Lemon Garlic Shrimp Zoodles

After the sheer insanity of last weekend, this weekend promises to be a bit calmer. The hubby is scheduled to work today and tomorrow (boo!), and the weather is rainy. It's as if I woke up this morning and the universe told me to take it easy. Stay inside, read a book. Bake yummy carbohydrate-laden pasta into something comforting, take pictures of it. Put on Gilmore Girls and grab a mugful of tea. 

What shall I do today? I don't know. I think I'm going to at least harvest my first crop of onions from the garden, which will be 2 lonely bulbs. LOL. What can I say? It's my first year growing onions. I'll also have a crop of radishes to harvest. According to the Farmer's Almanac, I can still plant onions in Kentucky through mid-June. I think I might pull the 2 onions and the radishes, and just dump the rest of the planting onions where they were. See what happens. That's half of gardening for me. Trying things to see what works. It might take me a lifetime to gather my knowledge, but alas, that's how I learn.

And speaking of the garden, I can't wait to make more of this recipe when I have garden grown zucchini. Cucurbits are the bane of my existence in the garden. In the 3 years of having a garden, I've never had a good cucumber, zucchini, or pumpkin yield. In fact, last year, I got no yield from those plants. Twas' a sad year. Last years problem with the cucurbits was I planted them in those little Jiffy pots. You know, the ones that are supposed to decompose? Rubbish. They do not decompose and they stunted the growth of my plants. This year I planted the cucurbits without the Jiffy pots, and I've planted lettuce and marigolds in the beds with the zucchini and pumpkin to ward off pests. I'm hoping this does the trick. Because I need those zucchinis for zoodling!

I've got a list of, oh, maybe 40 or 50 zoodle recipes I want to try. They all look so good! Although the Kung Pao Zoodles were what I wanted to try first, this recipe came in a close second. This is another recipe from Skinnytaste, and one that I hardly changed at all. I think I only increased the portions and added more garlic. 

Cuz' we loves the garlic :-)

I can't wait to spiralize a cucumber. I feel like it would be similar to zucchini. Yes? No? Anyone tried this? Well, don't worry. I will later this summer, for sheezy!

Tuck this recipe away for later in the summer, it will be another fantastic use of garden fresh tomatoes!

A little shrimp for protein. I think you could substitute chicken, pork, steak, scallops... The sky's the limit on that one. 

Fresh. Easy. Fast. Healthy. This dinner has it all!

Well, a downpour has started since I've sat here typing. It's really not looking fun for outside stuff, like feeding the birds, scrubbing the bee waterers, and harvesting veggies. On the plus side, it's been taking me a really, really long time to water everything outside. I get the day off from that activity at least! I am going to have to brave the rain at some point though to feed the birdies. Argh. I'm feeling thankful the nephews don't have baseball today. It would be miserable. Actually, it'd probably be rained out. 

So, it's safe to say reading has won for activity of the day. I'm finishing a fluff piece (VC Andrews) and then I'm moving on to learning about Scientology. I'm not saying this to be mean or disparaging, but I'm generally puzzled by the followers of Scientology and their beliefs. I sometimes wonder if people are born with broken common sense-sensors? At the very least, Scientology hardly seems logical to me. But that's just me. I'm looking forward to a hopefully fascinating book.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Recipe source: Skinnytaste

Ingredients (serves 2-3):

1 tbsp olive oil

scant 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

1 lb uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined

salt, pepper

4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced

3 large zucchini, spiralized

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 cup grape tomatoes, halved

1/2 lemon

grated parmesan cheese, lemon wedges (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil over medium-high heat. When warm, add crushed red pepper, sauté for 30 seconds. Add shrimp to pan. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 2 minutes on one side, stir to flip shrimp over. Add half of garlic to pan, cook for 1 minute, then remove shrimp with a slotted spoon to a paper towel-covered plate.  Set aside.

2. There should be a good amount of oil left in the pan, but if not, add 1 tsp more of olive oil to the pan. Swirl to coat. Add the rest of the garlic, sauté for 1 minute. Add spiralized zucchini to pan, sauté for 1 and 1/2 minutes. Add the tomatoes to the pan. Stir to mix. Add reserved shrimp to the pan, stir to mix. Remove pan from heat, squeeze half of lemon over pan. Divide mixture among plates, top with parmesan cheese, and serve with lemon wedges, if desired. 

Printable Recipe

If you liked this recipe, you may enjoy these-

Kung Pao Chicken Zoodles

Zucchini & Brown Rice Casserole

Zucchini "Crab" Cakes