Today's Lunch Special

Source: Realsimple.com
Photo by: Anna Williams

Last night we made Shrimp Tacos with Citrus Cabbage Slaw and I get to enjoy it for lunch today as well. There is just enough left to have one small tortilla filled with the shrimp and slaw. On the side I plan to have some wheat crackers and a large glass of water.

One of the best ways to keep flavor with shrimp - especially this time of year - is to buy frozen, raw, tail-on shrimp at your local grocery store. Slowly defrost the shrimp in a bowl, still in the bag, in cold water. Remember that even though the water out of your faucet is cold, it's not warmer than the frozen bag of shrimp! Change out the water once or twice, slowly raising the temperature each time. Only by a smidge! After about 20 minutes the shrimp are easy to handle and at this point you can submerge the shrimp in water without the bag. I found that too long in the water the tasty crustaceans actually became less than tasty.

Peeling and deveining shrimp is not the most fun but a $6.99 bag of shrimp is better than a $11.99 one - unless of course you really don't have the time. The upside here is that the slaw needs about 10 minutes to set so it's ample time to prepare 1lb of shrimp and cooking only takes 2-3 minutes. Be sure to follow this time frame and use your intuition, it doesn't take long for tasty crustacean to go from yummy to chewey.

Go for it with the jalapeno, without the seeds it's really quite manageable. We added some shredded salsa jack cheese to up the heat and a teenie-tiny spoonful of lite sour cream on top. So delicious!! They're messy so eat over your plate! I served the shrimp and slaw in a bowl, over a large plate with heated tortillas, plenty of room to get messy! It is a great meal if you're getting a little tired of soup and hearty meals this time of year; then again, dinner is cooking away in the crockpot, more to come later! Enjoy :)