Strawberry Basil Spritzer

I've been on a basil kick lately. I bought fresh basil in the hopes of making my most favorite sauce ever: pesto. But then a watermelon lemon-lime cold-pressed juice from Aldi caught my eye and I took it home. After that I remembered a basil fruit drink recipe vaugly and decided to add basil to my watermelon juice. Yum! What an interesting combo... Which brings me to my current recipe. Feel free to make it a virgin. I am feeling frisky so I'm adding rum.

Side note: recipes are not set in stone. Mix it up! Add more berries, take out the rum, whatever. Make it yours because you are the one drinking it. I never follow recipes exactly. I just look them up for ideas and then make it my own. Do you.

Strawberry Basil Spritzer

Ingredients:
6-8 small frozen strawberries
2 or 3 medium basil leaves, sliced into strips
1-2 oz white rum, optional
1 tsp agave nectar, or to taste
Club soda

Instructions:
Muddle the strawberries, basil, agave, and rum in the bottom of a glass. I use the end of a wooden spoon for this. Top off with the club soda. Enjoy!

Buttery Shrimp and Green Bean Scampi

 I came home from work and looked in my fridge and freezer. I wanted a quick, tasty meal. I had a Chopped flashback, to when I had cable and watched nothing but Food Network and Discovery ID. Literally those two channels were the only ones I watched, wait no I lied. I watched Animal Planet too. A lack of cable tv is probably for the best, since I was addicted to shows like Deadly Women. My fiance would come home and be terrified that I was going to kill him. Oops, haha.

 I saw some frozen salad shrimp and immediately wanted some garlic and butter. I was feeling lazy so I then looked for a frozen bag of steamable veggies. The only steamy veggies I had were green beans, which worked out perfectly, and delishly if I can say that. I know it's not a word, but it's my blog and I do what I want.

Buttery Shrimp and Green Bean Scampi

3 oz frozen salad shrimp, more if you are feeling hungry
1-2 TBSP butter
2-3 cloves garlic, sliced
1 bag steamable green beans, cooked according to the directions
salt, pepper to taste

Melt butter in a saucepan on medium heat and add the slices of garlic until cooked, but not brown. Add frozen salad shrimp until thawed and warm. Add salt and pepper to taste. I added some basil in the picture above, because it's the best herb ever. Add cooked green beans, stir and eat it all up!

Lettuce Wraps with an Asian flair

I love lettuce wraps, so cheap, easy, and delicious. These are very customizable,  but hey I think about every recipe is easily changed. 😀

In case you haven't noticed, I don't measure things out. I just add stuff until it tastes good. You should try it. Just keep in mind that you can always add more but you can't take away if you have added too much.

Lettuce Wraps with an Asian flair

1 pound ground turkey
1 small cabbage, chopped finely
2 carrots, shredded
Spices: ginger, salt, pepper, garlic, coconut aminos
Green onion, sliced

Romaine lettuce leaves

Brown the turkey in a large skillet on medium high heat. Add the cabbage and carrots and place a lid on top to steam the cabbage, turn down heat to medium low and cook until cabbage is tender. Season to taste with spices and coconut aminos. Spoon mixture onto lettuce leaves and garnish with green onion. Grab some napkins and enjoy!

Tilapia Grilled in Foil Packets

It was too hot to bake, and I wasn't sure how to grill tilapia. Thank goodness for Google. I searched for a grilled tilapia recipe and some lunatics out there actually tell you to grill the fish, right on the grill grates! Oiled of course, but still! There is no way I could pull that one off. Thankfully I happened upon foil packet recipes and came up with this one. I didn't have lemon, so I used lime. I don't really recommend that, it turned really bitter. Is that what happens to limes, but not lemons? Every recipe I saw said to use lemons. Oh well, it was edible. Fiance actually took some to work and ate it cold on a salad. I'm so proud of him! We are rocking this 21DSD journey!

