Recipe of the Day

Today was one of those lucky days when I had a meeting downtown at the Dept. of Environmental Quality and did not have to drive to Wilsonville. It was especially nice considering the accident on I-5 they were reporting this morning. The icing on top of the cake was the fact that Jeremy was able to meet me for lunch! After debating whether or not we should try somewhere new, we ended up at our favorite spot...Deschutes. Jeremy had a weird craving for a lamb burger (seriously!) and I l love their pretzels :) Anyways...he asked me what I planned to write about today and we decided to share with you two great entries.

The first thing I'll share with you is the recipe I used last night for dinner. Back before Jeremy left for Alabama, I was in the habit of making us dinner each night. One night I knew we were running low on groceries, but decided to try to make the most of what we had left. I found this great recipe on the Food Network's site for Shrimp Scampi with Artichokes. Random I know, but we had artichoke in the fridge and shrimp in the freezer, so it was perfect! Since that night, Jeremy's asked me to make this four or five times. It's delicious, only takes about 30 minutes (start to finish), and is pretty healthy! I highly recommend this recipe and it can be served on top of pasta if you need your daily carb fix.

Jeremy's Favorite Dinner: Shrimp Scampi with Artichokes

Ingredients (serves 4 --or 2 if Jeremy's eating over!):

2 tablespoons olive oil
4 large garlic cloves, minced
2 medium shallots, thinly sliced (if you don't have shallots, 1/2 of one large yellow onion works)
1.25 lbs. large shrimp, peeled and deveined*
1 (11 0z.) package frozen artichoke hearts, or 1 (14 oz.) can, drained
1/3 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

*I have used raw shrimp, but when I'm lazy I just buy the already cooked kind. If you opt for this, just put the shrimp in about 5 minutes before you're done cooking everything else. All you need to do is make sure all the ingredients are hot before serving.

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and shallots. Cook until softened (2-3 minutes).

2. Add shrimp, artichoke, wine, and lemon juice and cook until shrimp are cooked throughout, 3-4 minutes. If you are using pre-cooked shrimp, just place over the heat until everything is hot enough to serve.

3. Stir in parsley, salt, and pepper.

4. Enjoy!!

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as Jeremy and I both do. I've even made it when Jeremy's been gone. You can cut everything in half and it's the perfect size meal for one!