We really like shrimp and grits so since I had some shrimp in the freezer and Karen recently posted her recipe for Lemon Butter Shrimp with Bacon & Cheddar Polenta on her “Backroad Journal” blog, a plan was born. Since Cindy had been wanting to cook, she took over those duties and followed Karen’s recipe except we had no cornmeal and I didn’t want to make a store trip, so we used Quick Grits and made extra to ensure leftovers. Plus we served more smaller shrimp to use what we had.
If you’ve been reading this blog awhile, unlike many of you who create dishes, you know I'm pretty well just a recipe follower with the occasional light recipe adaptation until this meal. Dennis recently posted the recipe for Creamy Chicken Alfredo Lasagna on his “Ask Chef Dennis” blog and the ingredients appealed to me. We had ricotta, spinach, and chicken that all needed to be used but I didn’t have enough noodles to make lasagna and wasn’t willing to make a store trip so I used on hand ingredients and heavily adapted his recipe. As it turned out, we had 24 oz of ricotta, only half a bag of spinach (I thought we had 1½), and no mushrooms so the recipe below was born. You can get the original recipe and pics by clicking on the above link.
I’m aware that ham or lamb with sides make up the typical Easter meal, but for past several years I haven’t been inclined to go with a traditional meal for certain occasions plus I had some shrimp in the freezer that I wanted to use. So, I opted to make Creamy Tuscan Shrimp that we had raved about several years ago and I made extra sauce so we could have it over pasta. Eliza's family and Cindy's friend Ernie joined us to make a party of eight.
I have good family genes for a long life but I as I approach my 80th birthday I finally realize I could overcome the good genes with my bad behavior, especially by being way too heavy. So, I decided to give one of the weight loss drugs a try and my doctor prescribed Zepbound by injection and so far I’m losing four pounds/ week and my clothes are fitting looser. I’m well pleased with how it’s going and I’m never hungry. I eat breakfast around 11am and supper around 6pm and I eat whatever I want but I don’t want near as much of it and if I stopped my fermented grape juice intake, my loss would be even greater.
