Easy Dinner

Last night I finally had sometime to unwind in the kitchen and have some fun cooking! I had no idea what I wanted to cook but I knew I wanted to make something healthy and low cal! A quick trip to the grocery store helped me determine quickly what I was going to make because none of their proteins looked good so it was easy enough to choose shrimp...it looked the best! I knew I had some things on hand (staple ingredients to work with) so my list was short and concise; Protein, Starch and Tons of Veggies:)

INGREDIENTS: I ended up with a 1/2 pound of shrimp (peeled and deveined), brown rice, 2 zucchini, 1 red bell pepper, 1 cuke, 2 large tomatoes
...on hand I had garlic, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, S+P


I came up with something I am going to call...
My Last Minute Shrimp and Veggie Masterpiece (Serves 2, simple salad serves MORE)...original right?! HA!

Veg Side: 2 zucchini chopped into coin size pieces and placed on a baking sheet (put some olive oil on the baking sheet to keep from sticking) dust the zucchini coins with parmesan, salt, pepper and a little drizzle of olive oil.
Bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes then broil on high until the cheese browns and bubbles.

Shrimp: While the coins are cookin'...take the 1/2 pound shrimp and sauté it in 2 tbsp of olive oil, the juice of 1/2 a lemon and one clove of garlic minced.


Your Simple Salad: 1 red pepper chopped, 2 large tomatoes chopped, 1 large cucumber de-seeded and chopped mixed with balsamic, olive oil and S+P


Starch: Your brown rice is pretty plain jane. I just did a packaged brown rice..."Uncle Ben's"


I served the shrimp and juices over the brown rice with a simple salad on top, zucchini coins on the side (then they migrated into the mix!)


And voila...

I have this thing where I like to mix all my food together and have an EXPLOSION of flavor! This picture might not give it justice but MAN it was delish!

This meal is low-fat (shrimp is a low-fat seafood choice), high fiber (brown, whole grain rice) has some healthy and flavorful fat (olive oil) and is loaded with essential vitamins and minerals (thanks to the tons of vegetables)! Approximately ~350 kcal +/- 20 kcals