Use lemons not limes, they make stuff weird

Ingredients
12 tilapia filets, thawed
2 small shallots, chopped
4 cloves garilc, chopped
1- 2 lemons, sliced
salt and pepper

Directions
Preheat grill to 350 degrees.
Mix shallots and garlic in a small bowl, set aside. Place fish in the center of a foil square. We had 3 filets in one foil packet, so you'll want to do four packets of three filets each. Evenly divide the shallot mixture amongst the 4 packets. Place a lemon slice or two in each packet. If you like lemon, add more or less to your tastes. Sprinkle fish with salt and pepper. Fold the packet long ways first, then the sides. Google foil packet if you've never done it. You want your packet to be air tight, the fish will essentially steam in the packet.
Place on grill and leave on there at 350 degrees for 15 min. Our grill may have been a bit hotter. These were possibly over done at 15 min. Just make sure you are careful when you open that foil packet and make sure your fish are done.
Enjoy!

Guacamole

Avocados rock, they hit the spot all the time. They are really good especially when you cut carbs and sugar and are craving...well, anything. Guacamole is loaded with good fats, so it might actually replace the ice cream that I'm craving. I cut out nightshades, so this doesn't have any jalapenos, and I actually love it! So does fiance! Also, I forgot to buy cilantro, so there's none in here but I bet that would be a great addition.

This was my dinner the first night of my 21DSD, featuring my turkey meatballs that I have yet to create a recipe for, and jicama

Guacamole

1 shallot
4 cloves garlic, peeled, more or less to taste
3 avocados, chopped in big chunks
quarter of a lime
dash salt and pepper

In a food processor, pulse the shallot and garlic cloves until chopped finely. Add the avocado chunks, and squeeze the lime so the juice goes on the avocado. Get as much juice out of the lime slice as you can, this will help keep the guac from becoming brown. Add salt and pepper. Pulse until the guac reaches desired consistency. Some people like it chunky, others like it smooth. Smooth is good, but so are chunks, I can never decide. Keep refrigerated. It can keep for a few days, but will likely start to brown. You can also freeze this, it will keep for months, and defrost in the fridge.

21 DSD Chicken Salad with Mustard Dressing

 Being on Day 2 of  my sugar detox, check out my journey here, I've got a killer headache (I cut caffeine out as well) so I'll keep this brief. I'm also answering a million questions since fiance is now home, he's helping put away my detox ice cream that I made from PaleOMG. Yeah, Aunt Flo is in town and I really REALLY needed some ice cream, that and I had to use up a sweet potato.
 Keeping it simple today with a salad. I know BORING but it's hot as heck out there. Once I start actually eating a salad I realize how good it is and gets better the more I eat it. It usually hits the spot even if I don't think it will.

This dressing recipe is one I made up while on my TLS detox. Instead of oil, I used mustard, but for the sugar detox I'm adding olive oil. I also like my dressing TANGY, which this really is.

1/2 bag salad mix
sprinkle of fresh spinach, torn
capers
radishes
grilled chicken thighs seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic

Mustard Dressing
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
splash of water
1 tbsp spicy brown mustard, or dijon
1-2 tbsp spices including garlic, parsley, chives, marjoram, thyme
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 - 1/2 cup olive oil

Create a bed of lettuce with salad mix and spinach. Add chicken and your toppings, I had radishes and capers on mine. For the dressing, mix everything but the oil in a glass jar until combined, then add oil and mix to combine. This is best done is a glass jar with a lid, I sometimes use my old mustard bottle. Play around with spices, vinegar, whatever suites your tastes. I never measure anything, so just eyeball it. Play with your food and enjoy!

Check out my new blog!

I started a new blog dedicated to living well. It's not just about food, but food does play a large part, mostly because it makes me feel so terrible all the time. Check it out here: Live Well With Sam. I am currently doing the 21 Day Sugar Detox and I'm chronicling my journey on the new blog. I'll try to post recipes and meals, but so far this detox is rough, so we'll see. I know, I'm only on Day One. Haha!