadilla

I'm exhausted tonight after all of the heavy eating yesterday. It takes some serious effort and willpower to remove yourself from the amazing Chili Cream Cheese dip (scroll down for this recipe) and steer yourself to the veggie platter so that you could graze with a tad bit less guilt.

Plus it doesn't help that I've purchased all of the ingredients for an amazing dinner for about a month now, and then once it comes time to cook said dinner... I can't remember what it was supposed to be.

I know that it involves heavy cream, bleu cheese, onions, chicken, chives but I just can't remember exactly what it was. It's like that annoying name on the tip of your mouth that just hangs out on your tongue for about a month. It will come to me.

But until it does. I've got to improvise.

Going grocery shopping would also help make cooking dinner easier.

But alas, that hasn't happened either. Our fridge is so empty that Kevan was thinking about sending out an S.O.S.

So tonight I went for the easy way out.

Chicken Taco Quesadilla

• Cook up some chicken in a pan and then shred or chop up
• Add some taco seasoning to the chicken and add a little water
• Combine Mexican Cheese, refried beans, black olives and your fabulous Taco Chicken together. I didn't have the energy to make some Mexican Rice but it would have been much better. (Here is the recipe I use for Mexican Rice It happens to be another amazing dish that I made last week. Mexican Lasagne)
• Throw into the microwave for 1 minute per quesadilla to melt the cheese
• Put in a preheated oven set at 350 for 10 minutes until the quesadilla is just the way that you like it. I love it reaaalllly crispy. I like to put tin foil down on the racks and add my quesadilla on top.
• Once your your 'dilla is done cooking, take it out and slice that baby up.
  
• Now it's time for the fixin's. I'm a huge fan of salsa and sour cream combined. It makes me a happy person. So my quesadillas are usually soaked in those. You could probably say that I have Salsa Sour Cream for dinner with a side of Quesadilla.
  

The best part about this meal is that the kids absolutely love it and cleaning up after I'm done cooking is as easy as tossing the tin foil and popping our plates in the dishwasher. Fantastic.


Chili Cream Cheese Dip
This is a really hard one to make, so bear with me. Our friend Candace brought this to the super bore yesterday and it was hard to not just in and start swimming in it.

• Pop the top on a can of store bought chili and drop it into a crockpot
• Toss in 8 oz of cream cheese. I like the Neufunzichichihavenocluewhatit'sreallycalled cheese because it's got less fat in it and still manages to taste good.
  
• stir serve with some chips.