Yesterday, Ryan and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary! I wanted to do a blog post designated to our special day but we ended up being gone all day and I just didn't get around to it today. Friends, you can see pics from our outing in New Orleans yesterday over on Facebook.
I feel like there should be some sort of confession about what I ate yesterday. I decided before hand that wherever we went to lunch yesterday, I would get what I wanted and I wouldn't feel guilty about it. It's been a while since I've let myself indulge a bit and I figured it would be better to do it and monitor it than to just totally blow it another day and fall off the wagon all together. So, I had a really yummy ham sandwich at Luke in New Orleans. Luke is one of chef John Besh's restaurants. What's so bad about a ham sandwich you say? Well, consider that it's on some sort of white bread goodness and then it's smothered in a white cheese and they place a fried egg on top and it come with homemade fries! I ate half of the sandwich and a handful of their skinny fries. Abigail ended up eating most of the other half even though we had ordered her chicken fingers. We also stopped for supper in Slidell at The Italian Pie - this is the place next to the gym that smells so good. But I decided that I could eat there and still be guilt free. I opted for a salad and asked them not to bring the bread sticks. I had one small slice of Abigail's kid sized mushroom pizza. Overall, I felt good about the day. We walked a lot in New Orleans, plus I had run day two of week 5 of the C25K that morning and we went to the gym for about 40 minutes that evening. All in all we had a great day!
Now back to the matter at hand. Here is a delicious salad and dressing recipe. I've discovered that homemade dressings taste better and are way better for you than store bought!
Lime Dressing
1 jalapeno, seeded, coarsely chopped
1 clove of garlic
1/4 cup lime juice
1/3 cup honey (I feel like you can reasonably reduce this to 1/4 cup or less depending on how sweet you want it. Plus reducing the quantity reduces your sugar intake for this dish.)
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
1/4 cup packed cilantro leaves
1/2 cup evoo
Place jalapeno and garlic into blender or food processor. Pulse until finely chopped. Pour in lime juice, honey, vinegar, salt and cilantro. Pulse to blend. Slowly drizzle in evoo on low until incorporated. Taste. Salt if necessary. Place in a container with a lid and place in fridge until ready for use.
*This makes a lot of dressing. It should save for a while in you refrigerator. It's so good, I'm sure you'll want to eat a salad again the next day just to taste the dressing again! :)
Grilled Shrimp and Spinach Salad
25-30 small to medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
5-6 skewers, soaked in water for at least 30 minutes.
Fresh baby spinach leaves
Shredded carrots
Almond slivers
Reduced fat Feta cheese
Lime dressing (see recipe above)
Season shrimp. I think we used salt, pepper, garlic, and smoked paprika. (Ryan seasoned the shrimp so I'm not 100% sure what was on them. Just season to your liking.) Place five shrimp on each skewer. Grill. Shrimp do not take long to cook. You only need to cook for a few minutes on each side.
Divide all other ingredients, except dressing, into three separate bowls. Take shrimp off skewers and divide among bowls. Drizzle with dressing.
*When we made this, Ryan and I had two skewers a piece and Abigail had one. However, she ate several of my shrimp so if feeding three people I would suggest at least 30 shrimp. Of course you can increase or decrease to fit your needs.
Enjoy!
Peace, Love, and Healthy Living,
Jessica
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