Grilled Shrimp With Spinach And Strawberry Salad

The very restricted phase of Bev’s diet came to an end, which means she still can’t eat carbs from grains or beans, but she can have a little dairy and fat, so she requested a special dinner. She wanted grilled shrimp basted with a butter sauce so it would flare up and char them a little – “like I had at Ye Olde Steakhouse” and seasoned with blackening seasoning.

So I peeled the shrimp, dried them well, lightly sprayed with Pam, gave them a nice dusting with kicked-up Emerils Essence, which is what I use for blackening seasoning, and into the fridge for about 30 minutes. I made a simple butter sauce of:

½ stick butter
Juice from 1 lemon wedge
Dash of Worcestershire sauce

Bev never thinks I get her shrimp done enough, so I cooked them 2 minutes on side one, flipped and brushed on a coat on butter sauce, then did it again for a total cook time of 8 minutes. When I took them off, I flipped onto the plate and gave them another coat of the butter sauce. Each buttering created the required flare up which put a nice little char on them. I believe I’ve discovered a key to good grilled shrimp – throw the butter to them - we all thought they were very good.

The other day, Bev wanted to make a strawberry spinach salad and asked me to find a dressing, but they all contained oil, which she couldn’t eat yet. I finally found and made one from berries, which I was skeptical of (I lost the website address):

1 cup chopped strawberries
2 tbsp red wine vinegar (will try balsamic next time)
1/8 tsp black pepper

I tossed it all into the mini-food processor and gave it a long spin in hopes of reducing the size of the seed pieces and I thought it was pretty tasty. When Bev came home, she sampled and added another ½ - ¾ tsp of vinegar and half a packet of artificial sweetener. She liked it so well, she plans to eat it regularly, diet or not.

She likes her meat on her salad and this is her plate – she added a few chopped pecans and bleu cheese crumbles.

I’m not a fan of the strawberry salad, so mine was just greens and bleu cheese dressing – with crumbles of course.

Even though these were 15 count shrimp, I would still normally eat several more, but my little Phentermine bill ensured I was plenty full with this meal.

I finally found out how to shoot close up shots with the camera, so my pictures should improve some, as soon as I learn to steady the camera and not cast a shadow that is - these were my first two.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry