I love scallops...one of my favorite seafood. I love it fried, sauteed, grilled wrapped in bacon...you name it, I'll eat it with scallops if I could. Sea scallops can be a little pricey so I was thrilled when I was in Albertson's last week and they were on sale for $8.00/lb. I bought a pound and a half...since that will feed me and my son, Ross. I froze them because I had other things to cook last week and didn't really want to try to think up something good and different to do with them. Mind you, I would have eaten them fried, but I'm trying not to eat fried foods so the goal was to find a less fattening way to have these wonderful treats! Ross and I went to lunch last week at Ruby Tuesday's and new, on their menu, was Low Country shrimp and grits. I LOVE shrimp and grits...I mean, I love them and I try them any where that I go...even Ruby Tuesday's. Ruby's had the right idea but the wrong cook since the andouille sausage was crisp...WRONG!!. Anyway, I digress, just a little only because it was those shrimp and grits that was my inspiration for my dinner tonight...that and a recipe that I repinned on Pinterest for bacon wrapped scallops (been there, done that quite well). So...I put my sick thinking cap on (I've had the flu-y/cold since Thursday) today while I was sitting on the couch watching this great movie, The Eagle (with Channing Tatum) and came up with an idea. A few weeks ago I cooked rabbit in white wine with bacon and mushrooms so I decided to steal some ideas from that recipe and steal some ideas from other dishes I have had in the past. I came up with Scallops and Bacon over quinoa. Now, here I will confess that I would have loved to have served this dish over some cheese grits...but alas, I didn't have any grits and finding them here in Idaho isn't that easy. So, I decided to use quinoa, which will be much healthier than the cheese grits...even though I'm secretly wanting the cheese grits! I decided to call this dish "Low Country" because I used bacon and Old Bay seasoning and if Ruby's can call their recipe low country because they throw in some Cajun seasoning, I can too. :-) One disclaimer, I've stated in other recipes that I don't do bell pepper. Typically in Cajun cooking, you use bell pepper but I cannot handle them. Instead, I've been buying bags of mini-sweet peppers. Honestly, they don't taste sweet at all, they taste like a pepper without the strong bell pepper taste. Low Country Scallops and Bacon over Quinoa 1/2 lg. onion, sliced 2 lg. cloves of garlic, minced 3 small sweet mini peppers, diced (here is where you might deviate and use bell pepper instead) 8 slices of bacon (chopped up) 2 lg Roma tomatoes, diced 1 cup (or so) fresh sliced mushrooms (really, you could use however many you like) 1.5 lb.s sea scallops 2 tbsp. EVOO 1 cup white wine (cooking wine is what I used but you could use the real deal too) 2 bay leaves 1 tsp. Cajun seasoning (Old Bay is the only thing I can get here in Idaho...my typical go to is Tony Chachere's). Cooked quinoa (I cooked one dry cup) 3 tsp. cornstarch. Instructions: Cook bacon in pan until crispy, remove and set aside. Saute the scallops (season lightly with a little sea salt) in the bacon drippings for five minutes, then remove (you don't want to cook the scallops done since they will be simmering later). Add EVOO and saute onions, garlic and peppers until onion is tender on medium high heat. Add tomatoes and mushrooms and stir until tomatoes are cooked down. Add wine, scallops and bacon, bring to a boil over medium high heat, then turn down to low. Add the bay leaves and Cajun seasoning (normally I would add more than a tsp but my son doesn't like things overly spicy), then cover. Let simmer for 30 minutes. During this time, you can cook the quinoa. Since the scallops will create liquid, before serving, you will want to use the 3 tsp. of cornstarch dissolved in just enough water so that it isn't goopy. Add this to the pan and stir to thicken up the sauce. Serve immediately over quinoa (or you can choose rice, cheese grits or pasta). This would also be nice with some toasty garlic bread (I didn't cook any because I was trying to keep my caloric intake down but if you can eat bread, by all means do). You can also season with a little hot sauce, if you like it a little more spicy than I cooked it.
If I must say so myself...this turned out to be fabulous! Happy Mother's Day to me!!! -Kim Be Well, Eat Fresh
I had some crab left over from my crab stuffed jalapeno recipe that I cooked on Sunday evening. I needed to do something with it so it wouldn't ruin and I wouldn't have to toss money in the garbage. I wanted to stick with something a little lighter tonight and since I had some avocado and tomatoes that needed to be used, I decided to create a crab salad and stuff it into avocado. I looked up a few recipes online but I really didn't like what I found. One had raw onion and bell pepper (I don't do raw onion and I never do bell pepper) but I liked that the recipe called for olive oil. A second recipe that I found used mayonnaise, I didn't want to use mayo, but I liked the idea of using cucumbers. So...armed with some ideas, I decided to create my own version of an avocado crab salad. Here are the results: Crab Salad Serving size: 1 1 lg. avocado (pull the majority of the meat out to use in the crab salad but leave a little in the avocado shell if you like...I did). 1/2 lg. cucumber, diced 1 Roma tomato, diced 4 oz. crab meat (I used real meat...not the kind you find by the tuna but I guess you could use that in a pinch). 2 lg lemon slices (since I was only making this for me, I didn't need to go overboard on the lemon) 1/4 tsp. fresh cilantro (chopped) Jane's Krazy Salt (I love this stuff because it has other seasonings) 2 tsp. EVOO 2 tsp. Balsamic vinegar Cut the avocado in half and scoop out the meat. Put in bowl along with cucumber, tomato, crab. Squeeze lemon over mixture. Add cilantro, then season to taste (you can use just plain ole' salt and pepper instead of the Jane's). Add EVOO and balsamic vinegar and mix. Scoop mixture into avocado skins, garnish with a fresh piece of cilantro.
Nutrition information: Avocado (234 calories), 4 oz. crab meat (100 calories), 1/2 cucumber (8 calories), Roma tomato (23 calories), EVOO (approx. 80 since 1 tbsp is 119 calories), and balsamic vinegar (8 calories). So...overall, this delish dish is about 450 calories.
I served it with a side of sliced fruit. Yep...filling, fresh and yummy!!! -Kim EatFresh, BeWell
I have always found it to be a bit amusing that people celebrate Cinco de Mayo since it isn't a US holiday. I'll bet if you ask half the people you know if they know what Cinco de Mayo is, some of them won't. However, a friend of mine I believe adequately described it as just another excuse to drink. I think I have to agree since bars and restaurants offer drink specials on Mexican beer and margaritas or they serve up some Mexican inspired fare...even if it's nachos. Well...keeping with the tradition...celebrating a holiday that didn't affect my heritage, I have been cooking some Mexican inspired dishes. Sunday night it was jalapenos stuffed with crab and bacon and Monday night, I made fresh guacamole. I LOVE guacamole so I'm unsure why I have only decided to make it just now, in fact, I bought some fresh made guacamole at the grocery a few weeks ago and I must saw, I enjoyed mine a whole lot more. I always keep avocado in the house, so as I was cooking fajitas, I decided to make guacamole. The recipe is quite simply, it's fresh and oh so yummy! Simple, Fresh Guacamole Serves: 1-2 with one avocado 1 lg. avocado (if you are making for more than two people, use 3 lg. avocados) (mashed) 1 Roma tomato (if you are using 3 avocado, use two Romas) 1/4 fresh cilantro 1 tbsp. lime juice Cumin Pepper NOTE: I did not use chopped onion because I don't like raw onion and I was typically use fresh jalapeno but I stuffed those on Sunday night so I was out (Stuff Jalapeno Recipe to follow). Mash the avocado in a bowl (I didn't use a food processor or blender because I didn't want it to soupy...I like my guacamole with some chunks of avocado). Add the tomato, cilantro and lime juice and stir. Season with cumin (this is a must seasoning) and pepper to your taste. I didn't use salt because I try not to salt unless it's absolutely necessary.
I ate the guacamole with fresh corn tortilla chips (they make them fresh at my local grocer)! The second Mexican inspired recipe was stuffed jalapenos and this is my own creation: Crab & Bacon Stuffed Jalapenos 6 lg. jalapeno peppers (seeded and cut in half) 1/4 cup crumbled bacon (use fresh bacon, not fake bacon bits) 1/4 cup of crab 1/2 whole lemon 1/2 onion (diced) 2 cloves of garlic (minced) 6 oz. cream cheese (use neufchatel for lower fat, which is what I used) 2 tbsp. fresh cilantro Cumin Pepper 1 tbsp. EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) Colby Jack or PepperJack cheese (whichever you prefer) Cook the bacon and crumble. In a saute pan, heat the EVOO then add garlic and onion. Cook onion until tender. Add the bacon and crab. Squeeze the lemon over the crab meat (this helps tone down the crab so that it blends well with everything else). Turn burner to medium low then add the cream cheese. (NOTE: Instead of pre-softening the cream cheese, I added it to the saute pan so that the cheese would blend better with the rest of the ingredients. Season mixture with cumin and pepper. Scoop mixture into jalapenos. Here is where you might want to deviate. As you can see from the photo, I have the jalapenos on aluminum foil. I did this because I put mine on the grill. So...I sprinkled the stuffed peppers with Colby Jack cheese, covered and creased the seams. I cooked on the top rack of the grill for 20 minutes. These peppers could also be cooked in the oven on 350 at 20 minutes in a pan. Hope you enjoy these recipes as much as I did! -Kim
